Empal Gentong｜West Java
Part 20/38 in a series exploring one dish from each province of Indonesia.
I first had this when we took the train to over to Cirebon, only a couple of hours out from Jakarta, and was happy to find that Indomie do one of their special regional editions in empal gentong flavour too. Really this dish should have a mixture of meat and offal, but I’m not in the mood for that today.
Adapted from here.
☒ UNTESTED
Ingredients
Main stuff
- 500 g beef brisket
- 1 L water
- 2 cm galangal, pounded
- 2 lemongrass, bruised
- 4 kaffir lime leaf
- 2 Indonesian bay leaves
- 1 cm cinnamon
- 2 cardamom
- 2 cloves
- 500 ml coconut milk
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp beef stock powder
Spices to blend
- 6 Indonesian onions (2 shallots)
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 3 cm turmeric, toasted
- 2 cm ginger
- 5 candlenuts, toasted
- 1 tsp coriander seeds, toasted
- ½ tsp ground white pepper
- ¼ tsp cumin seeds, toasted
To serve
- Lontong / rice
- Finely chopped chives / spring onion
- Crispy fried onions
- Lime wedge
Prep
Dry fry the turmeric, candlenuts, coriander, and cumin until fragrant.
Blend up the blended bits.
Cooking
Boil the main ingredients except the coconut milk, salt, sugar, and stock powder until the meat is tender (~__ minutes). Dice the beef and return it to the pot.
Sauté the blended bits until fragrant. Add to the pot.
Add salt, sugar, stock powder, then cook on low until the spices are absorbed (?). Add water if it reduces too much. (~__ minutes)
Add coconut milk, cook until it boils and smells fragrant (~__ minutes)
Serve sprinkled with chives and crispy fried onions, with a wedge of lime on the side for people to squeeze in, and a side of rice.
(Total cooking time should be about 70 minutes)