beef rendang sous vide 70degC 24 hours

Arduino sous vide beef rendang, using beef short ribs and cook for 24 hours at 70 degC.

"Cooking beef rendang can be time consuming and tedious" from wikipedia. Indeed, this is true.
 I remembered many many years back i was helping a makcik (auntie in malay language) to prepare this dish at my house. My job is dead simple. Stand in front of the gigantic kwali (a very deep wok) that is set upon wood fire and keep stir-ing with an apparatus that looks like a wooden oar. Still can't visualise?  refer to the picture below on how it was done! picture taken from the internet.

BBC food has a recipe to offer on cooking beef rendang. Look at the amount of time needed to stand in front of the stove to constantly monitor the cooking.

My methodology is simplified to the core.
Step1. get some beef short ribs. I got mine from smithsfield market at £3.7 per KG.
Step2. get a bottle of yeo's rendang paste. I stumbled on a few bottles at tesco with reduced price at 1quid or so. Needless to say, i bought all of them.

Step3. Smoother the whole bottle of beef rendang paste with the de-boned beef short ribs cut into 2cm x 2cm. This is a good time to season to taste. I added 2 bay leaves, 6 cloves, 1/2 TBSP of sugar and 1tsp of salt to the mixture.

4. Sous vide the entire package at 70degC for 24 hours. No constant stir-ing, no standing infront of the stove for hours, no burning of your facial hair from the heat. Just sit back, relax and forget about it for the next 24 hours. *do whatever need to be done i.e write my thesis! lolx*

5. I sous vide the beef rendang at 6pm the day before. So it will be ready by 6pm the next day. The time is just nice for me to have dinner when I am back from school.
6. I like my beef rendang with rice. Beef rendang goes well with any form of carbohydrates. Rice, bread, noodles, pasta, etc.
7. The texture? comes with a bite and yet melt in your mouth tenderness! the beef fats are rendered, tough proteins are denatured through sous vide. The rendang gravy is so good, momentarily i forgot what my name was while savouring the flavor. Given the fact that this cut of beef is tough and dirt CHEAP. I reckon the end product eclipses the £,time and effort needed to produce it. oh wait... is there any effort involved?! If considering waking up at 6am to get the beef short ribs as an effort, then that is one huge effort involved. hahahhah

still pink!!!

worth the wait for sous vide 48hours 62degC beef short ribs

Arduino powered sous vide of course.

sous vide the beef short ribs for 48 hours at 62degC. Beef is seasoned with pepper and bay leaves only.

beef short ribs, yorkies, crispy potato, coleslaw. sauce made from beef au juice.

fresh out of the water bath, looking pale.

sear on high heat for 60sec each side.

maillard effect!!!

cherry blossom pink!

burrrrrpppppp...

wash it down with home made pseudo champagne aka sparkling wine. although the wine is going at 2/3 discount, still palatable. 

glutton's arduino sous vide beef short ribs 62degC 32hours

I went to smithsfield market yesterday morning to get some beef short ribs. I got myself some decent short ribs at very decent price, despite the market is closing in 20mins time.

Long story cut short. I experimented with a piece of the short rib, seasoned it with a dallop of oyster sauce, some black pepper and a tiny dash of sesame oil. Popped it into my arduino sous vide setup at 1000 Friday and it supposed to be ready in 48 hours time....

Staring at the short ribs in the cooker while eating some stale bread with expired cheese for dinner after a long day, is really depressing. The inner glutton strikes back! The rest was history.


62 degC at 32 -ish hours

look at the cherry blossom red. beef was cut using a butter knife. My poor santoku knife was decommissioned; a fateful clash when the metal meets with the bone. 

short ribs au juice is used as stock base for rice vermicelli. 

burrrrppppppp

If you wonder how much per KG for a nicely trimmed and packaged short rib cost in major retailers?

arduino sous vide beef short ribs 62degC 48 hours

Woke up late and made a last minute mad dash to smithsfield meat market with the lads in tow. thank goodness we still able to get access. 

MEAT GALORE! short ribs, sirloins, lamb chops, kebabs, burgers,pork chops,pork hocks, etc. the regular size coffee cup is the reference point.

finally, i get to do some beef short ribs. I did spent a lot of time drooling over pictures and videos of it over the Internet. Doing it rather than watching it is a total paradigm shift.

this beauty is at £3.7 per Kg at smithsfield market. I think it is at £9.xx per Kg at major retailers.

arduino sous vide setup, 62degC for 48 hours.

my pot is too small to fit 2Kg at once. beef rendang got to wait till next time! it will be sous vide at 85degC for 24 hour

my poor santoku knife :( it is my only knife

arduino sous vide rack of lamb

I came across a rack of lamb that is destined to be reduced at sainsbury's earlier today. Rack of lamb is usually priced at £19.90 per KG, or £9.xx per package with 4 rib bones. lucky me, i got it at 4quid something!!!

Rub the rack of lamb with rosemary, pepper and some salt. vacuum pack it. I am using my home made vacuum sealer.

sous vide the package at 56.5 degC for 2-4 hours.

Remove the rack of lamb from the bag, pat dry and dress with olive oil and then give it a good sear on a very hot grill at 60sec per side.