OTAK-OTAK BANDENG

(MILKFISH OTAK-OTAK)

Ingredients:
1 whole bandeng (milkfish) or substitute sea bass or mackerel (about 700 g)
6 tbs. grated coconut, fried in a dry pan until golden brown and pounded till fine
100 ml thick coconut milk from coconut
2 eggs, beaten
banana leaves, or substitute foil

Spice-paste
2 tsp. coriander seeds
6 shallots
3 cloves garlic
4 candlenuts
1 cm fresh gangale (lengkuas)
2 tsp. sugar
salt to taste
Instructions:
Scale and gut the fish through the gills. Wash the fish inside and out and dry thoroughly with kitchen towel paper.
Carefully pound the fish with the flat of a large knife. Massage it hard all over in order to release the meat from the skin.
Remove the backbone of the fish but leave tail and head in place: bend the tail towards the head until you feel the bone snap. Carefully pull out the bone through the gill-opening. Take care not to break the skin anywhere.
Press out all the meat through the gill-opening by pressing the fish with a spoon from the tail-end towards the head.
Turn over the skin by pushing the tail towards the head. Remove the bones then push the tail back through the head opening. Flake the meat and fry in a dry pan for a few minutes, then remove all the tiny bones from the meat. Mix the meat with the grated coconut, coconut milk, beaten eggs and the pounded Spice-paste. Blend till smooth. The consistency should be like soft butter.
Put the stuffing back inside the fish through the gill-opening. Sew up the opening after stuffing the fish. Wrap in a banana leaf and secure the ends. Steam until done, approximately 15-20 minutes. Unwrap and grill over a barbecue or in the oven until brown before serving.

Note: Choose a freshly caught milkfish, because the skin would tear easily in a fish that has been lying around for a while.

Makes 3-4 servings.

BOLU KUKUS

(Steamed Sponge Cake)

Ingredients:
• 5 egg yolks
• 4 egg white
• 250 gram granulated sugar
• 300 gram flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 175 cc soda water (Sprite/7Up)
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 1 Tbs cocoa for coloring
Instructions:
• Cover approx. 20 tin cups used to steamed the cakes with parchment papers then put them into a steamer pot with boiling water.
• Mix egg yolks, egg white, baking soda, sugar and vanilla until they make a smooth batter then put in turns, ½ portion of the flour, ½ portion of the soda water until all of them are used, mix well. Take 5 Tbs of the batter and put it in a separate bowl. Pour in the cocoa and mix well.
• Pour the white batter into the tin almost to the top then pour in 1-2 tsp of the cocoa batter on top. Do this until all the batter is used up, ± 20 tin cups.
• Close the steamer lid, let it steamed for ± 20 minutes with high temperature. Then use low temperature for another 5 minutes. The cake is ready to serve if it looks like the above picture.
For 20 tin cup cakes

Gudheg Jogjakarta

(Young Jack Fruit Sweet Stew)

Ingredients

- 5 Shallots
- 10 Candle nuts
- 10 Garlic cloves
- 4 Indian bay leaves/Salam
- 1/2 lb. (250g) Jack fruit
- 2-1/2 tsp. (12g) Coriander seeds
- 1-1/4 tsp. (6g)Cummin
- 1/4 cup (62ml) Coconut sugar
- 2 cup (500ml) Coconut milk
- 2 tsp. (30g) Tamarind
- 2 lb. (1kg) Chicken (cut into small pieces with bone)
- 5 cups (1.25l) water
- 2 inches bruised Galangga




Instructions

Cut jack fruit 1 inch thick wash. Boil until tender.
Grind shallots, garlic, and candle nuts. Saute paste.
Add salam leaves, and galangga, until fragrant then add chicken pieces.
Stir fry until chicken changes color.
Pour 4 cups of water and coconut sugar, cumin, corriander, tamarind, and bring to a boil.
Add jack fruit and simmer until chicken and vegetables are tender.
Add coconut milk 5 minutes before it's done, bring back to a boil.
Serve hot with rice.

This dish is sweet and usually served with shrimp cracker.

Suggestion companion food :cracker, dried fish.

Es Jus Alpokat

(Avocado Ice Juice)

Avocado (also known as Apokat in Indonesia) is one of popular fruits in Indonesia. You can find it easily in traditional market or supermarket with very cheap price. It's very good either you make it for a juice or just eat it as a salad. Avocado fruits have a smooth, creamy, greenish-yellow flesh with an unusually high amount of fat that is primarily monounsaturated. They also contain a high concentration of dietary fibber, vitamins and potassium. This juice is an excellent choice to company your meal times. My hubby likes it a lot !!
Category : Beverages
Difficulty : Easy
Preparing time : 10 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 ripe avocados, halved and flesh removed
- 4 tablespoons palm sugar syrup (or you can just mix palm/sugar sugar with 2 tablespoons of water), other option is using Vanilla syrup.
- 10 ice cubes, crushed
Directions
Combine avocado flesh with other ingredients and puree in blender until smooth.
Note : If you like, you can add some chocolate (milk/powder) inside and mix it together and garnish with milk full cream.

Kolak

(Fruit in Coconut Milk)

Kolak or Kolek (fruit in coconut milk) is an Indonesian dessert made with palm sugar and coconut milk, with pandanus leaf for flavour. The dish later on known as Kolek Pisang. Pumpkin, sweet potato (ubi jalar), jackfruit, and cassava (singkong), may also be added. It is served either hot (especially if freshly cooked) or cold. Kolak is popular during the holy month of Ramadan, and is usually served cold during Iftar (break a fast). It's good for filling up the sugar that you're losing during the fasting. It was my lucky day when I found sweet potato (ubi jalar) in local supermarket here. Even though the price is expensive compare to Indonesia, where for 1 kilo is just thousand of rupiah. This type of potato is really rare here. No wonder is so expensive!
Category: Dessert
Difficulty: Easy
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Ingredients
- 200 ml coconut milk
- 100 g palm sugar
- 1 sachet vanilla sugar
- 1 large bananas, sliced
- 1 small sweet potato (ubi jalar), peeled and cut into small pieces
- 2 pieces of ripe jackfruit, finely diced (optional) - I don't use it since no one selling it here
- A pinch of salt
- 100 ml water
Directions
1. Simmer the sweet potato (ubi jalar) into boiling water until soft.
2. Add coconut milk, palm sugar, vanilla sugar and salt. Then add all remaining ingredients. Continue cooking for few minutes.
3. Serve, you can add few ice cubes as well.

Es Kelapa Muda

(Young Coconut Iced Drink)

Ingredients :
2-3 young coconuts in the can
1 litre coconut water
ice cubes
Cocopandan Marjan Bouduin syrup
500cc water


Method:
Mix coconut flesh, coconut water and syrup.
Serve in glasses and add ice cubes

Indonesian Cooking Methods

Granite Grinding Stone Indonesian food cooking methods are prepared in a various ways: shallow or deep fried, grilled over hot coals, simmered, steamed and even in remote areas of Irian Jaya – baked in an earth oven as in Polynesia. However, there one important basic that you need to know how to prepare. It is how to prepare what is called the basic spice paste or bumbu used to season so
many dishes. Indonesians cook use a grinding stone, ingredients are peeled, sliced or chopped into small pieces so it would be easier to grind. If you are using a blender or food processor, the order of processing the spices is much the same as for grinding stone, but you will probably need to add some liquid to keep the blades of the machine turning during the blending process. The liquid can be oil if the spice paste is to be fried or water if the spice paste is to be simmered in either coconut oil, stock or water. However, just add a little into it. The order to be followed when grinding or processing spice paste ingredients :

First : hard items, such as dried spices, nuts and tough fibrous rhizomes or leaves such as galangal and lemon grass.

Second : softer rhizomes such as turmeric, ginger and fresh or dried chilies

Third : ingredients which are full of moisture such as shallots and garlic

Last : shrimp paste and tamarind juice, and process just to mix well

To cook Indonesian meals, the spice paste either need to be fried in oil or simmered in liquid. If it needs to be fried, just use a little bit of oil over low to moderate heat and fry, stirring well until it starts to smell fragrant. Usually takes only 2-3 minutes. Sometimes, pieces of meat and poultry are added to the paste and stir fried until these are well coated and the color has changed.