Semur Batawi Recipe

If you love a good beef stew, you should give this recipe a try.  Because it was 100 degrees when I made this, I did it in the slow cooker.  Be prepared for a taste buds explosion.  This might be one of the most scrumptious things you will ever eat.  Semur is derived from the Dutch word smoor, meaning smothered or slow cooked.  Batawi comes from Batavia which is the colonial name for Jakarta. You can most often find this being sold from street vendors  these days and surely each family has their own version.

Some of the ingredients you will need.

Make a bouquet garni of 1 T. peppercorns, 2 star anise, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 T. coriander seeds, 1-2 dried chili peppers and 1 tsp. of whole cloves.  Tie this up and set it aside.

In a bowl, combine 1 T. brown sugar....

with one knob of grated fresh ginger, 6 cloves diced garlic, 2 T. tomato paste, 2 heaping T. tamarind paste, 1/3 C. ketchup manis (sweet soy sauce) and 1 T. fish sauce.  Whisk this together.

Cut 2 Pounds of chuck steak into bite sized pieces.

Place them in the bowl and toss to coat.

Add 2 tsp. ground black pepper and 1 tsp. salt.

Add 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg.

Add 1 cup beef stock.  Stir to combine.

Dice 2 large onions and add them to the slow cooker with the bouquet garni. add 2 T. of oil.

Add the meat mixture and one tub of Knorr's concentrated beef stock.  The wonky thumb continues to work.

Stir everything together and cover.

Set your slow cooker to low and set the timer to 12 hours.  Get ready for the most exotic, enticing cloud of heavenly scent to consume you.  I let this cook overnight and I kept waking up thinking I needed to run downstairs and stir it.  I've only recently been using the slow cooker and still can't get used to how effortless it is.

The next morning it looked like this.

This actually improves with age.  It is best the second day.

I served it next to curried cauliflower and cabbage with yesterdays naan. I also served chutneys as a condiment.  Outstanding.  We rarely eat seconds around here but my husband ate 2 bowls and The Blog Tech ate 3!