Have you ever tried Indonesian food? It is amazing! If you love spicy, aromatic, fresh food then you’ll absolutely love this exotic cuisine. Today I am sharing one of our favorite Indonesian dishes, rendang. Rendang is a spicy meat dish made with coconut milk and an array of aromatic Asian spices. Rendang, or beef rendang, is one of the most well know dishes from Indonesia. Originally a dish made by the Minangkabau people, it is now also eaten in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, The Philippines, and southern Thailand.
This rendang was made with a special package that our Indonesian friend R. sent to me with her husband. She sent me an Indonesian care package consisting of 2 rendang, 2 nasi goreng spice mixes and a super yummy hot sauce. If that wasn’t enough J. brought me a cookbook from his last trip to Cambodian. I a very lucky girl to have such sweet, kind and thoughtful friends. The book is gorgeous and I can’t wait to cook from it and share it with you.
I saw that the cookbook and both of the spice mixes are available on Amazon, so you too can give them a try. These are the links Rendang, Nasi Goreng and Cambodian Cooking.
Upon opening the package I could smell the wonderful spices and chile that were used to make the mix — it made my mouth water. Typically rendang can take up to 4 hours to prepare but thanks to this little package dinner can be ready in about an hour. The instructions are included in the package and are pretty straightforward.
All I had to do was cut the beef into bite-size pieces, boil until tender, drain, then slow cook with the spice mix and a little water until the sauce thickened. I served it with steamed rice for a scrumptious meal.
As the meat simmered with the spices my mouth kept watering, I could smell cloves, lemongrass, chile, ginger and all sorts of incredible smells. The taste was just as amazing. It was quite spicy and the spices really came through. I can’t wait to cook the next package and hopefully one day my friend R. will teach me how to cook rendang from scratch.
So if all the above gifts weren’t enough J. also brought us this gorgeous dessert, a Ukrainian cake made for two, which we enjoyed and helped to cool down our mouths after the rendang.
I’m not sure what the cake is called but it was like a roulade cake. The outer wrapper was a thin layer of cake, in the center were two layers of airy vanilla cream or mousse that had pieces of bananas and strawberries. The cream was held inside by a thin layer of cake and the two layers of cream were separated by a very thin layer of cake. And the top was decorated with fresh pieces of strawberries, kumquats, karambola and lime slices.
I’ve never had a cake like this before, and now it is one that I would love to eat over and over again. Does anyone know what this type of cake is called?
Thanks to our wonderful friends we enjoyed this incredible feast. The only thing that would have made it even better is if we had been able to sit down and enjoy it with them…soon.
Have a great weekend and I hope you share a meal with your close friends.
I LOVE beef rendang!!! I did try to recreate the version from my favourite Malaysian restaurant in the slow cooker a while ago and keep saying I have to make it again. Here’s a link to my recipe if you’re interested:
http://susonia.com/2012/11/slow-cooker-rendang-beef-curry/
And that cake looks amazing!
Hi Susan! That’s great that you recreated the recipe. I’ll stop by and take a look. Thanks:)
This cake looks so delicate und yummy. I also love the background on your pictures. And I’m googling this book :D
Thanks Marta, it was very delicate and very yummy. Enjoy the book!
That is one of my favorite curries! A beautiful cake.
Cheers,
Rosa
Mine too, thanks Rosa!
gorgeous clicks…rice and rendang look irresistible…starry cake is so pretty…awesome :-)
Thanks Kumar!
Oh wow! The dish lookssobeautiful. I loved the blue background. Beautiful post as always Nancy :)
Thanks Nandita!:)
You are so lucky indeed Nancy! =) How sweet of your friends for sending you these gifts. =)
I have an Ukrainian friend here, I ll show her the pic if I get some time. She doesn’t know that much English but she ll be able to say what your wonderful cake is called.
I really am blessed and so lucky. Ah, thanks so much Helene. It would be great to find out the name. Have a great weekend:)
I can almost smell the spices withe these beautiful photos. What a fun post withthe gorgeous cake and new foods (for me)
Thanks so much Serena, I hope you can try the rendang soon.:)
Mmh,the beef looks irresistible with all these wonderful spices! I can nearly smell the aromas of cloves,coconut and chili.
Great shots Nancy.
Thanks so much Daniela! As it cooks you really can smell all of those wonderful scents.
I LOVE Rendang! I have a Paleo version on my site based on a recipe from Saveur that is awesome but it does cook all day long :)
I’ll have to check out your blog and recipe Alyssa, thanks!
I love the look of those desserts!
It was delish!
G’day Nancy and LOVE Rendang and your photo has me drooling for some right now, true!
PERFECT weather for it now in the Land Down Under too!
The cakes looks delightfully lovely,
Perhaps it may be kievskiy? As there are many special and secret Ukrainian family recipes of this cake…
Cheers! Joanne
Hi Joanne,
Yes, this dish will warm you right up. It’s similar but not quite exactly like a Kievskiy cake, but you may be right. Thanks so much!
Such a pretty cake, it’s leaping off the screen! I’ve never tried Rendang but I love the flavors!
I think you would love it Laura, thanks!
I’m drooling over the rendang curry and then you pulled out the Ukrainian cake… what a way to finish the meal. :) I would have loved to eat this meal…. both dishes look spectacular. Hope you had a great weekend. :)
It was a wonderful meal with a perfect sweet ending. You would love the rendang because it is so spicy and very flavorful. Thanks and hope you have a great week ahead!:)
I love Rendang! But I’ve never made it before – definitely something I need to correct. Yours looks wonderful – thanks so much.
You should, John. Thanks!
I’ve never had this dish before but the meat looks so rich, juicy and flavorful. With the addition of coconut milk I can only imagine the flavor it has.
As for this cake, it’s beautiful. Can’t you ask your friend the name of it? Now I’m curious. I may have to go try and locate this online to make. It looks so delicious. If you find out the name of the cake please let us know.
By the way, the blue background is beautiful. What program are you using or is this just some sort of cloth?
He didn’t know the name either, but if I find out I’ll let you know. The background is the color of my board, I painted it myself. Thanks Vicki:)
I’ve never had rendang before, but your description (which has me drooling BTW) makes it sound like a Carne Adovado – meat simmering for hours in a spicy sauce. Thanks for listing the ingredients in the rendang spice because I had no idea. I definitely need to check it out on Amazon because I am a sucker for a spicy spice mix. Fabulous dish and as always- your pics make me want to grab a fork and start eating.
Yes, quite similar to that dish and many other Mexican ones too. I hope you can give it a taste soon as I’m sure you’ll love it. Thanks, MJ!:)
I heard about rendang and always want to taste this dish. I had no idea there is a packaged spice! Great to know!! Also, oh my gosh the ukrainian cake looks beautiful!!!!
I think there’s a package spice mix for just about everything, hehe. Thanks Nami, I hope you can try it sometime.
I once tried Lamb Rendang and loved the layers of flavors. Your clicks make the dish look so appetising and that cake is truly beautiful :-)
Lamb rendang is so good too — maybe even better than the beef. Thanks so much!
Wow…such beautiful food and pictures. I love beef with lot of spices… beef rendang is something i haven’t heard of but I am sure gonna love it. The cake look stunning… a work of art indeed
Yes, I think you would love it Shema. Thank you!:)
Never tried Indonesian food and love your dish. The cake is adorable.
You should try it sometime Ash, I think you’d enjoy it. Thank you!:)
I love Rendang so much. You are a lucky girl. That book on Cambodian cooking looks very interesting too.
Indeed, thanks so much Tania!:)
I have not had it many(enough) times but I love Indonesian food and it really is exotic. This looks amazing, bookmarked.
I too haven’t tasted many Indonesian dishes, but I do love them all and how exotic they are. Thanks so much Evelyne!:)
This is mouth-watering! Rendang always gets me. I wish we had more of it in the West.
Thanks Irina!