Dishes · A classic of Minangkabau · West Sumatra
Rendang
Beef simmered in coconut milk and spice paste for hours, until the liquid is gone and the meat fries in what's left.
What makes it rendang
- Cooked in coconut milk until the liquid is gone — not a curry with sauce.
- A bumbu of shallot, garlic, chilli, galangal, ginger and lemongrass.
- Kerisik (toasted, pounded coconut) for body.
- Hours of low heat and stirring as it catches.
Where it comes from
The name comes from marandang, the Minang word for slow cooking, stirring, over low heat. The dish travels through stages as it cooks: gulai while it's still a curry, kalio once it thickens, rendang only when it's dark and nearly dry.
Cooked fully dry, it keeps for weeks without refrigeration — a reason often given for its place in merantau, the Minang custom of leaving home to make a living. It's served at ceremonies and festivals, and in 2011 a CNN readers' poll put it first in the world's most delicious foods.
How it varies
- Kalio
- Stopped earlier, still wet and orange — a dish in its own right.
- Rendang ayam
- Chicken, cooked shorter.
- Malaysian rendang
- Often wetter and sweeter, sometimes with kerisik and palm sugar.
Versions here
Start your own rendang
Near it
MinangkabauGulaiA turmeric-yellow coconut curry — fish, goat, jackfruit or offal — and the first stage on the road to rendang.No one here has made it yet
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