Indonesia

Tonight we enjoyed food from Indonesia, a country one of my cousins has spent time in. She suggested a couple of ideas, one of which we will try another time as it looks so good! We just had to pick one as otherwise it would have been too much!

We started with Sate Ayam Bumbu Kacang, a chicken dish we served with Indonesian Spiced Rice. The marinade for the chicken was made by combining a red onion, garlic, fennel seeds, lemongrass, coriander powder, macadamia nuts, white pepper, kaffir lime leaves, kecap manis (I couldn’t find this so made my own by mixing one part molasses and two parts soya sauce), sugar, coconut sugar, and turmeric powder in the blender, mixing until smooth.

This dish also included a peanut sauce, Bumbu Kacang. To make this I put garlic and one and a half chilies in boiling water to get rid of the raw taste, pouring out the water after ten minutes. To this I added unsalted roasted peanuts, water, coconut sugar, kecap manis, and salt, blending until smooth. This sauce was probably good, but all I could really taste was the heat of the chilies. Next time I would omit the chilies completely for my tame taste buds.

https://whattocooktoday.com/sate-ayam-bumbu-kacang.html

To make the Indonesia Spiced Rice we sautéed an onion with garlic. Though it called for jalapeños we did not add any, in part because the rice was a last minute addition and we had none, as well as the fact that we had enough spice going on already for me.

We added turmeric, cinnamon, and rice to the pan, stirring for 2 minutes before adding chicken broth, water, and a bay leaf. After bringing it to a boil we turned it down to simmer for 20 minutes. This was to be garnished with green onions, but apparently we forgot.

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/18307/indonesian-spiced-rice/

Dinner was mostly a hit, though we all found the peanut sauce to be spicy. For me this made it a little more difficult to taste the rest of my meal as I mixed a bit of the sauce in, overpowering the other flavours. The rice was definitely enjoyed with one asking to make just that again. The meat was good too, though I think next time I would want to cook it in the oven so I can add the rest of the marinade, infusing even more flavour. I’d definitely try this again, though no heat in the sauce!

Dessert was Lapis Legit, or Thousand Layers Cake. This cake was made in three parts which were in the end combined. The first was unsalted butter, sweetened condensed milk, rum, cake flour, spekkoek seasoning (again, I couldn’t find this and had to make my own by combining cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, and cloves), and salt. This was set aside as I mixed the next batter of egg yolks and sugar. Finally in yet another bowl I whisked egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar. The first two mixes were beat until well combined before folding in the whites.

The cake was made in stages, adding a little batter at a time. The first layer I added too much, making it thicker than it should have been, therefore resulting in less layers. The first was baked at 400 for 8 minutes before turning it on to broil and cooking each thin layer until browned.

This cake was enjoyed by all, though some seemed convinced somehow that there were bananas in it. With a nice, light taste, this dessert disappeared quickly and will be made again.

https://dailycookingquest.com/lapis-legit-thousand-layers-cake.html

Did you know that Indonesia is home to the komodo dragon? They have the second largest coastline next to Canada, the youngest population, and the largest Muslim population.

Indonesia has the largest package of instant noodles (which they have declared edible) and two of the most dangerous volcanos (Tarbora and Krakatoa, the latter of which had global affects with its eruption in the 1800s).

Indonesia is made up of 17,508 islands, 6,000 of which are inhabited. Java has become a slang term for coffee thanks to the beans grown on the island of Java. These beans were introduced by the Dutch East India in 1696. They are also home to the most expensive coffee, where the beans are collected from Civat cat poop.

Finally, although they are part of the G20 group of the leading economies of the world approximately half of their population lives on less than $2 USD/day.