Recipe: jackfruit rendang
We absolutely love rendang! And rendang does not only refer to the well-known dish made with beef chuck. Rendang refers to the way it is prepared. Making vegetarian rendang? Also very delicious. You can make it with pointed cabbage (as in this vegetarian recipe by star chef Soenil Bahadoer), but young, unripe jackfruit is the most popular ingredient for vegetarian rendang in the Netherlands. With this recipe by Maureen Tan, you can win over meat eaters too.
Maureen: ‘In Sumatra I tasted this jackfruit rendang; the savoury flavour of trassi was something that stayed with me. And the flavour of a herb I had never tasted in Indonesia before and only knew from Vietnamese and Laotian cuisine: culantro, similar to the coriander we know here in the Netherlands, but much stronger in flavour. Would you like to make the dish completely vegetarian and vegan? Then leave out the trassi.’
How to make jackfruit rendang
- In a dry frying pan over medium heat, roast the candlenuts, white peppercorns, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, coriander seeds and cumin seeds for about 2 minutes. Grind the roasted spices finely in a mortar, removing the cardamom husks in the process. Transfer the ground spices to a small bowl and set aside.
- Add the shallots, garlic, lomboks, ginger root and turmeric root, along with the salt, to the mortar and grind into a fine bumbu. If the mortar is too full, grind the ingredients in batches. Set aside.
- Heat the coconut oil in a wok over medium heat. Fry the bumbu and trassi for about 3 minutes. Add the ground spices and fry for 1 minute. Add the lemongrass, galangal, salam leaves, lime leaves, asem kandis, coconut milk and coconut cream. Stir well and bring everything to just below boiling point. Then lower the heat and simmer gently for 30 minutes.
- Rinse the jackfruit under cold running water and drain well in a colander. Steam the jackfruit in a
steamer, steaming basket or steam oven for about 15 minutes until tender. Let the jackfruit cool and pull the flesh into strips. Set aside. - In a dry frying pan over medium heat, roast the grated coconut until dark brown. Grind the roasted coconut in the mortar until it becomes a slightly glossy paste from the oil released during grinding. Add the coconut paste to the rendang and stir well.
- Turn up the heat, add the jackfruit and culantro, and stir-fry for about 45 minutes until the sauce has completely reduced. The rendang is now ready to serve.
Title: Rendang
Author: Maureen Tan
Price: €32,99
Publisher: Carrera
In Rendang you will find traditional, regional stews as they are prepared in Sumatra, as well as Maureen‘s own recipes, featuring ingredients she enjoys using. Think of pulled beef rendang, but also all kinds of other stews with meat. Fish, crustaceans and shellfish (mussel rendang!), poultry and offal are also used—as long as the end result is truly delicious.
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