Rendang is a spicy meat dish which 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. Rendang is also served among the Malay community in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and also in Southern Philippines. Rendang is traditionally prepared by the Minangkabau community during festive occasions such as traditional ceremonies, wedding feasts, and Hari Raya (Eid al-Fitr). Culinary experts often describe rendang as: 'West Sumatran caramelized beef curry. In 2011 an online poll by 35,000 people held by CNN International chose Rendang as the number one dish of their 'World’s 50 Most Delicious Foods (Readers' Pick)' list.

The flavors of Rendang unfold in layers, like a stick of Willy Wonka's three-course-dinner chewing gum. First there's the zingy flavors of lemongrass and ginger, then comes the savory chicken or beef along with a torrent of chili, finally, as you continue to chew you start tasting the creamy coconut milk towards the back of your tongue.

The Actual Home Recipe

Interviewee : Leong Kwai Hing

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon salt
  
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds - ground
  
• 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
  
• 2.5 centimeters ginger - fresh roughly chopped
  
• 4 large cloves garlic roughly chopped
  
• 200 grams shallots (4 large shallots) roughly chopped
  
•  chili pepper flakes to taste (I used about 3 tablespoons)
  
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
  
• 900 grams beef shanks or shortribs cut into large cubes
  
• 2 stalks lemongrass white part only, smashed
  
• 4 kaffir lime leaves
  
• 2.5 centimeters galangal sliced into coins
  
• 2 packs freeze dried coconut cream rehydrated in 2 cups of warm water, or 1 can coconut milk
  
• 1 tablespoon palm sugar brown sugar can be substituted
  

Instructions

1. Add all the salt, coriander, turmeric, ginger, garlic, shallots, and chili flakes to a food processor and run until there are no clumps left and you have a smooth spice paste. You'll need to scape the bowl down a few times.                                                                                                            

   

2. Add the oil to a heavy bottomed pot and heat over medium high heat until shimmering. Fry the beef in batches, allowing each surface to brown before turning. Transfer the browned beef to a bowl and repeat with the remaining meat.

   

3. Add the lemongrass, lime leaves and galangal to the hot oil and fry until fragrant. Transfer to the bowl with the browned beef, leaving the oil in the pot.

   

4. Turn down the heat to medium low, and then add the spice paste. Fry, stirring constantly until very fragrant and most of the moisture has evaporated (about 10-15 minutes). If the paste starts burning, reduce the heat and add a bit of water. Add the coconut milk and palm sugar, and then return the beef and herbs to the pot, stir to combine the turn the heat down to medium low and loosely cover with a lid (you want some steam to escape). Stir the rendang periodically and simmer for 3-4 hours until the meat is very tender.

   

5. Once the meat is tender and most of the liquid has evaporated (about 4 hours), remove the lid and turn up the heat. You'll need to stir the mixture constantly to prevent it from burning, but you want to evaporate as much liquid as you can without burning the meat. At this point there should be quite a bit of oil in the pot from the meat so you're essentially frying the sauce and concentrating the flavors.

   

6. The rendang is done when there is almost no sauce left and the meat is dark brown. Ideally you'll let this sit overnight for the flavors to evenly distribute into the meat. During this time, the meat will turn chocolate colored and the flavors will deepen. Serve the beef rendang with steamed rice.

   

Online Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
• 1 tbsp chopped galangal (or another tbsp of the above)
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic
• 1 lemongrass stalk, tough outer layer removed and roughly chopped
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 6 long red dried chillies, soaked in water and roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 6 cardamom pods
• 650g/1lb 7oz chicken or beef, cut into 2cm/1inch cubes
• 4 kaffir lime leaves
• zest of a kaffir lime or lime
• 400ml/14fl oz coconut milk
• 1 tbsp of tamarind paste or juice of a lime
• 50g/2oz desiccated coconut flakes
• coriander sprigs to garnish

Instructions

 

For the rendang paste, place the onion, ginger, galangal, garlic, lemongrass, turmeric and chillies into a food processor. Blend to form a smooth purée.

Heat a wok and add the oil. Fry the paste over a high heat until the paste turns darker and is highly aromatic.

Add the cardamom pods (crush the cardamom pods gently with the back of a spoon before frying) and the cinnamon stick broken in half and cook for another minute then add the meat.

Fry the meat in the paste stirring all the time, until it is well browned.

Pour over the coconut milk and tamarind purée and bring to a gentle simmer, add the kaffir lime leaves and zest.

Watch technique1:01

Season with salt, stir well then reduce to a simmer.

Cook for between one hour and one hour and a half, stirring frequently during this time. The meat should be really tender and the sauce really reduced and rich.

Meanwhile toast the coconut flakes in a dry pan. Keep a close eye on this, as it will burn really quickly. It should be a lovely deep brown colour when ready. Blend to a powder in a small blender or pound in a pestle and mortar. When the rendang is ready stir into the mixture making sure it is well mixed in.  

Comparison between an actual home recipe and an online recipe

Firstly, the actual home recipe used an extra ingredients of salt, chilli pepper flakes and palm sugar while the online recipe used an extra ingredients of long red dried chillies, cinnamon sticks, cardamom pods, zest, tamarind paste and coconut flakes. In terms of culture, the actual home recipe is more traditional and cultural compared to the online recipe because the online recipe has too many new ingredients added in. Furthermore, in terms of region, the actual home recipe is based of traditional and cultural regions and trusted by most people while the online recipe is just a recipe from an ordinary chef. Also, in terms of skill level, the actual home recipe requires lower skills to produce it because it is easy compared to the online recipe. In addition, the budget and time constraints for the actual home recipe is much lower than the online recipe because of the amount of ingredients.

 

 Factors Changing A Food Heritage

Availability of ingredients



As the real coriander seeds-ground is hard to find nowadays in modern time, they prefer use the one that has already prepared in a bottle rather than finding the one ingredient until frustrated as traditionally, people often find their ingredients themselves to prepare them in their own way. However, in modern times, some of the ingredients are very difficult to find, thus, modern people would buy the one in bottle in order to save time.


Convenience



Everyone prefers things that are convenient to them, even during preparing ingredients. For example, dried chilies versus chili pepper flakes. Chili pepper flakes is known as the substitute for dried chilies. People prefer buying chili pepper flakes as there are much lesser preparations to be made compared to buying dried chilies. This is because dried chilies have to undergo a lot of process such as wash the dried chilies, cut the dried chilies and blend the dried chilies. Therefore, in modern times, people would always prefer something quick, effective and efficient, which means that they would buy chili pepper flakes instead of dried chilies.


Each individualism from each state


Each state has their own style of expressing their own rendang such as in Negeri Sembilan and Pahang. It is based on the taste itself. For example, people in Negeri Sembilan like spicy food, thus, they will add more chilies into the rendang whereas people in Pahang do not like spicy food, so they will add lesser chilies into rendang and add in more garlics and shallots instead.


Geography



Malaysia versus Indonesia. Malaysia has common rendang like Beef rendang, Lamb rendang and chicken rendang. However, Indonesia has more extraordinary rendang such as shrimp rendang.



Food innovation
 Malaysia versus Indonesia. Malaysia has normal rendang served with rice. However, Indonesia has upgraded themselves by using rendang on pizza, on sushi or even in French fries. In an Indonesian blog shows that in Indonesia, one flavor that has made the leap from French fries to sushi is rendang, a spicy beef curry from West Sumatra.