Bumbu Dasar (Indonesian Basic Spice Paste)

Every culture has its basic traditional recipes. Same as the Italians who have their basic spaghetti sauce, Indonesian also have a basic spice paste that is need to know how to prepare. It is called basic because it is the seasoning bases of almost all Indonesian dishes.

Well, as an Indonesian, the basic recipe for Indonesian is a spice paste recipe. What we call bumbu dasar or spice paste is used in a lot of our traditional cooking. There has been many variations to this spice paste recipe. The core ingredients to any basic spice paste recipe has to include shallots and garlic. With that, you can pretty much add any other spice or aromatics to suit your needs and taste buds. 

To make basic spice paste, actually you should really pound all ingredients using a mortar and pestle. It is pretty time consuming and labour intensive, but the flavours, aroma and paste that ensues is definitely worth it. Until now, my grandmothers and my mom still using traditional mortar and pestle when grounded the spice. Using a food processor/blender will cut out the preparation time but it won’t generate the same flavours as a pounded spice paste. Most of my time in kitchen I use mortar and pestle, but if I made in such a huge amount of spice to ground I will use food processor instead of that traditional way. You can use which one that you feel comfort. 

If you using a blender, the order of processing the spices is much the same as using a mortar, but in some cases we might need to add some liquid to keep the blades of the machine turning during the blending process. The liquid could be oil if the spice paste needs to be fried or either coconut milk, stock or water if the spice paste is to be simmered.

Basically,  there are 3 variations of basic spice paste and it varies depends on the colour of the paste. They are White Basic Spice Paste, Yellow Basic Spice Paste, and Red Basic Spice Paste. Each paste become seasoning of different Indonesian dishes. For my Indonesian friends, I add a table in this post of different use of these 3 variations of basic spice paste.

Depending on what you are cooking, you can add the appropriate ingredients to it. For example, if you were planning on making Opor Ayam (Indonesian Chicken in Coconut Gravy), you would need to add in and pound some coriander seed, pepper powder, and lesser galangal. The possibilities is up to your choice.

In this post, I’ll show you one the recipes which suit me well between some of recipes that I have ever tried before. I got the recipe from "Resep Favorit D'ez Kitchen di Dunia Maya" by R. A Estherlita Suryopitro with some modification. I usually made this basic spice paste when I planned to be busy with some of work and don't have long time to be in the kitchen. Like now, it is Ramadhan, fasting month for Muslim. I made spice paste stock for a month. Using this easy method I feel more practical when preparing food for my family.

Bumbu Dasar Putih

(Indonesian Basic White Spice Sauce)

Ingredients:

• 200 grams shallots
• 100 grams cloves garlic
• 75 grams ginger
• 25 grams candlenuts (toasted before for better flavour)
• Cooking oil

Directions:

• If you use a mortar and pestle, the order to be followed when grinding spice paste ingredients is the hard items first, candle-nuts and ginger. You can scraped the ginger to make the grinding process easier. Once all of these are quite smooth, then add ingredients that are full of moisture, such as shallots and garlic.  
• If you use a food processor just blend all the ingredients until smooth. 
• Stir fry the paste with some cooking oil. Heat up until the water that comes out when you grinding the spice dissolves. Turn off the heat and leave the paste cold.
• While waiting the paste cold, sterilize the jar that you want to use to keep the paste (I suggest using glass jar such as mason jars). Sterilize it in boiling water for 15 minutes. 
• After the paste cold, transfer it into the mason jars. For one recipe in here I use the 16 oz Regular Mouth Ball Mason Jars. Keep it in chiller or freeze it.

*****

Bumbu Dasar Kuning

(Indonesian Basic Yellow Spice Sauce)

Ingredients:

• 200 grams shallots
• 100 grams cloves garlic
• 150 grams turmeric roots (toasted for better flavour and colour)
• 2 tsp ground turmeric powder (add if you feel the colour is not too yellow)
• 75 grams ginger
• 25 grams candlenuts (toasted before for better flavour)
• 4 Indonesian bay leaves (Daun Salam)
• 2 stalk lemon grass
• 2 kaffir lime leaves
• Cooking oil

Directions:

• If you use a mortar and pestle, the order to be followed when grinding spice paste ingredients is the hard items first, candle-nuts, turmeric and ginger. You can scraped the ginger and turmeric to make the grinding process easier. Once all of these are quite smooth, then add ingredients that are full of moisture, such as shallots and garlic.  
• If you use a food processor just blend all the ingredients until smooth. 
• Stir fry the paste with some cooking oil. Add Indonesian bay leaves, kaffir lime leaves, and lemon grass. Heat up until the water that comes out when you grinding the spice dissolves. Turn off the heat and leave the paste cold.
• While waiting the paste cold, sterilize the jar that you want to use to keep the paste (I suggest using glass jar such as mason jars). Sterilize it in boiling water for 15 minutes. 
• After the paste cold, transfer it into the mason jars. For one recipe in here I use the 16 oz Regular Mouth Ball Mason Jars. Keep it in chiller or freeze it

*****

Bumbu Dasar Merah

(Indonesian Basic Red Spice Sauce)

Ingredients:

• 160 grams shallots
• 80 grams cloves garlic
• 60 grams ginger
• 20 grams candlenuts (toasted before for better flavour)
• 8 fresh red chilli
• 4 dried red chilli (to make the taste more spicy and the colour more red) - optional
• 1 tbs fermented shrimp paste 
• 4 medium sized tomatoes, diced
• 4 Indonesian bay leaves (Daun Salam)
• 2 stalk lemon grass
• Cooking oil

Directions:

• If you use a mortar and pestle, the order to be followed when grinding spice paste ingredients is the hard items first, candle-nuts, turmeric and ginger. You can scraped the ginger and turmeric to make the grinding process easier. Once all of these are quite smooth, then add ingredients that are full of moisture, such as shallots, garlic, red chilli and tomatoes. If you use dried red chilli make sure to soaked it before grind it. 
• If you use a food processor just blend all the ingredients until smooth. 
• Stir fry the paste with some cooking oil. Add Indonesian bay leaves and lemon grass. Heat up until the water that comes out when you grinding the spice dissolves. Turn off the heat and leave the paste cold.
• While waiting the paste cold, sterilize the jar that you want to use to keep the paste (I suggest using glass jar such as mason jars). Sterilize it in boiling water for 15 minutes. 
• After the paste cold, transfer it into the mason jars. For one recipe in here I use the 16 oz Regular Mouth Ball Mason Jars. Keep it in chiller or freeze it.

Bubur Ketan Hitam (Black Glutinous Rice Porridge with Coconut Milk)

Black glutinous rice porridge is one of famous Indonesian desserts. This porridge is very easily found in across the nation. Generally, it is served in combination with the mung bean porridge and coconut milk sauce. We can enjoy this street food any time because although it is classified as dessert but many Indonesian eat it for breakfast, for supper or sometimes as snack. It is so delicious to eat in cold or hot. I prefer to eat this porridge in cold, add some ice or eat it right after keep it for a while in refrigerator. 

In Indonesian culinary, black glutinous rice porridge has so many names. In Sumatra (even in Malaysia and Singapore) is known as Bubur Pulut Hitam. While in other part of Indonesia, in Bali, it is known as Bubur Injin. Bubur means porridge in Indonesian and Malay. We can also find this kind of porridge in Thailand with name Khao Neow Dam, served with coconut milk and an extra sprinkling of sesame seeds or toasted coconut grated.  

I love to eat this porridge without addition of mung bean porridge. The taste will be more crunchy but soft inside and watery, of course it is so delicious sweet dessert. I also love to see the colour combination in this porridge, it is harmony between black and white, its glossy blackness and simple white makes it both alluring everyone who eat it for the first time.

So here is the recipe..

Please remember to take enough preparation time to soaking the black glutinous rice a night before you cook them. I prefer to soak it a night to make the rice softer when is cooked.

 

Bubur Ketan Hitam

(Black Glutinous Rice Porridge with Coconut Milk)

Resources : NCC

Ingredients:

Porridge

• 200 grams black glutinous rice
• 150 grams sugar (can be substituted with coconut sugar or palm sugar)
• 2 litres water
• 2 Pandan leaves 
• pinch of salt

Coconut Milk Sauce:

• 250 ml thick coconut milk
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Pandan leaves

Directions:

• Run your fingers through the rice and check for any pebbles or other noticeable impurities. Rinse the rice a few times until the water clears. Cover with at least 2 inches of water and allow to soak 4 or more hours, or overnight. The rice will absorb water and grow in size. Then, drain the rice. 
• Cook with water and pandan leaves, bring to boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook partially covered until soft and thick.  Add sugar and salt, continue cooking with stirring it occasionally until the porridge thicken and sugar dissolved. Turn off the heat. Set aside. 
• For coconut milk sauce, cook thick coconut milk with salt and pandan leaves. We don't add any sugar in this sauce to make it contrast with the sweetened black glutinous rice. 
• When ready to serve, dish the porridge into individual serving bowls and dribble some sauce over each serving.

Kepiting Saos Padang (Padangese Hot and Spicy Chilli Crab)

When I was still lived in Pontianak (the capital city of West Kalimantan), crab is one of my family's favorite seafood. If my parents went into local market and found the big crab sell or when came from Singkawang, they would not leave not to buy those crabs. In Kalimantan we can buy big and good quality crab. It is very different what we face in Java island now. It is so hard to get any good quality crab and the price is so expensive, a kilogram crab in here almost as same as a kilogram beef. But don't worry, we still can eat good crabs if we go to a seafood restaurant that get their crabs from Kalimantan. If you live in East Java, of course you will know the most famous seafood restaurant in here who made crabs dish as their signature dish, "Kepiting Cak Gundul". My friend said that they get their crabs from Tarakan, a city in East Kalimantan. 

At home, my mother usually cook crabs by boiling it with garlic and ginger then only then eat those by dipping in sweet soy sauce or tomato sauce. Sometimes she made crab with sweet and sour tomato sauce or corn soup with crab meat. But in Indonesia, actually there are so many recipes that use crabs as main ingredients that you can try at home. One of them is this Indonesian Chilli Crab or Padangese Hot and Spicy Chilli Sauce. I never eat Indonesian Chilli Crab before. Due to my curiousness, then when I went to market, I bought some crabs. Original recipe from Resep Keluarga Nugraha in here. But I modified this recipe to suit me.

I prefer to boil the crab first before mix it in the cooked sauce. Beside boil it you can also fried the crab before cook it with sauce. How to clean crabs? You can check it out in this blog. The tutorial how to clean crab is complete there (added with picture). Great tips for you...

Padangese hot and spicy chilli crab is one of very famous dish from Padang (a city in West Sumatra) beside Indonesian Beef Rendang (stewed beef in brown coconut curry). Of course, because it comes from Padang, the taste of this dish is really hot and spicy. For spicy lover this dish will be one of must-to-eat-in-Indonesia. But despite the frills of "Padang" in the name of the dish, I hope you will not overestimate to get this dish in all Padangese restaurant in all over Indonesia. This dish only common in Chinese seafood restaurant. Beside with crabs, sometimes they use shrimp, clamp or mussel, but as alternatives you can use fish too as main ingredients in this dish.  You can enjoy this Indonesian chilli crab with warm rice or a plate of Mantou (Chinese steamed buns). So yummy...

Indonesian Chili Crab 

(Padangese Hot and Spicy Chilli Crab)

Ingredients:

• 2 big-sized crabs (about 500 gr), cleaned, boiled
• 5 tbs tomato sauce
• 2 tbs chilli sauce (Indonesian chilli sauce)
• 4 tbs oyster sauce
• 150 ml water
• 1 1/2 tbs corn starch, dissolve in a tbs of water
• 1 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp lime juice

Finely ground:

• 5 shallots (can be change with 1 small-sized onion, sliced)
• 3 garlic
• 3-4 red chillies
• 3 bird-eye chillies (you can add more bird-eye chillies if you want more spicy)
• 3 cm turmeric
• 1 tsp pepper
• salt and sugar as desired

Directions:

• In a large skillet, heat up the cooking oil in medium-high heat. Saute the ground spice until fragrant. Add the tomato sauce, chilli sauce and oyster sauce. Stirring often and cooked until well done.
• Add the crabs, stir it. Add water and bring to boil in a high heat. Adjust the taste with add some sugar and salt. Wait until bubbling.
• Add the dissolve corn starch, stir it and cook it in low-heat until the sauce come inside the crabs meat and let the sauce thicken. Add lime juice, stir it for a while then turn off the heat. Ready to be served with hot steamed rice or hot Mantaou. 

Siomay Bandung (Bandung Steamed Dumplings with Peanut Sauce)

 

I don't know exactly since when I love to eat this street food. Siomay is similar to Chinese Dim Sum. It is an Indonesian steamed fish dumpling served with Peanut Sauce. A word of Siomay itself can be derived from Chinese Shumai (siu mai or shaomai), a traditional Chinese Dumpling that is considered to have originated from Inner Mongolia.

This traditional dim sum is a popular meal in Indonesia as street food. There are so many types of siomay variations in Indonesian cuisine based on the meat that is used for the filling. We can use king mackerel fish, chicken, shrimp, crab, or mixture of chicken and shrimp. As the recipe I share in here is using mixture of chicken and shrimp as filling. Siomay Bandung is the most famous variety of siomay in Indonesian cuisine.

Siomay Bandung is served with tofu, hard-boiled egg and vegetables such as potato, cabbage, bitter-melon, and the most important component, that is Peanut Sauce. We can add some seasoning for peanut sauces such as chili, lime juice and a little bit sweet soy sauce.

The original recipe is come from NCC. But I made some change to the original recipe due to my liking. And also the recipe of Peanut Sauce or Peanut Sambal. I made my own recipe.

Siomay Bandung

Bandung Steamed Dumplings with Peanut Sauce

 

Ingredients: 

• 400 g chicken meat, paste
• 100 g shrimp/king mackerel fish, paste
• 2 tbs shallots, grated
• 1 tbs garlic, mashed
• 2 tsp ground white pepper
• 3 tbs sugar
• 3 tsp salt
• 1 tbs cooking oil or sesame oil
• 3 eggs
• 400 g chayotes, grated
• 450 g tapioca starch
• Wonton skins
• 1 medium sized bitter-melon
• 1 medium sized cabbage
• Some hard-boiled eggs
• Tofu

Peanut Sauce:

• 500 g roasted peanut
• 200 g red chilies 
• 3 garlic
• 3 shallots
• 2 tbs Javanese tamarind juice
• 2 tbs salt
• 7 tbs coconut sugar
• 1,5 liter water

 Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine chicken meat and shrimp paste with shallot, garlic, white pepper, sugar, salt, and cooking oil. I used food processor to combine it. Then add egg and mix well. 
2. Add grated chayotes and mix well. Add tapioca starch, mix well. Set aside.
3. Grease the steamer with small amount of cooking oil to make the dumplings will not sticky when steaming. 
4. Siomay : Take a piece of wonton skin, scoop about 1 tbs of filling, shape it using hands. Repeat until all the wonton skin are used up. Steam for 20 minutes.
5. Potato :  Boiled potatoes until half-cooked then peel the potato's skin. Cut in half and scrape a portion of potato side and fill it with the filling. Steam it. If you want simple way, just boiled it and peel the potato skin without fill it with the feeling.
6. Tofu : Cut in half and scrape a portion of tofu and fill it with the filling. Steam. You can also just cut in half and directly steam it.
7. Bitter melon : Cut in several pieces (as your liking). Scrape the seed portion and fill it in with the filling. Steam it.
8. Cabbage : Cut in several pieces as your liking and steam it. Some people usually make the cabbage roll and fill it with the filling. But I choose simple way, just steam it with fill nothing.
9. Egg : hard boiled eggs 
10. Peanut Sauce (Peanut Sambal) :
    
    • Process the peanuts in food processor until smooth. Transfer it into a medium bowl. Set aside.
    • Process red chilies, garlic and shallots until smooth. 
    • Heat a skillet and add some cooking oil. Stir fry the smooth red chilies, garlic, and shallot until fragrant. Add the ground peanuts, mix well. Pour water, mix it. Add salt, coconut sugar, tamarind juice, mix well. Wait until the sauce become thick then turn off the heat. Set aside.

Serving suggestions: place all dumplings on a plate. Pour some peanut sauce and drizzle over lime juice, sweet soy sauce, and some ground chilies or you can use chili sauce from the store. 

Bubur Pedas Melayu Sambas (The Malay Sambas Spicy Porridge)

I made this to fulfill the monthly challenge of Indonesian Foodblogger. The theme of this month is CONGEE or PORRIDGE. More about this month challenge you can see in here.

Bubur Pedas is one of traditional food from West Borneo. There are no evidence or history literature that told about this porridge, where it came from or the original recipe. But some people in West Borneo said that this porridge was first time made by The Malay Sambas. The Malay Sambas people live along the northern coastline of West Borneo province in various districts of Sambas Regency. This porridge is the most famous food in West Borneo, no one in West Borneo who didn't know this food. They said that Bubur Pedas is the king of porridge, because all of the ingredients blend into one pot. The original recipe from Malay Sambas stated that this porridge contain of 40 vegetables. Amazing!

From the name, when you hear or read it, maybe you will think that this porridge must be spicy as the name "pedas" in Bahasa Indonesia that means spicy. But believe me that the taste is not spicy at all.

The main ingredients that must be in this porridge, beside roasted and ground rice mixed with finely roasted grated coconut and some spices, is Laksa Leaf or Daun Kesum. Without this leaf, this porridge is nothing. The taste will change and lose the authenticity of this traditional culinary. Laksa leaf is kind of herb whose leaves are used in some Southeast Asian cooking. There is not much Indonesian food using this leaf, i think only Malay ethnic group in Borneo and Sumatra who use this in their cooking. Kesum leaves have strong and sharp scent, like a mixture of Basil leaves and Curry leaves. The taste little bit spicy, maybe that's why this porridge called "Bubur Pedas".

 

Some people said that we can substitute this leaf with Basil leaves, but believe me my mother ever tried this and the taste totally messed up. You know, it is so hard to find this herb in Java, so if I want to cook this porridge I have to wait my parent go to Borneo and bring this leaves. Specially imported from Borneo, LOL. Luckily, now in Borneo we can find this leaves in dried condition, easier to bring back to Java. 

Then, here is the recipe from my mother. I learn to cook this from my mother when she visited my home then I try to made it by myself and it works! So happy...

Bubur Pedas

(The Malay Sambas Spicy Porridge)

Ingredients:

• 250 g rice, washed
• 100 g coconut, grated
• 100 g meat, cut into small pieces
• 1 bunch water spinach, chopped
• 50 g beansprout 
• 5 long bean, chopped
• 50 g sweet potato, diced
• 50 g Laksa leaf/Kesum leaf, finely chopped
• 2 liter water
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 stalk lemon grass, crushed
• 2 cm galangal, smashed
• 100 g peanuts, fried
• 50 g small anchovy, fried 

Finely ground:

• 3  shallot
• 1 clove garlic
• 2  tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper 

Directions:

• Roast the rice and grated coconut in frying pan without cooking oil. Stir well and roast until the color become brown but not burnt. Then remove from the heat, mashed it. You can use food processor to mashed it. 
• Boil water with meat inside until the meat well cooked. Add the ground spices, bay leave, lemon grass, galangal, then stir well. Cook until fragrant.
• Add sweet potato stir well. Add mashed-roasted rice, stir finely while it cooking to prevent the burnt of the rice in the bottom of the pan.
• Add water spinach, bean sprout, long bean, and Kesum leaves, cooked until done. Remove from the heat.
• Served it with the topping, such as fried peanut and fried anchovy. You can add soy sauce, chilli sauce, and a little lime juice as condiment. And of course you can eat it with crackers. Enjoy it.

Recipe in Bahasa

Ayam Woku Belanga (Chicken with Spicy Chilli Woku Sauce)

I am not a Manadonese (one of ethnic group of Indonesia inhibits Sulawesi island), but i truly love the taste of this food. No offense, i am the biggest fans of spicy food wherever they are, LOL. Manadonese food is very famous throughout Indonesia. The flavor of choice is very hot and spicy. People in Manado will likely not go for a strike when fuel costs increase, but it is very unlikely for them to stay quiet when chili prices increase.

Woku is an authentic Manado sauce that get named from Daun Woka. Daun woka is a kind of young coconut leaf that is usually used as a warm rice wrapper. In Manado's history of culinary, woku spices is rich Manadonese mixed spices. Actually this woku using seafood as basic ingredients but some people use chicken. There are 2 version of woku, i.e. Woku Belanga (cooked with juicy sauce in belanga or saucepan) or Woku Daun (cooked wrapped in banana/woku leaves).

The fusion between savory fresh sour flavour and fragrant of various herb leaves make this food is completely delicious. And don't blame me if you will be so tempted in this food after you taste it, LOL.

I took the recipe from Bunda Inong's blog. She was my greatest inspiration to write a blog about food and recipe. I admire her so much, although she has been gone several years ago. Now, we can only meet her by her blog, a place where she kept her recipe and story about her past daily activity. This is one of my favourite food at home. I often cook this at home.

Ayam Woku Belanga 

(Chicken with Spicy Chilli Woku Sauce)

Ingredients :

• 12 chicken pieces
• 1 lime, squeezed to get the juice
• 1 medium-sized tomato, sliced
• 2 lemon grass, bruised
• 2 stalks spring onion, sliced
• 3 kaffir lime leaves
•  2 sprigs of lemon basil leaves (Kemangi leaves)
• salt, sugar, and pepper as desired
• 500 ml water
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil

Finely ground :

• 5 shallots
• 100 gr long red chillies
•  50 gr bird's eye red chilli (you can reduce or eliminate this chili if you don't want this food too spicy)
• 2 cm fresh turmeric
• 3 cm fresh ginger
• 5 candlenuts

Directions :

• Rub chicken with salt and lime juices. Marinate for 30 minutes. Set aside.
•  Stir fry the finely ground ingredients in cooking oil. Add lemon grass and stir it until fragrant. 
• Add chicken and water. Stir well then add sliced tomato and kaffir lime leaves. In medium heat, let it cooked about 30 minutes or until the chicken pieces tender and the sauce reduce.
• Add salt, sugar, pepper, spring onion and lemon basil leaves. Stir it, and ready to be served.

Pesmol Ikan Kembung (Short Mackerel in Spicy Onion Sauce)

I was tempted to short mackerel since I was child. Nowadays, I never let through to buy this fish whenever it was displayed in grocery. Usually I just deep fried this fish and eat it with Sambal (one of Indonesian staple food that has spicy flavor). But today I try to make something different. Then I remembered that I have ever eat Fish Pesmol in Sundanese Restaurant and I like the spicy onion sauce of Pesmol. I searched the recipe in the internet and Voila.... Here they come....

In the original recipe, she used White Pomfret fish (Ikan Bawal), so I just substitute the main ingredients. Overall I love this recipe, fresh and spicy. If you don't like spicy food, you can eliminate or reduce the bird-eye chilli. Hope you enjoy it..

Pesmol Ikan Kembung 

(Short Mackerel in Spicy Onion Sauce)

 Ingredients:

• 500 gram Indonesian mackerel (Ikan Kembung), you can substitute to other kind of fish that you like
• 1-2 lime, squeeze to get the juice
• 3 cm fresh galangal, crushed
• 1 lemon grass, bruised
• 2 kaffir lime leaves
• 2 Indonesian bay leaves
• 6 shallots, halved, sliced
• 1 spring onion, sliced
• 1 lemon grass, sliced
• 1 small size tomato, sliced
• 1 long red pepper, angle sliced
• 5 whole bird's eye chillies
• water as desired
• 1/2 tablespoons vinegar (can be substituted by tamarind juice)
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil

Ground Spicy Paste:

• 3 shallots
• 5 cloves garlic
• 5 candlenuts
• 3 cm fresh turmeric 
• 1 cm fresh ginger
• salt, sugar, and pepper as desired

 Directions:

• Rub fish with lemon juice, salt and pepper. Marinate for 15-30 minutes. Deep fry until golden brown, then set aside.
• Stir fry ground spicy paste, galangal, lemon grass, bay-leaves, and kaffir lime leaves in a small amount of oil until fragrant.
• Add water, salt, pepper, and sugar. Bring to boil. Add whole sliced shallot, spring onion, lemon grass, tomato, long red  pepper, and bird's eye chillies.
• Add vinegar/tamarind juice. Cook until chillies and shallots wilted then add fish. Stir evenly in small heat until all the paste seep into the fish. Serve with warmed rice.

Recipe in Bahasa Indonesia version

Pempek (Palembang Stuffed Fish Cake)

Pempek or we can called it Palembang Stuffed Fish Cake is a savoury fish cake delicacy from Palembang, capital city of South Sumatra. It is usually served with yellow noodles and a dark, rich sweet and sour sauce called kuah cuko. Pempek is one of my favourite Indonesian cuisine since I was child. I really love it. I still remember when I got my first pregnant, I ever asked my parents to bring Pempek from Pontianak just because I really want to eat Pempek that is made by my mother's friend. 

Now, I try to make it by myself. So, I don't need to imported  it again from Pontianak, or maybe from the origin place, Palembang. I was so happy because although it was my first experiment to made it I can made it successfully :D But only for Pempek Lenjer, not for the Kapal Selam type, it was so hard to make it perfec.

Pempek dough is made from a mixture of boneless ground fish meat, commonly Indonesian uses Ikan Tenggiri (kind of Wahoo or Spanish macakerel) with water, salt and tapioca. But some of others uses Ikan Gabus (Snakehead fish) or Ikan Belida (Featherback fish). Many people said the best tasting pempek are made from Ikan Belida, but it is so difficult to find that fish in Malang, very rare, so I use the usual thing and easy to find, Ikan Tenggiri.

The other important part of this cuisine is Kuah Cuko. The colour of this sauce is dark brown. Just make sure you made the sauce from palm sugar (gula aren), because it will give good colour of the sauce better than if you use brown sugar/coconut sugar (gula merah). But the best thing will always gula merah Linggau, palm sugar from Palembang.

 

Pempek (Palembang Stuffed Fish Cake)

Source: NCC

Ingredients:

Basic Dough:

• 500 grams boneless ground Ikan Tenggiri (Spanish macakerel) meat
• 100 milliliter icy water
• 1 egg
• 25 grams wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 4 clove garlic, minced
• 100 milliliter water
• 400  grams sago flour (Tepung sagu tani)
• 3 tablespoons Tang Mien Flour (wheat starch flour)

Kuah Cuko:

• 250 grams palm sugar
• 50 grams tamarind
• 1 teaspoons ground dried shrimp
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 750 milliliter water
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• bird eyes chilies, ground 
• salt

Directions:

Basic Dough:

• In a bowl, mix boneless ground fish meat, icy water, and egg. Mix well (use your hand better than spoon). Take in chiller until thicken.
• In a bowl, mix wheat flour, sugar, salt, minced garlic, and water. Stir it while boiled in small heat. Stir continuously until thicken. Leave it cold and take in chiller after that.
• After 30 minutes, take out all the ingredients that you put in chiller. Mix all ingredients in different two bowl into one bowl. Mix well (use your hand again).
• Add sagu flour and tang mien flour gradually while you knead the dough slowly until smooth and not sticky in the hand.
• In a big pot, boil water. Add some cooking oil to make Pempek looks shiny and didn't stick each other while boiled.
• On your work table, dust sagu flour. And also don't forget to dust your hand also with sagu flour.
• Take a small amount of Pempek dough, shape it into ball (if you make Pempek adaan), or shape into long cylindrical (if you make Pempek lenjer), and you can also add chicken egg wrapped within the dough (Pempek kapal selam).
• Plunk Pempek into a pot of boiling water. Let pempek float. Take it and leave it cold.
• Deep fry until golden brown. Serve with kuah cuko and cucumber chopped. You can also add some noodles or ground dried shrimps to enrich the flavour.

Kuah cuko:

• In a saucepan, add water, tamarind, palm sugar. Let the sugar dissolve and wait until boil.
• Add minced garlic, ground dried shrimp, ground bird eyes chilies, salt. Bring to boil. Turn off the heat. Add vinegar. 
• Strain it. Ready to be served.

Lumpia Sayur (Vegetable Spring Roll)

Spring roll or Indonesian called it with "Lumpia", are a large variety of filled, rolled appetizers. The name is a literal translation of the Chinese chūn juǎn (春卷) found widely in Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine. The kind of wrapper, fillings, and cooking technique used, as well as the name, vary considerably within this large area.

I do love spring roll. My mother usually make this for me and my family when Ramadhan (fasting month) come or make it only for snack in our daily. Although fried spring roll is more crunchy than this one, but in my personal taste I like the one that is not fried better than the fried one. I love the authentic taste of the original flavor of spring roll wrapper.

This recipe is adapted from Resep Keluarga Nugraha which I changed the filling. In original recipe used chicken meat, shrimp, and bamboo shoot. Just because my husband is a vegetarian, so I only use bamboo shoot, sprout, and carrot for the filling. I didn't make the dipping sauce as the recipe written. I only serve this with simple chilli sauce, bird's eye chilli pepper, and spring onion.

Lumpia Sayur (Vegetable Spring Roll)

Category : Appetizer and Snacks

Style : Indonesian

Servings : 20 spring rolls

Ingredients

Wrapper, mixture:

·         110 grams all-purpose flour

·         60 grams rice flour

·         2 eggs, beaten

·         350 ml water

·         5 tablespoons cooking oil

·         ½ teaspoons salt

·         ½ teaspoons chicken bouillon powder (optional)

Fillings:

·         6 medium-sized shallots

·         4 cloves garlic

·         120 grams bamboo shoot, finely chopped

·         120 grams carrots, finely chopped

·         100 grams sprouts

·         2 tablespoons oyster sauce

·         2 teaspoons sugar

·         ½ teaspoons salt

·         ½ teaspoons pepper

Dipping sauce:

Hot chili sauce

Directions

1. Wrapper : made thinly wrapper using a 20 cm-frying pan
2. Filling : Sautee garlic and shallot at a medium-high heat in a pan until fragrant. Add bamboo shoot, carrot, and sprout. Stir evenly. Add oyster sauce, sugar, salt, and pepper until well-cooked. Remove from the heat and leave it in room temperature.
3. Take a spring roll wrapper and fill with approximately 1 tablespoons of filling mixture. Wrap and shape it.
4. Serve the spring rolls with the hot chili sauce, bird’s eye chili pepper, and spring onion.

Tekwan (Palembang Fish Ball Soup)

Tekwan is a fish soup typical of Palembang, Indonesia. The fish cakes are made from the dough of fish and tapioca (or sago starch) similar to Pempek. The fish cake is cut in small sizes and presented in shrimp broth with a distinctive flavour, served with rice vermicelli, mushrooms, sliced jicama, and sprinkled with sliced fresh celery, scallion, and fried shallot. Some people made the fish ball from ikan tenggiri (Spanish mackerel), but the other made it from ikan belida (Featherback fish) or ikan gabus (Snakehead fish). All of them are freshwater fish.

Actually I have been several times made this tekwan. But I don't know why the texture of the fish ball never been same as what my mother's made. Maybe I add too many fish in the mixture or something like that. My mother gave me tips to not add so much fish to the mixture to make it more chewy and mix it with ice/cold water. Maybe when I made this in the next time, I will revised the recipe.

 

Tekwan (Palembang Fish Ball Soup)

Source :  "Resep Keluarga Nugraha"

Ingredients:

Fish balls :

• 325 grams boneless ground Ikan tenggiri (Spanish mackerel) meat
• 100 grams tapioca starch 
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Soup :

• 250 grams prawns
• 25 grams dried black fungus, soaked with hot water
• 2 medium sizes of jicama (bengkoang), peeled and slice into long and thin shape as you wish
• 20 grams dried lily flower (bunga sedap malam kering), soaked with hot water
• 1 stalk of Chinese celery, chopped finely
• 6 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoons pepper
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 liter water
• 5 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 medium size of onion, chopped
• cooking oil

 Other ingredients:

• 2 stalk of green onion, chopped finely
• 1 stalk of Chinese celery, chopped finely
• fried shallot flakes
• dried rice vermicelli, soaked with hot water
• soy bean sauce (optional)
• slices of lemon (optional)

Directions:  
Fish ball:

• Add all the ingredients to make fish ball and mix it well. 
• In a pot, boil water, reduce the heat. Take a tablespoon of fish ball dough and shape it into small balls by using two tablespoons. Drop into the pot until the fish ball floated. Then take away the fish ball and set aside.

Soup :

• Add 2 tablespoon of cooking oil. Stir fry garlic and onion until fragrant. 
• Peel the prawn shells of, add the shell and head. Stir it well until the shell and head turning into red.
• Pour the water, boil it. Then strain the prawn soup.
• Boil again prawn soup after you strain it. Add chopped prawns, jicama, soaked black fungus, and lily flower. Add sugar, salt, pepper, and Chinese celery. Cook until all the ingredients well-cooked.
• Add fish ball, take the soup into re-boil. Turn off the heat.
• Ready to be served with green onion, Chinese celery, soaked rice vermicelli, fried shallot flakes. If you like you can add some soybean sauce and slices of lemon juice and some chili sauce.