Elaine’s Beef Rendang Istimewa

Beef Rendang (Daging Rendang)

One of my all time favourites….Beef Rendang. It tastes so damn good. If you have never eaten this, your culinary life is incomplete! If you are too lazy to cook I can recommend Ivins Ivins peranakan restaurant in Binjai Park, Singapore. But you know what they say, ‘give a man a fish’ and all that…..

Now, the aficionados will probably be cussing me after this post as this recipe is slightly bastardized to fit my store cupboard. Whatever dude.

Ingredients:
Approx 500g Beef shin or chuck steak cubed (the best stew steak in my opinion – and usually cheap)
1x 400ml Canned Coconut Milk and 100g desiccated coconut, or, two large handfuls of freshly grated coconut* from which you will make your own milk and coconut for the sauce.
One stalk lemongrass
3-4 large cloves garlic peeled
1 large knob fresh root ginger (about size of a golf ball) peeled
1 large onion peeled and roughly chopped
2-4 Lime leaves (fresh or dried)
1 heaped tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 fresh green chillies, or, 1-2 tsp chilli powder (more or less as you like)
6 stoned prunes, or, 1 tbsp tamarind paste
1 large pinch sea salt
3-4 tbsp. cooking oil (rapeseed or olive, or vegetable)

Blitz in a food processor: onion, garlic, ginger, fresh chillies or chilli powder, prunes or tamarind paste, spices, salt and 2 tbsp of oil.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a heavy bottomed pan. You are going to cook this dish for almost 2 hours on the hob so you need a large, solid pan to make sure it doesn’t burn. Add the paste and fry for a few minutes until the paste is sizzling. Add the cubed beef and stir for another couple of minutes till the meat is browned and thoroughly covered in the paste.

Smash your lemongrass bulb till split but in one piece and drop into the pan with the meat. Add lime leaves and stir.

Add tinned coconut milk and desiccated coconut, or home-made milk and grated coconut, and stir and gently bring to the boil. Cover the pan and simmer for 2 hours stirring occasionally.

This is a relatively thick stew so don’t worry if the sauce reduces down. If it gets very low add a small amount of water.

Garnish with fresh coriander and serve with white rice. The flavours in this dish get even better eaten a day later – just remember to store it properly ;).

*fresh grated coconut is available from supermarkets and vegetable markets in Singapore. It is packaged in supermarkets and found in the chiller section by fresh noodles, dumplings, tofu etc. In the market you will need to ask market seller to grate it for you on the day. When you have got it, just mix in a medium bowl with approx 900ml drinking water, and with clean hands squeeze the coconut in the water. Do this for about 5 minutes and set aside till you need it. The cream will rise to the top but you can just stir it back in to get really creamy coconut milk – sedap!

Homer Simpson Bread

“How do you make Homer Simpson Bread????”
“With……D’oh!”

I lovingly blame my kids for that bad joke (even though I made it up). Following a recent trip to their cousin, and Christmas, we have had a month of knock knock and cracker jokes, and now its just getting very silly. The kids don’t entirely get the jokes but crease up with laughter when delivering random punch lines, which in turn makes us laugh, which makes them laugh, and so on….

But, back to bread. As blogged before, my new years resolutions include baking more bread than I buy this year. Here is an easy and tasty bread recipe for basic white bread…

Makes 4 loaves, eat one fresh and warm, freeze the others. This gives me enough bread for the week (2 adults, 2 toddlers and a baby….).

1.5kg strong white flour
800ml warm water (approx 35 degrees celsius)
6 tbsp. oil (I use Rapeseed or Virgin Olive)
2.5 Tbsp. instant (dried) yeast
1 tbsp. salt
1tbsp. sugar

Place the yeast in a bowl with 4 tbsp taken from the warm water and sugar. Set to one side to froth. Put flour and salt into a large mixing bowl, mix by hand. Add oil, frothy yeast mixture, and remainder of warm water, and mix and then knead by hand, or, use a mixer machine with the dough hook on low-medium speed for approx 5 minutes until the dough has lost some of its stickiness and forms a soft stretchy dough. Transfer the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth or cling film and leave for 1 hour.

In Singapore room temperature is 25-28 degrees, so perfect for proving dough. If you live somewhere cooler put your dough some place cosy like the airing cupboard or next to a radiator. Just keep it covered to stop it drying out. The dough should increase its size by half or even double.

Next turn your dough out onto a lightly oiled surface. Knead by hand and divide into four equal amounts. Shape your dough by hand and then place on an oiled and floured baking tray, leaving enough space for your loaves to increase in size by half again. Leave covered for another hour.

Heat oven to 250 degrees. Place a large roasting tin at the bottom of your oven. Boil a kettle of water. Place your loaves in the oven. Immediately pour the boiled water into the tin below. BE CAREFUL, USE OVEN GLOVES, THE WATER WILL BUBBLE AND STEAM A LOT! Shut the door quickly and bake for 20-25 minutes until bread is a rich golden brown.

Test bread by knocking on underside, it makes a hollow sound when cooked. Place bread on a cooling rack to cool. Voila!

W3 Meal Plan…

So, I’ve decided I’m going to do a years worth of meal plans – call it a belated new years’ resolution. Roll on week three, or W3. It’s also my lazy way of getting out of coming up with a snappy name each week for my meal plans. So please forgive me, abbreviated W’X’ it will be.  Sexy, this weeks meal plan’s name is not, but it tastes damn hot!

Day one – Hot Punjabi Prawn Curry
Day two – Pork Chops in Ginger Sauce
Day three – Smoked Paprika Sausage Pot
Day four – Ricotta and Spinach Cannelloni (Vegetarian)
Day five – Coriander Salmon