Javanese Cooking and Beyond.

Garnishes for Soto

Excellent dishes I did for Javanese Feast.  A Saturday in November, a friend, her family and their friends enjoyed these beautiful dishes.

My experience of cooking Javanese dishes was very tiring but fun.  Come to think of it. I have chosen the wrong menu. It was an excellent selection of dishes, but they needed thorough preparation and organisation on the day when they have to be presented and ready at 11.30.  That was a big call, and I was struggling, but I did it.  Thanks to a perfect helper.

People tend to think that I am very fussy.  Oh well, why not, to achieve the best is to be able and willing to work hard in detail. Javanese food is delicious, likeable and colourful, but it needs a lot of preparation and a perfect balance of flavour.   Soup is a simple dish, but not Soto (Chicken soup Javanese style).  It is very complex, it needs a dependable and precise preparation, from the broth to the garnishes.

Soto Garnishes before adding the broth.

The soup-the garnishes and the broth

Pictures below show how tasty and colourful the dishes are, how I prepared them and also what spices I used and last but not least, the garnishes for the presentation of the dishes.

I was pleased to cook Javanese cooking and happy enough to cook other dishes, such as pangsit, it is based on Chinese food.  The other one was bread with pistachio nuts, which is based on Western cooking.  The dumplings' wrapper was homemade, and I made them from scratch.  Rolling and stretching the pastry was good, but it took time.

Presentation of the finished dishes has to be pretty and perfect.

Garnishes-Fresh Flowers and Herbs.
I cannot ignore the fresh and the beauty of flowers, I use them for garnishes as well as eating them.

Garnish is a big part of my cooking presentation, I love to celebrate fresh flowers and herbs.

Lemper is a typical Javanese food, made out of steamed glutinous rice, stuffed with sweet, savoury meat.  In Java, every family has their own standard of making it, and here I do too.  And this is the way I do it, and how to present it.

Cooking the rice and the filling for the Lemper

The Lemper, decorated with Daun pandan and Roses

Lumpia

A  platter of accompaniment-garnishes for Soto, so fresh and colourful.  A plate of Loempia (pancake rolls stuffed with meat, vegetable and prawns) is garnished beautifully.

Garnishes for Soto-Soup Javanese style

The making of Lemper
Rolling the Lemper

Lemper is ready when it is cold, sliced into thin pieces.

Spices: a part of the herbs and spices.  All are Fresh

Soto
Preparation of the fragrant broth and the shredded chicken to accompany the Soto

Beautifully shredded chicken is ready to be lightly sauteed with yellow spices to garnish the 'Soto."



Perkedel-Fried Potato Dumplings is a part of the garnish for Soto.

Fragrant Broth and Garnishes for Soto Ayam
Herbs and aromatic herbs are added to the broth: turmeric, parsley, kaffir lime leaf, lemongrass, ginger, galangal and white pepper.

Fragrant Broth for the Soto

Under Cover: perkedel, shredded chicken and fried shallots.ion

Open Pangsit - Beef Dumplings

Homemade Wrapper for dumplings

It takes time to roll to thin circles, but it is fun.

Beef Pangsist

Chicken Pangsit

Wajik, my interpretation of Kue Wajik (Javanese Sweet).  It is steamed sweet glutinous rice with coconut, sweetened with white sugar or palm sugar/coconut sugar.

Wajik Merah Jambu (Pink Wajik) flavoured with white sugar. 

Wajik Gula Merah-Wajik flavoured with palm sugar.

Platters of wajik garnished with Daun pandan works.

Wajik Gula Merah (the brown colour)

Pancakes

Loempia Basah

Pancake roll filled with mixed vegetables, meat and prawns.

Efficiently preparing the pancake, cooking two pancakes at the same time, it saves time.

Fresh Pancakes for Loempia

Filling for the Lumpia

(beef, carrots, cabbage, mung beans, fresh herbs and prawns)

A Platter of Lumpia

Chilli and Ginger Sauce to Serve for Lumpia

Using Flowers and Pandan Leaf

Beautiful Garnishes and Decoration.   Fresh and Fragrant.

Bread with Pistachio was a part of the Feast.

Freshly Baked Bread with Pistachio Nuts

The bread was wrapped in paper to keep fresh.

People are happy to have experience of Javanese meal, the savouries are delicious, but the sweet part is rather heavy because all the sweets are made of rice.

Wajik Merah Jambu

Wajik is made of glutinous rice, coconut and sugar: it can also be white sugar cake or palm sugar. 

Pandan Leaf

Pandan leaf is added to the cooking of wajik to give a lovely fragrance, especially for the wajik gula merah.

What is Pandan Leaf

Pandanus amaryllifolius is a tropical plant in the Pandanus genus, which is commonly known as pandan leaves, and is used widely in Southeast Asian cooking as a flavouring.

The characteristic aroma of pandan is caused by the aroma compound which may give white bread, jasmine rice and basmati rice  (as well as bread flowers) their typical smell. (Wikip)

To look back.  It was too ambitious to get the whole job done by one person, but no it was not, I was so fortunate to have Rayner to assist me (not the cooking as such).   I could not thank him enough, without his help, I could not finish it on time.  I am very grateful.

Other Javanese Dish 

Cooking for My Family

Bakwan

Bakwan is one of my favourites, it is mixed fried vegetables or mixed fried vegetables with prawns.  It is readily available in any street stall or in a restaurant in Java.  I did last time with pure mixed vegetable only, it was a delicious vegetarian dish for my family.

Cooking with leisure is fun, but cooking by the deadline is challenging.  The big cooking followed by a big mass in the kitchen, and it is not fun, it is a lot of work, but it got to be done.  Do I like to clean after my mass in the kitchen?, NO I DO NOT, but I have to,  just like most cooks do.  Lucky though sometimes I have good help.

No recipe on this post, I hope you enjoy the pictures and are glad to get to know about Javanese Cooking.

Until Next Post
Susy