empal gentong — West Java, Indonesia

Empal gentong is a spicy, curry-like beef soup built on a coconut-milk broth thickened with a ground spice paste rather than a clear stock. Its name refers to the gentong, a clay pot set over a wood fire, in which the soup is said to be cooked, and it is classed by some as a member of the wider soto family and compared to gulai for its coconut-based richness. It is reported from Cirebon, in West Java, and more precisely from the Battembat and Tengah Tani areas around the city, which are named as the places the dish comes from. It sits alongside other soto-style soups found across Java and Indonesia more broadly, sharing their basic structure of meat in a spiced broth while using its own particular mix of spices and its coconut-based liquid. Beef is simmered together with beef offal — intestine, tripe and lung feature among the cuts used — until tender, while a paste of garlic, shallots, candlenuts, turmeric, galangal and ginger is fried until fragrant and combined with the meat's own cooking stock. Coconut milk is added and kept at a gentle simmer so it does not split, giving the broth its characteristic body and pale golden color. What marks this version is the particular use of offal alongside the beef, which gives the soup a fuller, denser character than many other Javanese soups, and the choice of a wood-fired clay pot named in its own title. It is served over steamed rice, ketupat or lontong, and finished at the table with chopped chives and a spoonful of chili powder sambal, which each eater adjusts to taste.