Rendang has to go through three cooking stages before it can actually be accurately called rendang. — ILI SULAIMAN
According to food historian Khir Johari, Malay gravy dishes can be split into two broad groups: gulai - which is often infused with coconut milk – and clear broths.
“'Curry’ is an Anglicised word introduced by the British in India to simplify everything. But to explain it to a younger generation, gulai is essentially the Malay word for ‘curry’,” says Khir.
Gulai can take many forms from meat incarnations, which incorporate goat, lamb, beef or chicken to fish and seafood variants and even vegetarian options that utilise unripe jackfruit or banana stems. According to Khir, asam pedas is also a variation of gulai, although it does not incorporate coconut milk.
The second category of gravies are clear broths, which can be divided into asam-based acidic broths like pindang and sayur asam, vegetable-based non-acidic brews like lauk bening and non-acidic broths with a meat component, like oxtail soup.
Gulai is basically the Malay term for ‘curry’ and is often a gravy dish made using coconut milk. — Filepic
Even more interesting still is rendang. According to Khir, in order to be a true rendang, beef rendang goes through various cooking stages.
First the beef is boiled with spices and coconut milk upon which it becomes a gulai. As the gulai thickens and moisture evaporates, it becomes kalio, which is a thick viscous sauce. Eventually all the moisture evaporates and the oils from the coconut milk emerge.
“At this point, the process switches from boiling to frying (rendang) as said oil cooks the dish, which then attains its final dry stage: rendang”.
“There are eateries where I feel it is also got to do with whether have tacit knowledge, because they sell rendang so watery, it is called wet rendang! And I am like, ‘Don’t try to justify that, go to Sumatra, nobody makes wet rendang!’
"This is because it is still gulai, it is only when it gets to a certain stage that the santan will break and will ooze its own oil – you must reach that point to accurately call it rendang,” says Khir.
In Ili’s family, making rendang daging is a time-honoured tradition that the men in the family are heavily involved in. — ILI SULAIMANRendang is often a must-have during Hari Raya and local food personality Ili Sulaiman says that growing up in her family, cooking rendang was a time-honoured tradition that the men in the family were responsible for.
“My dad came from a very prominent Malay family in Kampung Baru and my great-grandfather had two wives and each wife had eight to 12 kids so it was a very large family and I remember growing up and going to Kampung Baru and seeing huge kawahs of beef rendang cooked a week or two in advance of Raya.
“In my family, the women would prep everything but the men did the hard labour. It was a beautiful thing to see all these Malay men step up and do this once a year.
"The rendang was slow-cooked over fire wood and different meats had different stations. We made an amazing beef rendang and my family is known for our ‘rendang spare parts’ so we would make liver rendang or paru rendang and we also made chicken rendang.
“There was no refrigeration at the time, but I think the labour that went into it and the process of cooking it properly meant the beef rendang stayed fresh all through Raya,” she says.
