Beef Tongseng - Javanese Food

Earlier this week, I met up with close family friends who were visiting from Indonesia. They brought an Indonesian cookbook for me from my sister and I've been going through the recipes in the past couple of days. Yesterday, I decided to make this Indonesian Beef in Spicy & Sweet Soy Sauce called Beef Tongseng. In Indonesia, you would make this dish with goat or lamb meat but I find that fatty beef meat can be a good substitute for them. I followed a recipe from Gramedia International's "Menu Sehari-hari" cookbook.

Ingredients:
1 lb beef eye roast, cut into 1-inch cube
6 shallots, thinly sliced
2 bay leaves
1 lemon grass stalk, bruised
1 tablespoon tamarind water
5 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
4 1/4 cups water
1/2 head of small cabbage, de-bone and roughly cut into thin strips
10 red chilli pepper, seeded and cut into strips
salt and sugar to taste
4 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon black peppercorn
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon minced ginger
1/2 tablespoon minced galangal

Directions:
* Using mortar and pestle or food processor, grind the garlic, black peppercorns, coriander, ginger and galangal until they become a smooth paste.
* Stir fry the shallots with 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil over medium heat for 3 minutes or so until light yellow colored.
* Add seasoning paste, bay leaves and lemon grass and cook for another couple of minutes until fragrant.
* Add the meat, toss around and cook until the meat change color.
* Add in the water, soy sauce and tamarind water. When the water boils, lower the heat and continue cooking until the meat is soft.
* When the stock has reduced by half, add the chopped cabbage and chili pepper.
* Adjust seasoning with salt and sugar according to taste.
* Finish cooking when the stock/sauce boils again and serve over white rice.