Beef Rendang

As I normally work throughout the week, Saturday morning is the first time that I get the chance to be able to  have a lay in (not that I often do!) and have a relaxed morning. I normally like to have a leisurely breakfast and watch Saturday Kitchen. It was on this programme that I saw Rick Stein make beef Rendang and it inspired me to make instantly to put this on the menu for the following week.

Both myself and my boyfriend love eating different types of foods and cuisines and also making our own curries at home. My boyfriend tends to be the one who cooks the curries, because he does love a bit of spice. So when I did show him the recipe for the first time, he seemed quite keen.

We think the depth of flavour in this recipe was amazing and the fact that it is naturally gluten free and with no substitutes in it is good. It did have a bit of a kick to it, we actually put in a couple of chilli's less in ours, but you can taste this when you're cooking and use as many as you require to your own taste. You can always chop and put more in, but once they're in its obviously difficult to take the heat down. After tasting the recipe, we also decided to add a little sugar as we felt that it was slightly too sour so for us this balanced the taste out a bit more.

Frying the purée in the wok

I think this is a great recipe as it makes use of a cheaper cut of meat, but great taste of the recipe means that it doesn't feel like you're eating the lower cost cuts. Do remember that this means that you do have to cook it out to make sure the beef doesn't come out chewy and is nice and easy to eat. 

Adding the beef to the paste and browning the meat off

 The way the rice was cooked in this recipe was probably one of the best that we have tried, it was easy to do and the rice came out nice and fluffy and wasn't too sticky. The portion size was definitely a good size portion, I think you could potentially bulk the recipe up with less meat and substitute some vegetables in it. I have seen cauliflower and potatoes used in curries, so this is potentially something to think about in the future. 

You can find the recipe that I've used here, I suggest you give this a try if you like a bit of spice or curry as it's one of the better curries that I've tried.