Beef Rendang: Take 2

Ok, so after my last beef rendang attempt and failure, I felt I needed to redeem myself.  If at first you don't succeed, yada yada...  this time I tried using this recipe from Rasa Malaysia (yeah, I know, Malaysia is not Indonesia, but the author claims to be using an Indonesian recipe). It looked more promising than the last recipe I tried- it involves a paste made from all of the aromatics, plus additional spices (which are so cheap here! hooray for the spice islands!), but most importantly, the recipe had more detailed instructions.

Well, I gave it ye olde college try, but the recipe was still not successful.  Sigh. Fail. Maybe closer than the last try, but not quite right.  While the flavor is nice and it smells amazing, I can't seem to achieve the deep, dark caramelization that they get at restaurants here.  Tim says that I can buy pre-darkened coconut milk here, but that seems a little bit like cheating and none of the recipes I've seen online include it. 

Perhaps I need to take a cooking class here and have someone show me how to make this dish correctly.

The redeeming factor in all of this is that I made nasi goreng with the leftover rice, and it was delicious.  Nasi goreng is Indonesian fried rice, made with chilies, garlic, onion, kecap manis (a thick, sweet Indonesia soy sauce- "manis" = sweet), and usually shrimp paste (terasi udang), which stinks to holy hell, but gives the dish the umami flavor it needs. The ingredients vary slightly depending on who's making it, but the ones I listed seem to be the essential ones.  I put chicken on my rice, but you can put pretty much anything on top and call it breakfast, lunch or dinner here.  Egg, shrimp, chicken...

Beef Rendang: Partial FAIL

Last weekend I tried my hand at cooking some Indonesian food... partial fail.  See my other blog for a description of my attempt at making beef rendang. 

Here's the recipe I used, which I deem to be tasty, but not quite asli (genuine, authentic).  I'd like to try a recipe that uses more fresh, whole spices and has better directions for getting the tender, deeply caramelized flavor I was hoping for.  Maybe this recipe from Rasa Malaysia should be my next attempt. 

Beef Rendang
From The Complete Indonesian Cookbook, by Agnes De Keijzer Brackman and Cathay Brackman

Ingredients:
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 stalk lemongrass, crushed
1 lb cubed beef topside round (I used beef that I bought at the store that was specifically labeled "Rendang beef", but I think it's pretty much stew beef.)
2 or more red chilies (such as birdseye chilies), crushed
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1 salam leaf (essentially Indonesian bay leaf, as I understand)

Directions:
- Heat oil in a frying pan
- Add garlic, turmeric, ginger and lemongrass; saute lightly
- Add meat and chilies; saute for 3 minutes, stirring frequently; add salt and mix well
- Pour coconut milk over meat and add salam leaf.  Cover and cook over low heat until almost dry.

Julia Child's Beef Bourguignon

After cooking it for a book club dinner centered on Julia Child's My Life in France, Martha has adopted Julia's beef bourguignon recipe and made it her own. It's her signature dish now.

She made it for our post-Christmas gathering (which was somewhat crippled by the East Coast blizzard of 2010), and it was awesome- meaty, rich, tender, complex.
Served it with mashed parsnips (plenty of cream and butter) and sauteed green beans. Yum.

Sloppy Joes and Kohlrabi/Apple/Carrot Slaw

Remember way back when I made these "adult" sloppy joes (wow, that sounds dirty!)? Yeah, they're still good. Bourbon, smoked paprika, cayenne... mmmm.

Served them with this awesomely simple crunchy slaw made from kohlrabi (that alien-looking member of the Brassica family), Granny Smith apples and carrots with cider vingar, olive oil and honey (I skipped the swiss chard stems in the recipe...).

Black Pepper Beef Jerky!

Mike and Jamie gave me a dehydrator for my birthday back in September, but all I've made since then was some dried apples, which were good, but not earth shattering. I resolved to take my dehydrator training wheels off and engage the dehydrator in a more substantial and ambitious endeavor: beef jerky. After reading/drooling over an article in Food & Wine about homemade artisan beef jerky, I went with a black pepper beef jerky, which uses beef top round, sliced thinly and marinated in soy sauce, Worchestershire, lager and copious amounts of crushed black peppercorns. The recipe is super simple and the dehydrator made quick work of it (4 hours), despite the warnings that beef jerky could take between 4 and 12 hours to dry. The results were delicious, although probably not the most photogenic of all the things I have cooked. Chewy, spicy, meaty...

Korean Beef Rice Bowl

This Korean-style beef and veggie bowl was a good use of fresh summer veggies like carrots and zucchini. However, I think it could benefit from a squirt or two of Sriracha to give it at least a little kick. But I think everything might taste bland relative to the Szechuan spicy I tasted this past weekend...

Surf and Turf CSA Dinner

Surf and Turf dinner...Roasted Tenderloin of Beef, Shrimp Gratin, oven roasted potatoes, Snap peas with chives from the garden and a field greens salad with parmesan, shallots and stone ground mustard vinaigrette

To Die For: Beef Stroganoff

Omg. This beef stroganoff recipe is to die for... buttery, mushroomy, meaty.

The recipe calls for 2.5 lbs of sirloin, which is pretty pricey, but totally worth it. Be sure not to overcook the beef!! The only change Chuck made to the recipe was to substitute sour cream for the creme fraiche or whipping cream the recipe called for.

Beef, Shrimp and Bok Choy Stir Fry

Remember that week where two days in a row I made recipes I have already made, but switched up the ingredients? It should be fresh in your mind because it's this week.

I made this stir-fry last week with beef and broccoli, and it was so easy and good, I decided to try it again this week with the bok choy I got in my CSA. I threw in about 10 shrimp for good measure and cooked the boy choy stems longer than the bok choy leaves, but otherwise followed Steamy Kitchen's method. Yum.

Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

Yum... Steamy Kitchen (guest blogging at Simply Recipes) strikes again. I made this super easy beef and broccoli recipe, with only a few additions. I gave the sauce a big squirt of Sriracha for some heat, threw in some chopped scallions with the broccoli, and added an extra clove of garlic, because, well... duh. Served it on steamed white rice. Really tasty. Better than take-out Chinese.

My main recommendation is this: have all of the ingredients ready before you start cooking: pre-chopped, pre-measured and pre-mixed. Stir fry cooks so quickly, you don't have time to measure once the action starts.

Beef and Nectarine Stir Fry

I got some nectarines in my CSA last week, and wanted to use them in a savory way, rather than in a dessert. This stir fry recipe came from Jaden at Steamy Kitchen; she blogs about a lot of simple Asian recipes. I made a couple modifications: used 3 green onions instead of the red onion, 2 nectarines instead of just one (it didn't seem like enough).

I liked the combination of the sweet/tart nectarines and the beef (and how easy the recipe is). However, Tim and I agreed that we would add some heat to this if we were to make it again. Maybe red pepper flakes in with the beef?

Sloppy Megs

Homemade sloppy joes = chili on a bun.

Yum.

Beef Strogan-zola

We made this Emeril recipe for "Beefy Mushroom Gorgonzola Sauce." It was a cross between a Stroganoff and a creamy Gorgonzola sauce. Probably not very good for us, but damn delicious, and used up lots of things we had lying around: one last sprig of rosemary, a pound of CSA mushrooms, some gorgonzola cheese, the rest of the cream and beef stock...