It was a fun culinary field trip as we joined Chef Fany Hermawan while he shopped at a local market. The bigger treat was when we took him home with us and he whipped up a fantastic beef dish on the fly!

It seems to me, a trip to a traditional market is an experience that some people would rather avoid for the sake of comfort. Nowadays, supermarkets are everywhere and it is easier to just fling yourself inside on of these modern, air-conditioned and well-lit establishments, in lieu of the dirt and odors from the local markets.

That’s not the case for Chef Fany Hermawan. Fany tells us that he loves going through local markets, a chore that he has been enjoying since his days in culinary school some 20 years ago. “When it comes to food markets, every town has its own characteristics, from seafood to meat and vegetables and poultry. For me it’s a never-ending journey of my imagination, to explore the world of our nature’s bounty,” said the chef poetically.

The talented Fany came out victorious after many challenging years studying and working in Australia. His initial career started with local restaurants in Perth and he moved up along the way to become chef de partie at Tetsuya’s in Sydney until he settled in Melbourne. There, Fany proved his mettle as head chef in several prominent restaurants and hotels.

In 2007, he returned back to Indonesia and with the immense experience he had gathered abroad, mastermind behind success of Rustique and Immigrant.

For this issue, Chef Fany Hermawan took us to his favorite local market in Bintaro, negotiated and bargained his way through the vendors and successfully transformed ingredients he bought into a sophisticated dish back in our kitchen. His wonderful idea for this recipe was to incorporate the jus made from black tea as the sauce alongside the rich carrot puree with fresh champignon and horenso.

“I hope the recipe will motivate you on taking it to another level. Good luck and enjoy the dish!”, Fany said encouraging for The Foodie Magazine’s readers to try it out.

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Beef Chuck-Eye Roll
w/ garlic sauteed spinach, mushrooms, carrot puree, & black tea au jus
Serves: 4 portions

• Ingredients:

General ingredients
1000gr           Chuck-eye / rib-eye – take only the loin side after trimming, cling wrap it and roll it tightly, then chill for 3 hours
280ml             Black tea au jus (see recipe)
1500ml          Vegetable stock (see recipe)
200gr              Carrots puree (see recipe)
280gr              Spinach – leaf only
160gr              Button mushrooms/champignon – cut into 4 each
2 cloves          Garlic – crushed.

Vegetable stock
150gr              Carrots – cut length ways
200gr              Brown onion – cut diagonally, leave skin on
100gr              Celery stick – cut length ways
50gr                 Leeks – keep whole
60gr                 Mushrooms
80gr                 Garlic – whole
4                         Bay leaves
10gr                 Black peppercorn – whole
2500ml          Water
6gr                    Salt
15gr                 Sugar

Carrot puree
250gr              Carrots – peeled, cut into large cubes
100gr              Potato – peeled, cut into the same size of the carrots
50gr                 Turmeric – peeled
40gr                 Parmesan – grated
6                         Shallots – large, peeled
2                         Garlic – peeled, crushed
2                         Bay leaves
900ml             Vegetable stock
80ml                Cooking cream
10ml                Vegetable oil
10gr                 Unsalted butter
to adjust        Salt, white pepper, and sugar

Black tea au jus
1600ml          Vegetable stock
100ml             Balsamic vinegar
100ml             Worcestershire sauce
80ml                Chinese cooking wine
70gr                 Ginger – skin on, grilled
80gr                 Lemongrass – grilled
80gr                 Local black tea
50gr                 Garlic
10gr                 Coriander seed – toasted
6                         Kaffir lime leaves
110gr              Brown sugar/cane sugar/palm sugar
7gr                    Salt
1gr                    White pepper ground
20gr                 Corn flour (thickening agent)
15gr                 Unsalted butter – cubes and chilled

• Method:

For vegetable stock:

1. Char-grilled carrots, leeks, brown onion, celery until slightly charred, then place them in a medium size aluminum stockpot.
2. Place everything in it, and then cook on high heat for 20 minutes.
3. Once it’s boiled, simmer on a gentle heat for a good 45-minute.
4. Then leave it to cool, for at least an hour. Strain it and leave it aside.

For carrot puree:

1. Sauté the carrots, garlic and turmeric with the vegetable oil, then add in the vegetable stock, potatoes and bay leaves.
2. Cook over a gentle heat for at least 40 minutes.
3. Then take out the bay leaves, transfer it to a food blender.
4. Add in the parmesan, butter and cream, blend it fine until fluffy.
5. Add in the seasoning to be adjusted.

For black tea au jus:

1. Once all the grilled vegetables are done, place them in a saucepot then add in all the ingredients, except the tea and seasonings. Leave that to the finishing part and the thickening agent also, never at the beginning!
2. Cook on a gentle heat for a good 50-60 minutes, then add in the tea.
3. Take it out of the heat and leave it for 10 minutes, then strain all of the remaining.
4. Transfer it into another saucepot, bring it back to heat then add in the thickening agent.
5. Season it well and balance it with the cold unsalted butter. Then sieve it to make sure the texture is smooth enough to have the consistency of a demiglace.
6. Balance the seasoning as you go.

Constructing the dish:

1. Once the beef is chilled properly in the chiller, take it out and take off the plastic wrap.
2. Get a non-stick pan, oil it lightly and sear on the sides of the loin on a gentle heat for a good 8 minutes. Then leave it to rest for at least 4 minutes.
3. Sauté the mushrooms with chopped garlic and season it well, then sauté the spinach with garlic also and season it well.
4. Get your warm plates and construct your dish the way you like it before you serve your beef.

Make sure that you slice 2cm thick into a medallion; serve each plate with 3 slices. It should be enough for 4 portions and at the end, add some seasonings of freshly cracked black pepper and sea salt.

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Featured in THE FOODIE MAGAZINE March 2014 edition

Download it for free here via SCOOP!

Photos by: Dennie Benedict