For many smaller countries I expected finding a true national dish specific to that one individual nation a bit tricky. That was certainly the case when it came to Brunei. First, of course, I tried to find a restaurant in London that served food that was specifically from Brunei. I found none. I then tried to find a true, national dish for the country. I found none.
However, it became clear that the national dish is actually Malaysian in origin. My loose rules for this project is that if there is nothing specific to the country itself, then the most popular dish - regardless of the origin - would suffice. However, I decided that we would NOT, for instance, go to a Malaysian restaurant for Brunei. No restaurant for Brunei means home cooking, regardless of what I end up cooking.
Anyway, when that pedantic debate in my head came to an end it was time to find the best recipe for the meal I had settled on. Beef rendang.
It had been a while since I had cooked anything like a curry, so the prospect of this meal excited me. I like how intricate the steps are, and how many small but effective ingredients are used. This was no different!
The first step was to prepare a base paste for the sauce. This is formed of a chopped onion, some chopped ginger, garlic, lemongrass, dried red chillies and some turmeric, blended to a paste. Galangal is also supposed to feature, but I was unable to find any during my preceding shopping trip.
The paste was then fried until the aromas started to fill the room, to which cardamom pods and a cinnamon stick were added for extra flavour. At this point, the meat was added. I used casserole beef as the meat is cooked slowly for some time, plus the extra fat would be ideal for the sauce. The meat is just browned at this point to lock in the juices.
A tin of coconut milk is added at this point, followed by some kaffir lime leaves and the zest of one lime. (You can see now what I mean about lots of little but effective ingredients!).
At this point the mixture was seasoned, stirred, reduced to a simmer and left to do so for ninety minutes. It's important to stir regularly during cooking to reduce sticking and ensure even cooking. I had to add some extra water every now and then to avoid it getting too dry.
Just before this time was over, I then toasted some coconut flakes, crushed these to a coarse powder and stirred this into the mixture. This is what made it special.
Alongside this I also prepared some fragrant rice to go with it. For this, I fried a cinnamon stick and some cardamom pods then added the raw rice, which I fried in some oil until the grains started to turn opaque. At this point the appropriate water was added, as was some salt. Then I brought it water to the boil until most of the water was absorbed, which is when the lid was placed on the pot to retain the remaining moisture. This was left to stand for five minutes. When serving, the rice was garnished with fresh coriander, fried shallots and some chillies.
This meal was every bit as lovely as it was expected to be. The beef rendang had a lovely consistency, helped hugely by the coconut that was mixed through it. The beef itself was beautifully soft, and very lean. The fat from the meat played a huge part in how great the sauce was. The flavour of the lime and lemongrass was present, but in no way overpowering. The balance of flavours throughout was perfect.
I just need to remember not to go for beef rendang again when we get to Malaysia!
