Cooking Abroad

Bumbu Indonesia di Rantau

bumbu-indonesia-di-rantau

Generate Indonesian cuisine with a taste almost identical during the stay abroad, requires a lot of experimentation.

Being away from Indonesia is not an excuse to not be able to make Indonesian cuisine. Therefore, spice commonly used in Indonesia can sometimes be found in Asian supermarkets. Although of course the prices tend to be more expensive. Not only seasoning imported from Indonesia, there is also coming from some neighboring countries of Indonesia, such as Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, India, the Philippines, and China.

Thankful I live in Ohio, USA, which is surrounded many Asian supermarkets that sell products from Indonesia.

Starting from such raw spice turmeric, galangal, lemongrass, and lime leaves, until the spices ready. In fact, complementary foods such as crackers and fried onions also there! Whose presence is still rare cassava leaves, turmeric leaves, and jengkol. When the stock of fresh herbs are being depleted, instead I had to be satisfied with a variety of materials in a dry form, such as dried lime leaves, bay leaves dried or powdered seasoning, such as ginger powder, cumin powder, and lemon grass powder.

In addition, I continue to experiment and try to find ways in order to produce a similar taste of the ingredients are available. The following are some of the results of my experiment:

  1. Chili Curly: to produce a sense of approaching chili spicy curly, try to mix the sweet chilli (sweet chilli from Mexico) with chili sauce from Thailand.
  2. Grated coconut: for snacks market, I prefer to use dried grated coconut, grated coconut frozen because tend perishable. Wet effect can be obtained by giving a little coconut milk, or water from the dough after it has cooled. For serundeng, I also prefer to use dried grated coconut.
  3. Cassava (Cassava): usually already exists in frozen form. Suitable for making Tapai cassava or snacks that needs the grated cassava. Otherwise maupakai already frozen cassava, yucca can be replaced with originating from South America. However, the taste and the texture is different.
  4. Coconut water: that looks fresh from the coconut fruit is not easily obtained, but in regular supermarkets are available in 100% Pure Coconut Water in the packing box. Likewise with coconut milk, which is available in the form of packing boxes. Both can be used for drinks and food.

To meet the needs seasoning, I also tried to grow their own vegetables at home. One of my planting is turmeric, for the sake of getting fresh turmeric leaves for cooking.

Understandably, which is often available in Asian supermarkets, lime leaves, banana, banana leaves, pandan leaves and turmeric leaf-shaped frozen. It feels? Certainly not the same if we use fresh ingredients, is not it? Incidentally, last summer my friend who managed to get a fresh turmeric farmers market (farmer's market). Turmeric was then planted in the back of his house, to sprout. Then, I continue one shoots at my house. I smile stretching from the country to the other end when the strand by strand turmeric leaves grow from the buds. Besides turmeric, other spices that we can easily plant is chives, basil (sweet basil), chili (the available seeds are usually derived from the South American species), celery, and tomatoes. Matter of taste, nothing can beat fresh herbs from the garden itself. In addition to cooking so much better, sac also healthier.