Indonesian cuisine

Indonesian cooking is built on bumbu, a spice paste ground fresh for each dish, and on coconut in all its forms.

Bumbu is not a seasoning but a foundation. Shallot, garlic, chilli, galangal and turmeric are pounded in a mortar and fried in oil before anything else reaches the pot. The composition changes from dish to dish and island to island.

The coconut is used entirely: milk into sauces, flesh into kerisik, oil for frying, sugar from the palm flowers. In an Indonesian recipe there is usually nothing to put in its place.

2 dishes

  • Nasi goreng

    Fried rice with a chilli and shrimp-paste base, sweet soy sauce and an egg on top.

    35 min · Easy · Main course

  • Rendang

    Beef simmered in coconut milk for four hours, until the milk turns to oil and starts frying the meat.

    270 min · Takes practice · Main course