Since I talked about Thai food last week, this week I feel compelled to bring you Indonesian food. And because it’s Thanksgiving week, I’m going to honor the turkey as well.
While I never grew up in Indonesia, a country made up of over 17,000 islands, I was raised on the food. I was a fourth generation Indonesian in Kampong Java, an Indonesian enclave in the heart of Bangkok, Thailand. Our family house is a stone’s throw from a mosque, Masjid Java. In a country where glittering gold Buddhist temples dot the landscape, living next to a mosque with a multi-tier roof mimicking Javanese architecture was pretty special.
Our neighbors were also Indonesian-Thais who had been there for generations. Most everyone has two names: a Muslim name used at home and a Thai name used at school and work. On special occasions, we dress in Indonesian batik and kabaya, a blouse made of intricate lace.
While I was growing up, life in the neighborhood revolved around special occasions: births, weddings, birthdays, Qur’an graduation, deaths. Before Bangkok exploded into the metropolis it is today, before 8-foot concrete fences were erected between houses, I remember a time when the women of Kampong Java would get together to cook meals for these special events. They worked together to cut meat, vegetables, and heaps of garlic. One would handle the fryer, another manned the rice, while another took care of the curry. The sound of chatting and laughing could be heard a block away, quieted only when the mosque announced the azaan, the call to prayer.
The food that came out of their kitchens was gorgeous. There were boiled eggs dyed red on top of yellow rice for birthdays, aromatic goat curry for the Feast of Sacrifice, and lontong with vegetable coconut curry for Eid al-Fitr. Lontong is traditionally made by pressing rice soaked in water into a cylinder made of banana leaf, and boiling until cooked. Once done, the rice would be unwrapped and cut into pieces to eat with mild curry as a main dish or drizzled with syrupy brown sugar and topped with grated coconut as dessert. Growing up here when I did taught me about the beauty of food, tradition, and comradery played to the background of Muslim and Buddhist chants.
The problem with that is I am ruined. Nothing would ever measure up to the perfection of my memory when it comes to Indonesian food. And there are no restaurants that serve lontong within a 50-mile radius. The dilemma is very much like an American looking for Thanksgiving turkey in Thailand (the position we were in in 2016).
So, what would a person who doesn’t like to cook do when she craves food from her memory that she cannot get in San Diego County? She makes it up with the help of a tiny Indonesian food section at 99 Ranch. And like most food I make, this does not require too much effort.
Ingredients:
Lontong
- Uncooked rice cake (Nona brand)
Curry (lodeh)
- Turkey –1 lb cubed (or use left-over Thanksgiving turkey cut into pieces)
- Lodeh vegetable stew sauce (Bamboe brand) – 2 packs
- Coconut cream (Mae Ploy brand) – 1 can
- Dry minced garlic – 1 tbs
- Fish sauce (Phu Quoc brand if available) – 1 Tbs
- Water – 2 cans (use coconut cream can to measure)
- Bamboo shoots (Aroy-D brand in slices) – 1 can
- French green beans – 20 cut into 1/3 length
- Cabbage – ½ a head cut into strips
- 5 kefir lime leaves – torn for fragrance
- 4 boiled eggs – halved to top the curry
- Fried shallots to top
Instructions:
60 minutes cooking time for rice
Follow instruction on the bag
20 minutes cooking time for curry
In a pot, mix 1/3 can of coconut with 1 package of Lodeh curry sauce and dry minced garlic
Once chicken is half done, add the remaining coconut cream and mix thoroughly
Bring to boil
Add 1 can of water using the coconut cream can
Add another package of Lodeh curry sauce
Add bamboo shoots, cabbage, and green beans
Add 1 more can of water – consistency should be almost soupy
Add 1 Tbs fish sauce
Bring to boil
Add kefir lime leaves
Taste then add more fish sauce if you want it to be saltier or add more water if you want it to be milder
To serve: cut the rice cake into cubes, add curry and fried shallots