12a2-08 rocky Beef Rendang
Beef rendang is one of the original cuisines of Minangkabau descent and Sumatra’s culture. It is a delicious Indonesian dish prepared with a myriad of herbs and spices.It is the number one food according to CNN Travel
The origin of rendang could be traced back to the Indian merchants links to West
Sumatra before the 15th century. There are Dutch archives about Minangkabau that state regular contacts between India and West Sumatra in the early second millennium, thus suggests that north Indian curry was possibly the precursor of rendang. Indian curry was adopted by the Minangkabau people as gulai, a local version of curry. Minangkabau people then cooked
this gulai further in order to prepare kalio also known as wet rendang. This cooking process was then continued until it thickened and became rendang or also known as dry rendang.
In Minangkabau culinary tradition, there are three recognised stages in cooking meat in spicy coconut milk. The dish which results is categorised according to the liquid content of the cooked coconut milk, which ranges from the most wet and soupy to the most dry: Gulai — Kalio – Rendang. The ingredients of gulai, kalio and rendang are almost identical with the exceptions that gulai usually has less red chilli pepper and more turmeric, while rendang has richer spices.
If pieces of meat are cooked in spicy coconut milk and the process stopped right when the meat is done and the coconut milk has reached its boiling point, the dish is called gulai. If the process continues until the coconut milk is partly evaporated and the meat has started to brown, the dish is called kalio. For traditional dry rendang, the process continues hours beyond this, until the liquid has all but completely evaporated and the color turns to a dark brown, almost black color.
Thus not only liquid content but also color indicate which type of rendang is involved: gulai is light yellow, kalio is brown and rendang is very dark brown. Today, one mostly finds only two simpler categories of rendang: either dry or we
Rendang is most often described as meat slow-cooked in coconut milk and spices until it becomes tender. Rendang is rich in spices. Along with the main meat ingredient, rendang
uses coconut milk and a paste of mixed ground spices,
including ginger, galangal, turmeric leaves, lemongrass, garlic, shallots, chillis and other spices.
This spice mixture is called pemasak in Minangkabau. The spices, garlic, shallot, ginger and galangal used in rendang have antimicrobial properties and serve as natural organic
preservatives. Although some culinary experts describe rendang as a curry, the dish is usually not considered as such in Indonesia since it is richer and contains less liquid than is normal
for Indonesian curries.
Eventhough there are quite a lot of ingredients, it is veryeasy to cook rendang.First you need to cut the beef into small pieces and remove any fats and sinew from it.Then in a big pot put in the coconut milk and the spice mixture and let it simmer until it thicken and become oily.
Then reduce the heat and add the beef.Lastly you just need to be patient and let it simmer for couple hours,the longer the better.Don’t forget to stir occasionally.
Although it takes a little bit of patience, it’s easy to make this addicting dish.
Furthermore, Rendang is very nutritional and it makes the perfect dish for one of the best
traditional Indonesian dishes. It has 195 calories per 100 grams and contains 11.07 grams of fat, 29 mg of cholesterol, 184 mg of sodium, 4.49 g of carbohydrates, and 19.68 g of protein.
Rendang also consists of some vitamins. There are a few, 7% vitamin C, 2% calcium, and 13%
iron, with each percent means our daily value. As you can see it is a very good source of protein but I don’t recommend to eat rendang everyday since it is very high in cholesterol.
