Beef Dendeng comes across as a fairly complicated dish. Dark, oily, with a hint of spicy-sweetness, it is often the star attraction during Hari Raya, weddings or daily meals.

Originating from Indonesia, Beef Dendeng is also a legitimate Malaysian dish.

While Indonesians generally refer to dried, thinly-sliced beef as “Dendeng”, in Malaysia this term is reserved for rich and flavoursome, black-as-night dried beef unabashedly swimming in a pool of equally dark oil.

Perhaps it is this richness and darkness that makes us think cooking Beef Dendeng requires hours of toiling over a hot stove when all this dish requires is a dozen ingredients and about an hour of cooking time.

Ingredients: Serves: 6 (as a side dish)

• 500g beef

For the marinade

• 64g sweet thick soy sauce, about 3 tbsp

• 1 tbsp sugar

• 1g salt (1 tsp)

• 1g black pepper, roughly ground (1 tsp)

To cook

• 20g tamarind, seeds removed and soaked in ¼ cup water

• 21g sweet thick soy sauce, about 1 tbsp

• 2 tsp white vinegar

• 2 tsp sugar

• 1g salt (1 tsp)

• 3/4c cooking oil

Method: At least two hours or the day before cooking.

• Slice beef into 4cm x 4cm x 1cm cuts. Don’t worry if it’s not exact.

• Marinate beef with sweet thick soy sauce, pepper, salt and sugar. Mix thoroughly, remove excess liquids or transfer beef to a ziplock bag, cover, and leave in fridge for at least two hours or overnight.

Preparing the aromatics

• Peel and cut garlic, onions and ginger into smaller chunks.

• Using a pestle and mortar, bash garlic, onions and ginger into medium coarseness. You can bash the aromatics together, separately, or in portions. Avoid using a food processor, as you want the texture to be chunky and somewhat irregular. Set aside.

• Remove chilli stems and cut into smaller pieces. Using the same pestle and mortar, bash and bruise the chilli to a medium coarse texture. Transfer chilli to the same bowl as the bashed garlic, onions and ginger.

Frying the Beef Dendeng

• Add oil to a heavy-bottomed pot and bring it to a deep-frying temperature (about 180°C to 200°C) over high heat. If you don’t have a cooking thermometer, you’ll notice the oil start to smoke, and that’s when you know it’s ready.

• With the fire still on high, fry marinated beef until dark and crispy, about 4 minutes. Keep the beef in a single layer while frying, so do them in batches if necessary. Don’t forget to let the oil heat up again between batches as the temperature will drop when the beef goes in. Transfer cooked beef to a colander to drain excess oil. Turn heat off, but don’t throw oil away.

• Once beef is cooked, use a pestle and flat mortar to bash the beef slices thin. If you don’t have a flatter mortar, a hard, durable surface, like a very thick chopping board, will suffice.

Time to cook the rest of the dish

• Get a fresh heavy-bottomed pot out and use a sieve to transfer half of the oil that was used to fry the beef earlier.

• Heat the oil over high heat then add bashed garlic, onions, ginger and chilli and sauté for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

• After 10 minutes, add tamarind juice. Use a sieve to avoid chunky, pulpy bits from going into the pot.

• Add salt, sweet thick soy sauce, vinegar and sugar. Stir to mix and cook for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

• Add bashed beef. Stir to coat and mix evenly and cook for an additional 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

• Serve with hot plain rice. Beef Dendeng also goes well Nasi Impit, Lemang and Lodeh gravy.

Extra tips

• While tenderloin is ideal, you can also use lesser cuts of meat for this dish as it will get bashed anyway.

• You might be tempted to, but don’t bash the chilli together with the garlic, onions and ginger.

• You can also cook the beef first and the rest of the ingredients later or the next day. Just don’t forget to sieve and keep the oil aside to be used later.

• Don’t forget to sieve the oil as it ensures the burnt bits don’t get through, which will flavour your dish with bitter undertones.

• Dendeng cooked today tastes even better tomorrow.

• Beef Dendeng can also be frozen and reheated for another day, making this an excellent dish to cook in advance.

• Some like their beef slices smaller in their Dendeng. Instead of cutting them small before deep frying the beef, trying cutting them smaller after you’ve bashed them instead. This way you don’t have to worry about adjusting the frying time, and you won’t have a million small pieces of beef to flatten. And don’t worry too much if the sizes are a little uneven.

With this recipe, there’s really no need to order your Beef Dendeng anymore. In fact, you may be tempted to make it almost every week instead! Although what with the oil and all, you may not want to make this dish a part of your everyday diet either.

This article first appeared in butterkicap.com

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