Indonesian cuisine is...
The most vibrant the most vibrant and colourful cuisine in the world, full of intense flavour. Indonesia has around 5,350 traditional recipes,with 30 of them considered the most important.In 2011, Indonesian cuisine began to gain worldwide recognition, with three of its popular dishes make it to the list of 'World's 50 Most Delicious Foods (Readers' Pick)', a worldwide online poll by 35,000 people held by CNN International.Rendang top the list as the number one, followed closely by nasi goreng in number two, and satay in number fourteen.
Indonesian cuisine varies greatly by region and has many different influences.Sumatran cuisine, for example, often has Middle Eastern and Indian influences, featuring curried meat and vegetables such as gulai and kari, while Javanese cuisine is mostly indigenous, with some hint of Chinese influence. The cuisines of Eastern Indonesia are similar to Polynesian and Melanesian cuisine. Elements of Chinese cuisine can be seen in Indonesian cuisine: foods such as bakmi (noodles), bakso (meat or fish balls), and lumpia (spring rolls) have been completely assimilated.
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Join The Class
If you want to know and learn about Indonesian cuisine, then let's join OR host the class. YES, be the HOST. Get 6-8 people (depends on your kitchen size) to your house, we do the cooking class using your kitchen and then we have dinner/lunch from the dish that we cook.
It's another idea to catch up with friends or team building, to give your family or friends different experience to their meal.
Class details:
Duration of the lesson : 2 hours.
Total duration : unlimited (depends on the host)
Prices included : All ingredients cost, light refreshment, a delicious meal
Important Information : Must inform if there is any special diet/allergy
What you need to bring : Cash and camera
Participants : 6-8 people
Price : from $30/person ; depends on the menu chosen by the host
Indonesian cooking basic Paste
Indonesian cooking methods are similar to those used in any other Asian or Western kitchen especially the basics such as blanching, broiling, steaming, frying and deep frying. 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. There are varieties of basic spice pastes and they are called basic because they are the seasoning bases of almost all Indonesian dishes.
In Indonesia, a saucer-shape granite grinding stone (mortar) and pestle are used. Ingredients are peeled as necessary and sometimes chopped or sliced into small pieces so they would be easier to grind. The pestle is used with a backwards and forwards motion across the mortar until the ingredients are blended together into a smooth paste. If you are using a blender or a food processor, the order of processing the spices is much the same as using a mortar, but in some cases you 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.
The order to be followed when grinding spice paste ingredients is the hard items first although at most times I like to grind garlic and shallots first. The hard items are dried spices, nuts and tough fibrous rhizomes such as galangal, lemongrass. When all of these ingredients are fine, add softer rhizomes, such as turmeric, ginger and fresh soaked dried chilies. Once all of these are quite smooth, then add ingredients that are full of moisture, such as shallots and garlic. Finally, you add shrimp paste and tamarind juice or any other kind of juices and process to mix well.
This spice paste often then needs to be fried or simmered depending on the recipes. If it needs to be fried, just use a little bit of oil over low to moderate heat and stir fry it until it starts to smell fragrant. This 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.
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These basic paste are available and all you need to do is to order. Send me email and I will follow up. A jar of 100 grams is $5.00, can last for 2 weeks in the fridge and 3 months in the freezer.
