Recipe Rendang Mak Timah

This entry I want to share my mom's rendang recipe. Been trying and testing the recipe but never up to her standard-all-time-same-taste(mine taste not as great as hers). But never give up. maybe it's the beef cut? Maybe it's the pot (kuali), I don't know. So, here's the hundredth time I'm making it. According to KB, he loves it.. awww that's sweet. BUt to my personal satisfaction, it need to be improvised. So, here it is:

Ingredients, serve 4-6:

(A)

• 10 dried chillies (seeds removed, soaked in hot water)
• 20 small shallots (peeled)
• 10 stalks lemongrass (small chopped)
• 4-5 roots of galangal (small chopped)
• 3 cloves garlic (peeled)
• 2 inch ginger (sliced)
• (A) TO BE BLEND WITH 2 cups of water(more or less) to get runny paste consistency

(B)

• 2 cans of coconut milk (I use Arroy-D) milk from fresh coconut have even better taste.
• 400g of coconut paste (recipe follows)
• 800g beef (cubed, rib-eye cut is good example, for the fat content, we want moist meat, not
  
• drying up in the cooking process, as this is going to take at least 3-5 hours slow cooking)

• salt to taste, add at the end.
• few kaffir lime leaves if you don't have turmeric leaf

Method:

Mix ingredients the blended (A) and (B) into a big saucepan/wok/ Dutch oven/cast-iron pot and bring to boil, reduce the heat to a low-simmer for 3-4 hours until all the sauce has reduced significantly. Ensure to stir once in a while so the bottom of the pan does not burn. And if you using Dutch oven/cast-iron pot, after the sauce has mostly gone,finish the cooking in the oven covered for the last hour or so. Add salt to taste.
The result: You'd have a beautiful, succulent meat-fall-apart melt in your mouth beef rendang. Good luck!


For the coconut paste recipe:
stove-fry grated coconut (from 3 coconuts, grate white part only) in a shallow pan/wok without oil on low-medium heat. Keep stirring all over until the coconut turns golden brown. Once it get to this point, the coconut can easily be burnt, so watch carefully. immediately remove the coconut from the pan and keep it slightly cool on a baking sheet and spread out evenly to minimise further cooking. Once it is cooled to handle, shove it in a dry blender/food processor and blitz until it turns into a paste. make a big batch and use them according to the recipe.


How to store coconut paste: In pantry and freezer:

Pantry:
Store in airtight container. Add one piece of dried tamarind(asam keping) for longer shelf-life. Put in a cool dark place.

Freezer:
Store in numerous sealable plastic bags. No need to add dried tamarind, put in freezer, before use, just thaw the invidual bags in hot water for 20-30 minutes and use as the recipe recalls.