Sate Padang

There are many varieties of sate in Indonesia; peanut, sweet soy sauce or curry base.  Sate Padang is one that has curry base sauce. It consists similarity to Minangese rendang spices, turmeric leaves and other spices.

All is made from oxtongue and beef, but they have a different sauce.  Sate Padang has a thick and very hot sauce or gravy due to peanuts and ample chilies.  Also, Sate Padang has a combination taste of Sate Pariaman and Padang Panjang. While Sate Pariaman has red gravy, Sate Padang Panjang has yellow one.

Ingredients:

• 908 g (2 lbs) oxtongue (or beef or combination of two)
• 8 kaffir lime leaves
• 2 stalks of lemongrass, take only the white part, bruised
• 1 turmeric leaves, knotted (optional)
• 2 asam kandis (I substituted for kokam or gorakha, it can be found at Indian/Caribbean markets)
• water for boiling ox tongue
• bamboo skewers
• cooking oil
• ½ – ¾ cup rice flour, dissolved in a small amount of water

Spices to grind:

• 7 shallots
• 3 cloves garlic
• red cayenne peppers (I substitute for ground chilies as many as you can handle the hot flavour)
• 3 cm long galangal
• 2 cm long ginger
• 2 cardamoms
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• ½ tsp cumin powder
• 2 tsp curry powder (I prefer the Srilankan curry powder)
• ground white pepper and salt as needed

Condiments:

• rice cake (ketupat)
• fried shallots (bawang goreng)

Directions:

1. In a pot, add water and bring to a boil. Add oxtongue, cook for about next 15 minutes.
2. Remove ox tongue from the pot and save 750 mL of the liquid. Scrape the ox tongue with a knife. Rinse well under running water. Cut into cubes (1x2x1 cm3).
3. In the same pot, combine 750 mL liquid, ox tongue cubes, ground spices, turmeric leaves, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, asam kandis and salt. Bring into a boil then reduce the heat, simmer until the tongue completely cooked.
4. Thread 4-5 pieces of tongue into each skewer. Brush with a small amount of cooking oil and grill couple of minutes until both sides are brown (do not grill too long as ox tongue is already cooked).

Gravy:

1. Simmer the broth.
2. Gradually pour into rice flour mixture while stirring.
3. Keep stirring until the gravy thickens.

Serving suggestion:

Place Sate Padang and rice cake on the plate. Pour the gravy over and garnish with fried shallots. Serve while it’s still hot.

Note:

If you are using beef, you don’t need to boil with water first.  Cut the the beef into cubes, combine with water and spices and boil.

Green Jackfruit Curry (Gulai Nangka - Cubadak)

The local people, meaning at West Sumatera called this Jackfruit as Cubadak, when other Indonesian call it Nangka. The unripe or green jackfruit is mostly cooked for veggie dishes while the ripe one (the yellow part inside) is used for desserts.

Gulai Nangka or Gulai cubadak is common to be sold at any padang restaurants in the country along with beef rendang, egg balado, red crackers and cassava balado crackers. It is served to complete lontong sayur padang. A typical of one dish meal in Indonesia.

Ingredients:

• 500 g frozen/canned green jackfruit, thawed/drained and cut into smaller pieces
• 12 stalks long beans, cut into 3 cm length
• 150 g white cabbage, roughly cut
• 150 g peeled and deveined shrimps (most recipes call for beef such as flanks, skirts, beef marrows, ribs)
• 1250 mL thin coconut milk
• 500 mL thick coconut milk
• 1 turmeric leaf (optional)
• 1 lemongrass, take the white part and bruise
• 4 kaffir lime leaves
• 2 asam kandis (I used kokkam or gorakha, can be found at Indian/Caribbean markets)

Spices to be ground:

• 8 shallots (I used 4 bigger size shallots)
• 6 garlic
• 1/4 cup dried shrimp (ebi)
• 5 red cayenne peppers (you can add more)
• 3 cm long turmeric, toasted and peeled
• 3 cm long ginger, scrapped
• 3 cm galangal, peeled
• seasalt to season

Directions:

1. Cook jackfruit in boiling water about 15 minutes or tender. Drain.
2. In a dutch oven, add thin coconut, ground spices, kaffir lime leaves turmeric leaf, and asam kandis. Bring to a boil.
3. Add cooked jackfruit and let for another boil.
4. Add shrimp, long beans, cabbage and thick coconut milk. Cook for another boil and all veggies are done. Remove from heat.
5. Serving sugestion: In a bowl, cut lontong into bite size, ladle jackfruit curry over, add some beef rendang and crackers.

Notes:

1. If you are allergy to shellfish, you can omit the shrimps and substitute for beef.
2. Make the beef broth first by boiling flank/marrow/rib in water. You may use the beef up to 500 g to get stronger beef taste and reduce the amount of thin coconut in the recipe.

Beef Rendang (Rendang Daging Sapi)

Rendang (Dry Curry) is one of well known dishes from Indonesia.  It is originated from Minangkabau (more popular known as Padang) or West Sumatra province.  In Indonesia, it’s called Rendang Padang or Rendang Minangkabau.   Rendang is often made from beef (or occasionally beef liver, chicken, goat, water buffalo, duck, clam, or vegetables like green jackfruit or cassava).

Many Indonesians who live in abroad don’t have any patience to cook it. It takes hours to get the perfect rendang in taste and appearance. The authentic rendang is enriched by turmeric leaves and asam kandis not turmeric root and tamarind. However, tamarind is common to be applied for substituting asam kandis in Java island.

Originally, this recipe uses fresh coconut milk that is yielded from grated coconut flesh, mix with coconut water and squeeze them to get a special taste of coconut milk. Also, it is added by grated coconut and toasted until really dry, then pureed or ground until smooth and oily

To get the closest taste,

1. Give coconut milk base foods a longer shelf life
2. Help neutralizing saturated fat contents due to the combination of coconut milk and beef

Ingredients:

• 1 kg beef (US: chuck, rib, and shank; Indonesian: blade, chuck, cube roll, top side + rump, silver side), unidirectional muscle fiber and thick cut
• 1 package (150 g) pure creamed coconut
• 2 cans (800 mL) young coconut water
• 1 L UHT pure coconut milk
• 4 asam kandis (can be substituted for kokam, goraka, or kodampuli)
• 4 small star anises (if you you a bigger size, take only 2 star anises)
• salt as desired

Leaf Spices (Rempah Daun):

• 1 turmeric leaf (since my turmeric leaves were pretty small, I used 2), chopped
• 2 kaffir lime leaves, discard the midrib leaves and chopped
• 2 kaffir lime leaves
• 2 lemongrasses, cut 3 cm long of the top parts(set aside) and bruise the rest

Other Spices:

• 100 g long red cayennne pepper
• bird eyes chilies, as desired
• 10 shallots (I used 5 since the shallots were bigger in size)
• 6 cloves garlic
• 3-cm galangal
• 4-cm ginger
• 2 top parts of lemongrass that are cut into 3-cm length
• 3 kaffir lime leaves, midrib
• 1 tbsp coriander seed, toasted
• 1 tsp cumin, toasted
• 1 tsp white peppercorn, toasted

Directions:

1. Combine creamed coconut, coconut milk, young coconut water with REMPAH DAUN and star anise in a large pot.
2. Bring to a boil and stir once a while. When the star anises are soft, remove from the heat and drain REMPAH DAUN and star anises. Separate the 2 whole kaffir lime leaves
3. Process REMPAH DAUN, star anises, and other spices except 2 whole kaffir lime leaves in a blender or food processor until smooth.
4. Return the smooth spices and the 2 kaffir lime leaves to a pot and combine with warm coconut milk mixture. Boil them together for 15 minutes at a medium-high heat.
5. Add beef chunks, asam kandis and salt. Let cook until the mixture starts to oil and thick. At this stage, the fragrant aroma of spices begins to smell.
6. Reduce to low heat and stir once a while. When the liquid absorbs, it’s time to add stirring frequency, so the mixture is not going to be scorched on the bottom. Savory aroma starts to come out. Keep stirring until darken, dry and oily.

Rendang Padang - William Wongso

Rendang is one of well-known dishes from West Sumatra province of Indonesia. As on William Wongso series website stated,  many different version can be found in the province itself such as Rendang Padang, Rendang Bukit Tinggi, Rendang Minang, and so forth. The William Wongso Series features Rendang Padang, with a bit wet texture, caramelized flavor and distinctive dark colour. This is packaged in frozen condition with 6 month shelf life in the freezer.

As far as many different variants of rendang based on the towns or cities in Indonesia; In West Sumatra itself, the original place where rendang was invented, rendang can be made from many different ingredients such as jackfruit, cassava, water buffalo, offal (internal organs of cow), duck, snakehead fish.  So it’s not only BEEF.

Back home, rendang can be found in Padang style eateries from fancy to  warung (small eatery, street food). Here  the Indonesian food expert , William Wongso has introduced a gourmet rendang that is ready to be reheated and enjoyed.  For those who want to enjoy an authentic rendang without any hassle, It's recommended to try Rendang Padang William Wongso series.  It’s easy to carry around too!

You can always order his Rendang Padang which comes with Wagyu Beef choice as well on William Wongso Series.  Rendang is also good for your spaghetti/pasta/noodle or nasi goreng.

Aceh Cucumber limeade (Es Timun Serai - Ie Boh Timon)

What do you think about a combination of cucumber and lime? or have you heard cucumber limeade before? This non-alcoholic drink is very refreshing especially for hot sunny days.  It’s known as Ie Boh Timon, in Aceh language , Ie means water or air (Indonesian); Boh means fruit or buah (Indonesian); Timon means cucumber or timun (Indonesian).  It’s common in Acehnese restaurants in Indonesia. Acehnese food is very heavy in spices and similar to Indian food especially South Indian. To wash down hot and spicy food, the Acehnese restaurants serve this drink in their menu.

Ingredients:

• 4 cucumbers, halved lengthwise, discard the seed (if you like the seed, don’t discard), and shave.
• ice, crushed.

Lemongrass Limeade Syrup:

• 1 L water
• 225 g sugar
• 4 key limes, juiced
• 3 lemongrasses, take the white parts and bruise (alternatively, you can use frozen ground lemongrass and place in muslin bag)

Directions:

1. Limeade syrup : Bring water, lemongrass, sugar, and lime juice to a boil until sugar dissolved. Remove from heat. Cool down at room temperature.
2. Serving : In a glass, add cucumber shaved and crushed ice. Pour lemongrass limeade syrup over and stir. Serve.

Aceh Pennywort Sambal (Sambai On Peuga-ga/Sambal Pegagan)

Sambai On Peuga-ga or can be translated as Aceh Style Pennywort Sambal or Sambal Pegagan Aceh in Indonesian.

Ingredients:

• 50 grams pennywort, chopped
• 1/2 cup frozen grated coconut, thawed
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground coriander seed
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ebi (optional)
• 1/8 teaspoon minced ginger
• 3 shallots, finely sliced
• 1 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 4 teaspoon ground lemongrass ready to use
• 3 green chillies (add more if you like spicy, or you also can substitute for red chilies), finely sliced
• 3 kaffir lime leaves, chopped
• 1 – 2 asam sunti (asam sunti is an Acehnese spice to give a subtle sour taste, which is made from smoked or dried bilimbi)*
• salt to taste

*If you can’t find any asam sunti for purchased, just substituting for bilimbi or lime juice.

Directions:

• Toast grated coconut, ground ebi, ground coriander until the coconut is golden brown. Combine all other ingredients and serve.

Gulai Kambing Aceh (Aceh Goat Curry)

This Gulai kambing or Gulee Kameng in Aceh Dialect has some different names such as Gulee Sie Kameng, Kari Kameng, Kari Sie Kameng, and Kuah Sie Kameng. Basically Gulee is what Indonesians call for Gulai; Sie is Daging or Meat; Kameng is Kambing or Goat while Kari is another different called for gulai or curry.  Kuah is an Indonesian term for any soup base dish. To make this tasty gulee kameng, you will need toasted shredded coconut or known as u neu lheu in Aceh local dialect or kelapa sangrai/gongseng in Indonesian or kerisik in Malay. 

There is another different between this Aceh gulai or curry with other Indonesian gulais or curries, the use of dried chilies instead of fresh chilies. Capli kleng (cabai kering) is the name for dried chilies in Aceh. You can always substitute the dried chilies with chili or red pepper powder. In this case I used crushed Korean red pepper. I also charred or broiled some spices to strengthen the aroma.

Ingredients:

• 1 kilogram goat meat with bones or boneless, drizzle over key lime, rub all over and set aside
• 3-4 tablespoons crushed Korean red pepper, mix with a small amount of warm water
• 4 shallots (8 pieces if you use smaller size), thinly sliced
• 2 stems curry leaves
• 2 star anises
• 4 centimeter cinnamon bark, toasted or broiled
• 4 cloves, toasted or broiled
• 2 green cardamom, bruised and toasted or broiled
• 4 lemongrass, take the white part and bruise
• 600 ml coconut milk
• some of extra virgin coconut oil or vegetable oil

Spices For a Wet Paste:

• 6 tablespoons toasted shredded coconut
• 4 shallots
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1-2 Bengali red peppers (this Bengali red pepper is way hotter than long red cayenne pepper or cabai merah keriting)
• 2 tablespoons corriander seed, toasted
• 2 teaspoons white peppercorn, toasted
• 1 nutmeg
• 5 centimeter ginger, toasted and peeled
• 5 centimeter turmeric root, toasted and peeled
• 3 centimeter galangal, toasted
• 4 candlenuts
• 1/2 teaspoon toasted cumin powder
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel, toasted
• 1 tablespoon white poppy seed (kas-kas), toasted
• seasalt as desired

Directions:

1. You don’t need to toast one by one. For the ingredients that you need for grinding, you can toast them together.
2. Grind all spices for wet paste until smooth. Use a food processor if you want to get a faster result but I prefer using the traditional Indonesian mortar and pestle.
3. Rub all wet paste over the goat meat. Marinate for more than 15 minutes. I myself kept them overnight in the fridge.
4. In a wok, dutch oven or pot, heat up your cooking oil. Stir fry slices of shallot until fragrant. Add curry leaves and red pepper powder mixture; stir. Toast in marinated goat, cinnamon bark, star anise, cloves, cardamom and lemongrass. Reduce the heat to medium cover the wok and cook until the goat meat changes colour.
5. Pour in coconut milk and season with seasalt; stir and let it cook until the liquid is thicken and oily. Taste. If you feel not enough salt, you can add more.
6. Remove from the heat and enjoy with steamed rice.