Beef Rendang...this is what happens when you read a good book.

[marilynfl]

I recently read The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng. It is a fictionalized version of Somerset Maugham's visit to Malaysia and the Malacca Straits (called the China Straits in the book) and the couple who hosted him. I then read an article about the author who was asked about his favorite Malaysian food. And since the title of the post gives it away, you know it's Beef Rendang. Watching a video of it being prepared, I was seduced by the tenderness at the end of the cooking time, how the beef just shredded away with only the tension of chopsticks.

Ya...I'm a sucker for shredded beef.

So I made it yesterday but only after a trip to Asheville to pick up some critical ingredients: fresh galangal, fresh lemongrass, fresh coconut, and fresh chilies. The other ingredients I already had (shallots, garlic, ginger root, tamarind, keffir leaves, canned coconut milk and various spices.) Of the three recipes I read, all mentioned that the beef actually improves with time, so I tasted one piece (yum!) and put the rest in the freezer to share with company. One critical note is every recipe I read said to use 12 fresh or dried chilies. I'm a wuss and only used 4, but even that small delivers a tingle with each bite. Still, a very tasty tingle. When I do prepare it for the meal, I'll use the coconut rice as shown in the video.

if you go to the last few minutes of the video, you'll see how the beef shreds.

.

Aromatics, beef, toasted coconut (kerisik) and spices. I don't have a photo of the finished product (it was 9:30 PM and I forgot) but it looks exactly like the video image.

 

[michael-in-phoenix]

I have access to a couple of really well-stocked Asian markets. They sell Thai chilis fresh, both red and green. They are also called "bird chilis" because they are smallish (around an inch or so) and look like a bird's beak. They are absolute hell fire!

My son and I prepared a dish (Chicken Tikka) from our favorite Indian food cookbook, and with the multiplication of ingredients to match the size of the batch we prepared, it called for 32 chilis! My son was about to add that many (he can be a "legalist" sometimes), but I had to step in. I told him I didn't care what the recipe said, if he put more than a half-dozen of those little powder kegs in the marinade, he would absolutely KILL people with extreme heat.

We ended up putting just 6 chilis in a batch with 12 pounds of chicken. We grilled the chicken on skewers. It was delicious, but even with just 6 chilis, the chicken packed quite a bit of heat! And remember, we're from the southwest, born and raised, so we've been eating spicy-hot foods all our lives.

Discretion was clearly the better part of legalism on that one.

 

[marilynfl]

oh, I've been there. I made the most wonderful tikka masala using McCormick organic Garam Masala spice blend. The next time, I decided to double the batch and had run of that spice blend so I followed the embedded recipe to make my own garam masala blend.

Holy Moly...the dish ended up SO HOT that we couldn't eat it. So me, being stupid me, I kept adding ingredients to try and make the dish palatable, but all I did was waste even more ingredients.

Never again!

 

[mariadnoca]

This is me. If something says it’s spicy, I just don’t make it because I don’t know enough about spice to know how to dial it back. What is average spice to most people, is far beyond what I can tolerate. Spicy hot is a trend I can’t go near.

As an experiment when I got covid and lost my taste, I put some spice on my tongue to see if I could taste that. I could not, but it still burned Like all get out!

 

[michael-in-phoenix]

This is me. If something says it’s spicy, I just don’t make it because I don’t know enough about spice to know how to dial it back. What is average spice to most people, is far beyond what I can tolerate. Spicy hot is a trend I can’t go near.

As an experiment when I got covid and lost my taste, I put some spice on my tongue to see if I could taste that. I could not, but it still burned Like all get out!

I totally get it. My mom couldn't tolerate heat, and thought Taco Bell tacos were too hot, even without hot sauce.

I've built up a tolerance that is adequate, but by no means extraordinary. I like to taste my food, and it's hard to do that when you can't breathe and your mouth is on fire.

That being said, I DO enjoy the nuanced flavor elements of different chiles, from fresh to dried. For example, Arbol Sauce is one of my favorites to make at home, and it is truly hot, but I love guajillo chiles so much that it has become a must-have around here. I even get requests from relatives for some to bottle up and take home.

 

[mariadnoca]

I totally get it. My mom couldn't tolerate heat, and thought Taco Bell tacos were too hot, even without hot sauce.

I've built up a tolerance that is adequate, but by no means extraordinary. I like to taste my food, and it's hard to do that when you can't breathe and your mouth is on fire.

That being said, I DO enjoy the nuanced flavor elements of different chiles, from fresh to dried. For example, Arbol Sauce is one of my favorites to make at home, and it is truly hot, but I love guajillo chiles so much that it has become a must-have around here. I even get requests from relatives for some to bottle up and take home.

Pretty much everyone I know loves spicy food. I haven’t been able to build any tolerance . I can’t get past mild salsa. And then only some brands and fresh store bought pico de gallo can only be the mild from Walmart. Yes, I’m truly a wimp, but more than that and I can’t taste anything, but fire. It’s difficult, especially living in such a Mexican food centered area and it being likely my favorite.