Rendang Paste
- 1 medium/150g brown onion (peeled and quartered)
- 3 stalks/50g lemongrass (only the white part of the stalk and about 4 inches in size)
- 5 cloves/15g garlic
- 1 thumb/15g ginger
- 5-6 fresh long red chillies (this will give medium heat, use more if you like hotter)
- 2tbsp/30ml peanut/vegetable oil
Add all the above ingredients to a blender/NutriBullet and grind until smooth paste. Keep aside.
Curry
- 600g Fable Mushroom Beef *
- 3 pods star-anise
- 5 pods green cardamom
- 1 Stick Cinnamon
- 2 dried red chillies
- 2tsp/10ml tamarind pulp or paste *
- 1 Stalk lemongrass (About 4 inches of only the white part. Bruise it with a rolling pin or a heavy object)
- 5 Kaffir lime leaves very finely shredded*
- 1tbsp/10g brown sugar
- 1/4 cup/20g desiccated coconut
- 1.25 cup/250ml Coconut milk from a can
- 1.75cups/400ml water
- 1/3cup/80ml peanut or vegetable oil + 1 Tbsp to brown the Fable beef.
Method
- In a heavy bottomed large and deep non-stick frying pan heat the oil, add fable beef and brown it for 3-4 minutes on medium high heat. Keep aside.*
- In the same pan add the remaining oil and cook the Rendang paste on medium-high heat until it changes colour to brown/golden and separates oil. It should take about 8-10 minutes. Keep an eye and stir occasionally to avoid burning.
- Mix in all the remaining curry ingredients (Except Fable beef), 1 cup water, and cover and cook on medium-low heat for 45 minutes.
- Check at halfway mark and give it a stir. Add a splash of water if needed.
- Once the time is up toss in the browned Fable beef along with the remaining water, cover and cook on medium-low heat for 25-30 minutes.
- Open lid and if the sauce is too watery, cook it high heat for few minutes without the lid until the excess water evaporates.
- Serve hot with rice with a garnish of sliced fresh red chillies.
*I use this frying pan to do most of my cooking for curries and stews.
*If you can't get mock beef, use whole button mushrooms, or peeled potatoes diced in 3-4cm cubes. Brown the mushrooms for 5-10 minutes on high heat, but no need to brown the potatoes. Also, mushrooms may need less water as they already have lots of water in them.
*If you can't find tamarind pulp or paste, use Juice of 1/2 a lime. Or to make your own tamarind pulp soak the fresh tamarind in few tablespoons of hot water for 10-15 minutes and use the pulp (discard the seeds)
*You can replace kaffir lime leaves with finely grated rind of 1 lime. To Finley slice the lime leaves, tightly roll all of them together to form a cigar. Using a sharp knife slice them in as fine seeds as possible.