Tag Archives: beef
Indonesian Beef Rendang
I love Indonesian Food , it’s a given since i was born and raised in Indonesia . I spent first half of my life in Indonesia , growing up eating delicious spicy food . Living overseas for so long , one thing that makes me miss Indonesia the most is their food . Indonesia food to me , is one of the best food in the world , and to me it is my favorite , compared to chinese , or american or italian . Indonesian food are so complex , that a lot of times , it takes a while to prepare one from scratch . I always saw my mom cooking dinner in the morning , because if she started to cook around an hour before dinner , i don’t think it’ll be enough from prep in the kitchen to the table in the dining room .
Speaking of which , it brings us here , to learn how to make rendang . Rendang is originally from Padang , back in Indonesia , often times , people could just go to restaurant esp. for this , they usually are called Rendang Padang . And in that restaurant too , they put rendang and other condiments , specialty on the display . So walk around the street and you see restaurant ” rendang padang ” and usually you can see the food on the display . This was back over 10 years ago , which i believe still is true til now . And the cool thing is , that they will bring your food with their arms full of plates . I am serious .. not talking about 1-2 plates .. but the whole arm , from hands to forearms , all to your shoulders are full with plates .. that’s how they serve you 🙂 Interesting ..
But my problem is .. i haven’t been there for a long time , and i do miss rendang . I cooked rendang few times since it’s my husband’s fave ( sometimes i wonder if he’s actually indonesian in disguise lol for his love of indonesian food ) So , few days ago i made up my mind , no more packet seasoning for rendang . My husband and i deserve the real authentic rendang , cooked by me , someone who was born and raised in Indonesia 😛 So , although the spices are hard to find , but i found them in korean market . I know they’re not available through regular grocery store but at least the korean market had them .
As hard as it can be to find some of the spices , please don’t give up . You should try this beef rendang , it is listed as number 1 out of 50 best food in the world ! Yes , Rendang takes number 1 place .. and who can blame them ? It is really THAT good 🙂 So please .. don’t be discourage , and try it !! I am happy that i made it from scratch , it’s def. worth the time !! Psst .. It’ s actually not that hard to make at all !! 🙂
Directions :Â
About 1 1/2 tbsp. of ground cloves
1 oz. of red chilies , bird eye chilies , thai chilies
10 large shallots
7 garlic ( not the head )
About 1 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
About 2 inches of fresh ginger
About 2 inches of galangal
5 pieces of candle nut , if you don’t have it , try macadamia nuts
2 lbs of boneless beef chuck , cut in thick slices , thick and wide
7 Kaffir lime leaves ( i had to skip this because i couldn’t find any )
2 stalks of lemongrass , 1 smash , and the other 1 smash and tie into a knot
5 pieces of star anise
2-3 indonesian bay leaves , daun salam , if you don’t have it , just throw in regular bay leaves
2 1/2 – 3 cups of coconut milk , mixed with little water
Kosher salt and palm sugar
1. The paste for rendang can be made a day ahead . In a food processor , throw in the garlic , shallots , chilies , ginger , macadamia nuts . I can’t seem to smash the galangal since it was so hard , i just pound them with a mallet but i didn’t throw it in the food processor , you can if you want to . Add the ground cloves , ground turmeric . Add in the smashed lemon grass , and star anise . Store in a container , in the refrigerate and ready to be used anytime .
2. In a dutch oven , mix the beef and the paste together by hand until it’s all covered with the paste . Then add the coconut milk , kaffir lime leaves , bay leaves . Then bring to boil stir often , lower it down to medium low , and cook , stirring often for about 90 minutes . Then after a while , the liquid should be decreasing . Keep cooking another 1 to 2 hours , it will bring down the liquid even more . This is where i usually stop , Rendang that i know , from the way my mom always cooked it , is not dry . But if you’re from Padang , where the famous Rendang is from , i think it is supposed to be cooked dry until it’s dark brown / black . Now , it is up to you , if you do want it dry , i suggest you could cook it longer , let it go an hour or so .. until liquids are all absorbed and gone and the meat is dark . The way i like it , is when the liquid becomes very thick and so it’s not really dry as you can see from the picture of my rendang . So it’s up to your preference .
When you first mixing and bringing to boil , the color will white mixed with the red paste , will bring about light yellow orange color .. After about 1 Â – 1 1/2 hour , it’ll look like this
Then , keep cooking on med low and stirring often , after 90 minutes it will look like this
After about 2 1/2- 3 hours , it will look like this served on a plate
3. After total cooking of 3 hours , my rendang is done , for you who likes it dry , i am sure cooking hours is pretty close 4 to 4.5 hours . Serve warm with jasmine rice , and enjoy it !!
Beef Kimbap
Watching too much of Korean Drama will lead you to this .. That’s what happened with me .. LOL , I was wondering what Kimbap was .. since they mentioned it quite a bit in K-drama . So i began my search to find out what exactly Kimbap is .. i ran through few explanations about it . Basically it’s a Korean Sushi Rolls . Now , i love sushi , but i never made it myself .. especially since we live in midwest , i don’t think we can get any fresh fish that easy , especially ones with sushi grade fish . So i was pretty happy to find out that Korean Kimbap is made from all cooked ingredients , well except the raw vegetables .
I had bought a package from Borders one time a box of sushi how to , it contains the mat , the plates , the chopsticks and also the DVD and a book of how to make simple sushi . So the mat came quite handy when i decided to try to make this kimbap . At first i was quite intimidated by it , but i thought who cares .. let’s just try it . Everybody in my household is quite adventurous in eating anyway . My 5 years old son was trained well .. this is what he said if he sees some friends of his not willing to try new food .. ” You have to try it , if you don’t try it , you wouldn’t know if you’re going to like it or not .. ” LOL .. we have trained him well in this sayings haaha ..
So anyway .. the basic kimbap recipe i found from that website was using tuna , but i decided to try it with ground beef , i added bulgogi sauce after browning them . And using spinach , omelette , sauteed matchsticks carrots and since i don’t have pickled radish , i ended up using fresh burpless cucumber .
I had to admit i had a lot of fun making them , not quite sure at first but i did it . And my first attempt to make Kimbap was quite successful , then i thought why not trying to make it as inside out sushi rolls ? I know sushi rolls would have used raw fish .. but in this case , i just tried it with what i have on hand , which was the same ingredients as the kimbap . Who cares .. i was just trying a different method to roll them anyway . Then inside out rolls have the nori inside the rice , while the kimbap has the rice inside the nori . From the appearance i think i prefer inside out rolls better than kimbap style 🙂 They both actually look pretty !! And i was pretty happy with all the results .. i even surprised myself since it was my first attempt to make them and i was quite successful making them .
I ended up sharing it with some friends and neighbours since i made quite a bit . Come to think of it , the place that sells sushi rolls in Munster , called , Little Tokyo , was quite expensive .. for 3 rolls would cost you $15.00 , and they’re tiny itty bitty rolls .. mine is a lot bigger than theirs !! LOL
And here is a picture of my uramaki rolls , inside out rolls with the same kimbap ingredients , just different style in rolling them .
And how do you assemble kimbap ??
Well here is how to :
1. You need the bamboo mat , then put your nori ( seaweed ) with the shiny side down .
2. Spread the rice on the nori , just 1/3 of the rice will do . Then spread your beef , and the rest of the ingredients , should look like this .
3. Add the cucumbers , omelette , spinach and carrots on top of the beef .
4. Start rolling them ! Once it’s done , don’t forget to brush the rolls with sesame oil . Then cut and serve !
For the recipe of click here
