Serunding Daging

It is the toughest (in my opinion) dish to make of all. Not all cook can make this serunding taste “perfect” – very fine shredded beef (or chicken or fish) with just the right herbs and spices. I love my mum’s serunding… and the only one time she makes it is during Eidul Fitri. The process is tedious – we spend a few hours to just to prepare the meat itself before cooking it! I am learning from my mum on how to make this.

The ingredients: Beef, santan (coconut milk), bawang merah (shallots), bawang putih (garlic cloves), lengkuas (galanga), halia (ginger), serai (lemongrass), cabai kering (dried red chillis), Kerisik, Ketumbar, Jintan Putih, Gula & Garam (sugar & salt to taste).


The beef is boiled. From this, the beef stock is kept aside for cooking. The meat is then finely shredded (usually a few of us would help in just to make it more fun to do together).

The other ingredients (except for santan and herbs) are blended to create a paste for the meat.
Place the meat, stock and paste in a big saucepan, bring to boil. At this point of time, it looks like curry, as the paste is still liquid. From this point onwards, we need to keep stirring until the paste blends in with the meat and dries up.

Sound easy? NOT! As the paste thickens, we must stir more often so it does not get overcooked.
When it’s cooked, it looks like meat or chicken floss often sold in bakeries. Looks alike, don’t be deceived, as the taste of floss and the traditional Malay Serunding is way different. The first taste nothing more than seasoned meat. Serunding has all the unique meaty, juicy, spicy taste that I cannot describe… I’m already drooling.

Serunding is served with ketupat, lemang, bread or rice. You can also buy small packets of it from the night market at the price of RM2 (single serving) or about RM12 for a small packet that serves about 4-6 persons.