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

Chili, a HOT commodity

The title of this post is not pun intended. In-deed, recently chili has become a HOT commodity in my country both literally and figuratively. Since the end of 2010, the price of chili has gone through the roof. Reaching an impressive IDR 100,000 (US $ 11.1) per kilogram, or five times its normal price and more than the price of chicken meat, it has truly become a hot commodity on dining table and in kitchens of most people in my country.



In less than one week, I already noticed more than 3 articles about this ‘hot commodity’ on headlines of Jakarta Post, one of the local newspapers. Both newspapers and social networking sites have been flooded with ironic messages and posts about chilies. Let me quote some interesting statements:


‘Asnidar is willing to sacrifice her family’s meat consumption in order to keep chili on the table. Chili is our staple food, not rice or meat, she said.’


‘Housewife Desi Octaviani said her family had replaced the hot flavor of chili with pepper’


‘The chili shortage hit lovers of fried snacks particularly hard. On a good day, fried snack vendors are generous in handing out fresh chilies as a complement. Now for 10 pieces of fried-snacks, the vendors only give 3 pieces of chili, tiny ones, told by office worker Rachmadin.’


‘Adisya said that the food at her favorite restaurants had dulled although it still contained chili. The taste is less spicy because they put more tomotoes in it.’


‘Rising chili prices have given us a chance to explore other Indonesian flavors, wrote Bondan Winarno, culinary expert.’


‘In Banyumas, Central Java, food traders tried their best to provide the usual menu at the same price. “We feel sorry for our customers because we cannot provide sambal (chili paste) for them,” Sumini said’.


People in Indonesia hardly go without eating fiery dishes during mealtimes. The hottest condiment known as ‘sambal’ or chili paste is a must-have accompaniment for every meal.

Life without sambal would be so plain for me and I think also for millions of other Indonesians. Imagine life for Koreans without kimchi, Americans without hamburger or Mexicans without tortillas. That is how it has felt for a large number of people in my country over the past few weeks.


Now let’s take a closer look at Indonesia’s treasure chest of Sambals:


Sambal is served as a condiment and as an ingredient for a variety of dishes. It is sometimes a substitute for fresh chilies. It can be extremely spicy for the uninitiated. It is common to find bowls of different sambals on the dining table in Indonesian homes.


Some popular Indonesian sambals include sambal terasi (shrimp paste sambal), sambal bajak, sambal mangga (green mango sambal), sambal ijo (green sambal), sambal balado, sambal kecap (sweet soy sauce sambal), sambal setan, sambal Taliwang, sambal matah and many more.


Sambal Terasi

A common Indonesian style of sambal. Terasi (shrimp paste) is similar to the Malaysian Belacan, but with a stronger flavor since terasi is a more condensed shrimp paste than belacan.


Sambal Bajak

Chili (or another kind of red pepper) fried with oil, garlic, terasi, candlenuts and other condiments


Sambal mangga

Freshly ground Sambal Terasi with shredded young mango; this is a good accompaniment to seafood.


Sambal ijo

A specialty of the Padang area from Indonesia, the sambal is green, made of green tomatoes, green chilli, and spices. The sambal is stir fried.


Sambal Balado

This is the Padang style of Sambal. Red chili pepper is blended together with garlic, shallot, tomato, salt and lemon or lime juice, then sauteed with oil.


Sambal Kecap Manis

Indonesian sweet soy sauce, chili, shallots and lime it has a chiefly sweet taste, as said by the Indonesian word ‘manis’ which means ‘sweet’.


Sambal Setan

A very hot sambal with Madame Jeanette peppers (red brownish, very sharp). The name literally means “Devil’s Sauce”.


Sambal Taliwang

This variant is native to Taliwang, a village near Mataram, Lombok Island, and is made from naga jolokia pepper grown specially in Lombok mixed with garlic and Lombok shrimp paste. It is served as condiments to ayam bakar Taliwang (Taliwang grilled chikcen)


Sambal matah

Raw Shallot & Lemongrass Sambal of Bali origin. It contains a lot of finely chopped shallots, chopped bird’s eye chilli, shrimp paste (terasi), with a dash of lemon.



There are still many other types of sambals ….. but for today, let me close this post by quoting Bondan Winarno, a culinary expert who asked people to look at the brighter side: ‘Rising chili prices have given us a chance to explore other Indonesian flavors. There are other hot flavors such as pepper, andaliman (szechuan peppercorn) and ginger’.


So perhaps it isn’t the end of the world after all for all lovers of chili in Indonesia.