Pindang

Pindang is a cooking method which consists of boiling (or steaming) in brine. It is a ‘wet’ preservation method. If a recipe calls for pindang fish, this fish is boiled/steamed in brine with tannin containing spices. A pindang fish can be fried when used in a recipe.

Fishery Industrial Research, Volume 5, Nummer 1

Pindang cabe ijo (pindang green peppers)

Take 8 small pindang fish. Fry the fish in hot oil. To prevent the oil from splattering sprinkle some flower in the hot oil. Set aside.

Chop 8 small sjalot, 2 gloves of garlic, 100 gram green chili (slice diagonally in 2 cm pieces, 4 cm galangal (smash), 3 salam leaves, 2 small tomatoes (unripe is fine), a handful of peteh beans.

Fry the onion and garlic first. Add the green chili, galangal, salam leaves and add a little water. Add salt and a little ketjap manis. Add the fish, tomatoes and peteh beans.

Serve with rice.

Pindang base lalah kas Bali

Use pindang fish, remove the head and fish bones. Fry in oil.

Make a paste using the following ingredients:

6 small red onion
5 cloves of garlic
8 small chili peppers
3 hazelnuts
1 piece kencur
1 piece turmeric
1 tomato
1 lombok

Fry the paste in oil. Add a daun leaf. Add the fried fish. Add some water and simmer. Add salt and black pepper. Simmer until the sauce is reduced.

Pepes Ikan Pindang Khas Bali

A variation on the recipe above is to make the spice paste first, without the fish. Once the spice paste is finished, take a banana leaf and wrap the pindang fish with some tablespoons spice mixture. Steam the banana leaves and finish by grilling the banana leaves over a fire.

Make a paste using the following ingredients:

18 small onions
8 cloves of garlic
2 turmeric chambers
2 segments of ginger
2 segments of kencur
5 candlenuts (toasted)
12 small chili peppers (rawit)
1 tbsp coriander
1/2 tbsp salt
4 lombok
shrimp paste
enough water

Grind to a paste, add water and simmer with a little oil. Add daun leaf and 2 sliced tomatoes. Simmer until the tomatoes are dissolved. Add black pepper powder to taste and sugar.

Sichuan Mapo Tofu

This is taken from Chef Wang Gang’s YouTube-channel.

• Prepare 400 gram firm tofu. Cut in 1,2 cm cubes.

• Chop 50 gram beef into a fine grind .

• Chop 15 gram pickled ginger and 20 gram pickled Sichuan chili.

• Chop one garlic sprout, or thin spring onion (for garnish).

• Take 10 gram dried chili and 5 gram dried green Sichuan pepper.

I love Chef Wang’s mise en place.

Cooking

1. Heat oil in a wok and add the dried chili and green Sichuan pepper for 15 seconds. Knife chop these ingredients in a fine powder (traditional ‘knifed’ chili).

2. Add some water in the wok, a little salt and boil the tofu for 1 minute. Drain.
   

3. Add oil to (rapeseed oil) the wok and stir fry the beef until dry. Add some chili bean sauce (doubanjiang), the 15 gram ginger, 20 gram chopped chili and some fermented black beans. Fry until the oil comes out. Add 5 gram ‘knifed’ chili. Mix and add some water. Add salt and MSG. Add the tofu and boil for 3 minutes.

4. Add starch water to thicken the sauce in several stages. Add a splash of scallion oil before plating.

5. Garnish with traditional ‘knifed’ chili and garlic sprout.

Panch phoron

When cooking ‘Indian’ you need to narrow it down to a specific region for it to make sense. Panch phoron means “five spices” and is typical for the kitchen of Northeastern India, Eastern India and Bangladesh. You can easily make panch phoron at home by mixing the following five whole spices in equal parts:

Fenugreek seed, nigella seed, cumin seed, black mustard seed and fennel seed.

Sometimes the black mustard seeds are replaced by radhuni.

When cooking with panch phoron you’d typically add a tea spoon of the mixture to hot oil before adding the other ingredients. This is called tadka. Below some sample recipes.

Aloo ki Sabji

Boil 500 gram somewhat floury potatoes (“iets kruimig”) in the skin. Cool down and peal the potatoes. Roughly mash the potatoes coarsely with your fingers.

Heat 3 tablespoons mustard oil. Lower the heat and add a pinch of hing and 1 - 2 teaspoons panch phoron, a few fresh green chilis, half a teaspoon of turmeric, 1 teaspoon Kashmiri chili powder. Tomatoes at this stage are optional. Mix and add the mashed potatoes.
Mix and fry on low heat for 1 minute. Add 300 ml water. Add salt to taste and kasuri methi. Simmer for a couple of minutes.

Add 1 teaspoon chaat masala (or just amchoor powder) and half a teaspoon garam masala. Finish with chopped koriander leaves.

Panch phoran masoor dal

To make this red lentil dal the first step of aloo ki sabji is almost identical. Heat 4 tbsp mustard oil in the pan. When hot add 1 tsp panch phoron, bay leaf and dried chili. Add some hing (asafoetida) and shallot. When the onion is translucent add 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric.

Add precooked masoor dal (100 gram with 500 gram water would be a good amount, cook in pressure cooker until the first whistle). Mix well, add salt and cook for 6 minutes on medium heat.

Sambal

There are literally hundreds of different sambal in Indonesia, some are raw, some are fried. Below a modest collection of sambal I want to have in my repertoire.

Sambal bajak pedes seger banget

Badjak means ‘ pirate’ but in a sambal it means the sambal is fried. Pedes is ‘spicy’ and seger banget means ‘very fresh’.

50 gr green small chili’s
10 pieces of red small chili’s
3 pieces of garlic
1 jeruk limau (a type of small lime)
tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
Chicken stock powder
A little micin =MSG (optional)

Clean the chili’s and make a small cut to expose the inside. Fry the chilies and garlic in hot oil for a short while. Just before they start to brown. Take out the chilis and garlic. Mash the chilis and garlic together with salt, sugar, chicken stock powder and MSG in a cobek. Add a little of the hot oil and mix. Finish with squeezing some jeruk limau over the sambal. Serve in de cobek.

Jeruk limau

From the YouTube channel CR Cook.

Sambal Matah

A raw sambal from Bali. Simply mix the below ingredients.

3 shallots, peeled and sliced in half length-way, then finely crosswise sliced.
7 rawit (bird’s eye chilies), sliced.
3 stalks lemon grass, only take the white and tender part, bruised and finely sliced.
1 tsp salt.
black pepper.
5 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil.

Add for a more luxurious version:

Kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced.
1 tsp roasted trassi, finely grated.
Freshly squeezed kaffir lime juice.
Grated kaffir lime skin.
Kecicang. If you add the flower buds it is called "Sambal Matah Kecicang"

Etlingera elatior or kecicang.

Sambal Matah Kecicang

Bún Thịt Nướng

Thịt Nướng simply means ‘barbecued meat’ and bún is noodles. The meat is usually pork shoulder. I used pork neck.

Two components which make the taste: the marinade and the dipping sauce nước mắm.

Marinade for pork:

2 shallot, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoons vegetables oil
1 tablespoon superfine sugar.

Dipping sauce:

Nước mắm is a generic term for dipping sauce.

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped.
3 bird’s eyes chilies, thinly sliced.
75 ml fish sauce.
50 ml white vinegar'.
40 gram superfine sugar.

Bún
For the noodles you should use thin (1 mm) rice noodles. Pour boiling water over the noodles and soak for 10 minutes. Wash the noodles in cold water until all the starch is removed and they don’t stick together. The noodles are served cold.

Toppings:
Roasted peanuts, coarsely crushed.
Cucumber.
Pickled carrot and daikon.
Fried shallot.
Spring onion oil.
Vietnamese mint.
Thai sweet basil.

Before assembling the dish.

When eating you mix everything together, I think this is the proper way to eat.

Crispy shallot. Before frying mix the sliced shallot with salt and soak in water for 10 minutes. Dry the shallot before frying. This will draw out moisture and make the shallot more crispy. You can use the same technique when frying tofu.

Mở hành (onion oil).

Paon Bali

Paon Bali is an authentic Balinese restaurant in the Eastern Docklands in Amsterdam. There is only one option on the menu and you need to send a WhatsApp to reserve your take-away meal. The owners are great. When I lamented that I couldn’t buy kecicang for the sambal, the lady gave me some kecicang from her freezer. I always eat my Paon Bali take-away with my hands. No need for forks or spoons.

Nasi Languan
Sate lilit ikan, tambusan be pasih, pindang base tomat, gerang bawang jahe, jukut urab, cumi suna cekuh, sambal udang, sambal matah kecicang, kacang tanah goreng, nasi merah/pitih en sup ikan.

Sambal matah kecicang. Raw sambal with bongkot flowers.

Tambusan be pasih.

 

Yemini rice with meat

This dish is baked in an oven tray. You can use lamb or goat meat, or even chicken, with bones. Marinate the meat with salt, cumin, paprika, black pepper and turmeric.

Spread in the baking tray:

Onion, chopped
Carrots, sliced
Tomatoes, cubed
Bell pepper
Garlic
Hot pepper
Parsley leaf
Coriander leaf
Cinnamon stick
Bay leaves
Cardamon
Gloves
Cumin (powdered)
Coriander seeds (powdered)
Black pepper, powdered
Salt
Dried lemon

Spread out in the tray. Add 3 cups of water. Add the meat, cover with parchment paper and tin foil. Bake in preheated oven of 250 degrees for an hour.

Remove cover and take out the meat. Add 3 cups soaked basmati rice and 4,5 cups of water: mix. Put the meat on top of the rice. Cover again and cook for 30 minutes.

Rhubarb chutney

This Indian inspired rhubarb chutney can be made in a little over half an hour.

You will need:

300 gram rhubarb, cut into cork sized chunks.
2 red onions, chopped.
200 gram sugar.
250 ml white wine vinegar (I used apple vinegar).
1 tbsp mustard seeds (popped open in a hot pan).
1 tbsp coriander seeds.
2 star anise.
A couple of small chilis (dried or fresh).
1 orange for zest.
Salt.

Add the onions, sugar and vinegar to a pan and bring to the boil. Add the spices except the orange and simmer for a minute of five. Add orange zest in small strips and cook for 15 minutes until the chutney thickens a bit.

Add the rhubarb ‘corks’ and cook for another 10 minutes just until the rhubarb completely dissolves. Eat cold or warm. Goes very will with pork sausage.

Sayur lodeh

The joy of cooking in the garden. My only wish is to have a proper blazing hot wok burner for outdoor use.

The name simply means: softly boiled (lodeh) vegetables (sayur) in Indonesian. This dish is typical for Java and therefore ubiquitous in Dutch Indonesian restaurants. The dish breaks down in three elements: the spice paste, coconut milk and vegetables plus a protein.

To make the spice paste pound together:

Garlic.
Onion (preferable small Indonesian shallot).
Kentjoer.
Trassi.
Fresh chilli peper for heat. Rawit are small and hot.
Kemeri nuts.
Ketoembar (coriander seeds).
A few shavings of palm or coconut sugar (sold as a solid stick).
Salt.

Quantities according to taste. Fresh yellow root (kunyit) can be added for a different color. Below a version with some fresh jeruk (kaffir lime) leaves, salam (bay leaf) leaves and kentjoer (Kaempferia galanga).

Reserve a piece of galangal to simmer in the stew. Smash the galangal to open up the fibres.

The choice of vegetables is really up to what you can get. I like to use as many typical Asians vegetables. This time I used:

One chayote (imported to Asia from Middle America) cut in chunks.
A carrot cut in rough matchsticks.
Green beans (yardlong bean would be perfect but can be expensive).
Half a oxheart cabbage (spitskool).
Collard greens. I used po choy also known as Chinese spinach.
Tempeh as in: fermented soy bean cake.

Once everything is prepared the cooking is simple: fry the spice paste in hot oil for about 4 minutes until fragrant. Add the can of coconut milk and bring to a boil. Add vegetables and extra water so the vegetables are covered. Add the smashed galangal.

Simmer until the vegetables are cooked. Add the collard greens in the last 5 minutes. Turn the heat off and let it stand for a couple of hours before reheating and serving.

CC BY-SA 4.0

Vegan yangnyeom-chikin

I tasted this in Amsterdam in the Veganees, a shared dining restaurant based on Asian classics (1e Constantijn Huygenstraat 45, Amsterdam). The fried cauliflower in gochujang is basically the Korean restaurant classic yangnyeom-chikin.

You can substitute the chicken for cauliflower, I’m sure this will work. The recipe below is Maangchi's.

Ingredients:

One cauliflower, taken apart in florets.

For the batter:

½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ cup potato starch
¼ cup all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs (skip for a truly vegan version)
1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

For the sauce:

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
⅓ cup ketchup
⅓ cup rice syrup (skip for a less sweet version)
¼ cup gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste)
2 teaspoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
corn (or vegetable) oil for frying

For a side dish, pickled radish (chicken-mu), optional

Fry the cauliflower florets coated in the batter in hot oil. Cool down. Mix the ingredients for the sauce on a medium heat. Fry the cauliflower florets for a second time until slightly crunchy. Coat the cauliflower in the sauce, mix well and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Preserved vegetable soup 四川菜汤

I found this recipe on the My taste, his taste blog. Many months ago I bought some Chinese preserved vegetables but didn't find the time to use the vegetables. This soup seemed pretty straightforward. Before you can use the vegetables soak them in water for half an hour and rinse. Cut into 1 cm pieces and set aside. The vegetables are Chinese mustard greens, or jiè cài (芥菜) in Mandarin and gai choy in Cantonese. Pickled they are called haam choy. 四川菜汤 means: Sichuan (四川) vegetable (菜) soup (汤).

The other vegetables you need are a couple of tomatoes, 2 to 3 carrots and a red or green chili. For meat pork spare ribs are perfect. First cook the spare ribs for a minute in boiling water, drain and rinse. Cut the spare ribs in separate pieces. See below.

Add 2 liters water to a pot, add the preserved vegetable, carrots and tomatoes and boil. Add the ribs and simmer for half an hour. Add the chili and crushed white pepper (black will do as well) and simmer for another half hour. Since the preserved vegetables are salty wait until the last moment to adjust for salt.

You can keep this soup in the fridge for many days.

Bodenseefelchen Mandel

This was the third time I visited Friedrichshafen for work. On Saturday evening I treated myself to a Felchenfilet from the Bodensee in Fischerstūble, seemingly owned by the local fishing club: Angelsportverein Friedrichshafen.

Felchen is just the local name for a fish from the genus Coregonus. Species: Coregonus wartmanni.

The recipe is easy: basically Müllerinart, so rinsed in milk and then dusted with flower. The fish is fried in butter, 3-4 minutes each side. As a final step sliced almonds are browned in added butter.

I choose a local Weisburgunder (Pinot Blanc in France) from Hagnauer Wein vom Bodensee.

Because of my work at the Friedrichshafen Messe I have never seen the Bodensee by daylight.

Bodenseefelchen Mandel.

Friedrichshafen is known for Luftschiffbau Zeppelin and the construction of the famous zeppelin LZ 129 Hindenburg.

Fladder, vlees- en bloedworst

This is one of my favorite Surinamese street foods and it’s so rare it’s been years since I tasted fladder. Fladder is tripe. The tripe is boiled in stock with spices and herbs in a huge stockpot. Chicken stock can be used as a base with onion, garlic, celery and madame jeanette pepers. Before serving the tripe is sliced and served with blood sausage and white sausage. A spoon of stock will be added and hot pepper sauce.

I bought the fladder below on Dappermarkt Amsterdam in 2017.

Soy sauce chow mein 豉油王炒麵

Chow 炒 means “frying” and mein 面 is a type of wheat noodle. As a Cantonese dish Soy Sauce Chow Mein is called 豉油王炒麵 which translates to pan-fried noodles with premium soy sauces. If you have thin egg noodles you are all set to go. Cooking time is about 10 minutes.

150 gram thin egg noodles (dried, or fresh: steamed or unsteamed)
4 tbs oil
3 scallions, white and green parts separated in 4 cm pieces.
1 medium onion
150 bean sprouts
1,5 tbs dark soy sauce
1,5 tbs light soy sauce
1 tbs sesame oil

Boil the dried noodles in water, 2 minutes should suffice. If you have fresh noodles, 10 seconds is enough. NOTE: you can buy fresh unsteamed noodles and steam the noodles instead of boiling. Drain.

Heat half the oil in a wok. Add the scallion whites and onion and cook for 3 minutes until golden. Add the bean sprouts and wok for another 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and clean the wok.

Heat the remaining oil in the wok and add the noodles. Wok undisturbed for 2 minutes. Add both soy sauces, toss. Add the vegetables back into the wok and the green part of the scallions and toss for another 2 minutes.

Drizzle with sesame oil before serving.

Dububuchim-yangnyeomjang 두부부침 양념장

A quick recipe for left over firm tofu. Mix to make yangnyeomjang:

1 clove of minced garlic.
1 chopped green onion.
1 ts hot Korean pepper flakes (gochugaru 고추가루).
1 ts sugar.
1 tbs soy sauce.
1 ts sesame oil.

Slice firm tofu (optional: coat with flower and salt) and fry in hot oil until light brown.

Spoon yangnyeomjang evenly over the tofu, and sprinkle some roasted sesame seeds over top just before serving.

Jamaican curry goat

It’s curry goat and never goat curry. I’m lucky to have a goat cheese factory and goat farm not far from my father’s house in buurtschap ‘t Woold. De Brömmels makes a wild range of goat cheeses and sells goat meat from the freezer. For a small fee you can also take a walk with a goat. Towards the end of summer they sell pumpkins, fruit and home made jams and marmalades. I usually buy my goat meat from De Brömmels. This time the meat of a young male goat (boklam) was on offer. I ate quite a bit of goat (mbuzi) in Kenya and I still like the taste. My favourite dish though is the Jamaican spiced stew: curry goat.

A slightly different method with marinated meat and pimento.

Photo: official Facebook page of De Brömmels.

Tank for goat milk, text in Dutch Low Saxon dialect.

Kenyan Mbuzi / Goat Curry

The method is quite similar to Jamaican curry goat. Typical Kenyan spices are cinnamon, nutmeg and glove being so close to the ancient spice trade routes. Also tamarind and coconut are notable differences.

Blend below 11 ingredients to make a marinade:

4 Medium sized tomatoes
3 Medium sized red onions
Ginger the size of half a thumb
4 Cloves of garlic
1/4 tsp Cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp Nutmeg powder
1/4 tsp clove powder
Pinch of dry basil leaves
Pinch of dry thyme leaves
3 tsp Celery salt
4 tsp Curry powder

Use half the marinade for the meat and keep overnight or at least 2 hours. Sear the meat in several batches in hot oil. Add the reserved marinate and cover with water. Simmer until the meat is tender. Add the sugar (I’d say this is optional), add coconut cream and simmer for 10 minutes. And finally the tamarind. Never add tamarind before the coconut is completely cooked because it will cause the cream to curdle.

The other ingredients

1 1/2 Large bay leaves
4 Tbs Vegetable oil
1 Kg Mbuzi meat with some bone
1 tsp Ukwaju / tamarind paste
1 tsp Sukari nguru / Jaggery – Substitute with honey, brown sugar, white sugar or a sweetener of your choice
1/2 Cup heavy coconut cream
Handful of dhania / coriander leaves

Maghrebi mint tea

It’s probably common to get a birthday present and since it’s September 10 I thought I should buy myself at least something. I had been studying YouTube-videos on how to make Moroccan or Maghrebi mint tea. I ordered a 400 ml handmade Moroccan tea pot and 4 handmade beldi tea glasses made from recycled glass.

My teapot takes about 1,5 cups of water so 1 teaspoon of tea and 1 tablespoon of sugar is the right amount. Discard the first pour to clean and open the tea leaves. During ramadan the butcher near my work sells chebakia.

Now you can either boil and brew the tea on a fire of just add boiling water to the tea pot and steep the tea in the pot. The correct tea to use is Chinese gunpowder green tea. Most common fresh herb is mint. In winter when fresh mint can be difficult to find Artemisia arborescens (sheeba) is also being used as a substitute or together with the mint. Sheeba has a bitter taste. For a lemon taste Aloysia citrodora can be used.

Of course this tea need sugar, which kept me from making this tea at home because I barely use sugar. A few threads of saffron can be added and after the tea is steeped you mix by pouring the tea in a glass and back into the pot and repeat this several times.

Screenshot from the YouTube-channel Travizeo, the travel video company.

Screenshot from Authentic World Food.

Gunpowder tea from Zhejiang Province, China.

Shan tounsi (Assiette Tunisienne)

Restaurant Dar El Bey

7 Bd Bessières, 75017 Paris

Eating raw egg can be quite dangerous so I was taken aback when I saw the egg on the assiette Tunisienne was practically raw. I had no idea if this was custom. I proceeded to eat because I couldn’t image they served raw egg by accident. The shan tounsi tasted great. There was tomato, cucumber, caper, olives, red chili, tuna, potato and harissa. There was also an orange coloured mixture, which I didn’t recognise. It could have been omek houria: pureed carrots spiced with garlic and harissa.

BÚN THIT BÌ

Le Bambou

Baudricourt, 75013 Paris

Vermicelles au porc grillé et au porc émincé.

For the sauce:

Cho vào tô 2 muỗng canh nước mắm, 2 muỗng canh nước lọc, 3 muỗng canh đường và 1 muỗng canh nước cốt chanh, khuấy đều cho tan hỗn hợp.

Tiếp theo, cho hết phần tỏi băm còn lại và ớt sừng băm vào nước mắm rồi khuấy đều một lần nữa là đã hoàn tất phần nước mắm.

Put in a bowl 2 tablespoons fish sauce, 2 tablespoons water, 3 tablespoons sugar and 1 tablespoon lemon juice, stir well to dissolve the mixture.

Next, add the rest of the minced garlic and minced chili to the fish sauce and stir again to complete the fish sauce.

Assemble the dish:

Put bean sprouts and chopped herbs (rau thơm in Vietnamese, which can be mint leaves and Thai basil) in the bottom of the bowl, add a layer of vermicelli, top off with the pork and lettuce, and more chopped herbs.

Sprinkle some peanuts, fried onions to make the dish more attractive.

Add a small amount of fish sauce and mix the ingredients before eating.

Matar Paneer

Vegetable oil for shallow frying

500gms paneer

To make the curry;

2 tbsp mustard oil
250 grams white onion finely chopped
2” ginger roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic roughly chopped
1 heaped tsp cumin seeds
1 heaped tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp mild chilli powder
400 grams tinned tomatoes blended to a puree
Salt to taste
200mls water
200 grams frozen green peas or fresh
½ tsp garam masala powder
Handful of coriander for garnish

Method

1. Grind the cumin seeds and coriander seeds to a powder in a spice grinder or pestle and mortar. Set aside. Blend the ginger and garlic with a splash of water to a smooth paste and set aside. Dab any excess moisture from the paneer on kitchen paper and cut into bite size cubes.

2. Heat vegetable oil for shallow frying in a pan over a medium heat. Add the paneer cubes in batches and fry. Make sure they get an even colour and go a light brown (this should take around 2-3 minutes) Drain over kitchen paper and add to a bowl of warm water. Let it soak while you make the gravy.

3. Heat oil in a heavy bottom sauce pan over a medium heat. Add the onions and fry for 12-14 minutes. Stir well as they begin to change colour turn the heat low and add the ginger and garlic paste. Fry well for 2 minutes stirring continuously.

4. Add the cumin, coriander powder along with the turmeric and chilli powder. Fry for a minute and add a splash of water making sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan and continue cooking the raw flavour of the spices for a further minute. Tip in the blended tomatoes simmer the curry over a low heat for 8-10 minutes with lid on. Stir a couple of times through the cooking process. Add 200mls water along with the sugar and salt. Continue to simmer for 5 minutes with the lid on.

5. Add frozen green peas along with the garam masala. Drain the water from the paneer and add the cubes to the curry. Stir well making sure to coat all the pieces with the sauce. Simmer for 2 minutes and turn the heat off. Garnish with coriander and serve with paratha or pulao and raita.