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Pork rendang

07.17.2016 (Updated: 01.12.2024) in Lunch / Dinner, Main Courses, Stews

Rendang does not refer to a dish or a class of dishes. Rather, it describes a method of slow cooking meat until the cooking liquid and juices have evaporated and what remains in the pot of meat is a concentration of flavors. Beef rendang is probably the most well known of rendang dishes but pork rendang is just as delicious.

Pork rendang over rice

This is a recipe for dry pork rendang. It’s not curry. There is no such thing as curry in authentic Asian cooking. Curry is a term coined by the British to give a name to the spicy sauces prevalent in South Asian dishes.

Pork marinating in spices

While rendang spice base can be bought ready-to-use, I prefer to grind the spices to marinate the pork in. Using a mortar and pestle is traditional (many cooks claim that manually grinding the spices releases oils and flavor better) but it’s not a crime to use a blender or a food processor.

What you should not skip is the actual marinating. I do this overnight in the fridge. We’re not cooking ground pork here and, with the size of the pork cubes, it will take some time for them to soak up the flavors in the spice base. So, overnight is best.

The next day, heat up some oil, saute onion, lemongrass and cinnamon then brown the pork in the flavorful oil until the meat loses its raw appearance and the surfaces are starting to brown.

Adding coconut milk and desiccated coconut to pork in pan

Pour in coconut milk and tamarind paste, add desiccated coconut (if freshly ground mature coconut, you will need to dry fry it first), fish sauce and sugar and stir well to make sure that the seasonings are evenly distributed.

Simmering pork to cook rendang

Now the slow cooking begins. Simmer the pork, tasting the sauce occasionally and adjusting the seasonings as needed, until the color deepens and the pork is tender.

Pork rendang in wok

If you prefer wet rendang, you may serve the pork while the sauce is still spoonable. But because this is dry rendang, once the pork is tender, the pan is uncovered and the cooking continues until the mixture is quite dry.

Pork rendang over rice
Pork Rendang
Connie Veneracion
Don't be tempted to use curry powder to cook rendang. Substituting commercial curry powder or paste for the rendang spice paste will not give the dish the flavors of real rendang.
Prep Time 20 minutes mins
Cook Time 2 hours hrs
Marinating time 8 hours hrs
Course Main Course
Cuisine Indonesian
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
  

Pork and marinade

  • 8 cloves garlic peeled
  • 4 to 6 bird’s eye chilies
  • 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
  • 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
  • 6 to 8 shallots peeled
  • 1 one-inch piece turmeric peeled, or 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
  • ¼ teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 1 teaspoon crushed galangal
  • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 kilo stewing pork I recommend belly, neck or shoulder, cut into two-inch cubes

To cook the pork rendang

  • 3 tablespoons cooking oil
  • 1 onion chopped
  • 2 stalks lemongrass white part only, bruised
  • 2 sticks cinnamon
  • 2 pairs kaffir lime leaves deveined and thinly sliced
  • 4 to 5 cups coconut milk fresh, canned or hydrated coconut powder
  • 2 tablespoons tamarind paste
  • ⅓ cup desiccated coconut or 1/2 cup freshly grated coconut, dry fried until lightly browned
  • fish sauce to taste
  • sugar to taste
  • 6 tablespoons sliced scallions

Instructions
 

Make the spice paste

  • In an oil-free pan, toast the garlic, chilies, coriander seeds, peppercorns, shallots, turmeric and cumin seeds.
  • Transfer to a blender, add the crushed galangal and nutmeg. Process with a couple of tablespoonfuls of water to form a paste.

Marinate the pork

  • Place the pork in a shallow bowl.
  • Pour in the spice paste.
  • Mix and work the spice paste into the meat.
  • Cover and keep overnight in the fridge.

Cook the rendang

  • Heat the cooking oil in a thick-bottomed pan.
  • Saute the chopped onion, lemongrass and cinnamon sticks.
  • Add the pork to the hot oil and cook until lightly browned along the edges.
  • Add the kaffir lime leaves.
  • Pour in the coconut milk and tamarind extract.
  • Add the desiccated coconut. Stir.
  • Season with fish sauce and sugar.
  • Cover and simmer for an hour to an hour and a half (or longer) or until the pork is tender. Stir occasionally and remember to scrape the bottom of the pan. Taste occasionally as well and add more fish sauce or sugar, or both, as needed.
  • Uncover the pan. Add half of the sliced scallions. Turn up the heat and continue cooking, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pan often, until the pork rendang is dry.
  • Serve the pork rendang with more sliced scallions over hot rice.
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Connie Veneracion, 2020

Hi, I’m Connie!

Home cook and writer by passion, photographer by necessity, and good food, coffee and wine lover forever. I write recipes, cooking tips and food stories. No AI is used in creating content for this blog.

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