Indonesian Food

Cendol

2011-02-05T02:03:00.000-08:00

cendol (pronounced /ˈtʃɛndɒl/) is a traditional dessert originating from South East Asia which is still popular in Indonesia , Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines and Southern Thailand (where it is called lortchorng singapore ลอดช่องสิงคโปร์).

There is popular belief in Indonesia that the name "cendol" is related to and originated from the word jendol; in Javanese, Sundanese and Indonesian language it means "bump" or "bulge", it refer to bumpy sensations of the green worm-like jelly passed through the mouth during drinking es cendol. In Malaysia, some cendol maker have been selling cendol for past three generation, since 1920th until now

he dessert's basic ingredients consist of coconut milk, a worm-like jelly made from rice flour with green food coloring (usually derived from the pandan leaf), shaved ice and palm sugar. Next to these basic recipe, other ingredients such as red beans, glutinous rice, grass jelly, creamed corn, might also be included.[4]

In Sunda, Indonesia, cendol is a dark green pulpy dish of rice (or sago) flour worms with coconut milk and syrup of areca sugar. It used to be served without ice. In the Javanese language, cendol refers to the green jelly-like part of the beverage, while the combination of cendol, palm sugar and coconut milk is called dawet. The most famous variant of Javanese es dawet is from Banjarnegara, Central Java.

The affluence of Singapore, as well as Western influence, has given rise to different variations of cendol. One can occasionally come across variants such as cendol with vanilla ice-cream or cendol topped with durian.

ingredients

* 125 gr / 4½ oz rice flour
* 50 gr / 2 oz sago flour
* 75 cc / 2½ oz pandan leaves water (boil water with pandan leaves until it has green color)
* 450 cc / 15 oz water
* salt as needed

Other ingredients

* 200 gr / 7 oz palm sugar, boil with 125 cc / 4 oz of water until it dissolves. Strain the palm sugar water and boil again. Set aside.
* 500 cc / 17 oz coconut milk. Boil and set aside to cool.
* 1 can of jackfruit in syrup, cut into small bite-sized pieces (optional)

how to make cendol

1. Mix rice flour and sago flour, then mix it with some of the water.
2. Boil the rest of the water, add green pandan leaves water and salt.
3. Put the flour mixtures into the boiled water.
4. Stir well and cook until it thickens (paste-like).
5. Drain with special cendol strain (usually the strainer has round holes), so when we press the cendol mixture it will go out of the strain as roundish short cendol.
6. Put these cendol directly into a bowl with water and ice in it.
7. Cendol will be solid and then drain them again. Set aside.

how to serve

Put some cendol into a tall glass, pour palm sugar syrup and coconut milk (separate layers). You can add shaved ice or just ice cubes.
variations

Add some jackfruit, cut into small cubes.

Pecel, Madiun Traditional Food

2011-02-05T01:57:00.000-08:00

Pecel flavor is one of the sauce as a food supplement.
Present usually with vegetables.
this food has become a traditional food culture jawa.sudah a typical food for the people East Java.

The classic Javanese spicy peanut sauce.

Make it up in large batches because it will stay fresh in or out of the refrigerator for weeks. Then mix a few tablespoons with warm water whenever you want some gado-gado or nasi pecel.

MAke Pecel
1½ cup raw peanuts
10 small red chilis
2 large red chilis
2 tsp asem tua [mature tamarind]
6 lime leaves
2 cloves garlic
2 thumb-sized pieces of kencur
2 tsp salt
about ¼ cup gula jawa [palm sugar]

1. Fry peanuts in oil for about 3 minutes
2. Crush peanuts to a fine powery paste in a lemper
3. Remove peanut mixture to a separate container
4. Crush remaining ingredients in a lemper
5. Add peanuts and mix well.

Pecel Lele

2011-02-05T01:52:00.000-08:00

Pecel lele is a food from Indonesia. Lele is a catfish in English, fried catfish with chili sauce for sure. The performance of pecel lele is a fried catfish (lele goreng) combine with sauce and raw veggie.

Pecel lele was already well known in Indonesia, almost every Indonesian already tried this and knew the taste. Pecel lele is one of Indonesian favorite food. So when you ask about pecel lele, people will answer it with a street food with tasty and cheap food. Yes, Pecel lele has an image in Indonesia.

Material:

4 tail catfish medium size, clean, body slices

Oil for frying

Marinade, mix well:

1 tsp coriander, crushed

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp fine salt

2 tablespoons lime juice

75 ml water

Sambal Pecel Catfish:

5 pieces of red pepper, fried

10 pieces of chili pepper, fried

2 tomatoes, fried

4 cloves garlic, fried

2 spring onions, fried

4 pieces of pecans, fried

1 teaspoon lemon lime / lemon

1 teaspoon salt

Lalapan Complement:

Cucumber

Basil

Tomatoes

Directions:

1. Soak catfish with marinade solution. Allow 30 minutes for flavor to infuse.

2. Heat oil and fry until cooked and dry catfish. Remove and drain.

3. Sambal Pecel Catfish: Mix all sauce ingredients in a mortar, mash with a pestle and mortar until smooth.

4. Presentation: Prepare a serving dish, arrange catfish, lapanan and complementary sauce. Serve immediately while hot hot.

Ampyang

2011-02-03T08:42:00.000-08:00

Ampyang including snacks that are not too many fans. Because it tastes too sweet.These foods are usually sold in stores gift of Jogja. The price is also rather expensive.

Ampyang made of brown sugar mixed with grated ginger and peanuts that have beenroasted. Flat round shape. It was sweet spicy (spicy from ginger shavings), when eatenusually feels warm in the body

Gudeg

2011-02-03T08:35:00.000-08:00

Gudeg is a traditional food from Yogyakarta and Central Java, Indonesia which is made from young Nangka (jack fruit) boiled for several hours with palm sugar, and coconut milk. Additional spices include garlic, shallot, candlenut, coriander seed, galangal, bay leaves, and teak leaves, the latter giving a brown color to the dish. It is also called Green Jack Fruit Sweet Stew.

Gudeg is served with white rice, chicken, hard-boiled egg, tofu and/or tempeh, and a stew made of crispy beef skins (sambal goreng krecek).

There are several types of gudeg; dry, wet, Yogyakarta style, Solo style and East-Javanese style. Dry gudeg has only a bit of coconut milk and thus has little sauce. Wet gudeg includes more coconut milk. The most common gudeg came from Yogyakarta, and usually sweeter, more dry and reddish in color because the addition of teak leaves. The Solo gudeg from the city of Surakarta is more watery and soupy with lots of coconut milk and whitish in color because teak leaves is absent. The East-Javanese style gudeg employs a spicier and hotter taste, compared to the Yogyakarta-style gudeg, which is sweeter. Gudeg is traditionally associated with Yogyakarta, and Yogyakarta often nicknamed as "Kota Gudeg" (city of gudeg).

How to make gudeg

Material:
1 Canned jackfruit
5 eggs
5 pieces of chicken
1 packet powdered milk (diluted with 2 liters of water)

Spices:
5 cloves garlic
5 pieces of red onion
1 tablespoon coriander
5 points pecan
Java 1 ounce sugar (according to taste)
5 teaspoons sugar
2 bay leaves
2 slices galangal
Salt to taste

How to make :
1. Blend all ingredients, except the bay leaf, galangal and sugar Java.
2. Boil chicken and discard half the water (to remove fat)
3. Boil eggs and peel skin.
4. Place all ingredients, jackfruit, eggs and milk into a saucepan, boil until the water is red and low (approximately 2-3 hours), stirring occasionally so that the red color evenly.
5. About a half hour before low water enter the chicken and stir.
6. After the water ran out and turn off the red gudeg fire, separate gudeg, eggs and chicken.
7. Ready to serve

Notes
: If the water was gone but not red gudeg can add more water, but we recommend adding hot water.

gado gado

2011-02-01T11:02:00.000-08:00

Gado-gado (Indonesian and Betawi language) or also called Lotek (Sundanese and Javanese language) is an Indonesian dish comprising a vegetable salad served with a peanut sauce dressing. It is thought to have originally been a Betawi dish. It is widely served from hawkers carts, stalls (warung) as well as in restaurants both in Indonesia and worldwide.

Gado-gado is part of a wide range of Indonesian dressing & salad combinations, along with lotek, pecel and karedok. In many places, to retain authenticity in both the production and flavor, the peanut sauce is made in individual batches, in front of the customers. However, since the dish has gained popularity (because of the increase of Asian-themed restaurants) Gado-gado sauce is now mostly made ahead of time and cooked in bulk, although this is probably more common in Western restaurants rather than in Indonesia. Compared to Western and Indonesian salads, Gado-gado has much more sauce in it. Instead of being used as a light dressing, the vegetables should be well coated in the sauce.

Many stores now offer Gado-Gado dressing in dried blocks to which you simply add hot water, making it easier and cheaper to cook at home.

Vegetable salad

The exact composition of the vegetable salad varies, but usually comprises some form of mixture of

* blanched - shredded, chopped, or sliced green vegetables (such as cabbage, kang-kung), bean sprouts, young boiled jack fruit, string bean, bitter melon, and corn (outside of Indonesia, people improvise with whatever vegetables that are available).
* uncooked - sliced cucumber and lettuce.
* fried tofu and tempeh.
* sliced boiled potatoes.
* peeled and sliced boiled eggs.

The authentic gado-gado does not have carrot and tomatoes. Only the aforementioned vegetables are added to the dish

Peanut sauce dressing
What distinguishes gado-gado from a plain vegetable salad is the peanut sauce dressing, which is poured on top of the vegetable salad before serving. The composition of this peanut sauce varies as well. One may use a commercial Indonesian peanut sauce or satay sauce, or make the sauce oneself. For making the sauce, the common primary ingredients are as follows:

* ground fried peanuts (kidney beans may be substituted for a richer taste)
* coconut sugar/palm sugar (can substitute brown sugar)
* chillies (according to taste)
* lime juice
* terasi (dried shrimp paste)
* tamarind water
* water to dilute

Note the above is for Jakarta style gado-gado.

Gado-gado is always served with some kind of crackers, usually tapioca crackers, or also with emping (Indonesian style fried crackers, which are made from melinjo). In Indonesia, Gado-gado is usually served with rice or lontong (rice cake wrapped in banana leaf)

The best gado-gado, and I still remember it well, used to be sold at a warung in Yogyakarta, in a small alley not far from the main street, Malioboro. This was in 1960. For my fellow-students and me, it was the main meal of the day. At 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon, after attending lectures in the decayed nobleman's house that in those days was the Faculty of Arts and Letters, we would set off on our bicycles to return to our lodgings on the other side of town. The late lunch break at the warung gado-gado was the turning-point of the day, when we could gossip, relax, enjoy the passing street scene, and eat fresh crisp vegetables with a stinging hot peanut sauce, a gourmet dish for a few rupiah. This bumbu, or sauce, was made to our individual orders while we watched. We each chose our vegetables, and the whole gado-gado was served with lontong, hard-boiled eggs, fried tempeh and tofu, and krupuk or emping. We were not hungry again until 9 o'clock in the evening.

In 1993, in Jakarta, I found the gado-gado in many small restaurants very disappointing. It was, alas, the same in many hotel restaurants, which were supposed to be promoting this as one of our national dishes. The reason is simple: everything now is mass-produced. The vegetables are cooked, and usually overcooked, early in the morning. The sauce is made from something in a packet, the krupuk is already stale, there is no yolk in the sliced egg (and where could it have gone?). In short, a classic dish, well worth any chef's attention, has been spoiled because it takes a little extra time and money to make it really well.

At home, you can make it as it deserves to be made. Gado-gado is excellent for lunch or supper, or as one of the dishes in a buffet party. It will be highly appreciated by your vegetarian guests, but not only by them.

The sauce:

Sambal Kacang (Peanut Sauce)

The vegetables:

112 g / 4 oz / l cup cabbage or spring greens, shredded
225 g / 8 oz / 2 cups French beans, cut into 1-cm / 1/2-inch lengths
4 medium carrots, peeled and sliced thinly
112 g / 4 oz /1 cup cauliflower florets
112 g / 4 oz / 1 cup beansprouts, washed

For the garnish:

Some lettuce leaves and watercress
2 hard-boiled eggs, quartered
1 medium-size potato, boiled in its skin, then peeled and sliced;
or 225 g / 8 oz of slices of lontong (optional)
1/2 cucumber, thinly sliced
1 tbsp crisp-fried onions
2 large krupuk, or a handful of fried emping, broken up into small pieces (optional)

Boil the vegetables separately in slightly salted water, for 3-4 minutes, except the beansprouts which only need 2 minutes. Drain each vegetable separately in a colander.

To serve, arrange the lettuce and watercress around the edge of a serving dish. Then pile the vegetables in the middle of the dish. Arrange the eggs, sliced potatoes or lontong, and sliced cucumber on top.

Heat the peanut sauce in a small saucepan until hot; add more water if it is too thick. Adjust the seasoning, and pour the sauce over the vegetables. Sprinkle the fried onions on top. Serve warm or cold. If you want to serve hot gado-gado, it can be reheated in a microwave oven. When reheating, however, do not include the lettuce and watercress, cucumber slices, fried onions, krupuk or emping. Add these garnishes immediately before serving.

Tekwan

2011-02-01T08:51:00.000-08:00

Tekwan is traditional food from Palembang made from fish and sago in the small shaped. It is served with its special broth completed by vermicelli and mushroom.

To make Tekwan, first, pinch the Pempek dough to some small ones and put them in boiling water until its done, then leak the water trough. We call them as “Biji Tekwan”. Second, prepare the broth ingredients. Slice onion and garlic, sauté them and add pepper. Third, boil shrimps’ head in boiling water, then pour the sauté ingredients inside the broth. Finally, add sliced Bengkoang (water chestnut, cut in finger shaped), sohun, Sedap Malam, Mushroom and Biji Tekwan.

Tekwan is served hot by adding chopped daun bawang, celery dan fried onion.
Frankly, I had never imagined before, that I could make this kind of delicious soup. If you look at the picture above, there's nothing special there, just like ordinary soup.
But, you'll find out later after you taste it. The secret behind the delicious soup is the unique combination between the fish balls, shrimps, vegetables and the shrimps stock!
Yup, there are little works required to prepare the stock. We need to clean the shrimps shells, roast on the pan, put some water, boil and strain it. Other than that, we also need to prepare the fish balls and the vegetables.

Dirty pans, lots of bowls and utensils to clean later are worth while you enjoy this soup with your family. Now, we can have the homemade Tekwan Soup anytime we want, no need to wait until some one invite us for a wedding party-where this soup is usually served.

Make Tekwan
400 gr shrimps
1250 ml water
10 gr mushrooms
10 gr dried lily buds
75 gr yam bean
2 tbsp oil
5 cloves garlic, grated
1/2 tsp white pepper
2-3 tsp salt
1 tbsp vinegar
Fried Shallots
Celery, chopped

Fish Balls
125 gr fish fillet (spanish mackerel/snapper)
1/2 egg white, lightly beaten
1 tsp salt
75 ml water
75 gr tapioka flour
Water

1. Peel off the shrimps shells. Reserve the shells and heads, then roast them until they turn red (about 5 minutes). Add water, cook slowly using little heat, bring it to boil. Strain the stock, measure to 1000 ml. Chop the shrimps.
2. Soak the mushrooms and dried lily buds in hot water until tender. Clean and chop the mushrooms and knot the lily buds. Cut the yam bean into strips.
3. Fish Balls: Soften the fish, mix with egg-whites and salt. Add water. Add tapioka flour, kneal until the batter does not stick on hands anymore. Using your hands (or using two spoons like I did instead), shape the batter into small marble balls, drop into the boiling water until just cooked. Then put the cooked balls into the shrimp stock, and continue cooking until the stock boils.
4. Heat the oil and saute the garlic, add shrimps until they turn red. Add mushrooms, lily buds and yum bean. Continue to fry until soft. Add them into the shrimp stock, then add pepper, salt and vinegar, until boiling.
5. Move to the serving bowl, garnish with fried shallots and chopped celery. Serve with chilli sauce.

Soto

2011-02-01T08:34:00.000-08:00

Soto, sroto, tauto or coto is a common dish to be found in various regional variations of Indonesian cuisine. It is a traditional soup mainly composed of broth, meat and vegetables. There is no clear definition what makes a soto, but normally all traditional soups are called soto, while western/foreign influenced soups are called sop. It might be considered Indonesia's national dish, served as it is from Sumatra to Papua and in enough variations to fill an entire cookbook. Soto is omnipresent in Indonesia, available in many an open-air eatery and on seemingly every other street corner

Varieties

One way to classify sotos is by their regional style. Many metropolitan areas have their own regional soto versions:

* Betawi soto, made of beef or beef offal, cooked in a whitish cow milk or coconut milk broth, with fried potato and tomato.
* Bandung soto, a clear beef soto with daikon pieces.
* Medan soto, a chicken/pork/beef/innards soto with added coconut milk and served with potato croqutte (perkedel). The meat pieces are fried before being served or mixed.
* Padang soto, a beef broth soto with slices of fried beef, bihun (rice vermicelli), and perkedel kentang (fried mashed potato).
* Banjar soto, spiced with lemongrass and sour hot sambal, accompanied with potato cakes.
* Makassar soto or coto Makassar, a beef and offal soto boiled in water used to wash rice, with fried peanut.
* Madura soto or soto Sulung/soto Ambengan, made with either chicken, beef or offal, in a yellowish transparent broth.
* Semarang soto, a chicken soto spiced with candlenut and often eaten with sate kerang (cockles on a stick)
* Kudus soto, made with water buffalo meat due to local taboos of the consumption of beef.
* Lamongan soto, a popular street food in various Indonesian metropolitan areas, a variation of the Madura soto.
* Pekalongan soto or tauto Pekalongan, spiced with tauco (a fermented miso-like bean paste).
* Banyumas soto or sroto Banyumas or sroto Sokaraja, made special by its peanut sambal, usually eaten with ketupat.
* Kediri soto, a chicken soto in coconut milk.
* Ambon soto, It is made of chicken and broth, flavored and colored with turmeric, ginger, galangal, garlic, (the three g's), lemongrass and loads of spices. Served with rice, the add-ins and toppings were blanched bean sprouts, shredded chicken, glass noodles, chopped celery leaves, golden fried shallots, fried potato sticks, kecap manis, hot sauce, and tiny potato croquettes. A healthy squeeze of lemon china , a really fragrant citrus, really brightens up the soup.

Some sotos are named based on their ingredients

* Soto ayam is a yellow spicy chicken soup with nasi empit (compressed rice that is then cut into small cakes) or ketupat or vermicelli, commonly found in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.
* Soto babat (lit. "tripe soto") is a cow's or goat's tripe, served in yellow spicy coconut milk soup with vermicelli, potato, and vegetables, commonly eaten with rice. It is commonly found throughout Indonesia.
* Soto kaki (lit. "foot soto") is a beef tendon and cartilage taken from cow's feet, served in yellow spicy coconut milk soup with vermicelli, potato, vegetables, ad krupuk, commonly eaten with rice. It is Betawi food and can found in Jakarta, Indonesia.
* Soto mi is a yellow spicy beef or chicken broth soup with noodle, commonly found in Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. In Indonesia, Bogor is famous for its Soto mi, it is made with beef broth, kikil (cow's cartilage), noodle, and sliced risoles spring rolls.

Common Condiments
he following accompaniments are often eaten alongside soto.

* Stewed quail eggs or chicken eggs
* Cockles on a stick (sate kerang)
* Fried chicken giblets
* Prawn crackers, sometimes crushed and mixed with crushed fried garlic as koya in Madura soto
* Gnetum seed crackers (emping)
* Fried tofu or tempeh
* Potato cakes (perkedel)

Condiments common to soto dishes include hot chili sauce (sambal), sweet soy sauce, fried shallot and lime.
Ingredients

The meats that are most commonly used are chicken and beef, but there are also variations with offal, mutton, water buffalo meat and pork. The soup is usually accompanied by rice or compressed rice cakes (ketupat or buras). Offal is a very common ingredient in soto, and is considered as a delicacy: the rumen (blanket/flat/smooth tripe), reticulum (honeycomb and pocket tripe), omasum (book/bible/leaf tripe) and the intestines are all eaten.

Other ingredients of soto include soon alternatively spelled as sohun (rice vermicelli), mung bean sprouts and scallion.

Soto spices include the following: shallot, garlic, turmeric root, galangal, ginger, coriander, salt and pepper.

Soto can have a clear broth, a yellow transparent broth (coloured with turmeric) or a milky coconut-milk broth.

Soto in Malaysia and Singapore is the clear chicken broth type. Like many dishes, it may have been brought into the country by the many Javanese migrants in the early part of the 20th century.

how to make SOTO
Ingredients: 500 gr beef or internals, 100 gr bean sprouts, 80 gr rice noodles, 60 gr Indonesian parsley, 60 gr scallions, 60 gr ginger, 1 lime, salt and pepper.

Directions:

* Boil meat until done. Drain and cut into bite-sized slices.
* Remove the tails of bean sprouts, boil until half done
* Boil rice noodles separately
* Keep these in separate plates
* Cut Indonesian parsley and scallions
* Grind shallots, and brown it for a little bit
* Skin and cut ginger
* Make beef stock using beef bones boiled in water for about an hour. Remove bones, and put in salt, pepper, ginger, and shallots.
* Serve the soto by putting the beef, bean sprouts, noodles into a bowl. Pour soup into it.
* Sprinkle with Indonesian parsley and scallions.

Satay

2011-01-30T00:07:00.000-08:00

Satay (pronounced /ˈsæteɪ/ SA-tay) or sate is a dish of marinated, skewered and grilled meats, served with a sauce.[1] Satay may consist of diced or sliced chicken, goat, mutton, beef, pork, fish, tofu, or other meats; the more authentic version uses skewers from the midrib of the coconut leaf, although bamboo skewers are often used. These are grilled or barbecued over a wood or charcoal fire, then served with various spicy seasonings.

Satay may have originated in Java or Sumatra, Indonesia.[2] Satay is available almost anywhere in Indonesia, where it has become a national dish.[3] It is also popular in many other Southeast Asian countries, such as: Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, the southern Philippines and in the Netherlands, as Indonesia is a former Dutch colony.

Satay is a very popular delicacy in Indonesia; Indonesia’s diverse ethnic groups’ culinary art (see Cuisine of Indonesia) have produced a wide variety of satays. In Indonesia, satay can be obtained from a travelling satay vendor, from a street-side tent-restaurant, in an upper-class restaurant, or during traditional celebration feasts. In Malaysia, satay is a popular dish - especially during celebrations - and can be found throughout the country. Close analogues are yakitori from Japan, shish kebab from Turkey, chuanr from China and sosatie from South Africa.

Turmeric is a compulsory ingredient used to marinate satay, which gives the dish its characteristic yellow colour. Meats commonly used include beef, mutton, pork, venison, fish, shrimp, squid, chicken, rabbit and even tripe. Some have also used more exotic meats, such as turtle, crocodile, horse, lizard, and snake meat.

Satay may be served with a spicy peanut sauce dip, or peanut gravy, slivers of onions and cucumbers, and ketupat (rice cakes).

Pork satay can be served in a pineapple-based satay sauce or cucumber relish. An Indonesian version uses a soy-based dip.

Satay is not the same as the Vietnamese condiment sate, which typically includes ground chili, onion, tomato, shrimp, oil, and nuts. Vietnamese sate is commonly served alongside noodle and noodle-soup dishes.

Recipe makes Sate Kambing
Materials to make Satay Kambing:
• 750 gr goat thighs, diced 2 cm
• 15 sticks skewers that have been soaked in water

Seasonings:
• 5 pieces of lime leaves, thinly sliced
• 10 red onions, thinly sliced
• 1 tablespoon ground pepper
• 100 ml soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons lime juice

Complement:
• 50 g cabbage, finely sliced
• 4 plum tomatoes, thinly sliced
• 6 tablespoons fried onions for topping
• 15 pcs chili pepper, thinly sliced
• 10 shallot, thinly sliced
• 5 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons lime water m

How to Make Sate Kambing Bumbu Ketchup:
1. Prick satay skewer each with 4-5 pieces of meat.
2. Mix all ingredients for seasoning. C
3. Mix the seasoning with satay and grilled satay in embers while occasionally smeared remaining seasonings.
4. Serve the satay with complement.

source
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satay
http://masakanhangat.blogspot.com/

Pempek

2011-01-29T09:34:00.000-08:00

Pempek, mpek-mpek or empek-empek is a delicacy from Palembang made of fish and tapioca. Pempek is served together yellow noodle with a dark, rich sweet and sour sauce called cuka or cuko (lit. vinegar) and sprinkled with ebi (dried shrimp) powder. Kuah Cuko is produced by adding brown sugar, chili pepper, garlic, vinegar, and salt to boiling water.
here are many varieties of pempek. One of the most famous types is the kapal selam (Indonesian: "submarine"), which is made from a chicken egg wrapped within the pempek dough and then deep-fried. Scientists says that the pempek kapal selam, being high in vitamin, protein, mineral, and carbohydrate content, is the most nutritious variety. Other varieties include pempek telur kecil (lit. small egg pempek), pempek keriting (lit. curly pempek), pempek pistel (lit. pistol pempek), pempek kulit ikan (lit. fish-skin pempek), pempek adaan, pempek lenjer, and pempek tahu (lit. tofu pempek).

According to legend, at around 1617 there was an old Chinese Man who lived near Musi river. He noticed an abundance of fish caught by the local fishermen. The indigenous people, however did not know how to cook the fish properly. During that period, most of the indigenous people simply fried their fish instead of adding in other ingredients to make new dishes. The old Chinese Man mixed in some tapioca and other spices, which he then sold around the village on his bicycle. The people referred to this old man as 'pek-apek, where apek is a Chinese slang for an old man. The food is known today as empek-empek or pempek.

As a local staple, pempek can be commonly found on every street in Palembang, although the most famous outlets an be found on Jalan Slamet Riyadi. Numerous pempek sellers and producers in Palembang use a cheaper combination of fish, which has a strong scent. The best pempek are made of belido fish and are usually more expensive. Pempek can also be found in other region, especially in major cities in Indonesia. But, the taste of pempek that we found in other region has usually different than pempek in Palembang, because of the ingredients are different. The same ingredients, like fish and flour are scarce or difficult to be found in other region, causing the taste difference. Sometimes pempek in Bangka Island are made from mackerel (tenggiri), while in Jakarta or other city could be made from gurami fish.
Pempek Palembang is known as public food. We can find it when it was offered in a restaurant nicely, peddled on a pushcart, or carried around a slum. Certainly, there is a pempek seller in a school’s canteen as weell, . As, It’s not only easy to make but also it can be enjoyed in every situation as sweet. It consists of several variations and appearances. They are pempek kapal selam, pempek lenjer, pempek ada’an, curly pempek, and pempek pistel.

No one knows where pempek from is exactly, because almost all regions of Sumatra Selatan popularize it as its special food. But, they say it has been in Palembang since 16th century. Title empek-empek or pempek is believed coming from title “apek”, a title for an old man Chinese generation. The folktale which spread by mouth to mouth says that a 65 year-old “apek” who lived at the bank of Musi River was apprehensive in witnessing plentiful capturing of fish. The result of the capturing was not processed well. The choice was only fried or preserved with salt without drying. The “apek” found an idea to try another alternative. He mixed grinded flesh of fish and tapioca until it results new kind of food. The apeks peddled the new food surrounding town by bike. Because the seller was called “pek…apek”, so finally it was known as empek-empek or pempek.

As a culinary lover, you should be interested in the recipe below:
Pempek Palembang Recipe
Ingredients:

* 300 g flesh of Spanish mackerels, grinded
* 100 cc warm water
* 1 tsp salt
* 200 g sago palm flour
* 100 g wheat flour
* 6 eggs, broke into a bowl

Soup:

* 750 cc water
* 5 cloves garlic, crushed
* 5 chilies, chopped
* 1 tbsp soy sauce
* 150 g sugar
* 150 g brown sugar
* 1 tsp salt
* 3 tbsp vinegar
* 2 cucumbers cut into cube sized pieces
* 100 g wet noodles
* 150 g dried shrimps, grinded

Directions:

1. Mix flesh of fish, warm water and salt. Add sago palm flour and wheat flour little by little while mixing until it is mixed.
2. Form it oval (about 75 g); make a hole in the middle by point finger. Then turn it around while pressed until it becomes a pocket and put some broke raw egg in. Shut and close the hole tightly.
3. Boil some water and put pempek one by one. Wait pempek until it floats at the surface. Take them out and drained.
4. Soup: Boil some water. Put in garlic, chilies, soy sauce, sugar, brown sugar, and salt. Boil them and sugar was soluble. Filter the dregs. Add vinegar and mix it.
5. Fry pempek in much oil enough. Take them out and drain when they are brownish.
6. Serving: Cut fried pempek into bite sized pieces and put in a plate. Add noodles and cucumbers above them and pour the soup. Pempek kapal selam is ready to be offered.
source :
wikipedia
www.indonesianfoodonline.com/recipes/pempek-palembang

Bakso

2011-01-29T08:27:00.000-08:00

Bakso or baso is Indonesian meatball Bakso is commonly made from the mixture of ground beef and tapioca flour, however bakso can also be made from other ingredients, such as chicken, fish, or shrimp. Bakso are usually served in a bowl of beef broth, with yellow noodles, bihun (rice vermicelli), salted vegetables, tofu, egg (wrapped within bakso), Chinese green cabbage, bean sprout, siomay or steamed meat dumpling, and crispy wonton, sprinkled with fried shallots and celery. Unlike other meatball recipes, bakso has a consistent homogeneous texture. Bakso can be found all across Indonesia; from the traveling cart street vendors to restaurants. Today various types of ready to cook bakso also available as frozen food commonly sold in supermarkets in Indonesia. Slices of bakso often used and mixed as compliments in mi goreng, nasi goreng, or cap cai recipes.

Origin
The name Bakso is originated from Bak-So, the Hokkien pronunciation for 'Shredded-Meat'. This suggests that bakso has Indonesian Chinese cuisine origin. However today the most of the bakso vendors are Javanese from Wonogiri (a town near Solo) and Malang. Today the most popular Bakso variant are Bakso Solo and Bakso Malang. The name comes from the city it comes from; Solo in Central Java and Malang in East Java. In Malang, Bakso Bakar (roasted bakso) is also popular. As most Indonesians are muslim, generally Bakso is made from beef or is mixed with chicken.

Variations
* Bakso urat: bakso filled with tendons and coarse meat
* Bakso bola tenis or bakso telur: tennis ball sized bakso with boiled chicken egg wrapped inside
* Bakso gepeng: flat bakso
* Bakso ikan: fish bakso
* Bakso udang: shrimp bakso
* Bakso Malang: A bowl of bakso dish from Malang city, East Java; complete with noodle, tofu, siomay and fried wonton
* Bakso keju: new recipe bakso filled with cheese

Bakso: Obama's Favorite Soup -- Make it Yourself

(AP) President Obama may have carried a message of unity and tolerance during his visit last week to Indonesia, but it was his love of meatball soup that got the local headlines.

"Bakso, nasi goreng ... semuanya enak!" or "Meatball soup, fried rice ... it's all delicious!" Obama said during a state dinner in Jakarta. The president spent several years of his childhood in the country.

Obama: "Indonesia is Part of Me"

Bakso, a savory soup of meatballs and noodles often garnished with bok choy, wontons, tofu, crisp fried shallots and hard-boiled egg, is Indonesia's national street food, a go-to dish sold from pushcarts to hungry students, midnight revelers and just about anybody who wants a satisfying snack any time of day.

"When people hang out at night and they feel hungry, they go for bakso," says Djoko Supatmono, executive chef at Satay Junction, an Indonesian restaurant in New York.

Like many dishes that bubble up through the masses, bakso has endless variations. The meatballs - which vary in size from golf balls to tennis balls - can be made with beef, chicken, pork or even fish. Ditto for the stock. The noodles can be made from mung bean starch, rice or wheat.

"This soup takes on many guises, but it always has meatballs, it always has noodles, it always has broth," says Ken Woytisek, chef instructor in Asian cuisines at the Culinary Institute of America's St. Helena, Calif., campus. "It's really a multicultural society, so there are lots of variations. But it's mainly the meat in the meatball that changes." For instance, Muslims, who form the majority in Indonesia, do not eat pork.

Like most street food, bakso has an air of mystery. The soup and the noodles probably originated in China, but the meatball, Woytisek says, may have come from the Dutch, who colonized Indonesia in the 19th century. And then there's the fact that it's street food.

"While it's generally accepted that meat, in some form, is involved in the balls, the rest is unclear," says James Oseland, editor-in-chief of Saveur magazine, and author of "Cradle of Flavor: Home Cooking from the Spice Islands of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore." "Frankly, I don't know what goes into them, and probably we're better off not knowing. It's like the hot dog."

Meatball soups are found throughout southeast Asia, but aficionados like Oseland especially prize bakso. "The Indonesian version really does tend to be the king, the real granddaddy of all of the southeast Asian beef ball brethren," he says. "It's the whole idea of Asian beef balls taken to a higher realm. They're just better tasting."

But even Indonesians split hairs. "People will take you to task if you say 'I really like this vendor,"' Woytisek says. "They'll say 'No, no! You have to go this vendor.' They never tire of arguing over who's got the best."

But what are the criteria? Al dente noodles and perfect meatballs.

"What makes a great bakso is a springy versus rubbery ball," Oseland says. "And there's some sort of gentle spicing. There's always this perfect balance between the spicing and the meat that separates the good ones from the mediocre."

Make Bakso Yourself:

The classic condiment used to flavor bakso is sambal, a thin paste made from ground chilies, vinegar and salt. It is widely available in the ethnic aisles of large grocers.

Start to finish: 1 hour

Servings: 4

For the meatballs:
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon diced shallot
1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, finely chopped
1 egg white
2 tablespoons sugar
Kosher salt and ground white pepper, to taste
1/2 crushed ice
5 tablespoons cornstarch
2 quarts chicken broth

For the soup:
14-ounce package egg noodles
1 head bok choy, cut into 1/2-inch chunks
4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
3 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, finely chopped
3 tablespoons soy sauce
Kosher salt, to taste
2 tablespoons chopped celery
4 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
Sambal, to taste

To make the meatballs, in a small skillet over medium, heat the oil. Add the garlic and shallot and saute until golden and aromatic. Transfer to a food processor, then add the chicken, egg white and sugar. Process until well ground, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper, then transfer to a bowl and place in the freezer for 15 minutes.

Transfer the chilled mixture to a cutting board. Add the crushed ice and cornstarch, then knead the mixture for 5 minutes.

Using 2 spoons or an ice cream scoop, form the mixture into 20 tablespoon-size balls. Set aside.

In a large saucepan, heat the chicken broth. Add the meatballs, working in batches if necessary. Cook until the meatballs are firm and read 165 F at the center, about 5 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the meatballs to a bowl. Cover to keep warm. Keep the broth warm over low heat.

To make the soup, bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the egg noodles and cook until al dente according to package directions. Drain, then cover and set aside.

Meanwhile, bring a second saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the bok choy and blanch until just tender, about 1 to 2 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to transfer to a plate. Cover and set aside.

Use a mortar and pestle or a knife to mash the garlic and ginger to a paste.

In a medium skillet over medium-high, heat the oil. Add the garlic-ginger paste and saute until aromatic, about 1 minute. Add the chicken and soy sauce, then saute until cooked through, about 2 minutes. Season with salt.

Divide the noodles between the serving bowls, topping them with some of the bok choy and sauteed chicken. Ladle hot chicken broth into each bowl, then divide the meatballs among the bowls. Garnish with celery, hard-boiled eggs and sambal.

source :
wikipedia/bakso
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/17/earlyshow/living/recipes/main7062422.shtml