Preparation:
Read the whole recipe before starting.
First heat up an oven, to about 160 degrees Celsius, and if heated up add the candlenuts for 10 minutes. Turn off your oven and let the nuts cool down. When the
nuts are cooled down, you can chop them up or grate them so you have small pieces.
Grate the ginger and the laos. Chop the unions in small pieces and crush the garlic using a garlic press.
Remove the outer leaves of the lemon grass. Rinse the lemon grass with some cold water, also rinse the fresh lime leaves.
Dice up the beef.
For coriander, cumin, cardamom and turmeric I use the powdered version, if you want to use fresh ingredients, prepare these ingredients before starting.
Have every ingredient at hand to add to the pan when you start cooking.
If you have a mortar and pestle, you can add the garlic, candle nuts, coriander, cumin, cardemom, turmeric, trassi, sambal, laos, ginger and salt to the mortar and grind it to a paste. You can also add a little bit (about 2 tea spoons) of oil to the mortar for a better consistency if needed.
I have used a mortar and pestle the last few times I made this dish, and I think it does taste a bit better.
Add the paste after frying the unions for a few minutes, and then add the left over ingredients. I haven't changed the instruction below, so you still can work without a mortar and pestle.
Into the casserole pan or wok:
First add the oil into the pan and heat up the oil. Then add unions and garlic, stir for a few minutes. Turn the heat to a medium temperature. Then add the sambal, trassi, candlenuts, turmeric, coriander, cumin and cardamom, stir thru. Then add the
coconut cream and water, the ginger and laos, ketjap and the sugar, stir all thru. Also add the salt here.
Then add the meat, the cloves, smash/bruise the lemon grass and then add it, add the lime leaves. Stir thru and turn down the heat and leave it simmer, without putting a lit on the pan.
This takes about 2 to 3 hours, depending on the cut of meat you use. Do check it regularly, and stir thru, especially if you get a more consistent sauce, when you are near the end.
If the sauce gets to thick, you can add some water, for example, if the meat still needs some cooking. The sauce is ready when the oil begins to separate.
Just before the dish is ready, take out the lemon grass, the lime leaves and the cloves. You probably don't accidentally leave any lemon grass in the pan, but
for the lime leaves and cloves, I suggest checking/counting that you got all of them out.
Serve with:
Well as this is just a meat dish, there are a lot of possibilities here. In my picture I served it up with white rice, sambal beans and some ketjap. You can
also use fried rice (nasi) and some (cucumber) atjar, or whatever combination you see fit.