‘Proper’ rendang is a dry curry from the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra in Indonesia and it’s a touch labour-intensive to make. Once you’ve toasted coconut, ground a spice paste, then braised the beef with all of this goodness in a rich coconut gravy, you simmer until the liquid pretty much evaporates and the beef chunks fry and brown in the oil that’s left behind. It requires care to get everything cooked just right, and patience for the sauce to fully evaporate. Your reward is an incredibly rich, complex, spicy and fragrant dish unlike any other curry. It’s delicious. Everyone will be super-thrilled when you bring a beef rendang to the table. 

Making rendang is a project for the weekend; it’s not the stuff of an after-work dinner. Not that it’s hard; you just can’t cheat on the paste part (there’s a little soaking and chopping required before you get to grind it in a processor, or a mortar and pestle if you have one large enough and are keen). We’ve short-cut the tamarind, using ready-to-go puree instead of soaked, strained tamarind pulp, so that’s one less job to do. The slow-cooker, it turns out, really only outsources the long, slow cooking part (which is not an insignificant job) – as for the rest, you cannot skip the coconut toasting on the stove, the spice paste prep and the frying it off, nor the browning of the meat. At the end of slow-cooking, you get a wettish stew which isn’t ‘proper ‘rendang until you boil away that excess liquid. However, if you chose to hoe in straight away, you wouldn’t be mad about it. And you can reduce the sauce right in your slow cooker by just taking off the lid, turning the heat setting to high, and letting it bubble away for a few hours. We gave ours two hours, got bored, then ate. The rendang was still a touch on the saucy side but tasted amazing nonetheless. 

You need a cut of beef with decent internal fat so it can withstand the long cooking without drying out, and you want meat that will also hold its shape and not devolve into a stringy mess with the lengthy cooking; we find beef chuck is perfect. We do trim off the excess fat though and leave it in reasonably large bits so it doesn’t shrink a lot during the cook. And we use 2kg here because if you’re going to the trouble of making rendang, you may as well cook a fair few portions. Leftovers freeze well too for when the craving next strikes, so it’s not like you’ll waste any. 

SERVES 6-8

140g (1⅓ cups) frozen grated coconut, thawed

2 kg chuck steak, excess fat trimmed

peanut oil, for cooking

180ml (¾ cup ) beef stock

180ml (¾ cup ) coconut cream

2 tbsp tamarind puree

3 tbsp shaved palm sugar

1 cinnamon stick

2 star anise

6 cardamom pods, bruised

5 whole cloves

3 Lebanese cucumbers, sliced, to serve (optional)

1 small red onion, finely sliced, to serve (optional)

steamed jasmine rice, to serve

Spice paste

8-10 large dried chillies

6-7 shallots or 1 large onion, chopped

4cm piece of ginger, grated

4cm piece of galangal, chopped or grated

4 stalks of lemongrass, trimmed, tough part discarded, chopped

6 garlic cloves, chopped

6 makrut lime leaves, tough vein removed, chopped

1½ tsp ground turmeric

2 tbsp peanut oil

For the spice paste, soak the dried chillies in boiling water for 20 minutes or until softened. Drain well, then combine with the remaining ingredients in a food processor or blender. Process until a coarse paste forms, adding a little water if necessary and stopping the motor every now and then to scrape down the sides. 

Meanwhile, toast the coconut in a large frypan over medium-low heat, stirring often, for 15-20 minutes until golden. Remove from the heat and wipe out the pan.

Cut the beef into large pieces, about 6-7cm. Heat a little oil in the frypan over high heat. Cook the beef, in batches and seasoning well with sea salt flakes, for 8 minutes or until well-seared all over; add a little more oil between batches as necessary. Remove the beef to your slow cooker and reduce the pan heat to medium. Add 2 tbsp of oil and the spice paste to the pan, then cook, stirring often, for 6 minutes or until fragrant and excess liquid has evaporated out of the paste. Add the paste to the slow cooker with about three-quarters of the toasted coconut, then use clean hands to mix everything well and coat the beef. Add the stock, coconut cream, tamarind, palm sugar and whole spices, then turn the slow cooker to low. Cover and slow cook for 8 hours, then remove the lid, increase the setting to high, and cook for another 2 hours to reduce the sauce, if you like. Alternatively, cook the rendang on high for 4 hours, then remove the lid and cook for about 2 hours more to reduce the sauce. Taste the rendang, then season with salt and pepper. Scatter with the reserved toasted coconut, then serve with the cucumber, onion and  plenty of steamed rice to the side.

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