Daging Smoor (Indo-Dutch Beef Braise)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy braadpan or Dutch oven, 4 to 5 liters
• •Tongs for browning beef
• •Wooden spoon for scraping the pan

Instructions

1. 1

   Brown the beef

   Pat the beef dry and season it with the salt and white pepper. Heat the oil and butter in a heavy braadpan, a Dutch braising pot, over medium-high heat, then brown the beef in batches until each piece has a dark crust on two or three sides. Do not crowd the pan. Crowded beef sweats, and sweating is not smoren; it is just impatience made visible.

   Use chuck, brisket, or shin with real connective tissue. Lean stewing beef looks tidy in the packet and dries out in the pot, which is a very Dutch tragedy because it could have been avoided.
2. 2

   Soften the onions

   Lift the browned beef to a plate. Lower the heat to medium, add the onions to the same pan, and cook for 10 to 12 minutes until soft, golden at the edges, and beginning to collapse. Stir often and scrape the browned bits from the bottom. Add the garlic and ginger for the last minute, just until their raw sharpness softens.

3. 3

   Build the sauce

   Stir in the tomatoes or tomato paste, ketjap manis, light soy sauce, nutmeg, mace, cloves, and salam leaves if using. Let everything bubble gently for two minutes until the sauce turns dark and glossy and the spices smell warm rather than dusty. Count the cloves as they go in. Four is enough; clove is generous until it becomes medicinal.

4. 4

   Braise under cover

   Return the beef and its juices to the pan. Add the water or stock, enough to come just below the top of the meat, then bring the pot to the gentlest simmer. Cover and cook for about 2 hours, stirring every half hour, until the beef yields easily to a fork. Keep the heat low. Ketjap is sweet, and sweet sauces punish a careless boil by catching on the bottom.

5. 5

   Set the sauce

   Uncover the pan and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes more, stirring often, until the sauce thickens and clings to the beef in a dark coat. Fish out the mace blade, cloves, and leaves if you can find them. Taste, then adjust with salt. If the ketjap has made the sauce too sweet for your table, stir in the tamarind water or vinegar. The point is balance, not sharpness.

6. 6

   Serve the pot

   Let the smoor rest for 20 minutes before serving, or cool it and refrigerate overnight. Spoon it over white rice, making a kuiltje, a little hollow, for the sauce. Add atjar for brightness, sambal for heat, and bawang goreng if you like the crisp shallot finish. Hou het altijd simpel: the braadpan may go straight to the table.

Chef Tips

• •Ketjap manis matters. It should be thick, dark, and sweet, not thin soy sauce with a rumor of sugar. If you must repair the problem, simmer 5 tablespoons light soy sauce with 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar or molasses and 2 tablespoons water, then use that in place of the ketjap.
• •Make daging smoor a day ahead. The beef relaxes, the sauce darkens, and the clove and mace stop shouting from separate corners of the room.
• •Do not grind the cloves into the sauce unless you know you like clove very much. Whole cloves give their warmth and can be removed; ground clove takes the pot hostage.
• •Serve something sour beside it. Atjar, quick cucumber pickle, or even a squeeze of lime wakes up the sweet, dark braise without changing what the dish is.

Advance Preparation

• •Best made 1 day ahead; cool, cover, and refrigerate, then reheat gently with a splash of water if the sauce has tightened.
• •Keeps 3 days refrigerated and freezes well for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and reheat slowly so the sauce does not scorch.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 450g)