Nothing could possibly be simpler to cook than plain boiled rice; even a boiled egg requires more finesse. But you can cook rice in Indonesia in as many different ways as potatoes in Ireland, so the matter is worth condsidering in some detail. Ideally, rice should be boiled and then steamed. The first process requires an ordinary saucepan, the second demands a streamer with a perforated basket. The traditional Javanese dandang is large copper vessel with a narrow waist; the kukusan, a woven bamboo container which holds the rice, is conical in shape and sits on the sloping sides of the dandang, just above the level of the water. These elegant pans are still made in java, and possibly in some other parts of Indonesia, though copper has been largely replaced by tin and aluminium. Many people, however, now use a deep straight-sides pan with a metal basket hung inside it. These can be bought easily enough in Holland, though I have not yet seen one in London. They are very light and easy to clean, and if not allowed to boil dry too often will last for many years. If you relly eat a lot of rice, you may find it worth while to buy an alectric rice cooker. These are imported from Japan and are sold mostly in Chinese and Japanese shops. They are not cheap, and though they are certainly very convenient and efficient I have never felt much need for one. If on the other hand you cook rice only occasionally, you may not want any special utensils for it at all-and in that case you will find that you can cook rice to protection in any thickbottomed saucepan. The only slaight disadvantages are that this method requires more care, and a little rice is usually lost.
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Ingredients:
250 g chicken fillet, sliced
40 g ready-made rendang paste
2 Kaffir lime leaves, shredded finely
2 tsps oil
1 cup uncooked rice, washed and seasoning with 1 tsp salt and sugar
4 shiitake mushrooms, chopped
10 roasted cashew nuts, chopped
8 raisins
1 cup (about 240 ml) chicken stock
1. Rub chicken with rendang paste, lime leaves, oil and a pinch of salt, sugar and pepper. Set aside.
2. Mix seasoned rice with mushrooms, nuts and raisin.
3. Divide chicken between 2 Chinese rice bowls. Pack rice on top. Pour chicken stock equally into each bowl.
4. Steam over a high fire for 20 mins. To serve, unmould the rice onto a plate, and garnish with coriander leaves and sliced chilli.
Ingredients:
1 can cream if chicken soup, bought to a boil with 1/2 can water and allowed to cool
2 bowls cooked rice
1 can luncheon meat, cut into 2-cm cubes
1 cup broccoli florets
2 cups grated Mozzarella cheese (available at supermarkets)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (available at supermarkets)
1. Combine cream of chicken soup with cooked rice and luncheon meat in a baking dish.
2. Arrange broccoli florets on top. top with Mozzarella cheese and sprinkle Parmesan chees eover.
3. Bake in a hot oven, about 200 C, for 15 minutes. Serve hot.
Ingredients:
6 T short grain rice
4 T sugar
500 ml milk
1/2 vanilla pod
150 ml cream
Combine rice, milk and sugar in a medium sized saucepan. Split vanilla pod and scraped seeds into milk mixture; add scraped pod as well. Bring to a simmer and cook gently, stirring occasionally, for about an hour or until thickened. Add the cream and continue cooking, stirring often to prevent burning, until cream is absorbed and pudding is thick and creamy,. Serve hot, warm or chilled, with apple puree and double cream.
When you turn the rice out of the pan , you will find that a layer about 1/2 cm thick has stuck to the bottom. One way to get rid of this is just to soak the pan and throw this small quantity away. Ni Indonesian would throw rice away, however. Instead, put the pan, straight from the stove, on to a wet cloth and let it stand there for 2 minutes. The cooked rice will not lose heat appreciably in this time, and the layer on the bottom -the intip- will not stick; you can take it out5 like a cake from a cake-tin. Keep the intip for 24 hours, then put in it out of doors in hot sunshine to dry throughly. If it is winter or the weather forecast is bad, dry it off in the oven as you would bread before making breadscrumbs. Break up the intip into smaller pieces, and store these in an airtight jar. When you have a good quantity-say, half a kilo or so-deep-fry the pieces until they are golden brown, Sprinkle them with salt (or, when cool, spread them with golden syrup), and you have an unusual and delicious crisp snack. The salty ones will kep in an airtight jar for months; the syrupy ones should be eaten fairly soon, or they will go soft.
Lontong is always eaten cold, and is traditional Javanese fare at Lebaran-the end of the Moslem fasting month, which is also the beginning of a new Moslem year. It is specially recomended to go withcertain dishes, such as sate and gule, though you can cook rice this way any time. The idea is that the rice is cooked inside asmall container, so that as it swells up the grains are pressed into a solid mass which can later be sliced up into chunks the size of mouthful.In Indonesia, this container is rolled from a square of banana leaf, 15 or 20 cm (about 6′) each side. The leaf is softened by heating or in hot water so that it does not crack or split. The cylinder is closed at one end by folding it over and pinning it with uncooked rice, and the other end is pinned shut. In Britain and elsewhere, the banana leaf can conveniently be replaced by using boil-in-the-bag rice. One bag is sample for three people. The cooking method is the same: Put water in a pan, add a pinch of salt, and bring to the boil. Drop the bags of rice in and simmer for 1,75 hour. It does not matter whether the pan is covereed or not, but keep an eye on the water level: the rice must remain completely immersed. Pour hours, take out the bags, which will nom be plumped out like cushions, and leave them to cool overnaight or for at least 6 hours. Then strip off the bag (or leaf) and cut up the lontong, which shoulds be soft but perfectly firm.
This is made, in Indonesia, in containers of woven coconut-leaf, which they are hung up, twenty or thirty at time, to cool under the thatch of a roadside warung.
This is rather richer, more aromatic form of Nasi Putih or Nasi Liwet; it can be either boiled and steamed, or just boiled. Instead of water, use santen (coconut milk)-the same quantity- and put in a pinch of salt, a salam leaf or bay-leaf, and a stick of cinnamon. (In Indonesia, we also add a piece of daun pandan for extra flavor). These solids should be removed before the last stage of cooking; this is easy, as they usually remain on top of the contents of the pan.
Nothing could possibly be simpler to cook than plain boiled rice; even a boiled egg requires more finesse. But you can cook rice in Indonesia in as many different ways as potatoes in Ireland, so the matter is worth condsidering in some detail. Ideally, rice should be boiled and then steamed. The first process requires an ordinary saucepan, the second demands a streamer with a perforated basket. The traditional Javanese dandang is large copper vessel with a narrow waist; the kukusan, a woven bamboo container which holds the rice, is conical in shape and sits on the sloping sides of the dandang, just above the level of the water. These elegant pans are still made in java, and possibly in some other parts of Indonesia, though copper has been largely replaced by tin and aluminium. Many people, however, now use a deep straight-sides pan with a metal basket hung inside it. These can be bought easily enough in Holland, though I have not yet seen one in London. They are very light and easy to clean, and if not allowed to boil dry too often will last for many years. If you relly eat a lot of rice, you may find it worth while to buy an alectric rice cooker. These are imported from Japan and are sold mostly in Chinese and Japanese shops. They are not cheap, and though they are certainly very convenient and efficient I have never felt much need for one. If on the other hand you cook rice only occasionally, you may not want any special utensils for it at all-and in that case you will find that you can cook rice to protection in any thickbottomed saucepan. The only slaight disadvantages are that this method requires more care, and a little rice is usually lost.
