My husband bought a pressure cooker as an early birthday gift for me. I couldn’t wait to try it and cook something.

The first dish came to my mind is beef rendang. It is like a type of dry curry and very popular in Southeastern Asia. My husband was very excited and couldn’t wait to try my beef rendang. Actually I have never tried this dish before. So I did a little research online and figured out the recipe and ingredients I need for the dish. This morning, I grab a bite and went to supermarket. I already listed out the ingredients I need. I searched for them according to the list.

These are almost all the ingredients, salt, oil and sugar are not shown in the picture.

1. Put shallot, red chili, ginger, blue ginger (galangal), and garlic into a blender. Blend them into paste. This is the most complicated part during cooking. After paste is ready, the rest will be much easier.
2. Heat a pan. Add in 1 tbsp oil. Drop all the paste in. Also add in 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp clove powder and 1 tsp salt. Stir fry till the paste turns brownish.
3. Add in all the beef pieces. I cut it into one-bite size. stir fry till beef turns golden brown.
4. Pour in 1 cup coconut milk, and 1 cup water. Stir a bit.
5. Add in star anise, cinnamon  stick, cardamom pods, lemon grass, a little tamarind paste and 1 tbsp sugar. Stir well.
6. Transfer everything into pressure cooker. I pressed the meat button and it just cooked 15 mins. Beef turns very soft.
7. Because I added water in, so after pressure cooker, I used normal pot to reduce the sauce on low heat. Stir occasionally.
8. Add in some lime leaves to add more flavor. And reduce the sauce to very dry.

My husband said it tastes like the one served in restaurant. 🙂

And he finished the whole plate of it. 🙂

Perfect to go with rice.