Rendang

1,5 kg sukadelappen
2 middelgrote uien
1 el verse gember, geraspt
6 rode chilipepers (ik heb 1 tl sambal gebruikt)
6 teentjes knoflook
1 blikje kokosmelk van 400 ml
3 tl zout
4 tl ketoembar (gemalen korianderzaad)
2 tl laospoeder
6 kerrieblaadjes
3 stengels citroengras (of 3 plakjes citroenschil)
4 tl bruine suiker
2 tl tamarinde (uit een pot, toko)

Snijd het vlees in blokjes van 3 cm.
Snipper de ui grof. Doe de ui met de gember, knoflook, chilies en 125 ml kokosmelk in een keukenmachine en maal tot een pasta.
Verhit wat ghee of olie in een braadpan en voeg de uienpasta toe.
Voeg zout, ketoembar en laos toe, en bak een paar minuutjes. Voeg de rest van de kokosmelk en 100 ml water toe. Breng aan de kook.
Voeg het vlees, kerrieblaadjes en citroengras (of -schil) toe en breng weer aan de kook.
Zet het vuur laag en laat 2,5 uur afgedekt sudderen tot het vlees gaar is.
Voeg de suiker en tamarinde toe, zodra de olie uit de saus gaat lopen. (Wanneer je dit ziet gebeuren, snap je wat ermee bedoeld wordt.)
Laat nog een half uurtje zonder deksel koken, tot de saus de dikte heeft die je wenst.

Zet bakjes klaar om wat in te vriezen, want dit levert een flinke hoeveelheid op. (Ongeveer voor 10-12 personen)


Rendang

At the local supermarket braising beef was on sale. I happen to love slow food, especially beef, so I bought a whole lot of it and put it in the fridge.
On saturday afternoon the time had come to decide what to do with it. I went through some cookbooks. I thought about Beef Vindaloo, but I made that a few weeks ago, and still had some left in the freezer. Boeuf Bourgignon crossed my mind, but I didn't have all the ingredients. Finally I decided on Rendang, an Indonesian dish. I had all the ingredients in the house, except for the lemon grass, which I substituted for lemon peel. I also didn't have fresh chillies, so I used Sambal Ulek instead. Here's the recipe, it originates from: The Complete Asian Cookbook by Charmaine Solomon (Dutch version).

Ingredients
1,5 kg beef for braising
2 medium onions (or 1 large one)
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
6 red chillies
6 cloves of garlic
500 ml thick coconut milk
3 tsp salt
4 tsp ketumbar (ground coriander seeds)
2 tsp laos powder
6 curry leaves
3 stems of lemon grass (or 3 slices of lemon peel)
4 tsp palm sugar (or brown sugar)
2 tsp tamarind (from a jar)

Method
Cut the beef in little chuncks of 3 cm (a little over 1 inch).
Chop the onions coarsely. Blend the onion in a food processor with the ginger, garlic, chillies and 125 ml coconutmilk.
Heat some ghee or oil in a big braising pan (I used a cast iron Dutch oven), and add the onion paste.
Add the salt, ketumbar and laos, and fry for a few minutes. Add the rest of the coconut milk and bring to the boil.
Add the meat, curry leaves abd lemon grass (or peel) and bring to the boil again.
Let simmer for 2½ hours, or until the meat is tender.
When the oil leaves the sauce (you'll know what this means when you see it happen), add the sugar and tamarind.
Cook it uncovered for the last half hour or so, until the sauce has the consistency you want. It shouldn't cook dry, it still has a sauce, but it should be thickish.

I ate it with plain rice and green beens. It tasted very nice. I have a lot left, which I put into the freezer. So, when I don't feel like cooking, I can still have a gorgeous meal...

Talking about freezers...It's was a cold day today. It froze -6°C at daytime outside. This sounds like a perfect moment to defrost and clean my freezer. So I put everything in it in a box, covered it with a blanket, and started to defrost the freezer. I used a pan with hot water to speed it up, but it still took a good 4 hours to completely melt all the ice. When that was done, I put everything back in. While doing that I saw some things which dated from 2007 and had forgotten about. I trew them in the bin. Three hours later, the freezer had it's original temperature. I'll do this again next year. That is, if it will freeze like this again, because it hasn't for the last ten years. We are all hoping for a new Elfstedentocht here in The Netherlands, the last one was in january 1997! That's another thing that global warming does to us.