Rawon Without the Keluwek

A slow-simmered Indonesian beef soup that fakes its famous black broth using charred coconut, dried shiitake, and dark soy sauce instead of the hard-to-find keluwek nut. The result is rich, earthy, faintly bitter-sweet, and ladled hot over rice with bean sprouts and a hard-boiled egg.

Serves 6 · as served on Bluesky ↗

Rawon's whole identity is that ink-black broth, and that color doesn't come from soy sauce or char, it comes from keluwek, a fermented nut you flat out cannot grab at a regular grocery store, so I hear you loud and clear on that one. What we're gonna do instead is build the same deep, earthy, almost bitter-chocolate backbone out of stuff most any kitchen's got: dried shiitake for the umami muscle, dark soy for color and salt, and shredded coconut toasted clean past golden into a proper char, which does the same trick as blackening a marshmallow on purpose instead of by accident. Simmer that beef low and slow with lemongrass, galangal, and bay leaf till the broth goes the color of strong coffee and the meat just gives up and falls apart. It won't be bite-for-bite what a cook in Surabaya would ladle out, but it chases the same flavor down the same road, and that's the whole game when a pantry's short one ingredient. Serve it hot over rice with bean sprouts and a hard-boiled egg and nobody at your table's gonna miss what isn't in the pot.

Ingredients

Fresh

• 2 lb beef shank or chuck, cut into large chunks
• 8 piece shallots (thinly sliced)
• 6 piece garlic cloves (peeled)
• 1 inch piece fresh turmeric (or 1 tsp ground turmeric)
• 1 inch piece fresh ginger
• 2 inch piece fresh galangal
• 3 piece lemongrass stalks (bruised and tied in a knot)
• 2 cup bean sprouts (for serving)
• 2 piece lime (cut into wedges, for serving)

Fridge

• 4 piece hard-boiled eggs (salted eggs if you have them, for serving)

Pantry

• 8 cup water or beef stock
• 6 piece candlenuts or macadamia nuts
• 4 piece bay leaves (daun salam if you can find it)
• 8 piece dried shiitake mushrooms
• ½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
• 3 tbsp dark soy sauce (divided)
• 2 tbsp tamarind paste
• 1 tbsp palm sugar or brown sugar
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 6 cup steamed rice (for serving)

Spice rack

• salt (to taste)

Directions

1. Toast the shredded coconut in a dry skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it goes past golden and brown into a deep, nearly black char — don't be shy here, this is standing in for the smoky bitterness keluwek would normally bring. ⏱ 5 min
2. Soak the dried shiitake mushrooms in 2 cups of hot water for 20 minutes, then drain and slice thin, keeping every drop of that soaking liquid — it's doing double duty for color and umami. ⏱ 20 min
3. In a blender, combine the shallots, garlic, candlenuts, turmeric, ginger, galangal, and the charred coconut, and blend into a thick dark paste, splashing in a little of the reserved mushroom liquid to help it turn.
4. Heat the vegetable oil in a big soup pot over medium heat and fry the paste with the lemongrass and bay leaves until fragrant and a shade darker, about 6 minutes. ⏱ 6 min
5. Add the beef and turn it in the paste until every piece is coated and starting to brown at the edges.
6. Pour in the water or beef stock along with the reserved mushroom soaking liquid, the sliced mushrooms, half the dark soy sauce, the tamarind paste, and the palm sugar. Bring to a boil, then cover, drop to a low simmer, and cook until the beef is fall-apart tender and the broth has gone the color of strong coffee. ⏱ 2 hr 30 min
7. Uncover, taste, and stir in the remaining dark soy sauce if you want the broth blacker, then season with salt to taste.
8. Ladle the soup over bowls of steamed rice, then top with bean sprouts, a halved hard-boiled egg, and a wedge of lime squeezed in right at the table.

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