Beef Cheek Rendang {Pressure Cooker, Slow Cooker and Oven options}

No doubt, working on this recipe for Beef Cheek Rendang was one of the most enjoyable experiences in my kitchen.

I've decided that I'd very much like this dish to be my last, if I'm lucky enough to choose. The complex, delicious layers of flavour in Rendang curry are so unmistakable and moreish. Paired with the richness of beef cheeks, it's just perfect. I've provided options for different cooking methods, including pressure cooker/multicooker/Instant Pot, slow cooker or the oven.

History of Rendang

Of course, I can't take much credit for this recipe, since rendang curry has such a long history. Collectively, whomever was responsible for this dish should be very proud. The dish is originally from the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra, Indonesia and it later spread further afar in Indonesia and Malaysia. Rendang is believed to be approximately 500 years old.

My Rendang Rendition

This particular version here is an adaptation of two versions of Rendang from chefs I really admire - Neil Perry and Russ Crandall, of The Domestic Man blog. This Rendang recipe is how I like to make it - according to my research, this recipe is along the lines of a"Kalio" style rendang, with a delicious thick sauce.

The paste recipe makes enough for 4-5 batches, so the leftover paste after it has first been made can be frozen for later use. That's something I always tend to forget when making a dish like this - I initially feel daunted at the long list of ingredients, but once I taste the dish and remember all the future meals to be made with the paste, I quickly forget all of that. I also recommend making the paste ahead of time so that the actual cooking process is easier.

I like to use beef cheeks for rich recipes such as this and also my popular Korean Beef Cheeks recipe. In that post, I explain the health benefits of eating gelatinous cuts of meat and clear up the misconception that beef cheeks are overly fatty. For this rendang, serving with rice, cucumber and red cabbage balances the meat perfectly.

Rendang is a drier curry than others - in this case, the sauce is lovely and thick after being reduced. There is just enough sauce to coat the meat and potatoes. So keep that in mind as you're cooking, and you'll know what to expect. Rendang can either be made with very minimal sauce or more sauce - this recipe is the latter because I just love how tasty the sauce is!

How to cook beef cheeks - a general guide

Beef cheeks are considered a tough cut of meat, and usually they take many hours to cook in an oven or a slow cooker. They're quite hard to cut in their raw state, so can be left whole. The quickest option to cook beef cheeks is using a pressure cooker/multicooker/Instant Pot. I know a lot of people might feel daunted cooking a new cut of meat, but cooking beef cheeks is really easy...you just need time! Below, I've explained the main cooking options for beef cheeks, based on recommendations from Nagi at RecipeTin Eats. However, note that I personally always pressure cook beef cheeks because it's so much quicker.

To cook beef cheeks using an oven or slow cooker, the exact steps depend on the specific recipe you're making. You may need to first use a frypan or a skillet on the stove to brown the meat or fry off some of the ingredients (eg. onions, garlic and/or paste). It really depends on the specific recipe and also whether you want to brown the meat or not. Browning meat can certainly add flavour but isn't always necessary - plus, it's quicker just to skip that step. For this Rendang recipe, the sauce does need to be fried off but the meat doesn't have to be browned. All ingredients are then added together to the slow cooker or oven-safe dish.

Using these methods, the cooking can take anywhere from 3-8 hours, so ensure to take that time into account. The oven is quicker than the slow cooker. Many recipes, including this one, will require the sauce to be reduced afterwards, so keep that in mind too.

The best oven temperature is 160C/320F and the beef cheeks will take between 3 and 4 hours, depending on the size of the cheeks.

If using a slow cooker, I recommend using the high setting, as low just takes way too long - they should take between 6 and 8 hours depending on the size of the beef cheeks.

To cook beef cheeks in a pressure cooker/multicooker/Instant Pot, simply fry off/brown the base ingredients (eg. onions, garlic and/or paste) and/or brown the meat if that's what the recipe calls for. For some recipes, those steps aren't required, so always read the recipe instructions. After that, simply add all the ingredients to the bowl and cook according to the instructions in the recipe. The beauty of this method is how quick it is compared to using the oven or slow cooker - 90 minutes plus allowing time for the machine to come to pressure is sufficient.

Other cuts of beef you can use for rendang

If you can't source beef cheeks, or you'd prefer a different cut, you can also use chuck, gravy beef, shin or short ribs. The cook time will need to be adjusted depending on which cut you use and what size you cut each piece. If you're unsure of the cook time, I suggest consulting a reliable pressure cooking/Instant Pot source to confirm - or oven or slow cooking source if you use either of those methods instead.

How to make this recipe

For full instructions, see the recipe card below. The instructions below are primarily for the pressure cooker/multicooker/Instant Pot - the recipe card explains how to make this dish in the oven or slow cooker.

• Start off by making the paste in your food processor - you can make this ahead of time, I often do that to make life easier
• Prepare the other ingredients
• Add coconut oil to the heated pan and then add 145g (approximately 5 oz) of the paste to fry off - freeze remaining paste for future use
• Add the remaining ingredients to the pressure cooker inner bowl, cook on high pressure for 70 minutes, then use natural release for 15 minutes before opening the lid
• While the curry is cooking, prepare the rice, cucumbers, cabbage and lime leaves and set aside
• Remove the meat and potatoes, reduce the sauce for 10 minutes and then add them back in
• Serve with rice, cucumbers, cabbage and sliced lime leaves.

Dietary variations

If you're on the AIP diet, replace the red bell pepper (capsicum) with ½ cup of mashed/pureed pumpkin and omit the red chillies. Use coconut aminos for the curry in place of tamari. You can serve the rendang with cauliflower rice instead of regular rice.

For a low starch option, serve with cauliflower rice. You can replace the potatoes with rutabaga or cauliflower - I suggest cooking separately to the curry.

Beef Cheek Rendang {Pressure Cooker, Slow Cooker or Oven options}

gluten free, Paleo, low carb

Beef Cheek Rendang is "last meal on earth" worthy, with complex layers of flavour and delicious melt in the mouth tender beef.  There are options for pressure cooker, slow cooker or the oven.

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: Asian

Prep Time: 35 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Slow cooker cook time: 8 hours hours

Servings: 6 serves

Equipment

• Your choice of: Electric multicooker/pressure cooker (eg. Instant Pot), stovetop pressure cooker, oven (using dutch oven) or slow cooker (crockpot)
• trivet for multicooker/pressure cooker (this is to place the larger pieces of potato to keep them elevated above the curry to prevent overcooking)
• Food processor
• Stick/immersion blender (use a regular blender if you don't have one, but teh sauce may need more cooling first to avoid mess)
• chopping board and knives
• Grater
• Measuring cups and knives

Ingredients

Rendang Paste

• 1 red capsicum (bell pepper)
• 5 small red chillies*
• 2 red onion
• 8 medium garlic cloves
• 3 teaspoons shrimp paste (terasi - in a block or tub)
• 2 stalks of lemongrass (white part only)
• 7 cm (3 inches) piece ginger (peeled and grated)
• 3 teaspoons ground Ceylon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons turmeric powder
• ½ teaspoon ground white pepper
• 1 teaspoon cooking/kosher salt

To make the Rendang

• 1 tablespoon of coconut oil
• 145g rendang paste (from above)
• 250 mL (8 oz.) full fat coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons tamari sauce or gluten free soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons coconut sugar or brown sugar
• 4 teaspoons tamarind paste
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 4-6 makrut lime leaves**
• 1 kg (2 lb.) beef cheeks (around 4 medium)
• 6 medium white potatoes (divided; any type will do)

To serve with Rendang

• 1 large Persian/Lebanese cucumber
• jasmine rice, sticky rice, black rice or cauliflower rice (make the number of serves appropriate for how many people you are serving)
• 2 cups shredded red cabbage
• 4 thinly sliced makrut lime leaves (use as garnish)

Instructions

Make the paste

• De-seed and dice the capsicum/bell pepper and chillies, peel and chop the onions and peel the garlic cloves.
• Blend all of the paste ingredients well in food processor. You will use ¼ of the paste for each batch of the recipe- the rest can be frozen in portions for each time you want to use it. Or gift it to foodie friends!

Make the curry and the rice

• Peel and chop 2 of the potatoes into small matchstick size pieces - these will be going in the curry sauce itself which helps to thicken the sauce.

  The other 4 potatoes can be peeled and cut in half. These will sit on top of the curry on the trivet.
• Set the pressure cooker to saute or brown - either on the stove with a stovetop pressure cooker or using the saute/brown function on an electric pressure cooker/multicooker/Instant Pot.

  Take 145g (5 oz) of the paste, fry it off while stirring for 5 mins in the oil. Turn the heat off after a couple of minutes if it's getting too hot. Watch out for splatter.
• The remaining paste can be frozen in 145g (5 oz) amounts for future use.
• Trim excess fat off the beef cheeks.
• Combine the coconut milk, tamari, brown sugar, tamarind paste and salt in a bowl or jug. Add this mixture and the remaining ingredients (except the large potato pieces) for the curry to the inner bowl of your pressure cooker/Instant Pot.

  Place the trivet above the curry, then place the potato halves on the trivet so that they aren't touching the liquid.

  Cook for 70 minutes on high pressure/manual - use the same amount of time for a stovetop pressure cooker.
• While the curry is cooking, prepare your jasmine rice according to packet instructions. You could also do this later, eg. when the pressure is releasing or the sauce is being reduced.
• Once the cooking time has finished, let the pressure release naturally for 15 minutes. Don't do a "quick release". Once the 15 mintues is up, open up the lid.
• Remove the potatoes and meat to a large bowl, check that the meat is "fall apart", then cover with a plate to keep them warm. Remove and discard the lime leaves.

  If the meat needs longer, cut any large pieces and return to the pressure cooker for another 10 minutes, then remove and set aside.

Finalise and serve the recipe

• Using a stick/immersion blender, blend the sauce so that the small potato pieces are blended in. You can use a blender instead, but just pulse the mixture so the potatoes don't turn gluey.

  The sauce will need to be reduced for approximately 10 minutes on high heat/saute function until thicker - the consistency to look for is a pourable but thick liquid. To minimise splatter, use a splatter guard or leave the lid slightly ajar.
• While the sauce is reducing, thinly slice the cucumber, shred the cabbage, and thinly slice the lime leaves.
• Add the meat and potatoes back in, mix it all together and add a touch more hot water if you'd like the sauce a bit thinner.
• Serve with the above suggestions.

Storage

• Store in the fridge for up to 4 days in an airtight container. The meat and sauce will also freeze well for up to 3 months, although the potato texture changes in the freezer so I recommend not freezing any potato.

Notes

*remove the seeds if the chillies are the very small and spicy kind - I have noticed a lot of variation, even among small red chillies

**sometimes referred to as kaffir lime leaves

Slow Cooker option

Please note that I haven't tested this recipe with a slow cooker, but my suggestion is the following: complete the steps up to where the paste is fried off (do this in a frypan) and then add the remaining ingredients along with the fried paste and 2 cups of water to your slow cooker bowl. The beef cheeks should be done in 6-8 hours on the high setting. Check at the 6 hour mark - they should be very soft and fall apart. If you're not home to check, there's no problem keeping them cooking for the 8 hours since beef cheeks are hard to overcook! Follow all the other instructions - remove the meat and potato halves and cover. Discard the lime leaves. Then, reduce the sauce in a saucepan, it may need 10-15 minutes. Then puree with a stick/immersion blender or a regular blender (careful blending hot sauce). Add the meat and potatoes back in and mix together. If you'd like more sauce, thin it out a bit with hot water.

Oven option

Please note that I haven't tested this recipe in the oven, but my suggestion is the following: Pre-heat the oven to 160C (320F), complete the steps up to where the paste is fried off and then add the remaining ingredients to your cooking vessel, along with 2 cups of water. The beef cheeks should be done in 3-4 hours. Check at the 3 hour mark, the meat should be falling apart with a fork. Follow all the other instructions - remove the meat and potato halves and cover. Discard the lime leaves. Then, reduce the sauce in a saucepan, it may need 10-15 minutes. Then puree with a stick/immersion blender or a regular blender (careful blending hot sauce). Add the meat and potatoes back in and mix together. If you'd like more sauce, thin it out a bit with hot water.

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