Maritime Southeast Asia · Volume 43, The Sweet Court, the Salt Island and the Mould Between Them
Brongkos
Yogyakarta
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- Hands on 1 hour 30 · Waiting 8 hours
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Yogyakarta. A thick, dark, coconut milk broth built on black eyed peas and the same kluwak that gives rawon its colour, documented as a genuine favourite of two Yogyakarta sultans.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. Soak overnight, cook around 1.5 hours.
Ingredients
- 100 g kacang tolo (black eyed peas / cowpeas), soaked overnight
- 6 pieces fried tofu, cut into triangles
- 1 large potato, cut into chunks
- 2 boiled eggs
- 500 ml thin coconut milk
- 200 ml thick coconut milk
- 300g beef, cut into bite sized pieces
- 6 shallots
- 2 garlic cloves
- 4 kluwak (processed, see the Flavour Arsenal and Rung 3, above)
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 cm kencur (aromatic ginger)
- 4 candlenuts
- 1 tbsp palm sugar
- 5 red chillies
- ½ tsp terasi
- to taste salt and stock powder, to taste
Method
- Drain the soaked kacang tolo and simmer separately until just tender but not falling apart.
- Grind the shallots, garlic, processed kluwak, coriander, kencur, candlenuts, palm sugar, red chillies and terasi to a smooth paste.
- Fry the paste until fragrant, add the beef and brown it, then pour in the thin coconut milk and simmer until the beef is tender.
- Add the kacang tolo, potato and fried tofu, and continue simmering until the potato is cooked through.
- Stir in the thick coconut milk and the boiled eggs, season with salt and stock powder, and simmer briefly to bring the sauce together. The finished flavour should read gurih manis, savoury sweet, with a mild, background heat rather than a sharp one.
Notes
Brongkos is named specifically as a favourite dish of both Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono IX and Hamengku Buwono X, a genuine, sourced palace pedigree rather than an assumed one, and the same kluwak safety considerations that govern rawon below apply here directly.
What a modern chef changes
The kluwak paste, refined rather than merely ground
Rung 3
Method
- Toast the processed kluwak lightly before grinding, in the spice grinder rather than by hand, for a smoother, more evenly distributed colour through the finished broth than a coarser hand grind gives.
- Sous vide the beef separately at a controlled low temperature until fully tender, then finish it in the reduced sauce rather than braising it inside the sauce from the start; this keeps the beef's own texture distinct from the vegetables around it.
- Strain the finished sauce through the chinois before returning the beef, kacang tolo and tofu to it, for a glossier, grit free finish.