GZ Tai-Tai

Beef Rendang

This is my husband’s favorite! We have loved rendang since our first trip to Malaysia 14 years ago.This is what I have come up with after trying several recipes for rendang over the years.  This recipe uses ingredients I usually have or are easy for me to find.

1 kilo beef cut into cubes or slices

2 - 200ml cans coconut milk

200ml water

2 Tbsp oil

Blend the ingredients below in mini food processor or in mortar and pestle

3 stalks lemon grass white part only, sliced thin

10 cm piece of ginger, sliced thin  If you have galangal use half the amount of ginger and half the amount galangal.

3 garlic shallots or cloves of garlic

10 shallots or 1 small red onion

Dry spices

1 Tbsp turmeric powder

2 Tbsp chili powder

1 1/2 – 2 tsp salt

Heat the oil and fry the blended ingredients. Add the dry spices, fry, stirring to keep from sticking. Add the beef and fry while stirring to mix the ingredients well.

Add 1 1/2 cans of coconut milk to the meat and spice mixture. Stir well and bring to a boil. When the curry has reached the boil, lower the flame and simmer about 2 hours until the sauce is thick. After 2 hours you need to add some water and the rest of the coconut milk. Bring to boil again and lower the flame to simmer. Leave the curry to simmer uncovered until the sauce dries up. Stirring occasionally.

Malaysia is calling me

I have been craving Malaysian food lately. I also have been thinking of Malaysia a lot lately too. I am not sure why our trip this summer did not include a stop over, probably did not work out with our schedule or the price was too high when we were booking our trip.  We recently went to a BBQ of sorts at a Malaysian friends home and had beef rendang and a few other malaysian treats. That seemed to help but the last few weeks, I have had the bug to go to Malaysia again. Perhaps we will make it there for our Chinese New Year holiday, we will see. In the mean time I must cook something Malaysian to suppress my appetite.

Hubby has always wanted me to make Laksa, I make Rendang pretty often, but not often enough if you ask him. So I decided to make Laksa, or at least, see if I could do it and if I could find the ingredients. Well yes and no, some of the ingredients are found easily enough but some others are not but I did my best with what we had and what I could find and it actually turned out quite good. I will try to give you the recipe or at least what I used in this version of Penang Laksa. Some of the ingredients and methods I use are not very traditional, I am sure  some will scoff, but, hey it got me what I wanted and that was a taste of Malaysia.

More on Thai Red/Green Curry Paste

My husband is being pushy with this and since he posted a recipe, I thought I should not leave you hanging and give you the recipe (click the continuation link below) I use for Thai Red and Green Curry Paste. Essentially it is the same  recipe for both only you are using Red or Green Chilies and in the Green Curry Paste, you will add fresh Coriander leaves (Cilantro) to get a vibrant green color.

The recipe calls for galangal which I have problems finding here in China (I still need to work that source out) so I substitute fresh ginger root instead. When living in the Northwest I was able to find galangal in the Asian markets.  Lemon grass, too. I even grew my own lemon grass but had to move it inside in the winter months as it did not thrive too well in the cold. I was able to start more lemon grass when we moved back to China and now have a lovely spot in my garden with loads of it to use in our Thai and Malaysian Curries.  I love the tropical climate.