Ox Cheek & Venison Rendang
INDONESIA / SINGAPORE / MALAYSIA (PERANAKAN)
The biggest mistake with most beef rendang recipes I see from Western chefs is that they underestimate the amount of time the dish involves. A rendang is a ‘dry’ curry; the meat shouldn’t be swimming in sauce. You need many hours of simmering for most of the liquid to dry up and for the cooking process to turn from boiling into frying; the meat ends up caramelizing in its own fat and the fat that’s separated from the coconut milk, to turn it that famous shade of deep dark brown. You should be left with meat that’s incredibly moist and tender from the slow cooking, and a rich thick sauce that’s concentrated with beefy flavour and the complex aroma of spices and coconut. This usually translates to many painful hours of stirring, but not in the UK, where most homes have ovens that are perfect for maintaining a low, even heat without too much faff. Done pot roast-style, rendang is actually pretty effortless.
The traditional version only uses beef, but when it’s autumn and game season in the UK, I like replacing part of the beef with venison. Being wild, it’s as organic as you can get, but much more sustainable for the environment. Wild venison is also incredibly lean – wonderful for the cholesterol-conscious but not so wonderful when you’re trying to make a rich rendang, so the ox cheeks here are absolutely necessary for the right balance.
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 stick of cassia bark
- 4 star anise
- 4 cloves
- 6 cardamom pods, bashed
- 500g ox cheek, chopped into 2cm cubes
- 300g wild venison shanks plus bones, meat chopped into 2cm cubes, bones into pot-fitting sizes
- 2 stalks of lemongrass, white part only, bashed and thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons tamarind pulp
- 500ml thick coconut milk
- 12 kaffir lime leaves, bashed and thinly sliced
- 2 teaspoons sea salt, or to taste
- 60g unrefined light brown sugar
- 200ml water
- 200g shallots (or onions), peeled
- 1 bulb of garlic, cloves peeled
- 4 stalks of lemongrass, white part only
- a 5cm piece of galangal
- a 5cm piece of ginger
- 12 dried red chillies, soaked in warm water and deseeded
- 3 tablespoons melted coconut oil (or groundnut oil)
- Heat your oven to 150°C/gas 2.
- Pound or blend the ingredients for the rempah until you get a smooth paste.
- Put the coconut oil into a large ovenproof cast-iron casserole pot over a medium heat, and fry the rempah along with the other whole spices, stirring, until the mixture is aromatic and a delicious brown (but not burnt) colour.
- Add the ox cheek, venison, bones and pounded lemongrass, and sauté for another 5–10 minutes. You might have to do this in batches.
- Meanwhile, soak the tamarind in 8 tablespoons of hot water for 15 minutes. Massage and squeeze to get the tamarind juices from the pulp, then strain and discard the pulp. Add the coconut milk, watery tamarind paste, kaffir lime leaves, salt, sugar and water, bring to the boil, then cover the pot and cook in the oven for about 7 hours. Check every 1–2 hours, giving it a nosy poke and a stir to make sure everything gets coated in the sauce, topping up with more water as needed.
- To make the kerisik, toast the desiccated coconut in a medium-hot pan, shaking and stirring constantly so it doesn’t burn. Remove from the heat just as it turns a pale gold, because it will continue cooking to a golden brown off the heat. Pound and grind until you get an oily paste. Stir this into the pot midway through the cooking.
- After 7 hours, the meat should be tender and near falling apart when you jab at it, and the sauce thick and rich, but not entirely dried up. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt/sugar if necessary. Finish with a sprinkling of fresh coriander, and serve with nasi lemak (coconut rice, see here), or just plain rice; this packs enough punch on its own.
Note: For a normal beef rendang, replace the ox cheek and venison with an equal weight of beef shin.