Beef Rendang/ Beef Stewed in Aromatic Coconut Milk

 

The wonderful shots by C deserves it's own post - not to mention all that effort that went on with the squeezing of coconut milk etc. Why did i do that - well in essence Rendang is a fragrant stew of chillies, corriander and coconut, scented with the most glorious of Asian herbs: Kaffir Lime, Torch Ginger Leaves and Malay Bay leaves. So although it's bloody hard work (pardon me), it's worth giving one of the chief ingredients the due respect and treatment (perhaps i am getting pendantic with age, who knows...)

I usually make it with a minimum of 1kg of meat - anything less is just not worth the effort. Together with steamed jasmine rice, you'll be shocked just how much each person can eat. There's something distinctly addictive. I fed four - with only a single helping left over:

1kg  Stewing Beef - shin or topside, traditionally there should be some sinews that turn into wonderous jelly after long stewing. When in doubt, ask your butcher (yes, he is someone you should be very nice to!) I recommend the Chinese butcher in Tekka Market, across the aisle from the Egg guy.

60 ml Tamarind Water (soak dry pulp and strain)

250 ml Coconut Milk

1 tbsp Brown Sugar

Wet Spices: 

10 Red Chillies, deseeded

10 Dried Chillies, soaked and deseeded

3 cloves garlic

2 inch length Tumeric Root

2 inch length Blue / Young Ginger

3 stalks Lemon Grass - peel off tough outer layers and bruise the tender hearts 

500 gm Shallots - and only the small purple ones will do, under no circumstances should anyone cheat by substituting the larger purple Bombay onions. It just doesn't work that way - shallots will impart a mild sweet caramel flavour as the base of your curry. Bombay onions are too sharp. Brown onions are too watery and lack the depth. 

*Grind it all up into a fine paste. 

Dry Spices:

1/2 tsp Cinnamon Powder

2 tbsp Corriander Powder

1 tsp Black Pepper, ground

1 /2 tsp Cumin Seeds

*Toast all till fragrant and add to wet spice mix.

Aromatics - 10 Kaffir Lime Leaves, 2 Ginger Leaves, 7 Malay Bay Leaves (just omit if you can't find it - do not substitute with Western Bay leaves).

* Heat up 2 tbsp oil and tip in the spices - stir over moderate heat till cooked and exuding natural oils. This should take at least 10 mins, yes, it requires constant attention and arm power to stir it up. Do not let this burn or your dish will be ruined by a charred base. When fragrant, add in the beef and stir fry for a minute, till well coated in spices and sealed. On high heat, add coconut milk, and bring to a simmer, then lower heat. The coconut milk should just cover the meat - it's a relatively dry curry, not a soupy gravy type. Simmer for an hour to 1hr 20 mins for meat to tenderise sufficiently. Only now, do you add the aromatic leaves, tamarind water, sugar and salt to taste. Continue cooking gently for 10 to 20 mins. Rest the dish and yourself for at least 20 mins before serving - curries taste better warm not boiling hot. 

You'll know why it's worth all the trouble making this yourself  - and also why you'll only do it once every year!

Conclusion of the Pink Crepe Saga

I have proof - i actually did it! And Mr & Mrs C kindly documented it with their superior and professional photographic skills. The pink pancake made their debut - a little chewy but no humans were hurt in the process. We ate: Beef Rendang, Marinated, Marinated Topshell with Cucumber Salad, Baby Bittergourd with Dried Octopus Shreds and Garlic. And of course, Pink Crepes with Red Bean Filling. 

Topshell comes in a can - have no clue what the real thing looks like, reckon a guess that it's close to escargot. Slice finely one white onion, one red chilli, one Japanese cucumber. Squeeze two Kaffir limes over and stir through with a teaspoon of fish sauce & sugar. Thankfully, this can be left to entertain itself in the fridge while you sort out other matters.  This works great with parboiled prawns as well.

Beef Rendang for Friday

Actually managed to get un-lazy and do some forward planning! I'm having Mr & Mrs C over for dinner tonight after their photoshoot for T's second issue of Rewind. The request of the day is the much talked about Rendang. Actually it's the much joked about dish - the last time i cooked it, it was so spicy, T was literally suffering (this time i made sure i de-seeded every single little red beast and halved the dried chillies in the recipe). I went to Tekka Market, which has always had a fantastic selection of everything. And when i say everything, i mean every darned thing - from hard to find fragrant herbs like Pink Ginger Leaves and Malay Bay Leaves to the huge meaty crabs, you name it you'll find it.
Usually, i use the ready squeezed coconut milk. But when i walked by the fresh coconut stall with the huge piles of white snowdrifts high in metal basins, i just could not help it. The smell is amazing - very soft and comforting. So i spent a fair amount of effort wringing the life out of my coconut. Lots of action went on in the kitchen last night - grinding of corriander seeds, pounding, frying - Phew! So now i have it sitting in the fridge, all i have to do is get home and heat it up.




Literally forced myself to also start on the Petal Pink Crepes for dessert. I experimented on the crepes last night while my rendang was bubbling away.
 Batter (From Harumi's Home Cooking):

100 gm Plain Flour

1 tsp Sugar

200 ml Water

Few drops red colouring 

Mix batter and rest (the batter that is) for 30 mins. Proceed to make small crepes over a non stick pan. Mine was about 6 inches wide. Chewed on the left over batter - it's more of a chewy mochi-like texture. Maybe it's Japanese, maybe it's my flour - too much gluten cause i use it for bread making. Stored them in layers in a snug container with greaseproof paper blankets between each crepe - hope that goes well! Am pretty amazed actually, that i got round to this one. I'll leave the verdict to the victims :)

Silver Shoes

I like my silver shoes - it's from Beijing courtesy of Mr & Mrs C. Very nice, pointy and shiny, i like. Lots :) This is a bad angle though, makes me look like i have cankles - calves where your ankles should be!

Petal pink crepes with sweet red bean filling

I am a terrible horder of recipes - books, magazines, clippings... Think i just love looking at the pictures, studying the ingredients and fantasizing my perfect brunch / lunch / dinner party. Picked up Harumi's Home Cooking a couple of months back, read it, loved it, felt inspired and that was it.

So now, i will attempt to follow through! Instead of a cop-out store bought ice cream dessert, i am resolved to make something sweet this weekend. Was thinking of the pretty Sakura Petal Pink crepes filled with red bean paste / adzuki bean paste. As luck would have it, i went by a Japanese snack store at lunch today and saw these tins of Sweet Red Bean paste by Morinaga - spares me the trouble of soaking and stewing the beans. Morinaga really makes a pretty tasty product, so no complaints there. At least i know that if i chicken out of making the crepes, i can always serve the beans spooned on top of green tea ice cream plus a drizzle of condensed milk!
Anyway, for traditionalists out there here's the recipe for Sweet Red Bean Paste
300 gm Red Beans (small ones with the white eyes, like red coloured mung beans, not kidney beans)
Soak the beans overnight
200 gm Castor Sugar
Put soaked beans into a pot and fill with water till just covering the beans. Bring to a boil, and lower flame to simmer. Skim off any white foam. Simmer gently, uncovered for at least 45 mins till tender. Add more water if you wish to carry on cooking for more softness. Only when the beans have arrived at ideal softness, do you add in the sugar and carry on simmering for another 10 mins. This is important - cause once the sugar is in, the beans will not soften no matter how long you keep it on the stove! I actually like the texture of the translucent "skins" but if you are picky picky then by all means, please sieve the mixture - however that makes it into a very smooth cream rather than a chunky paste (which is what i like).

So that's sweet red bean filling for crepes, pan cakes or soft buns. For a traditional Chinese dessert - boil with a slice of dried orange peel. Remove peel and process in batches till you have a satisfactory smooth creamy texture.

Custard Apple

Yet another of my favourite fruits, admittedly i do have rather exotic taste when it comes to fruit. Usually, I only see the green, large varieties available, by some immense good fortune i stumbled upon these pretty, fragrant purple ones. They were small, only the size of a tightly clenched fist. Basically, i would have bought them if only just to have them sit pretty in the fruit bowl.

I left them out for a day, in a sunny spot of the kitchen then stuck them into the fridge. The sun really worked, cause the fruit were almost splitting their craggy skins.

The thin purple skin yielded lots of smooth, creamy jelly segments. Good right down to the skins -even the thin coating left on the purple shells were scraped up. This joins my list of yummy exotic (looking and smelling fruit) - like mangosteen. Nice thing is that unlike the mangosteen, there's no sap that stains when your crack open the fruit. Yummy.

Confession - I thought i would serve this to Mr & Mrs C when they stopped by for dinner on Saturday. But somehow i unconciously "forgot" and they had to make do with Sea Salt & Caramel flavoured ice cream by Cloud Nine/ Cedele. I am a selfish sinner - i wolfed them purple fruit alone, in secret on Sunday night.

I'm not sorry about drinking the 16% Orangey Stuff

Only sorry i got out of bed this morning.

Last night, SY invited us over for dinner at his new apartment. It was fantastically yummy Thai food that they cooked for us. My favourite was the Cos Lettuce & Beef Salad - Spicy, Limey & Garlicky with the bite of raw onions.

Of course we ended up drinking one too many for the road!

What started innocently with 2 bottles of red wine (half a glass landed into the white clad lap of SJ - it's the white thing) progressed to a Orangey Cognac 16% bottle that SJ brought. That rendered us senseless enough to pop open a bottle of champagne. And then at 1 am these two people reach into their shiney new fridge and bring out fresh mint leaves, soda water and Mango Absolut.

The only way to end it was to run out of the house laughing our thanks and loudly waking their neighbours at 2am. SJ went home in his net singlet (which was under the sweater that got splashed by wine) and a pair of shorts since his white pants were soaking in a tub of Vanish detergent.

We came, we saw and i admire their beautiful loft apartment. Poor SY & Sophia had to cook, water us with their alcohol and even launder. Such a good night with these two sweeties who definitely deserve the nicest home ever! I miss the good old times when the both of them worked with me... Friday night always started on a Thursday night.

Anyway, here's my version of the salad, serves 4 as a small starter:

1 head Baby Cos Lettuce, torn into bite size pieces
1 large White Onion, thinly sliced

150 gm Sukiyaki Beef Slices or Flank Steak thinly sliced: Poach the beef in a mixture of stock + 1 tbsp fish sauce to desired doneness and drain.

Dressing: 1 large clove Garlic, thinly sliced + Juice of 1 Thai lime + Chopped Red Chillies + 1 tsp sugar + 1 tbsp Fish Sauce= Muddle it all up.

You can add mint leaves or holy basil leaves if you like, but i recommend you only choose one type and don't mix both - it's a bit of an overkill.

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snapshots of northern thailand

The real vs. metaphorical Golden Triangle - let's talk metaphorical first. Definitely one touristy spot - but indeed the huge golden Buddha gazing serenely across the Mekong delta is a sight to behold. Just out of MaeSai, this is indeed the Northern most point in Thailand, where you see Burma and Laos floating before you.

The ever favourite - Khao Soi Kai. Burmese influenced curry chicken noodles served in Chiangmai. The most amazing fried morning glory leaves ever - individually battered and fried to a standing crisp, served with tamarind like sweet sour dipping sauce. As for the coffee, all i can say is that it is generally good! The higher altitudes make good growing grounds for coffee, and there are a few local varieties.

Long windy roads, nice cool temperature and lots of scenic views and occassionally, startling turns in the road where the sky meets you straight in the eye.