Sate Padang

As tradition built it

Serves 4. 90 minutes.

Ingredients

• 600 g beef, with a portion of offal (tongue or tripe, optional)
• 6 cloves garlic
• a 3cm piece ginger
• a 3cm piece galangal
• a 3cm piece turmeric
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 3 tbsp rice flour, dissolved in a little cold water
• 2 pieces asam kandis
• 3 star anise
• 3 pods cardamom
• 1 stick cinnamon
• to taste salt
• as needed skewers

Method

1. Simmer the beef and any offal with the garlic, ginger, galangal, turmeric, coriander, cumin, curry powder and asam kandis in water until tender, retaining the cooking liquid as the base stock.
2. Remove the meat, cut into cubes, and thread onto skewers.
3. Return the stock to a vigorous simmer. Stir the dissolved rice-flour slurry in gradually, off the heat rather than into a hard boil, to thicken without lumping.
4. Return to gentle heat and finish with the whole spices, star anise, cardamom, cinnamon and salt to taste, cooking until the gravy is thick enough to coat a spoon.
5. Grill the skewers over charcoal until charred at the edges.
6. Serve the skewers with the hot gravy poured generously over, and pressed rice (ketupat or lontong) alongside.

What a modern chef changes

A wet curry sauce, treated as one.

Rung 2

Method

1. Pass the finished gravy through a chinois for a clean, glossy sauce; this is one of the few sauces in this chapter where straining is a genuine improvement rather than a betrayal, since sate Padang's gravy has always been a smooth-poured curry, not a textured paste dish.
2. Grind the aromatics in the high-power blender before frying out, ensuring the paste is fully smooth before it ever meets the stock.
3. Finish the skewers on a Big Green Egg at high, direct heat for a genuine char the gravy can sit against.