Near-Enough Beef Rendang

The Kitchen Project:  Beef Rendang Served ... Click Image to Enlarge On the way ... Rendang Parts Assembly Right-Click Select:  Open Link in New Tab Use Magnifier to Enlarge ---------------------- ---------------------- COMMENT Mission Beef Rendang temporarily suspended my 'autistic' time-wasting online-absorption ... and got me out of the house for once. It's been ages since I've shopped for anything. Don't really miss it.  But at least it seemed really quiet at the shops and on the roads.  Big plus. The cost of things at the supermarket is a shock: a single stick of lemongrass, a lime, a piece of ginger, & some fresh coriander adds up very quickly. The 'international' section of the supermarket was unimpressive, although I at least got my jar of lime leaves in case I couldn't find fresh at the produce end of the supermarket (I couldn't).  And I couldn't be bothered driving to an alternate supermarket, where I'm pretty sure they stock this. As it is, I had to make two trips to get all the ingredients I needed. Anyway, was saved by a reasonably close Asian grocery, where I managed to get my shrimp paste & frozen products: galangal & tumeric roots (no tumeric leaves ... but I'm good for other kinds of leaves, there). Fresh galangal & tumeric would have been heaps better, but this was sort of impromptu.  So there's a limit to how widely I research and travel.  Just wanted the job done, on a near-enough basis, before maybe fussing about getting it 'right' somewhere down the track ... after I've had some shots at playing around with the curry. Fresh produce market shopping might be the go down the track, for what I think I'll need.  Bulk-buying & DIY freezing is the plan.  Couldn't be stuffed making special trips on a per curry basis, as it's not handy and I don't like crowds.  Frozen will have to do. I've watched a series of Rendang preparation videos and have gone with an Alvin,  Karen & Malaysian lady hybrid. Bit of a laugh checking out the online comments, where people argue over the origins of the dish.  The dish is a traditional Indonesian one, I think.  I liked all three videos and have pinched ideas from all, and kind of made it up along the way, by using these as a guide.   Although nobody uses coriander stalks, I've thrown some into my blend -- simply because I had some on-hand (preparing the smashed cucumber, lime & coriander salad).  Normally I freeze the stalks & roots for throwing into my green curries, but I felt like throwing the few I had into this batch. Shrimp paste is quite strong-smelling ... hope I didn't get carried away with the amount I used (I think I might have, although the flavour of the curry is OK, so far). Lucky I got a fresh shrimp paste.  The long-forgotten one we had in the refrigerator was well out of date. Would recommend rubber gloves for anyone sensitive to chillies.  Found my hands burning after handling the dry chillies.  Oddly, I was also coughing.  Not sure why.  Don't think I could handle a capsicum spray ... LOL. The cut of meat I've used must be a tough one.  But, as  I went a bit overboard with the coconut cream and the water, it's no problem.  I can cook the additional liquid right down and tenderise the meat at the same time. Like preparing curries.  Easy.   No fuss.   And you can make huge batches that you can freeze, so you have multiple meals. That's about it ... fingers crossed, hoping it turns out OK. If this is any good, it will go on my curries list. Result: OMG!  Really yummy! Getting whinges that there's something in there not 'nice' tasting ... but I love it. Maybe less chillies next time.  I always get carried away with the chillies. This is good. Food prep can be fun, but it's also a sort of thankless task ... and it leads to nothing but weight gain. Meals are eaten and then promptly forgotten.  Countless meals and countless hours for nothing, really.   Maybe there's something to be said for take-aways. * x1 meal for two set aside for freezing