How to make kluwak seed paste for rawon soup

Rawon is an East Javanese black soup built around beef, shrimp paste and kluwak, the intensely earthy seed of a tropical fruit related to durian. Traditionally, the seeds are fermented in pits before their dark coating is removed. Kluwak seed paste supplies the soup’s characteristic aroma and colour, giving rawon a savoury depth that plain stock cannot reproduce.

Kluwak is not civet coffee. It is a separate fermented food ingredient sold as whole seeds, sticky “balls”, powder or prepared paste. This method uses food-grade fermented seeds and works with either fresh whole seeds or kluwak powder available from specialist Asian grocers. Understanding the rural production and small-scale processing behind Indonesian ingredients is part of the story captured through village food economies.

Choose the kluwak product that suits rawon

Start by checking the label carefully. Indonesian sellers may call the ingredient kluwak, keluak, black seed or keluak paste. Whole fermented seeds are usually firm brown-black kernels, while balls may have several seeds held together by a sticky fermented coating. Powder is pale grey to brown and has a concentrated, roasted aroma.

In Australia, kluwak is more likely to appear at specialist Asian grocers around Melbourne’s Richmond and Box Hill or Sydney’s Cabramatta than on a standard supermarket shelf. Imported products commonly come in metric packets of 100 or 250 grams. Supermarkets may place dry powder in the international-food aisle, while fresh paste or whole seeds should be kept in the chiller.

Choose a clean product without visible mould, excessive moisture or a damaged package. Kluwak should smell earthy and fermented, not musty or fizzy. Avoid products that describe the ingredient as coffee beans or imply that an animal produced it.

Prepare whole seeds or rehydrate powder

For whole fermented seeds, remove any loose fruit pulp. If the package says the seeds should be rinsed, wash them briefly in cool water and pat them dry; prolonged soaking can wash away the fermented flavours that make kluwak useful for rawon. If the seeds are exceptionally hard, soak them in warm water for 20 to 30 minutes before further preparation.

Place the seeds in a heatproof bowl and steam for 10 to 15 minutes, until they yield to a knife. Some sellers provide cleaned seeds, while others supply skin-on seeds that can be rubbed after steaming. Follow the product instructions about removing skins, since the dark inner layer often carries much of the aroma.

For dry kluwak powder, skip the steaming stage. Put one tablespoon of powder into a small bowl, add two tablespoons of warm water and stir until smooth. Let it stand for 10 minutes, then check whether more water is needed. Fermentation is a controlled biological transformation rather than simple spoilage, and this seed fermentation guide provides useful background on the process. Never attempt to ferment raw kluwak seeds in an improvised pit or sealed home jar; buy a product prepared under controlled food-safety conditions.

Grind a smooth concentrated paste

Transfer the steamed seeds to a mortar, food processor or grinder. Work in short pulses, scraping down the sides as needed, and add a teaspoon of water at a time. The finished paste should be dark, moist and spreadable rather than dusty. A small amount of fine salt can help draw out moisture and draw together the seed particles.

Taste a dab before adding more salt. Kluwak has a naturally bittersweet, mushroom-like flavour, so a little bitterness is normal, while harsh sourness or an unpleasant fermented smell indicates a poor product. If the mixture remains too gritty, pass it through a fine sieve, although some texture is desirable in an traditional paste.

For a useful benchmark, 100 grams of prepared whole seeds should yield roughly 80 to 90 grams of paste. The exact yield varies with moisture and skin. Keep the amount measured, because a small spoon of concentrated paste can overpower the shrimp paste and spices in a large pot of soup.

Build the rawon broth in layers

For four servings, combine about 500 grams of beef, 1.5 litres of water, two tablespoons of kluwak seed paste, one tablespoon of shrimp paste, four garlic cloves, three shallots, a slice of ginger, a piece of galangal and two candlenuts. Brown the beef lightly, then cook the sliced aromatics in a little oil until fragrant.

Add the shrimp paste and fry it briefly, stirring until it smells savoury rather than burnt. Mix in the kluwak paste and let it cook for 30 to 60 seconds to release its aroma. Pour in the water, return the beef to the pot and simmer gently for two to three hours. Add the kluwak mixture towards the beginning so its flavour has time to enter the broth, but avoid a hard boil, which can make it taste harshly bitter.

Season near the end with salt, white pepper and a small amount of palm sugar. Rawon should be savoury and balanced, with a deep brown-black broth. Serve it with steamed jasmine rice, mung bean sprouts, fried shallots and sambal. At an Australian dinner table, it works much like a rich noodle-soup meal rather than a formal multi-course dish.

Store the paste and make a test batch

Keep homemade paste in a clean, airtight container in the refrigerator and use it within five to seven days. For longer storage, divide it into small freezer portions, label the date and use it within one to two months for the best flavour. Use a clean spoon each time and do not leave the paste at room temperature. Commercial paste should follow the importer’s storage instructions.

A test batch helps determine how strongly your preferred kluwak product flavours the broth. Begin with one tablespoon of paste in a small saucepan of water, simmer it for five minutes and taste it after cooling. Australian recipes usually use a 20-millilitre tablespoon, and “not too much” can mean very different quantities when working with concentrated kluwak.

If a paste smells off or has developed an unfamiliar mould, chuck it out rather than attempting to cook the problem away. For a first test, place one tablespoon of kluwak powder in a small bowl, add two tablespoons of warm water and stir until a smooth paste forms.