Malaysia: vegan rendang

This week we’re back in Southeast Asia to visit Malaysia where we cook a vegan version of their famous rendang, a slow cooked coconut curry with toasted coconut. Read a bit about this vegan Malaysian dish or jump straight to the recipe.

Malaysian cuisine

After hiking in Nepal, my wife and I had the pleasure of visiting Malaysia for a few days to rest up, before flying back to Toronto (where we lived in those days). We did not spend a lot of time in Malaysia but still remember the abundance of cuisines meeting and mingling in this beautiful country. Malaysian food is a fusion of Malay, Indian and Chinese food and shares a lot of similarities with Indonesian food ​[1]​. Rice and noodles are served with most meals and coconut is heavily featured. Fish, shellfish, eggs and land animals such as chicken and cow are frequently eaten. Both tofu and tempeh are incorporated into traditional dishes and not banished to the vegan sidelines. You will find a lot of plants in the Malaysian kitchen as well, such as coconut, eggplant, leafy greens, onions, bean sprouts, okra and string beans.

Malaysian dishes really pack flavour. Chili, garlic and ginger are common and bolstered by classic elements from Southeast Asia like galangal, lemongrass, and lime leaves, soy sauce, fish sauce and tamarind. The cuisine also incorporates spices more associated with India (at least in my mind), such as curry leaves, cinnamon, cumin, cardamom, cloves, and star anise

Famous Malaysian dishes

Among the many dishes consumed in Malaysia, you will find a lot of similarities with other Southeast Asian countries as well as Indian and Chinese dishes ​[2]​. Nasi goreng is a popular fried rice dish where rice is fried with garlic, soy sauce and pretty much anything at hand ​[3]​. Char kuay teow is a dish of fried rice noodles with strong Chinese influences ​[4]​ and Indian-influenced roti canai are flaky, crispy flat breads served with dals and curries ​[5]​.

Satay, different barbecued skewers with peanut sauce popular across Southeast Asia are non-surprisingly common in Malaysia too and have sometimes been claimed to be one of Malaysia’s national dishes. A more unique contender for Malaysia’s national dish is nasi lemak (creamy rice), a coconut infused rice served with a complex chili sauce, peanuts and fried anchovies and a boiled egg ​[6]​. A vegan version can be found on Woonheng Chia’s blog.

Curries and sambal

Different curries, often coconut based, are commonly served with rice or noodles ​[1]​. For instance, curry laksa is a noodle curry where noodles, vegetables and deep fried tofu are served in a fragrant coconut broth with lemongrass, lime leaves and curry leaves ​[7], [8]​. Mee rebus is a noodle curry where the saucy base is made from sweet potatoes rather than coconut ​[9]​.

A quick overview of Malaysian dishes is not complete without a mention of sambal. Sambal is a complex, chilibased sauce used as a condiment in many dishes, including the national dish nasi lemak, or used as part of the cooking process, for instance when making curry laksa ​[10]​. To create sambal, red chilies are ground with lemongrass, garlic, ginger and shallots and then cooked with a bit of oil and sugar.

Vegan Malaysian recipe for jackfruit rendang

For our cirtual visit to Malaysia, I chose to cook a vegan Malaysian recipe for rendang. Rendang, a classic Malaysian comfort food, is a rich, slow cooked coconut curry with lemongrass, galangal, ginger and sometimes warm spices like cinnamon and cardamom. Usually, rendang is based on beef which is simmered until it starts to fall apart ​[11]​. Some vegan recipes for rendang substitute the beef for tofu and potatoes ​[12]​, mushrooms ​[13]​ or carrots, zucchini and eggplant ​[14]​. In this vegan rendang, I decided to try and replicate the beef’s thready texture using jackfruit, as done by Jackie Kearney in her book Vegan streetfood – Foodie Travels from India to Indonesia ​[15]​. Jackfruit is often used in vegan recipes to produce stringy meat substitutes, such as pulled pork or shredded chicken, as we did in the vegan recipe for Afghanistan’s national dish, kabuli pulau last year.

Jackfruit

Jackfruit is a giant, green fruit covered in what looks like dragon scales, similar to durian but less spiky (and without durian’s infamous smell). It is used in South Asia and Southeast Asia where it is sometimes eaten on its own​[16]​. More often, the unripe fruit is harvested and cooked in different stews. A few years ago it was a big trend in the vegan/vegetarian community where its stringy texture is used to replicate meaty textures, notably in pulled pork (which was very trendy at the time). You can use it in mock tuna salads, crab cakes, tacos, pot pie and many other dishes .

You can find jackfruit fresh, often cut in pieces or canned in the Asian aisle or at Asian supermarkets. But beware, there is one version where the ripe fruit is canned in sugar syrup (as a dessert) and one where the immature/young (green) jackfruit is sold in brine. Buy the latter (young/green in brine) for savory dishes ​[17]​.

Conclusion

This rendang is a great coconut curry and it’s easy to understand how it has come to be a comfort food. Slow cooked until the fat separates and the jackfruit falls apart, it takes a while to make but during the cooking, a lot of flavours get a chance to develop. The toasted, shredded coconut adds an interesting. texture element as well. Great vegan Malaysian recipe to try at home.

Vegan Malaysian recipe for jackfruit rendang

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Rendang

This Malaysian coconut curry is a classic comfort food. Here it is reinvented as a vegan version where jackfruit takes the place of the traditional beef.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Malaysia, Southeast Asian

Keyword coconut, curry, jackfruit

Servings 4

Ingredients

Rendang (curry paste)

• 5-10 whole dried red chilies
• 5 cm ginger
• 5 cm galangal
• 3 stalks lemongrass
• 3-5 whole red chilies, small
• 4 shallots or 1 small onion
• 5 cloves garlic
• 2 tsp turmeric
• water to grind

Curry

• 500 mL coconut milk
• 300 mL water
• 1 can jackfruit in brine not in syrup
• 1-2 tbsp tamarind paste
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 4 lime leaves
• 2 tbsp oil e.g. canola
• 100 mL shredded coconut
• salt to taste

Instructions

Rendang (curry paste)

• Deseed the dried chilies by breaking of the stem and shaking out the seeds.

  Soak in boiled water for 10+ minutes.
• Deseed the fresh chilies and chop them coarsely. Chop the other ingredients coarsely (to make grinding a bit easier).
• Grind all ingredients in a grinder or blender. I used a small magic bullet. Add enough water for the paste to blend easily.

Curry

• Heat oil in a large pot. Stir in the rendang (curry paste prepared above). Sautee until fragrant, a few minutes.
• Add all other ingredients except for the shredded coconut.
• Simmer for 1 h at low temperature. The fat should separate out and the jackfruit should be easy to break apart.
• While the curry is cooking, taost the shredded coconut in a dry pan on medium heat. It should start to get golden but don't burn it.
• When the curry has finished cooking, stir in the toasted coconut.
• Serve with basmati rice.