This deep, dark, delicious curry is inspired by the flavours of beef rendang, one of the most fragrant curries of South East Asia, and something I enjoyed so much in Malaysia, about this time last year on a food-focused press trip of dreams with Essential Escapes. It seems like a whole world ago now… but as I sit here typing this, the sweet smell of beef cooking until-fall-apart-tender is filling my house with its heady scent, and bringing the memories flooding back. Now, more than ever, the power of food to transport us, and to summon special memories, is something to be thankful for.
I made this for our dinner the night before last and again last night, and it was so beautiful I wanted to share it here for you, in case you have some meat that needs using, or are looking for a beefy batch cook. I should caveat this by saying that this is in no way an authentic rendang – it is, in every sense, an approximation, and I have tweaked the flavours according to what I remembered from what I ate in Malaysia. This recipe was inspired by Shivi Ramoutar’s beef rendang recipe from her timely new book The Ice Kitchen – which is all about cooking for, and using your freezer cleverly to make sure you always have wholesome, delicious food for your family. I was reading the book – and thinking what a very good idea it is, clever Shivi – and this recipe jogged my memory and made me long for the meltingly tender, headily fragrant joys of a slow cooked beef curry.
While the charms of rendang are relatively new to me, I’ve been enjoying beef shin since childhood, because braised beef shin was something my mum’s grandmother used to make her as a child. A resourceful and accomplished home cook who was running a house at the age of 13, she knew that this relatively inexpensive cut delivers incredible bang for its buck – and used to braise it gently and slowly in nothing but a bit of water and seasoning, to coax out its wonderful juices and break it down to a meltingly tender bowl of goodness. Beef shin is a dream when slow cooked, because it produces the most excellent, flavourful gravy, and is especially good in curries, where its collagen, juices and flavours meld with those fragrant spices, and, in this case, sweet, creamy coconut milk.
I used Shivi’s recipe as a starting point, and worked from there, tweaking and adapting it according to what I had, making some additions and swaps because I didn’t, for example, have any tamarind – which would provide the sweet/sour flavour needed here. What I did have was tomato puree and ketchup – both obviously very far from authentic (don’t @me) but they brought the sweet/sour acidity that this needed to balance it. I watched Atul Kochhar use ketchup in a recipe he was demoing last year at Pub In The Park – so I’m going to blame/credit him this idea. I think a couple of spoonfuls of lime pickle could really work well too. I also didn’t have any kaffir lime leaves, so swapped in some lime zest instead, but even without, it’s rich, dark and delicious.
If you can’t get shin, this would work well with stewing steak, chuck or any nicely marbled cut of beef – something on the cheaper side as you’re going to braise it for a really long time. It’s a good one to make a batch of, and, in the spirit of Shivi’s book, freeze for a later day. If you do freeze some, when it comes to using it – she suggests simply emptying it into a lidded saucepan, placing it over a low-medium heat and breaking it up as it defrosts – adding a splash of water here or there if it seems dry, but bearing in mind this is a reasonably dry curry. I love it with black or basmati rice, but we’ll also eat some with noodles.
Lockdown beef shin and coconut curry (Rendangish)
1.5-2kg beef shin, chuck or braising steak, cut into a large dice
1 tsp ground turmeric
3 tbsp coconut oil or veg oil
1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
100g ginger, chopped
1 head of garlic, cloves peeled
4 sticks of lemongrass, bulbs removed, stems chopped
3-4 red chillies (Shivi recommends Thai chillies but I only had jalapeno)
2 tsps ground cinnamon (or 2 cinnamon sticks)
1 star anise
1 tbsp tomato puree
2-3 tbsp tomato ketchup (or lime pickle)
2 tins coconut milk
300ml chicken, beef or veg stock
2-3 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
100g desiccated coconut
Optional extra: tbsp chilli, ginger and mint jelly (see my instagram)
Optional extra: a handful of wild garlic or spinach leaves
Spring onion, red chilli and coriander, to garnish
- Heat the oven to 150 degrees fan. In a bowl, season the meat well with sea salt, black pepper and the turmeric. In a food processor, combine the onion, ginger, garlic, lemongrass and chillies and pulse to a paste. Heat the coconut oil in a large lidded casserole – big enough to hold all the meat, and then fry the paste for a few minutes, until smelling fragrant and starting to colour, about five minutes. Add in the cinnamon and toast it with the paste for a minute or so.
- Add the beef, stir to coat well in the paste, and then add the tomato puree and cook it off for a minute or two. Next, add the coconut milk, scraping up any crusty bits that have formed on the bottom of the pan, followed by the ketchup (or lime pickle), sugar, fish sauce, soy and stock. Stir everything well to combine, and then cover with a lid and place in the oven. Now cook for 3 hours, stirring every half an hour or so to save your pan from too much sticking. After this time, remove the lid and cook for another 30-40 minutes or so, until the liquid has reduced by half (this is quite a dry curry).
- Transfer the pot onto the hob over a low heat and taste for seasoning, adding more salt/fish sauce to balance if need be. Stir through the jelly, if using, and the wild garlic or spinach to wilt.
- Toast the dessicated coconut in a dry frying pan, until a dark golden colour, being careful not to burn it, then stir it into the curry to finish, and reduce everything a little more on the hob. Serve with basmati, jasmine or black rice or noodles, and garnish with chopped spring onion, chilli and coriander – if you have them. Lime wedges are good too.