What is "tongseng"

Tongseng is goat meat, mutton or beef stew dish in curry-like soup with vegetables and kecap manis (sweet soy sauce). Originally from Surakarta in Indonesian province of Central Java.

The soup is made of ground mixture of garlic, shallot, black pepper, ginger, coriander, galangal, salam (bay leaves), and lemongrass sauteed with palm oil until it gets aromatic. The diced meat then poured into the sauteed mixture until cooked. Add water until it boiled and add sweet soy sauce with tamarind juice. After the boiled mixture reduces, add shredded cabbages and sliced tomato. Some versions are prepared using coconut milk.

Tongseng is usually served with hot steamed rice. The soup of tongseng is similar to gulai soup, however gulai is cooked without sweet soy sauce while tongseng mostly appears in brownish gold colour because of the addition of sweet soy sauce. Gulai usually uses beef's offal while tongseng usually only uses meat (goat, mutton or beef).