Page 19 - EBOOK_81 Homestyle Recipes With The True Taste Of Indonesia

Cutting Board An often-overlooked tool in kitchens is a strong, sturdy cutting board. Many Indonesian kitchens
use large wooden butcher blocks as cutting boards, which is a great tool if you have a lot of space to thoroughly
clean it and don’t mind their weight. My preference is a large cutting board made of plastic or silicone with at least
half an inch of depth. A good sized plastic cutting board will serve as a multi-purpose tool because you can use it for
mincing herbs and spices; cutting vegetables and fruits; or chopping meats and seafood. Unlike wooden boards, you
don’t need to worry about bacteria seeping through its pores or the wood warping from water. Always clean your
cutting boards with soap and hot water, allowing them to air dry thoroughly.

Food Processor In lieu of a traditional mortar and pestle, a modern day food processor is a fabulous tool.
Besides grinding all types of herbs and spices that produce many of Indonesia’s sambals and pastes, these nifty
gadgets are a huge time saver when it comes to grinding all types of meats and mixtures. Were you so inclined, you
could of course do everything the old-fashioned way and manually chop meat into its grounded state. While markets
nowadays offer pre-ground meats, some recipes call for further fine grounding and mixing with other ingredients,
which food processors complete in seconds. Like any other tool, investing in a good quality food processor will save
on costs in the long run—a sturdy one should last for many years if not several decades.

Meat Pounder This is a tool that is not often discussed in Indonesian cooking but I have found it to be a great
way to make perfectly cooked meats. For example, the recipe for Banjar Chicken Steak (page 65) calls for pan-
frying chicken breasts. You can’t always get perfectly shaped chicken breasts; one side is often much thicker than
the other which means that cooking will be uneven. One side will be completely done cooking while the other is still
raw on the inside. Using a meat pounder solves this issue easily. When using a meat pounder, I like to lay the meat
across a plastic cutting board and cover it with a large piece of plastic wrap to protect from splattering bacteria all
over the kitchen, other ingredients, and myself. With this method, you can then pound on the meat to whatever