Just a little background:

I lived in Jakarta, Indonesia for a total of 7 years of my life; 4 years as a teenager, 3 years as an adult with my three kids (because I just had to go back and reunited with my old friends and a culture I completely adore). One thing you miss about Indonesia after living there is the FOOD.  It’s so good.  It also helps that you don’t cook it yourself because it’s just normal to have a maid.  When I tell people “I had a maid”, they look at me in shock.  On one hand, I know they are wondering how I could have a person serving me all day, on the other hand, how do you afford it??

I moved to Indonesia from London when I was 11 years old.  My parents hired a maid, Bu (shortened version of “mother”) Sriatun.  She was already a little old in terms of “maid” standards at the time.  I think she was in her late 40s, but she had been referred to us from some family friends who were leaving the country.  She was a tough woman, which I LOVED!  When I learned enough Indonesian to talk (for a long time) with her, I learned that she had been a parachutist during the Indonesian independence war.  She delivered supplies and food… you know, jumping from a plane.  She was a motherly figure, but in a very stern and loving way.  I always knew that she was always looking out for me… so I didn’t mind if she told me off.  It was always kind of relieving.

She was a single mother with one child.  He was the same age as me.  Her husband left her, and she was left to bring up that child alone, which wasn’t easy, but she did it.  Our whole family loved her so much.  She wasn’t just a “maid”, she became part of our family.  She was smart and honest.  She did the accounts (in terms of grocery shopping) for the house.  She’d always find us the best deals, and my mom would make sure she got a “cut” from the savings.  You see, if my mom went out and did the shopping herself, she’d get ripped off because she was a foreigner. So, it was a win-win situation for all.

My mom had bought a recipe book from the American Women’s Association in Jakarta.  It was great because the recipes were in both English and Indonesian, and it included a lot of Indonesian recipes.  My mom would just flip through the book, find a recipe she liked, and ask Bu Sriatun to make it.  We all ate REALLY well.  I loved it.

I left Indonesia at the end of 8th grade, when I was just turning 15.  I didn’t want to leave.  Life was great there.  I love the school I went to (Jakarta International School – JIS), I loved my friends, I loved the culture and I loved just about everything. I must admit I was pretty angry at my parents for a while, but, you know, you get over that.

I moved to Colombia but always yearned to go back to Indonesia, so in 2002 I had to opportunity to go back and manage, renovate and build on the apartments my parents own there.  I was soooooo happy.

The great thing is that Bu Sriatun had worked with the neighbors in our time away, but had still looked after all my parent’s property and possessions meanwhile (without pay or my parents asking her to).  I arrived to Jakarta, seeing her again with her arms wide open and us both in tears.  She is family to us.  I love her to bits.

I quickly started on renovation work on the apartments and Bu Sriatun started working for us again. (YAY!)  I gave her a huge paycheck for her work while she was away and she was once again working with me and it felt like I had a mother-figure with me.  I’ll tell ya, she’d tell me off if she thought I was doing something wrong!

She loves my three children.  My children love her.  While I was there I hired another maid to do the “dirty work” so Bu Sriatun would only have to cook, manage the household and manage the finances.  She was already in her late 60s and I didn’t think it was fair for her to work too much.  I remember that one day I went to work in the late afternoon and came back to Sriatun telling me that the kids had been naughty.  As soon as they saw me they started crying and telling me that they were sorry.  While I was out, the boys had decided to get a lighter and light up my daughter’s little plastic dollhouse.  It went up in flames and Sriatun ran in and put the fire out.  She scolded the kids (which, I have to emphasize… is not normal for a maid… they usually even treat kids like the boss).  My kids learned from the experience (I would sure hope so!!!) but at the same time I was so glad and relieved that I had someone like Sriatun around.

We left Indonesia in 2005.  I made sure I left Sriatun with photos of the family.  She had become attached to my kids and they really loved her.  I also found work for her son (as a driver) for a close friend of mine.  On top of that, I made sure that she got a monthly “retirement” income from us… for life.  You see, in a country like Indonesia where there are absolutely no sources of income for elders, except from their children, you just have the moral obligation to provide it… more so if they are like family.

A year after I left, Sriatun’s son died from typhoid.  Her only son.  I’m still heartbroken from it.  I still haven’t been able to go back there and give her a huge hug and tell her that she is like a mother to me.

I dedicate this post to Bu Sriatun, because she made wonderful rendang.  She made it with love, with care, and I am eternally grateful for what she has done for me, my family and my kids.

So… Rendang!

Rendang is traditionally a beef “stew”.  It’s not that easy to make if you start from scratch.  It involves mashing the right proportion of spices.  I don’t think I could do it from scratch, to tell you the truth.  Bu Sriatun would, but, me?  Hell no!  The nice thing is that you can buy the packet of spices at most asian stores and that takes 80% of the work out, because once you have the spices done, you’re all set!  Rendang is great hot, warm or cold.  I personally loved it as “hangover food”.

I became vegetarian when I came to the US.  A couple of months ago I was talking with my husband about possible foods I could cook and suddenly we both said “OMG, we could make TOFU RENDANG!”.  He had tried Rendange before be both turned vegetarian and it was his favorite dish.  When I realized I could totally make the Beef Rendang dish into a completely vegan/vegetarian dish, I got really excited!  On another note, you can add small sliced potatoes to the mix to vary it a little… but here is the recipe:

You’ll need:

1 block of tofu (the more natural kind, the more porous kind… NOT the smooth kind you get in the unrefrigerated sections of the supermarket).  The more bumpy and porous it is, the better.

1 can of coconut milk (if you are watching calories, then get “lite” coconut milk, but if you’re not, go to an asian store and ask the clerk for the creamiest and best kind).

1 sachet of rendang spice mix.

1 serving of rice to eat with the tofu rendang.

Now, the most important part is the tofu and preparing it.  Like I said, it has to be the uneven, porous kind.  You can usually find that kind of tofu in the refrigerated section of a supermarket.  I personally get the “Extra Firm Tofu” at Trader Joe’s in the refrigerated section.  I wouldn’t go with “long life” “unrefrigerated” tofu.  It’s too smooth and it will definitely just come apart into little pieces during cooking.  Not good.

So, most tofu comes in blocks.  The block I buy is big enough to slice it in half, length-wise (along the thin side), so there are two thinner, wide blocks.  Once I cut it, I “press” it.  I press it by getting two baking sheets, each with wax paper, and place the slices on the bottom sheet, and top it with wax paper and another baking sheet.  I use heavy books to put weight on it.

Here are the books I use; my husband’s university textbooks!  Who knew they would be so useful!

As I said above, I put the slice tofu on a baking sheet with wax paper:

So, you put the tofu on that baking sheet and wax paper, then put wax paper on top with a baking sheet, and then put the weight books or your big bum on top of that.  It’s best to let it press for 30 minutes to one hour.   After that time you’ll see a pool of water that has been pressed out of the tofu.  Just pick the tofu up and shake it a little to get as much water out as possible.

Once you’ve removed the water from the wax paper, baking sheet and tofu, you can put the tofu back on the baking sheet.  In this case (the one I photographed), I didn’t do that.  I thought that it would be easier to wrap the tofu in wax paper and put it in a tupperware container and freeze it.  Don’t do that!  I recommend just putting it back on the baking sheet and sliding it into the freezer.  WHY?  It’s best for it not to be covered so it dries out as much as possible.  The more it dries out, the more porous it becomes which later translates into the tofu sucking up more of the spices.  If you leave it exposes in the freezer for 3 days, it’ll become so dry that you may even wonder if it’s even good anymore… but in reality, it’s probably at it’s best point.  The drier it becomes in the freezer, the better… so don’t cover it.  Leave it exposed.  It’ll become moist with the spices later, which is that much yummier.

This is my attempt at freezing the tofu with wax paper in a closed container.  It may look good, but trust me, follow my instructions above!

You see, the wax paper stuck to the tofu, so I had to wait for it to defrost.  You can also see the water frozen on it, and you really don’t want any moisture on it at all!

I separated the blocks, and this is what they looked like.  I included my little friend, the egg timer, so you can get an idea of proportion/size.  He’s my friend.  Be nice.

In the photo before the one before the one above, you see three slices, but for the recipe you only need one block (two half pieces).  I took each half piece and sliced it long-ways in three slices, then in the other direction, I sliced it in 5 pieces… making 15 blocks:

OK.  Next part.  Do you have your Rendang spice mix?

I know it says “Indonesian Beef Stew” but if you don’t put in any beef, then it won’t have beef… so it’ll be vegan!

Open it, and you’ll see the spice mix:

Exciting, isn’t it?

Now, you have to put the spice mix in a hot pot.  Let it heat up just a little so it’s not a “stiff”, then throw in all the tofu.  Mix it to make sure that all tofu is more or less covered by the spices.

Then open the can of coconut milk (light or normal) and pour it in.  It’ll look like this:

Put the heat on high until it starts boiling or bubbling.  You might want to half cover the pot so it doesn’t make a mess, but don’t fully cover it because it’ll keep the moisture in, and the whole point of the next few steps is that it dries out.  Mix it a little during this process.

The mixture will start “reducing”.  The whole process might take between 30 to 50 minutes.

It’ll look like this first.

And then it’ll come to a point when you start to see oil.  That’s the oil/fat in the coconut milk.  If you are using light coconut milk, you’ll probably see less.  I personally haven’t used light coconut milk, so I am just imagining.

I am a bit picky about oils and fat, so at this stage, if I have the time, I just scoop out as much oil as I can.  If you are not too fussy about calories, don’t bother.  When you start to see the oil, it’s best to turn the heat down on the stove to medium.  DO NOT mix to vigorously.   At this point you have to be gentle with the mixing so that the spices don’t unstick from the tofu.  I tend to just pick up the pot and shake it a little.  Make sure you’re using a stick-free pot.

It have to just wait until there is practically no moisture left, without it burning.  The whole point is to allow the spices to fully cook and stick to the tofu so that there is not sauce left in the pan… just pieces of tofu with spices completely stuck to them.

Now, if I had frozen the tofu properly (by drying it a whole lot), the spices would be more attached to the tofu than you see in the photo.

In all honesty, I was having a major sugar crash while cooking and photographing this and felt so depressed when I finished.  On the good side, my husband was sooooo happy with the results.  It’s his absolute favorite dish.  He is completely vegetarian and goes over the moon when I cook this.

I know it looks like diarrhea, but it is the most delicious thing ever.  The spice mix is what makes it wonderful.  Maybe someday I’ll learn how to make it from scratch… but I might just leave that up to Bu Sriatun and others.  When you cook this, your house will smell so delicious.

The great thing about this is that you can serve it cold.  Cook it, eat a little, refrigerate what is left and just eat the rest without heating it up and it’s fine.  As I said above, it’s GREAT hangover food too!  Serve it with plain rice.

I took this photo, but before I took it I just had to eat some of it so excuse the dirty spoon.

And OMG, it’s vegan!

Let me know how it went if you cook it…. and this means you! (@veganrunnningmom & @disneyrunner on Twitter)