Cross-Cultural Experience: Two Indonesian Recipes

One of the reasons that I enjoy living in the Netherlands is the possibility of making friends from different cultures and enjoying so many interesting and rich moments!
I never heard about Martisor until my Romanian friend Mihaela gave me one. I didn't know of the existence of Koeksisters until I made here an acquaintance from South Africa.
Last month, I had another cross- cultural experience, this time, homemade Indonesian food.

A couple of months ago, I met Meiko, an Indonesian woman with a Portuguese surname, "Monteiro". Her paternal grandfather was a Portuguese who went to Indonesia many years ago.
Meiko has a great sense of humor, is polite and generous. We became friends and I went to her Birthday Party last month.

Look at this table...;-) She is such a great cook!! ;-)

From Coisas Minhas

So, I asked her if she wouldn't mind to share some photos and two recipes with Presepio's readers. As you can see, she was a dearest! ;-)

Let's enjoy then! ;-)

Rendang (top of the photo, in the white platter )

From Coisas Minhas

Ingredients :

500 gr of meat cut in pieces.
Grinded:red chilli, 5 garlic cloves, 4 small shallots/ 2 big red onions in fine pieces, 1 long lemon grass, 4 cm ginger/ 2 eating spoons of ginger powder, 4 cm laos/1 eating spoon laos powder, 5 citroen fresh leaves, 3 salam leaves. You can buy these ingredients in Indo Toko Supermarkets.
1 tea spoon djintan (optional), 250 gr coconut milk, salt, sugar, water.

How to cook:

Fry the onions and all the grinded ingredients until it smells nice.
Put the meat and stir it for a while.
Add 2 glasses of water, salt and sugar.
Cook it for a while and then put the coconut milk and stir it until the water is gone and its color turns to dark brown.
The important thing is to stir it all the time when you put the coconut milk because that is what gives the taste.
Cook it untill the meat is soft and the color from the ingredients turns dark brown, in a low or medium fire.


Sambal goreng kentang (fried potato with chilli) (in the glass tray)

From Coisas Minhas

Ingredients:

250 gr potatoes (cut it in small cubes) and meatballs (optional);
Grinded:red chilli, 4 garlic cloves, 5 shallots/1 big red onion, 2 cm laos/2 eating spoons laos powder.
1 tea spoon koenjit [root of the kurkuma plant] powder, 2 salam leaves, 1 lemon grass (cut in half), salt, sugar.

How to cook:

Fry the potatoes until it's well done and if it's finished, fry all the grinded ingredients, salam leaves, lemon grass, salt, sugar, koenjit [root of the kurkuma plant] until it smells nice.
Pour a bit of water and cook it untill it boils.
Then put all the potatoes and meatballs.
Cook it untill all the ingredients mix with the potatoes, in a low or medium fire.

Enjoy!!! ;-)

Thank you, Meiko for such a lovely evening and for sharing with us such Indonesian delicacies :-)

Portugal, Indonesia and Netherlands...an old connection...

The first Europeans arriving in Indonesia were the Portuguese traders, led by Francisco Serrão, in 1512. They wanted to monopolize the sources of nutmeg, cloves, and cubeb pepper in Maluku.
In 1602, the Dutch established the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and became the dominant European power. Following bankruptcy, the VOC was formally dissolved in 1800, and the government of the Netherlands established the Dutch East Indies as a nationalized colony. (from Wikipedia)