Saksang is one of popular dishes in North Sumatra, Indonesia. Having a Batak descent boyfriend, the origin tribe of North Sumatra - became the reason for me to finally exploring this dish, he likes this dish a lot I can tell by his looks. Otherwise, I won't. After several times got my chances visiting several lapo in my city -Batak term for tavern or small restaurant, and tasting different styles of saksang, I realized that it actually contains gota -Batak term for blood, either pork, beef, or chicken. It was terribly surprising. I'm a Christian and eating blood is definitely forbidden. We were emotionally debating about this rule at that time, it was a tough moment but thanks God, that everything went well in the end.

As a conclusion we never add gota anymore everytime we go to lapo, I know he feels disappointed by the fact but law is law. As a payback, I took the initiate to search for gota replacement. Well, to be honest: gota is the key of saksang, gota is completing the recipe,  gota makes a perfect taste of saksang, and trust me, every testimonial writes: it's not saksang unless you add gota. Dillematic. But, lucky that finally I found the recipe where we can replace gota with coconut.

Andaliman

Recipe is written in Indonesian by Resep Campur

Main Ingredients

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1 kg of pork / beef - slice into small pieces
3 lime leaves (daun jeruk)
1 bay leaf (daun salam)
salt
seasonings
cooking oil for sauteing seasoning
2 cups of cold water

Gota Substitute

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500 gr grated coconut (kelapa parut)
100 gr coriander seeds crushed (ketumbar halus)
1 tbsp andaliman (or sichuan pepper or huajiao 花椒)

Spices - combine in a blender

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6 cloves Onion
6 cloves of garlic
10 curly chilli (cabai keriting or CTH-01 is a hybrid plant in Indonesia, so it's optional)
5 Thai pepper (cabai rawit) 
4 lemongrass (serai)
1 inch of ginger (jahe)
1 inch of galangal (lengkuas)
1 inch of turmeric (kunyit)

Directions

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1. Pan-fry (sangrai) the grated coconut and coriander until the color become brown and aromatic. Set aside and immediately mash until smooth and let the oil comes out
2. Stir-fry the spice, add bay leaf and lime leaves, let marinade then add the meat.
3. Keep stirring and add two cups of water
4. Cover the pan over medium heat, once the water is reduced, add the gota substitue (coconut + coriander). Keep stirring to mix everything.
5. Tasting and correcting, you can add more seasoning, and once the water dries, saksang is ready to serve.

Ok, so I didn't add gota nor the substitute on this version of my first saksang above, so the taste was more similar to rica-rica. But, yummy, still. Anyway, happy eating.