I made an authentic Indonesian dish 'Beef Rendang'

This weekend I had my lovely friend M. over and now I don't know if it was because of her that I suddenly felt like making this Indonesian dish called 'Beef Rendang' or that it was my inner-Indonesian-food-craving what made me come up to make this? Coincidence or not.. M. is Indonesian! So yeah I think it was because of her.. ! I LOVE to eat Indonesian food but weird enough I almost never make Indonesian food myself. The reason is because Indonesian dishes mostly take a lot of time to make,  nothing much different with this lovely dish but hey it's Sunday and today I got plenty of time!  I love this dish so much.. the beef just falls apart when you dig your fork in.. the tenderness and all the lovely spices mixed together in a fine thick gravy..So So Tasty!
This dish might come across like a very complicated one. But trust me.. it's really not! The only thing is that you really have to be patient, cause this dish is only the best when the meat is super soft en tender. It took me 3 hours for my beef rendang to be perfect! Yes I know I know.. it's quite long but the actual work I spend in the kitchen was really not more than 20 minutes!

Ingredients you need for Beef Rendang (4 to 6 persons)
- preparation time really not more than 20 min. but you have to be patient.. cause it has to simmer on low fire for at least 3 hours. Best is even 4 to 5 hours !
2 bay leaves
2 red peppers
5 garlic gloves
a chunk of ginger ( 2 by 3 cm)
a chunk of galanga (2 by 3 cm)
4 limeleaves
1 lime juice
1 lemon grass
2 red onions
1/2 a spoon of, cuminseed, corianderseed, cinnamon, garam massala and chilli powder.
1 spoon of curry powder
1 spoon of sambal oelek (if you like it spicy add more of this)
1 big shot of ketjap manis

Mix all the ingredients (except for the bay leaves, sambal, ketjap manis, and 2 lime leaves) together in a kitchen blender until smooth.

1 kilo of Shoulder Steak (dutch translation: sukade-of riblappen), diced in pieces of 3 by 4 cm)

Please go to my RECIPE tab to find the complete RECIPE of my Beef Rendang! The dish will take at least 3 hours of simmering on your stove..I did 4 hours even! The meat is super super soft this way.. and all the flavours are soaked in the meat itself.. ENJOY your home-made Beef Rendang! I on purposely made a extra big portion.. so guess what I'm having for lunch tomorrow ;)
I can imagine that because of this dish takes a lot of time you don't feel like making this every week (duh..), so what I do is make a big BIG portion, and then freeze them in little boxes so whenever I know I have a busy work week and no time to cook.. I just get this out of my freezer and warm it up. MMMMmmmmm....LOVE IT!
xoxo
The Cookteaser.

TADAAA delicious tender 'Beef Rendang'