I made the Beef Rendang last night - incredibly delicious, complex flavor. However, I had the same problem snowangel did in that the recipe says the oil starts to separate from the goo at around 2 1/2 hours... at 3 1/2 hours it was just starting to even think about separating and my dinner was getting laaate and my husband was threatening to go to bed before dinner was going to be done! So I upped the heat. Big time. The dish ended up looking and tasting fantastic. Beautiful color and deep flavor. But I think my beef ended up a little tough from the higher heat cooking for the last hour or so, I imagine if properly done that it would be more fork tender. I ended up with cooking time of 4 1/2 hours even with the high heat for the last hour instead of her stated time of around 3 1/2 hours. I would imagine it would take up to 5 hours total if properly done. Also, I was a little confused when she says to fry the beef in the separated oil for 45-60 minutes.... there's no accompanying suggestion to increase the heat. The term "fry" made me think it should be higher heat though. Snowangel, what heat level did you use when you "fried" the beef? I ended up going to medium-high, but that was partly because I was running out of time. Regardless, my advice is to add at *least* a few hours to the printed braising time for this dish and then it will be perfect. Highly recommended dish!
