Beef Rendang

I am a big fan of Southeast Asian cuisine.  I particularly like how there is a subtle combination of flavors that hits all of your taste buds; sour, sweet, salty, and bitter.  I also really like spicy food.  There has only been one occasion in my life where food was so spicy that I literally could not eat it.  Otherwise, bring it on.

I recently subscribed to Cooking Light, as I felt that I should pay them for supplying me with content for this blog.  As I was flipping through my first issue, March 2010, I came across this recipe for Beef Rendang.  The write-up says it is a Malaysian dish that has rich flavors of spice and lemongrass.  I noted that some of my favorite flavors were in this dish – coconut milk, ginger, lime.  Sold.

In addition to purchasing a Cooking Light subscription, I also recently purchased a Magic Bullet.  I used this as my food processor for this recipe.  While this option worked well for the spices and peppers, it was not the best choice for mixing the coconut milk and flakes.  The bullet spins too fast and the mixture just goes up the sides of the container.  Stick with a conventional food processor for this step.

As this dish was cooking, I learned again that this was not a small-apartment-friendly aroma.  While the curry smell is delicious and tantalizing, it also permeates anything made of fabric.  And it stays there for a while.  Be warned that simmering this for 90 minutes will definitely fill your entire house with the scent.

Unfortunately, I made an error in calculating the time for this to cook, so I had to wait a day.  I was eagerly anticipating this dinner the whole day, and I was excited to come home and heat this up.  I made some jasmine rice instead of the basmati called for in the recipe, and I was off.

Sweet leaping Jesus this dish has spice to it.  Serious spice.  The aroma of the dish in its plate is deceptively sweet, and in no way does it hint at the fiery bite contained within.  As I have said, I like spicy food.  I think there was too much spice and not enough of the other delicious flavors.  Don’t use two Serranos.  Don’t use a full Serrano.  Three-quarters of a Serrano would be the maximum I would use next time.  Maybe if they were roasted or de-seeded it may have been a different story.

Aside from the intense heat, the flavors in this dish are great.  Don’t be scared off by some semi-foreign ingredients like chili garlic sauce.  This dish is great, and I can see the sauce working well with chicken or pork as well.