beef rendang

Warning: This dish requires rice :-)

Inspired by our recent food experience that I wrote about in a previous post, I tried to cook a more well-known Indonesian dish called Beef Rendang. As listed in this recipe I found from Saveur, some of the key ingredients like kaffir lime leaves, candlenuts and galangal can be hard to find at regular grocery stores. For me, there's no substitute for fresh kaffir lime leaves, which makes me miss our kaffir lime plant even more :-( However, on a recent visit to a bigger Asian food market, I was happy to find Indofood brand rendang seasoning sauce mix. It was very convenient and turned out quite tasty. I added more coconut milk to make the sauce extra rich and creamy. It's best to use beef with more marbling such as those intended for beef roasts. Short ribs will also be perfect for this dish. Cooking beef rendang at home turned out to be a much easier process. It normally takes hours to cook but with this instant seasoning mix, it takes only an hour or less. In a skillet or a medium pot, just pour the concentrated sauce over the beef cubes, add more coconut milk then simmer until beef cubes are very tender and sauce becomes richer and thicker. Add red bell pepper strips and serve with steamed rice.