Indonesian Cooking at Home

I often cook Thai dishes at home (as my moniker implies). I've had the James Oseland Cradle of Flavor cookbook for several months and I pulled it off the shelf recently to look through it and decided I need to actually start using it. So, off to Golden Pacific to pick up some candle nuts and fresh turmeric. I'm currently in the midst of a kitchen renovation and I have an improvised kitchen so I started with the Indonesian Beef Sate (Sate Sapi) recipe--easy to prep and can be made on the grill. I've made Thai sate many times but I really like the addition of fresh turmeric and tamarind. Also, the peanut sauce has toasted shrimp paste which added a really nice funky layer. Also, I've made coconut rice by adding some coconut milk to the liquid in my rice cooker. To accompany the sate, I made coconut rice and added some smashed, 'knotted' lemongrass stalks as recommended in one of Oseland's recipe. Very nice, subtle floral aroma--will definitely be doing this again. I'm looking forward to cooking more from this book.

really nice looking plate of food there,

i look forward to you posting more pictures of what else you make from the cookbook you mentioned.

I've made the Beef Rendang, and one or two other items from that cookbook -- haven't had anything fail yet.

I made the Shrimp With Asian Greens from this book last night. It turned out fine, but I can't say I was wowed by it. I thought it needed more complex seasoning.

You know, this might be an excellent way to get through some of BossyIII's tougher cuts - and anything with shrimp paste is better, IMO. I'm going to look into it.

Great looking sauce up there! The coconut rice trick sounds very appealing. I will do this soon.

thaiobsessed wrote:To accompany the sate, I made coconut rice and added some smashed, 'knotted' lemongrass stalks as recommended in one of Oseland's recipe. Very nice, subtle floral aroma--will definitely be doing this again.

I just saw this on a recent episode of Ruth's Gourmet Adventures (the mildly annoying PBS show where Ruth Reichl glob-trots to take in-country cooking classes). The Lao cook described lemongrass as "trouble in the pot" when cooked and recommended knotting it for easy removal before serving. A very good idea.

gastro gnome wrote:I just saw this on a recent episode of Ruth's Gourmet Adventures

Funny you bring up that show. I just saw it for the first time yesterday. Ruth went to the Yangshuo cooking school in China. They made a pork belly and taro dish that made me want to flag the first cab I could find to O'Hare and hop on a plane over there. Cool show.

thaiobsessed wrote:Also, the peanut sauce has toasted shrimp paste which added a really nice funky layer.

Great idea, I typically make the peanut sauce from Jennifer Brennan's "The Original Thai Cookbook" which gains depth from dark sweet soy sauce and fish sauce, but a small amount of toasted shrimp paste seems an excellent addition. Nice suggestion adding a 'knot' of lemon grass to coconut rice, I will try that soon.

Terrific post, got to look at pretty food porn and learned a couple of new things.

Thanks,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:got to look at pretty food porn and learned a couple of new things

.

Basically, an LTHer's life don't get much better than that!!

Geo

Made the beef rendang from the Oseland cookbook last night. It turned out great--really intense flavors. If/when I make it again, I'll probably cook it a tad less; it's supposed to be fairly dry but I would have liked it a tiny bit more saucy. It's a fun cookbook to experiment with but I don't really have a benchmark for Indonesian food--my only experience with this type of food is a few trips to Bandung when I lived in Madison.

Bandung is a pretty good exemplar, esp. if you went to one of their monthly rijsttafel dinners.

Their food is a little MidWest tamed-down, but the flavors are accurate.

Looks *very* nice, thaiobsessed!

Geo