Indonesia – Beef Sei

by Dwi Lias Susanti

What comes first into your mind when hearing the word Jurassic Park? Thrilling theme park full of a giant lizard, an ancient lizard, crawling in the juggle. Dinosaurs have become a famous fictional creature because of the Jurassic Park film. Even they don’t exist anymore in our world. The scary and bloodthirsty image stuck in our minds. Even they already extinct for many years, but dinosaurs have relatives that still alive up until now. Komodo dragon is the closest relatives to the dinosaurs, the largest lizard that lives in Komodo island, East Nusa Tenggara of Indonesia.

Komodo dragon is an endemic animal in East Nusa Tenggara and chosen as a world heritage site by UNESCO. East Nusa Tenggara itself has many beautiful places to visit, like The Pink Beach in Labuan Bajo district, three colored lakes in Kalimutu National Park, and Wae Rebo uphill village. And don’t forget about their delicious dish that will make you feel at home.

Corn and meat have become their main food staple since East Nusa Tenggara has a drying climate with a vast savanna. Beef Se’i is one of the popular dishes in this region. Sei word means a thinly sliced meat, and the original version uses venison to cook Sei, but now we can’t choose from chicken, beef, and pork to cook Sei. Beef Sei is the most popular among other meat choices. To make a delicious beef Se’i, they smoke the beef meat for 9 hours, then thinly slice it, and seasoned with various spice and herb. Beef Sei serves with a side of corn rice and Luat sauce.

Making a homemade beef Sei is easy. You can use a Teflon pan if you don’t have a smoker, even its tastes different but it still delicious. So prepare our cookware and make some beef Sei.

Ingredient

• 500-gram fatless meat
• 1 onion
• 1 paprika
• 4 pieces cayenne pepper
• 2 tablespoon cooking oil

Ground spice

• 8 clove garlic
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt

Luat sauce ingredient

• 15 pieces of cayenne pepper
• 5 pieces of red chili
• 5 pieces of green chili
• 1 stick onion leaf
• 4 shallot
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon beef broth powder
• 1 tomato
• 1 lime juice

Corn rice ingredient

• 1 cup white rice
• ¾ cup sweet corn kernels
• Water to cook rice

Corn rice preparation

1. Wash clean rice and corn kernels
2. Cook using a rice cooker.

Luat sauce preparation

1. Grind roughly all the chili, tomato, and shallot.
2. Add sliced onion leaf.
3. Add lime juice
4. Add beef broth powder.
5. Adjust the taste with salt and sugar.
6. Place the sauce in a small bowl.

How to cook

1. Prepare a Teflon pan, then thinly slice the meat and cook it without oil.
2. Remove the meat from the pan.
3. Sautee all the ground spice with cooking oil until smells good.
4. Add meat, paprika, sliced onion, and cayenne pepper.
5. Stir fry until well-seasoned.
6. Place in a serving plate.
7. Beef Sei ready to serve with warm corn rice and Luat sauce.