Rendang is a slow cooked dry curry: beef braised in coconut milk with a paste of chilies, shallots, galangal, lemongrass, ginger and turmeric, plus lime leaves and toasted coconut, and cooked until nearly all the liquid has gone and the spices have fried in the coconut oil left behind. Its roots are with the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra, and in Malaysia it is the centerpiece of Hari Raya, the festival that ends Ramadan, when families cook it in large pots and share it with neighbors.

Rendang is patient food, and it improves for a day or two after cooking, which is the whole idea: it was made to keep. Cook it before a race weekend and it will be better on Sunday than on Friday, which is more than most qualifying laps can say.

The toasted coconut (kerisik)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (40 g) unsweetened desiccated coconut

The rendang

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 lb (1.1 kg) beef chuck or shin
• 12 dried red chilies
• 8 shallots
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 1/2 inch (4 cm) piece fresh galangal
• 1 inch (2.5 cm) piece fresh ginger
• 1 inch (2.5 cm) piece fresh turmeric
• 4 stalks lemongrass
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 stick cinnamon
• 3 star anise
• 4 cloves
• 4 green cardamom pods
• 2 cans (13.5 oz / 400 ml each) coconut milk
• 1 cup (240 ml) water
• 6 kaffir lime leaves
• 1 turmeric leaf
• 2 slices asam keping
• 2 tablespoons gula melaka or dark brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fine salt

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