Stay Cool on a Hot Day

Most of my life, I live in a city with warm and humid climate, I am supposed to get used to hot and humid weather. But somehow my body does not seem willing to adapt to it. The combination of warm temperature and high humidity like now always make me all sweaty and cranky….

How can I stay cool  on a  hot day like this?


How about making cold dessert drinks?

In my country, we have so many popular drinks which are based on ice (in our language we call it Es) and can also be classified as desserts.  Typical examples include es campur (mixed fruit ice drink), es cincau (grass jelly ice drink), es blewah (musk melon ice drink),  es kelapa muda (young coconut ice drink), es alpukat (avocado juice), es cendol and many many more.

Here’s a few of most popular Indonesian Cold Dessert Drinks to stay cool on a hot day and also fit well for breaking the fast:


Es Kelapa Muda (Young Coconut Ice Drink)

If you travel to my country, you will find lots of coconut tree. We like to drink coconut water, and also make drinks called  Es Kelapa Muda (Young Coconut Ice Drink) where we mix the slippery young coconut with the coconut water then add ice cubes and this is how we make the drink:

Ingredients

• 2 cups of young coconut water
• 1/2 cup young coconut flesh

How to prepare:

• take the water from a fresh, young coconut
• scrape slithers of coconut flesh
• add the coconut flesh into the coconut water in a glass or right in the coconut shell and add some ice cubes

Es Kelapa Jeruk  (Young Coconut in Orange Juice)


This drink is a combination of young coconut and orange juice. The slippery floating slivers of fresh coconut flesh will add textural dimension to the refreshing fresh orange juice, so yummy…… 

Ingredients

• 8 medium size oranges, squeeze to get the juice
• 1 cup fresh young coconut flesh
• simple syrup (optional)
• ice cubes

How to prepare:

• Combine roughly 1 part fresh-squeeze orange  juice with 1 part water.
• Typically a few spoonfuls of simple syrup are added and let it drop to the bottom of the glass so that the sweetness can be adjusted with a little stirring (optional).
• Add in the coconut flesh and ice cubes.

Es Blewah (Musk Melon Ice Drink)

  picture from unique-of-images.blogspot.com

Musk melon prevents a heat related disorders and making it a great  refresher and stimulator on a hot day. Its high water content helps to reduce body heat. This drink is very popular during fasting month.

Ingredients 

• 250 gram ripe blewah (musk melon), cut into half, peel off the outer skin of the musk melon and  sliver the flesh
• 800 ml water
• 200 ml red syrup
• ice cubes

How to serve (for 4 glasses)

• In a glass put the musk melon slices.
• Add water and syrup and ice cubes.

 
Es Campur (Mixed Iced Fruit Drink)

 picture from www.houseofannie.com

 

 This special Es Campur or also known as Es Teler can be the ‘so called’ trademark for many of Indonesian Restaurants and Food-Stalls. It has a sweet and fruity taste with chunks of jack-fruit,  avocado and young coconut pulp! The coconut juice combination will cool you down from the heat especially when this drink is consume during hot day under the sun!

Ingredients:

• 1 Young coconut flesh (spoon it)
• 1  Avocado, take out the flesh, cut into chunks or thinly sliced
• 10 pieces of Jack-fruits, seeded and thinly sliced
• 15 pieces buah Atap,  sliced (buah Atap is the flesh of the young seeds of the mangrove plant Nypa fruticans. It is usually soaked in sugar syrup)
• 500 ml of simple syrup
• 5 tablespoons  sweetened condensed milk
• crushed or shaved ice

Note: This dessert can be sweetened to taste, adding more, or less, of the milk mixture and the syrups.

Simple syrup:

• 400 ml coconut milk (or plain water)
• 100 gr sugar

How to prepare:

• Add young coconut pulp, avocado, jack-fruit and buah Atap in a glass or in a bowl.
• Add in simple syrup and sweetened condensed milk or according to your taste. Stir.
• Top with crushed or shaved ice. Enjoy!

Es Cendol (Chendol Iced Drink)

  picture from madeinindonesia-store.com

Es cendol is typical Indonesian drink made from rice flour served with coconut milk, sugar palm and ice cubes or shaved ice. While Indonesian people drink es cendol as a nice refreshment, a lot of Westerners like es cendol as dessert.


Ingredients for cendol

• 125 gr rice flour
• 50 gr sago flour
• 75 ml pandan leaves water (boil water with pandan leaves until it has green color)
• 450 ml water
• salt as needed

Other ingredients

• 200 gram palm sugar, boil with 125 ml water until it dissolves. Strain the palm sugar water and boil again. Set aside.
• 500 ml coconut milk. Boil and set aside to cool.

How to make cendol

• Mix rice flour and sago flour, then mix it with some of the water.
• Boil the rest of the water, add green pandan leaves water and salt.
• Put the flour mixtures into the boiled water.
• Stir well and cook until it thickens (paste-like).
• 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.
• Put these cendol directly into a bowl with water and ice in it.
• 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.

References:

• www.houseofannie.com
• www.madeinindonesia-store.com
• www.uniqueofimages.blogspot.com

Dessert First

Unlike in most western countries, in my country it is not our custom to serve dessert after meal. Desserts or sweet dishes are regarded simply as snacks, to be eaten when and where you have the need for one.

Desserts also have a social function as well…….they are for serving to guest who drops in or comes visiting…….. they are for eating at any family gathering, formal or informal,……  and they are there too, simply as  a self-indulgence, when you are having a cup of coffee or tea.

During fasting month like now, we even serve desserts first since it is best to start with something sweet and sweet dessert fits well as a starter to break the fast.

We have a comprehensive list of options for delicious sweet desserts . With abundant tropical produce such as coconuts, lots of Indonesian desserts use Santan or coconut milk.
 

Check out a few examples out of the so many ‘drool worthy’ Indonesian desserts to break the fast:

 
Bubur Pacar Cina (Tapioca Pearl Dessert)

This tapioca pearl dessert is very popular in Chinese community and its even called “Pacar Cina” which literally means “Chinese Lover”.  Cooking this dessert is not difficult, but is quite tricky. They would turn soggy if overcooked, or else the middle part is not cooked through without enough cooking time

 
Kue Centik Manis (Pretty and Sweet Dessert)

Centik comes from the word Cantik which means pretty while manis means sweet. The name of this dessert literally means Pretty and Sweet which reflects the look and taste of it. It’s very easy to make, no steaming or baking process. Centik manis is also popular during Ramadan (fasting month) in Indonesia.

 
Kue Lapis Sagu (Layered Coconut Cake)

This cake with its mysterious layered structure is not as difficult to make as it looks.

And here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 180 gram glutinous rice flour
• 180 gram tapioca
• 400 gram sugar (or depends on the desired sweet level)
• pinch of salt
• 900 ml coconut milk
• 5 sachet (40 gram) vanilla
• a few drops of pink food coloring

Direction:

•  mix all ingredients except food coloring to abatter, divide into 2
• dye one part with a few drops of pink food coloring
• pre-heat a steamer and wrap the lid with a clean tea towel to capture the steam
• spoon a thin layer of uncolored batter into a spring-form cake tin
• steam for about 5 minutes it sets and looks shiny
• add a thin layer of pink batter to the tin and steam again
• continue the process alternately until all the batter is used up
• the whole process may take up to 3 hours. the final layers may have to steam longer around 10 minutes
• allow to cool completely before cutting into thin slices

Kolak Pisang (Banana sweet soup)

Kolak is an equivalent of sweet soup. The soup is made of palm sugar and coconut milk. To the soup we can banana or other ingredients such as jack fruit, pumpkin, or cassava. Could be served either warm or cold.


Kue Putu

Everybody will notice easily if a vendor of Kue Putu passes by. It is because he has a special whistle that toots along the way. Usually, the vendor bears two cabinets using yoke or rides a bicycle.

Kue Putu is a traditional cake made of rice flour with palm sugar filler. The taste is plain outside but sweet inside. Added with steamed grated coconut makes the taste richer. The color is white or green and the shape is like a cylinder.


Onde-Onde (Sesame balls filled with mung bean paste)

Onde-onde is one of traditional cakes in Indonesia, and particularly being famous in Mojokerto (East Java) since Majapahit era. We can find Onde-onde in traditional market or in some stores or even in fancy restaurants. Moreover, we can find this cake in China town in Indonesia or in every corner of the world.

References:

• the real taste of Indonesia, a culinary journey – 100 unique family recipes – Hardie Grant Books, Australia
• asiafinest.com
• bandungholic.blogspot.com
• indonesiantravelguide.com
• sotokudus senayan

 

Green Green Snacks of Home

I am feeling Green today…….


Remember the old popular song sung by Tom Jones named Green Green Grass of Home? Just like Tom Jones, today I am dreaming of the “Green Green Snacks of Home”


In my country, we have a habit of snacking….and we simply love snacking…. There is no specific timing for snacking, basically we snack all the time. Therefore we have so many traditional snacks which we call Jajanan Pasar

 

And some of the traditional snacks are ‘green snacks’ …..

Why green snacks?


call them ‘green’ snacks because they are literally green (in color)….NOT because they are made of environmental friendly ingredients.


But, wait a minute….in a way these ‘green snacks’ contain ‘green’ ingredients, literally as well as ‘environmentally’ and the ‘green ingredients’ are pandan leaves to get the ‘sweet fragrant aroma’ and/or suji leaves to get the ‘green’ color.


Nowadays, people are hardly making traditional snacks or cake using real pandan and/or suji’s leaves. Many, especially those who make traditional snacks for commercial, choose to use synthetic pandan paste or food coloring instead. It is more practical, of course.


During my childhood, I remember my Mom made the effort when she needed pandan aroma and/or suji ‘green’ color to make the green traditional snacks. She actually had this mortar and pestle made of heavy iron to pound the pandan and/or suji leaves to get the aroma and color she wanted.

Let’s Explore a Bit on Pandan and Suji Leaves


Pandan leaves are the leaves of the plant Pandanus amaryllifolius and are sometimes called fragrant screwpine. Fragrant pandanus leaves grow easily in tropical climates and are used widely in both savory and sweet dishes. These blade-like leaves grow up to about 50 cm in length but are often sold trimmed. They have a strong but very pleasant, almost woody perfume. To the Asian Chef, the pandan leaf perhaps what vanilla essence is to his/her Western counterpart. Cooks often add pandan leaves to the pot when cooking rice for their subtle, sweet fragrant – rice cooked this way tastes like it has been newly harvested.

Suji leaves are the leaves of  Dracaena angustifolia Pleomele angustifolia, an annual plant which the leaves can be used for natural food coloring. Suji leaves give natural green color to foods but they don’t have sweet fragrant aroma like Pandan. The green color of suji is darker that of Pandan leaves

Pandan leaves are sometimes tied in a knot and simmered in a sweet dish to gently release its heavenly flavor. Their flavor can also be extracted by cooking whole sections of leaf in a savory dish and removing it after cooking.


Let’s Go Back to the Green Green Snacks of Home


During my childhood, my Mom often cooked me Indonesian traditional snacks and my favorites are the green ones. Now, there are so many great snacks around but I really miss the Green Green Snacks of Home so much today. These ‘green snacks’ are very tasty desserts and drinks – perfect for an unforgettable ‘snacking moment’.

In this post, I explain a bit and show the pictures of my five favorites green snacks and the top two include the recipes.


Klepon (sticky rice green dumpling)


Klepon (pronounced Klê-pon) is a traditional Indonesian rice cake, from Javanese cuisine. It is a boiled rice cake, stuffed with liquid gula jawa (palm sugar), and rolled in grated coconut. Klepon is green because it is flavored with a paste made from the pandan and/or suji leaves which are used widely in South East Asian cooking.

Surprise, surprise I found one recipe of Klepon at the least expected website for this traditional Indonesian snack - it’s at www.nigella.com/recipes/ and klepon is called glutinous rice balls and this is the recipe:


Ingredients

• 150 ml pandanus juice
• 2 tbsp water
• 200 g palm sugar finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 75 g grated coconut

Method:

• Combine the glutinous rice flour , pandanus juice and water into a medium sized bowl kneading well to form a smooth pliable dough.Cover the dough with a damp towel to prevent it from drying out.
• Bring a pan of water to boil , then lower the heat so that the water simmers gently.
• Pinch out a dough about 2 cm across flatten it into a disc and drop it into the simmering water. When the disc is cooked and rises to the surface, lift it out with a slotted spoon , shake off the water and knead the cooked dough evenly back into the main dough. If dough seem too sticky , knead in another 1 to 2 tbsp glutinous flour.
• Mix the salt and grated coconut together and place on a plate.
• Pinch off small balls of dough the size of small limes ( 20 g each ) and roll them into your palms to form smooth balls. carefully make a small well in hte center of each ball and fill with 1 tbsp of the palm sugar .
• Pinch the dough together to seal the palm sugar inside tightly, then roll the ball gently to smoothen and , as you make each one , drop it into the simmering water.
• When the dough balls floats to the top , carefully remove them with a slotted spoon and allow the water to drain off.
• Then roll the balls in the grated coconut to coat evenly. Transfer to a serving plate.

And this is the picture of Klepon which I saw from Nigela Lawson’s website:

Green Serabi

Serabi, surabi or called srabi is an Indonesian pancake drizzled by sweet syrupy sauce. It is made from rice flour and coconut milk or just plain shredded coconut as an emulsifier.



Each province in Indonesia has various serabi recipes corresponding to local tastes. Like in Bandung they sell serabi with chocolate or cheese or sweetened condensed milk and raisin as toppings.

But for me, the classic green serabi with sweet sauce is the best.


When browsing the internet, I found one recipe of green serabi with sweet sauce from www.belzyskitchen.blogspot.com. Here is the recipe with a bit modification:


Ingredients:

• 200 gram all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 300 cc coconut milk
• 50 cc natural green coloring made from suji leaves
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• Olive oil for brushing the pan

Sauce:

• 400 cc coconut milk
• 5 tablespoons of palm sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 pandan leaf, knotted

Methods:

• Combine flour and baking powder then sift on a big bowl.
• Whisk egg and salt until foamy.
• Whisk in coconut milk and the green coloring until well combined.

For the serabi:

• Gradually pour egg and coconut mixture into flour bowl, fold it until the batter is soft and lumps free.
• Let it rest for 2 hours.
• Brush serabi pan or a very small round pan with olive oil.
• Heat it over low heat .
• Once the pancake surface is pored then put the lid on.
• Cook it until the pancake is set.

For the sauce:

• In a saucepan, mix all ingredients and boil it until the palm sugar is melted.
• Keep stirring to avoid coconut crumbled.
• Serve the serabi with the sauce and this is the look of green serabi of the above recipe:

Green Cendol

Cendol is a traditional dessert drink originating from South East Asia which is popular in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines and Thailand. There is popular belief that the name “cendol” is related to and originated from the word in Javanese, Sundanese and Indonesian language which means “bump” or “bulge” which refers to bumpy sensations of the green worm-like jelly passed through the mouth during drinking es cendol. This green cendol dessert drink is liked by many people including President Barak Obama as you can see from this picture:

Dadar Gulung (Indonesian Pancake with Coconut Filling)

Green Pandan Cake

Pandan cake is a light, fluffy cake of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Philippines flavored with the juice of suji leaves. The cakes are light green in tone due to the chlorophyll in the leaf juice.



Wow………………how can you resist such sweet green temptations?


Just looking at the pictures of these green snacks, I get home sick and miss my childhood ‘green snacks’ so much that I am singing along with Tom Jones……..”Yes, they’ll all come to meet me, arms reaching, smiling sweetly …….It’s good to taste the green, green snacks of home…………….”


References:

• Wikipedia
• Nigela Lawson website
• belzyskitchen’s blog

Pictures are from:

• green.kompasiana.com
• kesehatan.kompasiana.com
• usahamakanan.com
• resephidanganhijau-mikhlaskautsar.blogspot.com
• resepmakananhalal.blogpot.com
• ketela.wordpress.com
• kaskus.us
• flickr.com

Let's Roll Some 'Lemper'

Lemper is an Indonesian dish made of sticky rice and chicken. The chicken is rolled inside the rice, in a fashion similar to egg roll. This is in turn rolled and wrapped inside a banana leaf or a plastic sheet to make a packet ready for serving.


Lemper also can be called ”Indonesian sushi roll”. A savory and delicious snack and sometimes good for breakfast too.


Some people cook Lemper by steaming or grilling after the Lemper are wrapped with banana leaves so that the fragrance of the leaves could be absorbed into the sticky rice. Lemper is one of the most popular ‘Jajanan Pasar’ in Indonesia (notes: ‘Jajanan’ means snacks and ‘Pasar’ means traditional market so it’s basically an Indonesian traditional snack).




Steamed Lemper (**)

Grilled Lemper (**)

Why Lemper?


I had been thinking of making Lemper for sometimes and have collected some recipes from different sources. I still regret it that I never learned how to make Lemper from my Mom as she made the best Lemper ever.



After studying the recipes, I decided to try the one which I thought closest to my Mom’s Lemper. And this is the recipe I chose to follow:


Ingredients:

• 250 gram sticky rice, rinsed and drained
• 400 ml water
• 50 gram cream coconut powder
• salt
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 225 gram minced chicken
• 2 pandan leaves
• 3 Kafir lime leaves
• 1 teaspoon squized lime juice

Ingredients for the spice paste:

• 1 oinion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
• 2 teaspoon shaved palm sugar or brown sugar
• salt

* in the original recipe it uses 1 teaspoon of cumin in the ingredients for spice paste, but I skip the cumin coz my family don’t like it




The first time I tried making Lemper was on last February 3rd, during the holiday for Lunar New Year.


I managed to cook the sticky rice:

and the chicken filling ….. (note: I did not really mince the chicken , basically only it into small pieces)  

When came the time to roll the Lemper……….that was a bit of disaster.


I have never learned before how to roll the sticky rice. I tried to figure it out myself but could not roll the sticky rice because my fingers got all sticky….even with the help of oil and the Lemper was breaking up.


After struggled trying to roll the sticky rice and the chicken filling, I knew that it must be something wrong with the technique. The taste was OK but the look was far from the Lemper I’ve known. Oh gosh, what should I do?


I remember I have ever seen another technique of making lemper in a cooking magazine. Instead of rolling the sticky rice, they used baking pan to form the lemper as shown in the following picture (**):

So I decided to make the most out of the mess I’ve made by putting the sticky rice and the chicken filling in a baking pan as follows:

• First I brush the baking pan with oil
• Put one layer (around 2 – 3 cm thick) of the sticky rice in the pan
• Add a layer of the chicken meat on top of the sticky rice layer
• Cover the chicken meat layer with another layer of sticky rice.

Since part of my sticky rice has been mixed with the chicken filling, I could not avoid having a little bit of the chicken pieces on the top of the sticky rice…which should not be!.
 
 

 
Definitely, the look of my Lemper was not good at all, but fortunately the taste was OK and that’s all the matter for first time trial. 


When cut, my first time Lemper looked like this: 

 

I promised myself that next time I will try making better Lemper not just in terms of the taste but also the appearance.

The second time I made Lemper Ayam was last week end. This time it was much better than the first, both in terms of the taste and the look.

I did not know the step by step of rolling the Lemper, so I just rely on my memory of how my Mom’s made Lemper many years ago. When trying the second time, I found out that to roll the sticky rice, I need the help of banana leaf or plastic wrap or plastic gloves to prevent the sticky rice get stuck on all over my fingers


And this was how I made Lemper the second time:

• Place the sticky rice in a pan and add the water
• Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes
• Add half of the cream coconut and a pinch of salt and continue to cook over a low heat until the rice is tender
• Spread the hot rice in a plate and allow to cool

• Using a pestle and a mortar, pound all the spice ingredients into a smooth paste. Add in the pieces of pandan leaves 

   

• Gently fry the spice paste in the oil until fragrant    

   

   

• Add the minced chicken and Kafir line leaves, then stir in the remaining half of the coconut cream powder and a dash of water
•  Continue to stir fry until the chicken is cooked through and the mixture is dry
•  Season with salt and the squized lime juice
•  Remove from heat, discard the pandan and kafir line leaves and let the chicken mixture to cool 
• Brush a sheet of plastic wrap or aluminum foil with oil
• Spoon heap of sticky rice onto the plastic wrap or aluminum foild and shape into rectangles

• Spread some chicken filling along the center of each rice rectangle from end to end

•  Fold both sides of the rectangle rice towards each other lengthwise
•  Roll with our fingers (covered by plastic wrap or gloves) and shape it like this:    

   

•    continue to fold one by one until you get a batch of Lemper   

This is how the Lemper rolls should look when they are wrapped in banana leaves:

The banana leaves make a nice aroma. After that, you may steam or grill the Lemper. Many people said when Lemper rolls are wrapped with banana leaves and then steamed, it makes the Lemper can be kept longer (not easily get spoiled). Eating Lemper is very easy but making it is a different story. It takes a long time and our determination to cook it. But once you can cook good Lemper, it’s worth the effort.

My second daughter loves Lemper so much but she would only eat Lemper when it’s cooked by my Mom. She could even finish seven pieces of my Mom’s Lemper at one time. She would not eat Lemper unless it tastes exactly like the Lemper made by her grandma. That’s why when I tried cooking Lemper the first time, I tried hard to be as good as my Mom’s. Fortunately, the second trial was considered a success as she ate seven pieces of my Lemper too


References:

• Wikipedia
• MyKitchenProduce Blog
• KitchenCake Blog
• IndoChef Blog
• Google Images for some pictures (**)

Yellow Rice, Food for Celebration

Why Food for Celebration?

In my country, people usually make Yellow Rice in a cone-shape which called Tumpeng to celebrate important event. The philosophy of Tumpeng is related to the geographical condition of Indonesia, especially Java as fertile island with numerous mountains and volcanoes. Tumpeng dated back to ancient Indonesian tradition that revered mountains as the abode of ancestors and gods. The cone-shaped rice meant to mimics the holy mountain. The feast served as some kind of thanks giving for the abundance of harvest or any other blessings.

PhotofromKatalogMasakan

In gratitude ceremony (syukuran or slametan), after the people pray, the top of tumpeng is cut and delivered to the most important person. He or she may be the group leader, the oldest person, or the beloved one. Then, all people in the ceremony enjoy the tumpeng together. With tumpeng, people express the gratitude to God and appreciate togetherness and harmony. An annual ceremony involving tumpeng is commonly called ‘tumpengan’.

Photo:fromIndonesianstory.com

Surrounding Dishes

The cone shaped rice surrounded by assorted of Indonesian dishes, such as ayam panggang bumbu rujak (spicy chicken grill – please see my first post ‘This is the beginning’), urap (vegetables in spicy shredded coconut), empal gepuk (sweet and spicy fried beef), abon sapi (beef floss), semur (beef in sweet soy sauce), teri kacang (anchovy with peanuts), fried prawn, telur pindang (boiled marble egg), shredded omelette, tempe orek (sweet and dry fried tempeh), perkedel kentang (mashed potato fritters or potato croquette), perkedel jagung (corn fritters), sambal goreng ati (liver in chilli sauce), and many other dishes.

Because of its festivities and celebrative value, up until now tumpeng sometimes used as Indonesian counterpart of birthday cake. And like birthday cake it is decorated in different beautiful designs as you can see in the following pictures:

Photo: fromSendokGarpu.com

 

 

Photo:fromPondokMuaraTumpeng

Photo:fromAlleyKitchen



I found a classic recipe of Indonesian Yellow Rice in a book named Authentic Recipes from Indonesia by Holzen and Arsana as follows:

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons ground tumeric
• 60 ml water
• 300 gram uncooked rice, washed and drained
• 375 ml thin coconut milk
• 125 ml chicken stock or 1 chicken cube dissolved in 125 ml warm water
• 1 salam or pandan leaf
• 1 stalk lemongrass, thick bottom part only, outer layer discarded, inner part bruised
• 2 cm galangal, peeled and slice
• Salt

How to prepare:

• Dissolve the ground tumeric in water
• Combine the rice, tumeric juice, coconut milk, chicken stock, salam or pandan leaf, lemongrass, galangal and salt in a pot and bring to a boil over high heat
• Reduce the heat to medium and simmer covered until the liquid is absorbed 10-15 minutes until the rice is dry and fluffy
• Remove from heat and mix well. Alternatively cook the rice and ingredients in rice cooker
• Discard the salam or pandan leaf, lemongrass and galangal
• Pressed the cooked yellow rice into a cone shape and decorate with the accompaniments on the sides, if desired

Serve the rice with the accompaniments on the side


This is the look of the authentic Indonesian Festive Yellow Rice:

Photo:fromHolzenandArsana

So far, in my cooking journey I have never tried to cook yellow rice. Judging from the recipe and the look, it must be very time consuming and complicated.



But one day, when I mentioned that I wanted to learn how to cook yellow rice, my second daughter taught me a secret on how to cook yellow rice in a more practical and easy way. She learned this secret when she was studying in Singapore a few years ago.


I ‘ve tried it out and I like the result. The taste of this quick and easy yellow rice was as good as the authentic one. But the big difference lies on the surrounding dishes which accompanied the yellow rice or the design.

A Quick and Easy Version of Cooking Yellow Rice



Ingredients:

• 300 gram uncooked rice, wash and drain
• 1 pack of Indofood Bumbu Soto Ayam (ready-made seasoning for Soto Ayam = Indonesian Chicken Soup)
• 1 pack of Kara Coconut Cream dissolve in 375 ml water
• 1 chicken cube, crumbled and dissolved in 125 ml water
• 1 salam or pandan leaf

How to prepare:

• Dissolve the coconut cream in the water to become coconut milk, set aside
• Crumble the chicken cube and dissolve in 125 ml water to make the chicken stock, set aside
• Stir fry the Indofood Seasoning Paste for a minute or until fragrant
• Add the chicken stock
• Pour in coconut milk and stir until well blended
• Combine the rice, seasoned coconut milk, and pandan leaf in an automatic rice cooker.
• Before turn on the button of the rice cooker, mix well the rice and seasoned coconut milk
• Turn on the rice cooker and cook the seasoned rice until the button is off automatically
• When the on button is off, leave the rice covered in the rice cooker for about 15-20 minutes until the rice is dry and fluffy
• Remove from the rice cooker and stir well
• Discard the pandan leaf
• Form into a cone and decorate with the surrounding dishes (note: to form a sturdy and smooth cone shape some people mix regular rice with glutinous rice with 50:50 composition).

When I made the yellow rice, it was not for celebration so I used only regular rice and did not decorate it and here is the look of my simple humble Yellow Rice:

References:

• Authentic Recipes from Indonesia by Holzen and Arsana
• Katalogmasakan.com
• Indonesianstory.com
• Alleykitchen.com
• Sendokgarpu.com