A Glug of Oil

Easy and delicious recipes including midweek dinner ideas, English and world cuisine.

Beef Rendang Rick Stein Recipe

Beef Rendang Recipe

A spicy, rich and creamy Malaysian stew that is totally delicious. It may take a long while to cook but the end result is so worth the wait.

Beef rendang recipe - Rick Stein

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*Above image purchased by myself since Google lost mine! Yes really, it dissapered and I don't have a copy.

Post updated August 2023

There are many versions of Beef Rendang including one by The Hairy Bikers but I liked the look of this Rick Stein recipe. It's taken from Rick Stein's book Far Eastern Odyssey.

I'd never eaten Rendang before and had wanted to make it for ages. It does seem a bit of a faff, but it is worth it as it really is rather very yummy indeedy.

What is beef rendang?

Rendang is a dish that originated from the Minangkabau ethnic group of Indonesia and is now commonly served across the country.

One of the characteristic foods of Minangkabau culture, it is served at ceremonial occasions and to honour guests.

It's also popular in Malaysia and Singapore, rendang is traditionally prepared by the Malay community during festive occasions.

How to make beef rendang

Top Tips!

You will need a spice grinder to make this or you'll be there till next Christmas and probably still won't have got your spices how you need them!

I've recently bought a Krups Coffee or Spice Mill from Amazon UK and it does the trick perfectly.

You'll also need a food processor.

Beef rendang ingredients

Spice Paste for Ingredients

  • 100g grated fresh coconut - I had to use unsweetened desiccated coconut
  • 8 dried Kashmiri chillies
  • 2 tablespoons coriander seeds
  • 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
  • 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
  • 225g shallots or onions - roughly chopped
  • 30g garlic - roughly chopped
  • 50g peeled galangal or ginger
  • 6 hot red birds eye chillies - seeded and roughly chopped

Once made your spice paste should look like this.

Beef rendang spice paste.

Rendang Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons of coconut oil - you can use vegetable oil
  • 1.5 kg (3.30 pounds) of chuck steak (braising steak in the UK) - cut into 5-6cm chunks
  • 1 quantity of rendang spice paste - as above
  • 2 x 400ml canned coconut milk - don't buy the reduced fat stuff
  • 4 fat lemongrass stalks - bruised - (just bash them lightly)
  • 12 dried kaffir lime leaves - crumbled
  • 2 x 7.5cm cinnamon sticks
  • 125ml Tamarind water - soak the 60g of pulp in 125ml of hot water, break up the pulp with your fingers and then and leave for 5 minutes before straining the syrupy mixture through a fine sieve discarding the fibrous material and seeds.
  • 1 tablespoon of palm sugar (sold as a golden/tan paste) - or you can use brown sugar but palm sugar will taste better in this dish.
Beef rendang Rick Stein recipe.

Chances are if you've read this post this far, you like spicy food, so you might want to check out this Gordon Ramsay Spicy Beef Curry Recipe.

Have you tried this recipe? Please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ star rating in the recipe card below!

beef rendang, beef rendang recipe, rick stein, rendang recipe, authentic beef rendang
main, curry
Malaysian
Yield: 6
Author: Jan Bennett
Beef Rendang

Beef Rendang

I'd never had Rendang before and have wanted to make it for ages. Although it does seem a bit of a faff, although the end result is worth it.
Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 3 HourTotal time: 3 H & 20 M

Ingredients

For the Spice Paste
  • 100g grated fresh coconut - I had to use unsweetened desiccated coconut
  • 8 dried Kashmiri chillies
  • 2 tablespoons coriander seeds
  • 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
  • 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
  • 225g shallots or onions - roughly chopped
  • 30g garlic - roughly chopped
  • 50g peeled galangal or ginger
  • 6 hot red birds eye chillies - seeded and roughly chopped
For the Rendang
  • 3 tablespoons of coconut oil - you can use vegetable oil
  • 1.5 kg (3.30 pounds) of chuck steak (braising steak in the UK) - cut into 5-6cm chunks
  • 1 quantity of rendang spice paste - as above
  • 2 x 400ml canned coconut milk - don't buy the reduced fat stuff
  • 4 fat lemongrass stalks - bruised - (just bash them lightly)
  • 12 dried kaffir lime leaves - crumbled
  • 2 x 7.5cm cinnamon sticks
  • 125ml Tamarind water - soak the 60g of pulp in 125ml of hot water, break up the pulp with your fingers and then and leave for 5 minutes before straining the syrupy mixture through a fine sieve discarding the fibrous material and seeds.
  • 1 tablespoon of palm sugar (sold as a golden/tan paste) - or you can use brown sugar but palm sugar will taste better in this dish.

Instructions

Make the Spice Paste
  1. Heat a dry, heavy-based, frying pan over medium heat.
  2. Add the coconut and stir for a few minutes until it is richly golden - don't let it burn.
  3. Tip into a food processor and leave to cool.
  4. Meanwhile, put the dried Kashmiri chillies, coriander seeds and cumin seeds into a spice grinder and grind to a fine powder.
  5. Add this to the processor with the rest of the spice paste ingredients along with 100ml of water and blend to a smoothish paste.
Make the Rendang
  1. Heat the coconut oil or vegetable oil in a large, heavy-based frying pan.
  2. Add the beef and fry briefly until it has changed colour but not browned.
  3. Add the spice paste, coconut milk, lemongrass, lime leaves and cinnamon sticks and 1 and a half teaspoons of salt.
  4. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat, add the tamarind water and leave to simmer, uncovered for 2 and a half hours to 3 hours, stirring occasionally, and more frequently towards the end of cooking.
  5. Check the beef and cook for a little longer if it needs it until the beef is tender and the sauce has reduced and thickened, but do keep an eye on it to ensure it doesn't burn.
  6. Remove the lemongrass from the rendang and stir in the palm sugar and season to taste.
  7. Serve straight away with some Jasmine rice.

Notes:

You will need a spice grinder to make this or you'll be there till next Christmas, and probably still won't have got your spices how you need them!

Did you make this recipe?
@aglugofoil #aglugofoil

21 comments

  1. Oh Jan this looks so packed with flavor, I love ginger in food.

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  2. I agree with Nina, this is packed with flavour. I can't wait for smell-a-vision.

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  3. This looks wonderful - so hearty!

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  4. I've been meaning to try this for ages since I got the book and have just bought a spice grinder too (I got the Revel in the end but was torn between it and your Krups one!) so no excuses any more! It really looks delicious and bet it smelt fabulous too!

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  5. The spice mixture looks great, would love to try that.

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  6. This looks very nice indeed.Have you got an idea how to make tamarind water using tamarind paste? Thanks

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  7. AZA - I'm really sorry but I've just put your question into Google and it shows 'paste' as being just like what I used minus the seeds. However, if you mean what I think you mean - as in the 'ready to use' kind of paste, then you can't make tamarind water from it.
    Sorry I'm not a lot of help :(

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  8. Oh my!!

    I'm from Malaysia and reading this makes me feel somewhat proud to see a foreigner cooking a local dish & a bit challenged by the fact that even a foreigner can cook this since i only tried once during the Eid haha..I wonder how it tastes.

    Thanks for highlighting the history of it, i never knew about it until today.

    Hope your Rendang works out well. Perhaps u can even open your own Asian restaurant one day ;)

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  9. p/s: you can also try this website for more recipes from Malaysia. Helps me a lot when I was abroad

    http://www.malaysianfood.net

    As for the tamarind paste Q...i think u can just use the tamarind, squeeze a little, add some water, sugar (or maybe substitute it with lime fora healthier juice). It doesn't have much recipes to follow (like making lemonade)

    Malaysians use tamarind with some water to cool off fever, just take some of the tamarind juice (without sugar etc) and put it on the head and our body. Apply until the fever is cooled off.

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  10. Hi Cik S - Thank you for your kind words and the tip on tamarind!

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  11. Made this today for lunch.It was delicious...have you tried any other Ricks recipes from his last book?

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  12. AZA - no I haven't made any other recipes from that book - so many good one just don't have time! Glad you liked this one.
    Hope you sorted out the tamarind water thing too.

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  13. Erick, Northern Ireland19 February 2011 at 16:36

    Hi Jan,

    Excellent recipe. Made it last weekend and have been ordered to cook it again this weekend. Will try it with chicken. thanks

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  14. Theres shallot on the picture but I cant see any shallot in the recipe???

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  15. JaneH - hi thank you for pointing that out (doh)! I've now amended the recipe, they go in the spice paste.

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  16. This looks so fab, I'm going to have to try it very soon, thanks

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  17. Hi Jan, Thanks for sharing this recipe. Stumbled across this post (was following the blog anyway) after seeing the Hairy Bikers cook this yesterday on the telly 05/04. Really must have a go at cooking it! As an aside M&S do a redang paste and also a Beef redang curry in a TIN!!! It is really pretty good for a tinned product and spicy hot.

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  18. Hi Paul, Yes I've seen the paste in M&S and the curry in the tin and will give them a go.
    This Rick Stein recipe is good, although I'd never had Rendang before so have no idea what it's supposed to taste like! Whatever, Rick Steins recipe is a goodun so give it a go one day.....takes a while but worth the wait!

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  19. 5kg of beef that’s 11pounds?

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  20. 5kg of beef that’s 11 pounds is that correct?

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    Replies
    1. Oh my! So sorry I have now altered it for the US and it's actually just over 3 pounds in weight.

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I love to hear from everyone so thanks for taking the time to comment. Please note comments containing links will NOT be published.

Cheers
Jan