A few months ago, my husband and I went to a Malaysian restaurant in Queens that was so startlingly delicious it has taken over my brain. Everything we ate was so bold and downright lip-smacking that we ate in silence, except to marvel about how good this thing or that was. (It's not called Taste Good for nothing.) The laksa—a coconut-based rice noodle soup—arrived blazing hot and full of surprises: hard-boiled egg, chubby little shrimp, fish cake, swollen fried tofu. The salad of preserved veggies—carrot, cabbage, green beans, etc—was cold and sour and crunchy, and rich from oil and peanuts sprinkled on top. The roti, a fried bread, was chewy and flaky; we dipped it in a tiny bowl of curry. Greens were stir-fried with so much shrimp paste it was almost the focus of the dish.

It’s hard not to order exactly the same thing every time, despite knowing there is a menu full of other delightful-looking things to try—the walls are covered in tempting pictures. While we can't have tripped upon the “best” dishes the first time, I can’t stop/won’t stop reordering those same things every time we go back.

Beef rendang is the last of these dishes which I cannot let go of: stewy, saucy, coconut-y, earthy from spices. So in lieu of hauling myself to Elmhurst, I thought I’d try to make my own. But beef rendang, according to all the versions I found, is actually a bit of a project. I love a cooking project, but I was feeling lazy. I didn’t want to have to find special ingredients (lemongrass, galangal, lime leaves, etc), which I knew my supermarket would not have, or work through two days of process. I just wanted some dinner.

So I made up a cheater’s version. First, I ground up a concentrated paste of garlic, ginger, onion, chili, lime zest and juice, cinnamon, star anise, and ground turmeric. After frying the paste, I added the beef and coconut milk, and cooked it in the oven at a low temperature for a couple of hours. How bad could it be?

Not bad at all. Not authentic, but pretty delicious in it’s own right. 

Cheater’s Beef Rendang

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Into a food processor, add: 1 peeled and sliced onion; a few cloves of peeled garlic; a couple inches of ginger, peeled and sliced; a hot chili; the zest of 2 limes, and the juice of one; a spoon of ground turmeric and cinnamon; and a pinch of salt. (You’ll see a star anise in the food processor in the photo, but mine didn’t really grind up to my liking—I imagined dental emergencies—so don’t add here.) Grind thoroughly, until it’s a paste.

In a Dutch oven over medium high heat, heat a couple of tablespoons of oil. Add the paste and fry until dry, soft, and aromatic, about 5 to 10 minutes. Add a pound or so of cubed beef chuck and a pinch of salt, and stir until the beef is lightly browned—you don’t need a hard sear here. Add a can of coconut milk and half a can of water (just rinse out the can), a teaspoon or so of chicken stock concentrate (optional), and a whole star anise. Cover and place in the oven for 2 hours, stirring occasionally, until the beef is tender; remove the lid after the first hour or so. 

Taste the sauce and season to taste with a couple of tablespoons of fish sauce or soy sauce. Find and discard the star anise. The stew is great day of, but will improve in the fridge overnight. Serve with rice and lime wedges.