Sajoer Lodeh

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Mortar and pestle or small food processor
• •Wide heavy saucepan or braadpan, about 3 liters
• •Wooden spoon

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the bumbu

   Pound the shallots, garlic, candlenuts, coriander, turmeric, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a mortar until you have a rough paste, or pulse them in a small food processor with a spoonful of the measured water. It needn't be silk smooth. The paste only has to cook evenly, and a little texture is honest home cooking.

2. 2

   Fry the paste

   Warm the oil in a wide saucepan or braadpan over medium heat. Add the bumbu and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring often, until the raw garlic smell is gone, the paste darkens from yellow to gold, and tiny beads of oil show at the edges. This is the slow step buying you flavour; if you rush it, coconut milk will politely carry raw shallot to every corner of the bowl.

   Candlenuts must be cooked before eating. Toasting and frying them here is not fussiness; it is the rule that makes them safe and gives the broth its soft body.
3. 3

   Build the broth

   Add the galangal, lemongrass, salam leaves, and the remaining water or stock, scraping the bottom of the pan. Bring it to a gentle simmer, then add the carrot and beans. Cook for 6 minutes, until the beans brighten and the carrot has begun to bend but still argues back when you bite it.

   If your vegetables are different, sort them by stubbornness. Roots and beans go first, leafy cabbage and courgette go later, because a good sajoer lets each vegetable keep its name.
4. 4

   Add coconut milk

   Lower the heat and stir in the coconut milk, chayote or courgette, cabbage, and tempeh or tofu if using. Keep the liquid at a quiet simmer for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring now and then, until the vegetables are tender but still separate. A hard boil can split the coconut milk; this is not ruin, but it does make the broth look tired.

5. 5

   Season and rest

   Stir in the palm sugar and white pepper, then taste for salt. Fish out the lemongrass, galangal, and salam leaves if you see them. Let the pan stand off the heat for 5 minutes so the broth settles around the vegetables; the colour should be pale gold, not muddy, and the coconut should coat the back of a spoon.

6. 6

   Serve with rice

   Spoon the vegetables and enough broth to moisten the rice into a shallow bowl, and scatter over fried shallots if you are using them. Serve beside plain white rice as part of a rijsttafel, the rice table, or with one sharp sambal and one simple fried egg on a weeknight. Sajoer lodeh is eaten with rice, not ladled as soup. The distinction is small until you taste it.

Chef Tips

• •A sajoer is a vegetable dish with broth, not a bowl of soup. Keep enough liquid to perfume the rice, but not so much that the vegetables float away from their purpose.
• •Use full-fat coconut milk. Light coconut milk is water wearing a white coat, and it gives a thin broth when the dish asks for softness.
• •If you find block santen, dissolve 80g in 400ml warm water and use it in place of the canned coconut milk. That little block lived in many Indo-Dutch pantries for good reason.
• •Change the vegetables with the season: long beans and chayote when they are good, Dutch green beans, cabbage, carrot, and courgette when the market says so. The calendar sets this pot too.
• •Serve it with plain rice and something sharper beside it, sambal, acar, or a dark ketjap dish. Sajoer lodeh is the calm part of the table, and calm is only useful when something else is making noise.

Advance Preparation

• •The bumbu can be pounded or blended up to 2 days ahead and kept covered in the refrigerator; fry it only when you begin cooking.
• •Carrot, beans, and cabbage can be cut 1 day ahead and refrigerated separately. Cut courgette just before cooking if you dislike soft edges.
• •Leftovers keep 3 days refrigerated. Reheat gently over low heat with a splash of water; the coconut milk may separate a little, but the flavour remains.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 270g)