Hello!
When I was a little girl, my parents would take my siblings and I on road trip (like 18 H at least) to visit my late grandmother. She used to have a restaurant, especially for this beef soup that is known as Rawon, originating from East Java island of Indonesia.
My SO likes this soup too, however, even though he did get to meet my grandmother before she passed away, he did not get to taste the soup the way my grandmother would make it. My grandmother lost her sight years before she passed away. The lost of her sights also caused her the restaurant, sadly.
Indonesia has many kinds of soups, and Rawon is one of the famous ones. Its authentic broth as the black color and flavor comes from a fruit called, Keluwak, which you can only find in Southeast Asia, and only Indonesians (and some Malaysians) use it in their dish. I have not heard other nations in Southeast Asia ever mentioned this fruit at all.
I prepared this soup using my awesome electric pot, the famous Instant Pot, but obviously you can prepare it in regular stove top 🙂
Ingredients
- 1 kg beef cubes
- 2 lemongrass bruised
- 1 thumb ginger
- 1/2 of a large purple onion
- 5 garlic
- 5 candlenut no subs
- 8-10 keluwak no subs, soften in enough hot boiling water
- 10 dried kafir lime leaves no subs
- 3 tbsp Royco or beef powder seasoning
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/2 tsp coriander ground
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
In fact, if you want that super tender beef, where it just pulls away when you bite it, yet you won’t be around the pot much, you can also prepare it using crockpot (slow cooker pot). This soup is very easy to make with whatever you feel like to, stove top, crockpot, and definitely the Instant Pot 😉
Instructions
- In a blender, mix garlic, onion, ginger, candlenut, into a fine paste
- Into Instant Pot (you can use stove top pot if you don’t have an IP), saute oil, paste, lemongrass, turmeric and coriander
- Stir in beef and coat with spices
- Pour about 3-4 L water, stir, add in Royco, stir
- Place lid on
- Press “soup”, and add 10 more minutes to the timer (50 mins total)
Indonesians love serving the soup (with the rice), accompanied with crackers/chips, with chili sauce, salted egg, new fresh mung bean sprouts (when the tails are still short), and sweet soy sauce 🙂
Rawon (Javanese Beef Soup)
Ingredients
- 1 kg beef cubes
- 2 lemongrass bruised
- 1 thumb ginger
- 1/2 of a large purple onion
- 5 garlic
- 5 candlenut no subs
- 8-10 keluwak no subs, soften in enough hot boiling water
- 10 dried kafir lime leaves no subs
- 3 tbsp Royco or beef powder seasoning
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/2 tsp coriander ground
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
Instructions
- In a blender, mix garlic, onion, ginger, candlenut, into a fine paste
- Into Instant Pot (you can use stove top pot if you don’t have an IP), saute oil, paste, lemongrass, turmeric and coriander
- Stir in beef and coat with spices
- Pour about 3-4 L water, stir, add in Royco, stir
- Place lid on
- Press “soup”, and add 10 more minutes to the timer (50 mins total)
