EXPOSED LATITUDES

So, I may have found some cooking products from Indonesia when I cleaned out a few kitchen cabinets. And…they may have been really old…so I felt that I either needed to use them immediately or just throw them away.

I will say that I think a few of the products should have been thrown away years earlier, as they did not come out as I intended, but I did have some success. It also pays to still have local Indonesian friends who I could call for advice. That was a big help!

The first item that came out amazing was a Pandan Cake. After conversing with one of my Indonesian friends, I found that the best translation for Pandan is “Screwpine Leaf”. I used to have Pandan Cake quite often in Indonesia, and they even serve a version of this treat at the Indonesian Starbucks locations. This leaf is used a lot in local baking because it has a mildly sweet flavor, almost like a hint of coconut, and a good Indonesian bakery will have many varieties of traditional sweet treats that use this particular ingredient.

Luckily for me, the directions on the mix were listed in both languages and the cake turned out great! Keep in mind that Pandan Cake is always green, so I didn’t add any food coloring. The times I’ve had this in Jakarta I’ve always experienced two different kinds of frosting. The middle was a little thicker and the outside coating was more like whipped topping, so that is what I tried to replicate. I thought my combination of vanilla buttercream (inside) and light whipped topping (outside) worked very well together. And since I had green decorative gel that also needed to get used up, I though, why not?

Ask anyone visiting Indonesia about one of their favorite dishes they’ve experienced, and most times you’ll hear the word Rendang. This dish can be pricy in Indonesia because it calls for beef. Of course, I had a seasoning packet that I was attempting to use until I made a call to a local friend who explained that I would need SO MANY MORE ingredients to make an authentic meal. I was super excited to get an authentic recipe, but there were a few items that were non-existent in my area of the US…so I went shopping for as many ingredients as I could find, and made the best of it.

Luckily, most of the recipe was made up of things that I tend to have on hand, as I love food from other cultures. (However, Candle Nuts, Keffir Lime Leaves, and Galangal were the three illusive items that I had to do without.) After slow cooking the beef until very tender, most of the ingredient list was put into a food processor to make a paste. Then the paste is sautéed in a pan for a few minutes, the beef is added and then the beef stock so the mixture can simmer for quite a while. Most of the liquid will cook off and the beef and seasoning paste turns darker (almost black) in color. You can control how spicy you want the dish to become, so I only added one small spicy pepper to the mixture, so there was a hint of heat, but our mouths didn’t catch on fire. The beef is then served on a bed of rice and sometimes with vegetables. For my attempt, I used a few chopped potatoes to cook with the mixture.

I will say that my attempt did not taste exactly like I remember, and the color never turned black, but it was SO DELICIOUS!!!! Similar to what I remember and the seasoning turning dark brown was good enough for me, considering I didn’t have all the ingredients! For attempting to make an authentic dish, I think my first try was successful, and I will absolutely be making this again in the future. (I’ll even see if I can get the missing items online next time!)