Dry beef curry (Rendang)

Tried to do a dry beef curry after a recipe on 'Cook and the Chef' (but they used goat instead of beef).
But I had a lot of trouble trying to get the rempah to separate and burned the rempah as a result. The final curry was good but obviously had burnt undertones :(

Took forever to make the rempah paste (lots of lemongrass, ginger, coriander, cumin, chilli, garlic, onion). After you make the paste, you are supposed to fry it in oil and then lower the heat and cook for 10 minutes until it separates. Didn't do it right: too much/too little oil or too hot/not hot enough?

Then add the beef, brown the meat, add a little bit of coconut milk (not much), sugar and kaffir lime leaves, cover and simmer for 1 hour. After this time remove the lid and cook for a further 30 mins and you finally end up with a dry curry. Served with rice, etc.