Page 16 - EBOOK_81 Homestyle Recipes With The True Taste Of Indonesia

rice gently to spread the color and flavor of the turmeric evenly before and after the rice has cooked.

Stir-frying The most effective technique for ensuring great stir-fry dishes is to work with a large wok and
wooden spatula. Gas stoves provide the optimum cooking situation because the heat will remain consistent, allowing
you to stir-fry the ingredients quickly without burning. When stir-frying, always move the ingredients around with the
spatula often and quickly. If you’re working with an electric stove, you’ll have to compensate for the lack of
consistent heat by allowing the ingredients to remain at rest for longer periods of time between the actual stir-frying.

Stir-frying Rice or Noodles Working with large quantities of rice or noodles is no easy task. Without
proper technique, you may end up with mushy rice and noodles that will fall apart. Borrowing from the general rules
of stir-frying, start with a large wok and wooden spatula. The key to successful stir-fried rice and noodle dishes is to
not mash these ingredients while cooking, but rather use the spatula to fold them over. Use your entire arm and
elbow movement as opposed to a wrist action when stir-frying heavy ingredients. Don’t be afraid of scraping the
wooden spatula all the way down into the bottom of the wok to ensure that no parts of the ingredients are left to
burn while other parts are sitting uncooked on top. If you use your entire arm power rather than wrist movements, it
will yield the broader strokes that fold over the rice and noodles.

Deep-frying Whatever you’re deep-frying, make sure to start with enough vegetable oil to cover the
ingredients. I like using either a wok or deep pot for deep-frying. Once you get the hang of this technique, you’ll
never have to worry about burnt or uncooked food again. Just remember a few simple rules. If you’re deep-frying
something like chicken with bone-in, then you don’t want to set the temperature of the stove to anything higher than
medium high and possibly lower than that if your stove has a strong heating capacity. Higher heat will result in
browning and crisping exteriors quickly while interiors will remain relatively raw. A higher heat setting works for
deep-frying dishes such as Banana Fritters (Pisang Goreng) because the banana is already cooked; you just want
to brown and crisp the outside batter, which takes relatively little time. Conversely, an ingredient as substantial as
chicken breast needs much longer cooking time at lower temperatures to ensure that the inside is thoroughly cooked
while the outside doesn’t burn too quickly. Also remember to allow the oil to come up to temperature before
dropping in any ingredients otherwise you’ll end up with a soggy, oily mess. A good way to check if the oil is hot
enough is by sticking a chopstick in the oil. If little bubbles surface around the chopstick, the oil should be hot
enough.

Getting the Most Out of a Lime

We’ve all experienced the great annoyance of buying limes that looked beautiful at the market only to get home and
find that they’re dried up. A good technique to getting the most juice out of a lime is to either microwave the lime for
about 20 to 30 seconds or run it under hot water for a minute, then roll it around firmly with the palm of your hand on
a cutting board. This yields a spectacular amount of juice from good limes and at least something out of a bad one.
Save your taste buds and stay far away from all the pre-bottled versions, they’re just not a good substitute.

Keeping Herbs Fresh By now, you realize how strongly I advocate using all fresh ingredients and there’s no
aspect of Indonesian cuisine that warrants that rule more than using fresh herbs. Most of us don’t have the time to
shop more than once a week so I use this technique to save time and cost, and prevent waste. As soon as you get