Young jackfruit slow-cooked for hours in coconut milk with palm sugar and teak leaves until it turns a deep mahogany brown, soft and sweet, served with rice, chicken, and sambal krecek.
Ingredients
1 kg young unripe jackfruit, cubed
800ml coconut milk
200g palm sugar (gula Jawa), grated
8 shallots
5 cloves garlic
3 candlenuts (kemiri)
2 tsp coriander seeds
3 cm galangal, sliced
4 bay leaves
5 teak leaves (or substitute with 1 tbsp dark soy sauce for color)
4 hard-boiled eggs
Salt
Sambal krecek (beef skin crackling in chili)
Instructions
1Grind shallots, garlic, candlenuts, and coriander into a smooth paste.
2Place young jackfruit in a heavy pot. Add spice paste, coconut milk, palm sugar, galangal, bay leaves, and teak leaves.
3Bring to a gentle simmer and cook on very low heat for 4-5 hours, stirring occasionally, until jackfruit is very soft and deeply browned.
4Add hard-boiled eggs during the last hour of cooking so they absorb the flavors and turn brown.
5The gudeg is ready when the coconut milk has been fully absorbed and the jackfruit is a rich mahogany color.
6Serve with steamed rice, a hard-boiled egg, and sambal krecek (spicy beef skin cracklings).
Did You Know?
Gudeg is so iconic to Yogyakarta that the city is nicknamed "Kota Gudeg" (Gudeg City), and traditional gudeg vendors begin cooking at midnight for the morning rush.