Asinan Buah à la Bogor (Fruit condiments à la Bogor)

I think in the past i have made several failure attemps of "asinan" (condiment - pickled - for dessert purpose) either it is from Jakarta or from Bogor. Asinan litteraly means salty... but the dish asinan itself always has the sweet or the spicy taste dominating the salt.

Wikipedia: Asinan refers to the process of preserving the ingredients by soaking them in a solution of salty water. Asinan is quite similar to rujak', which is usually served fresh, while asinan is preserved vegetables or fruits. Of the many types and variations of asinan in Indonesia, the most popular are asinan Betawi and asinan Bogor.

There are several types of asinan dish in Indonesia, but the famous ones are the ones  from Jakarta and Bogor. The one from jakarta uses peanut as sauce, while in Bogor the juice is clearer, and served with fried peanut, to be sprinkled on the top of the dish. Bogor is a city located on the south of Jakarta. And it is famous for many things, among other, for having raining everyday, thanks to its mountainous surroundings.

In gedung dalam neighborhood, there is an "asinan" vendor which is very famous for its fresh sour-salty-spicy taste of the asinan. Many other vendors tried to copy it, but seems that the winner is the one sold in  this particuliar place in jalan Siliwangi. They also sell vegetables asinan, together with fruit asinan. I love the fruit asinan better (i did not like eating veggies, actually). The fruits in their asinan are always fresh and rarely found in the market, such as Kecapi fruit (santor), Menteng (Baccaurea racemosa), Kedondong (spondias dulcis)..
 

Frankly speaking, it has been awhile the last time i went there to buy this asinan... I missed it so much. Luckily, i found an asinan recipe which taste is very close to the one in gedung dalam - Bogor. 

As asinan fruits you can use Pineapple, sweet potatoes, cucumber, apple, young papaya, bengkoang - Pachyrhizus erosus, peel and cut them.

Ingredients:

• 1l water
• 250 gr  sugar
• 3 big chilies, crushed
• 1 tsp of salt
• 4 tsb of Indonesian vinegar (25%)
• 1/2 tsp shrimp paste
• 2 tsb of peanuts (i used ready to make grilled peanuts, bought in big supermarkets)

Method:

1. Boil the water together with the ingredients (except the peanuts). Strain. Add the fruits. Cool in fridge.
2. Serve with the peanuts.

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Cendol Bandung

One of my favourite desserts from sweet childhood in Jakarta. The watery dessert consists of the cendol itself, (the green wormy stuffs), coconut milk and Kinca (palm sugar). But I honestly forget how and where I tasted this for the first time. I read from wikipedia that it is originally from Java. I was quite surprised because I was quite sure that it is from China. But anyway, who can trust wikipedia when a lot of citations are needed for each phrase? :)

There are several kinds of Cendol, but the one that I like is the one which is sold by street hawker in Jakarta, not the one from Bandung. I am not quite sure the difference between the two (as you can see my knowledge about the history or the food of my own country is very shallow), I think it is the flour used (either mung bean or rice flour), and in Bandung they use tiny bits of jack fruit.

Too bad that I am not good in reading recipes. I cannot dilute the flour, as in the beginning it tasted very floury (starchy) like the flour does not want to dissolve. The original recipe is posted on this site (in indonesian), it is not bad at all. Did I use the wrong flour or what? Maybe what she meant was sticky rice flour? Because it does not work in the beginning i had to use my hand mixer to mix the dough evently. Then I tried to contact her by clicking the “contact” link, but it leads me to nowhere. I did not use the jack fruit thing, as I don't have it. I added a pandanus leaf, as I explained before, I like the effect of this magic leaf. This one is cendol bandung, altough i dont like it, but any cendol type is o.k for an indonesian woman who is madly in love with asian food like me.

Very tasty if consumed under a very hot sunny day.

Cendol

• 125 gr rice flour
• 1 tbs tapioca flour
• 250 ml water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• a drop of green food colorant
  

Coconut Milk

• 400 ml coconut milk
• 2 tbs sugar

Kinca (palm sugar)

• 50 gr red brown (palm) sugar
• 100 ml water
• 1 tps maizena, dissolve with a little big of the water.

Utensil:
A Cendol most (you can use your big colander made from metal, which have big holes inside, like this):


How to Make the:
Cendol

1. Mix the flour, and disolve with part of the water.
2. Boil the rest of the water, add the dough, stir well using medium fire, drop the food colorant.
3. In a big salad bowl, put water and ice glass inside.
4. Position the colander above the bowl, and drop all of the cendol dough inside, and press using a big spoon to make all the dough pass, and fall inside the bowl. Drain the water, set aside.

Coconut Milk

1. boil all of the ingredients, cool it in the fridge.
2. Mix the cendol and the coconut milk.

Kinca
Boil water and brown sugar. Add the maizena to the consistency, stir very fast, switch of the fire. Chill.

Serve all the three main ingredients: Cendol, Kinca and coconut milk in a glass.

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Getuk Lindri

Perkenalan gue dengan getuk lindri sebetulnya berhubungan dengan Perancis juga, hehe. Waktu itu gue kelas 2 SD, sering banget pulang sekolah nungguin nyokap les bahasa perancis di CCF Salemba. Karena laper, nyokap sering kasih gue dan kakak-kakak gue sedikit jajanan yang dia beli di pedagang kaki lima deket situ, namanya warung Bagja. Si Bagja penjualnya, orang Sunda, dan dia jualan kue yang namanya Getuk Lindri ini. Bentuknya mirip banyak cacing yang dilem jadi satu trus diwarnain merah muda, kuning atau hijau muda kasih taburan kelapa, hehehe. RAsanya manis, dan gue pun jatuh cinta. Setiap nungguin nyokap di CCF, gue selalu minta dibeliin getuk lindri bikinan si Bagja ini. Dan sumpah, sampe sekarang gue jarang nemu getuk lindri seenak bikinan Bagja.

Anyway, lucunya warung si Bagja ini akhirnya diakomodir ke dalam gedung CCF, dikasih nama kantin Bagja. Tapi gak tau kenapa ya, kantin si Bagja ini gak tahan lama juga, karena gitu gue mulai les perancis lagi pas tahun 2004, pengelola kantin CCF selalu ganti-ganti sesuai dengan kontraknya.

Ngomong-ngomong saya lagi malas tulis resep. Silahkan intip resepnya di sini. Alat yang saya pakai pun sama kok, seperti yang digambarkan. Saya sengaja beli alat ini, buat ngegiling daging sama kalau pengen banget bikin mpek-mpek, haha. :)) Tapi malesnya pakai alat ini, habis pakai, harus langsung dicuci, dan dikeringin, biar gak karatan. Wah begini caranya sih, cepet karatan deh tuh, soalnya saya kan pemalas... yah begini lah kalau maunya beli barang murah model antik, hehe.

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Bajigur

Waktu kecil, saya sangat tergila-gila pada bajigur. Tapi Ibu melarang saya karena katanya minum kopi gak bagus untuk anak-anak, dan anehnya di Jakarta, cukup sulit mencari penjual bajigur pada kala itu, tidak banyak pedagang dorongan yang jualan bajigur. Udah gitu kan minuman traditional banyak digeser dengan jajanan khas Eropa (iyalah, ngafé kan lebih moderen daripada nongkrong di warung kopi pinggir jalan).

Sampai saya besar, saya tidak pernah lagi nemu bajigur, dan kalaupun nemu (waktu kuliah di Bandung), rasanya tidak sama dengan ingatan masa kecil saya. Hari ini saya membuatnya, tapi rasanya beda banget... sebel... Entah apa ramuannya yang gak pas...
Tapi bahan-bahan yang saya godog adalah:

• Santan
• Kopi
• Gula Jawa
• Vanilla bubuk
• Kolang Kaling (gak punya, jadi saya gak pakai)
• sedikit garam

Kayaknya, lain kali harus tambah daun pandan ya, biar harum sedep... vanilla aja gak cukup deh!

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Soto Bandung

Resep gabungan dari semua sumber di net. Karena di resep satu gak pakai tomat, di resep lain pakai, atau yang satu gak pakai sereh, di tempat lain iya... halah..Kayaknya soto Bandung asli gak pakai bawang merah, gak pakai sereh, gak pakai....
Yang pasti semua Soto Bandung, wajib ada: lobak, daging, dan taburan kacang kedelai goreng., dan daun seleri.. Iya gak sih? Gak tau deh, seumur-umur makan Soto Bandung, cuman 2 kali, di suatu gang sempit di Jalan Braga Bandung.

Bahan:

• 4 bawang merah ukuran besar haluskan
• 3 siung bawang putih haluskan
• 1 sdt bubuk jahe
• 1 sdt bubuk laos
• 1 sdm bubuk sereh (atau sereh segar 1 batang)
• 300 gr daging
• 1 lobak kupas, dipotong melintang kemudian dibelah menjadi seperempat
• 2 buah tomat buang bijinya, potong bentuk wedges
• merica secukupnya
• garam secukupnya
• 3 lembar daun salam
• 1 liter air
• minyak goreng

Taburan:

• sari jeruk nipis
• irisan daun bawang
• kedelai goreng (rendam kedelai putih dalam air dingin, tiriskan, kemudian goreng hingga keemasan).
• bawang goreng
• telur dan daun persil (ini tambahan saya aja)
  

Cara:

1. Tumis bawang merah dan putih.
2. Dalam panci tekan, masukkan tumisan bawang merah, sereh, daun salam, daging, garam, merica, jahe, lengkuas.
3. Rebus dengan tutup pancinya, biarkan masak selama 15 menit terhitung ketika panci mulai berdesis. Buka tutupnya, masukkan irisan daun bawang dan tomat, masak sebentar, aduk-aduk
4. Hidangkan di dalam mangkok, dengan cara menaburkan bawang dan kedelai goreng, telur, daun seleri dan sari jeruk nipis.

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