Looks like this year is going to be quite an eventful year! First, I would like to send my thoughts and prayers to everyone who have been affected by the recent floods. We were pretty lucky here with just some minor floods in our garage and garden, but no major damage.
I am super excited to tell you that I’ve made travel plans to visit New Zealand and Bali in a few weeks and today’s recipe is a fusion what both countries are known for (rendang from Bali, and lamb from NZ). The original recipe comes from a really old recipe book I found at the market a few weeks ago called “Curries From the Burra Bazaar” by Doris Ady. It was published in 1983 and features all sorts of dishes from the Burmese and South-East Asia region. I’ve substituted the beef with lamb and replaced some of the ingredients that were hard to find.
Rendang originates from Indonesia and is also popular around Malaysia and Singapore. It is commonly made is beef and cooked in a spiced coconut liquid for hours until the meat is tender and the flavours are absorbed into the meat. The measurements are not precise and you can play around with the ingredients to taste. The point of Asian curries is to blend many ingredients together so that none predominates, but all subtly enhance each other. This recipe will take a while to make, but it’s worth the effort in the end.
Lamb Rendang
Ingredients:
- 1 kg (2.2lb) lamb meat, cubed
- 250g (about 4) onions
- 1 piece of ginger about the size of your thumb
- 5-6 cloves of garlic
- 2 tbsp cinnamon powder
- glug of oil
- 4 cups water
- 1 tbsp ground coriander (cilantro) powder
- 1sp ground cumin powder
- 2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp black pepper
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ½ chili powder
- 1 lemongrass stalk, trimmed, cut in half
- 1 tsp ground fennel
- a little less than ½ cup coconut cream
- 1 tbsp tamarind paste
- 3 tbsp salt
Topping:
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 lime or 1/4 lemon, juiced
Directions:
- Heat oil and fry pieces of meat until brown on the outside. Remove from heat and keep aside.
- Put the onions, garlic, ginger and cinnamon into a food processor and grind, but not to a pulp.
- In a big saucepan, add a little bit of oil and fry up the onion mixture for 10 min, stirring often
- Pour 1 cup of water and add the rest of the ingredients except for the remaining water
- Put the meat back into the pot and add the rest of the water. Bring to a boil and then simmer it, uncovered, until nearly all the liquid has dried up and the meat is very tender. This will take about 3 hours.
- Stir occasionally, but more so as the sauce starts to thicken. Take out the lemongrass stalks and mix in the sugar and lime/lemon juice before serving.
- Serve with steamed rice, steamed or stir-fired veggies.
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This looks amazing! I will be trying this recipe out very soon!
My husband made the Beef Rendang only last week! He took it to work and he and his colleagues had it on his birthday for lunch instead of the usual boring morning teas. He also makes the Lamb Kurma. I bought the cookbook in the early 80′s and have made lots of recipes from it. One of my favourites is Panthay Kaukswe, a delicious chicken soup with lots of lovely garnishes. Quite a hit at dinner parties – not just at the moment with the heatwave we have in Adelaide! Have also done the fish ball curry and one day am going to devote a whole day – or weekend – to doing the Lampries.