Coto Makassar

Ingredients

• 800 g beef brisket
• 300 g beef tripe
• 2.5 litres rice-washing water, or plain water
• 120 g raw peanuts
• 10 shallots
• 6 garlic cloves
• 5 candlenuts
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• 0.25 whole nutmeg
• 4 cloves
• 1 cinnamon stick, 4 cm
• 2 tbsp tauco (fermented soybean paste)
• 3 stalks lemongrass
• 5 cm galangal
• 5 salam leaves
• 3 kaffir lime leaves
• 4 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2.5 tsp salt
• 1 tsp palm sugar
• 4 ketupat or 400 g compressed rice cake
• 4 spring onions
• 4 tbsp crisp fried shallots
• 2 limes
• 6 tbsp sambal tauco, to serve

Before you cook

• Save the cloudy water from rinsing rice, or use plain water if you have none.
• Scrub the tripe well with coarse salt and rinse it thoroughly.
• Cut the brisket into 3 cm cubes.
• Peel the shallots and garlic.
• Bruise the lemongrass stalks and slice the galangal into coins.
• Grate the nutmeg and slice the spring onions thinly.
• Cut the ketupat into thick cubes and the limes into wedges.

Steps

1. Put the tripe into a pot of water, boil it for 30 minutes, then drain it and cut it into strips.
2. Put the brisket and tripe strips into a large pot with the rice-washing water and bring it to a boil.
3. Skim the surface until the broth is clear, then lower the heat to a slow simmer.
4. Simmer the meat, part-covered, for 90 minutes, until the brisket yields easily to a fork.
5. Toast the peanuts in a dry frying pan over medium heat for 8 minutes, shaking often, until they smell nutty and the skins darken.
6. Rub the cooled peanuts in a clean tea towel to loosen the skins, then blow or pick the skins away.
7. Grind the peanuts to a coarse damp paste in a blender or mortar.
8. Blend the shallots, garlic, candlenuts, coriander, cumin, peppercorns and grated nutmeg into a smooth paste.
9. Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat and cook the spice paste for 8 minutes, until it darkens and the oil separates.
10. Add the lemongrass, galangal, salam leaves, kaffir lime leaves, cloves and cinnamon and stir for 1 minute.
11. Stir in the ground peanuts and the tauco and cook for a further 3 minutes.
12. Scrape the whole mixture into the meat pot and stir until the broth turns opaque and biscuit-coloured.
13. Add the salt and palm sugar and simmer for another 30 minutes, stirring occasionally so the peanuts do not settle and scorch.
14. Taste the broth and adjust the salt, then fish out the lemongrass and cinnamon.
15. Divide the ketupat cubes between six bowls.
16. Ladle the meat and thick broth over them.
17. Finish each bowl with spring onion and fried shallots, and serve with lime wedges and sambal tauco.