Indonesian and Malaysian cooking rests on fresh spice pastes called bumbu or rempah, fried until fragrant, with sambal on the side and nutmeg and cloves from the Spice Islands.
Overview¶
The islands of eastern Indonesia — the Moluccas, or Spice Islands — were for centuries the world's only source of cloves, nutmeg and mace, and the struggle to control them shaped European colonial history (see the-dutch-east-india-company). It would be tidy to say that Indonesian and Malaysian food is therefore built on those spices. It is not, quite. The foundation is the fresh spice paste: shallots, garlic, chilli, galangal, ginger, turmeric, lemongrass and candlenut pounded together, called bumbu in Indonesia and rempah in Malaysia. Dried spices join the paste in richer, often Indian- or Arab-influenced dishes.
Grouping two countries together is a simplification — Indonesia alone has several hundred ethnic groups across some 17,000 islands — but the Malay language, many dishes and the paste-based approach are shared across the Strait of Malacca, and the region's trade history mixed Malay, Javanese, Chinese, Indian, Arab and European cooking.
The core palette¶
- Wet aromatics: shallots, garlic, fresh chilli, galangal, ginger, fresh turmeric, kencur (lesser galangal, Kaempferia galanga), lemongrass and candlenut (kemiri, which thickens and enriches — never eat it raw).
- Leaves: makrut lime leaves, pandan, turmeric leaf (essential in rendang), daun salam (Indonesian bay, a Syzygium — not a true bay leaf, which does not substitute well) and daun kesum or laksa leaf.
- Dried spices: coriander, cumin and fennel (the Malay "three seeds", ketumbar, jintan putih, jintan manis), white pepper, and the warm spices cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, star anise and cardamom.
- Umami and sour: terasi or belacan (fermented shrimp paste), kecap manis (sweet soy), tamarind (asam jawa), and asam gelugor in Malaysia.
Regional differences¶
Indonesia¶
- Java: sweeter food, with palm sugar and kecap manis; gudeg (young jackfruit stewed with palm sugar and coconut), soto soups, and tempeh.
- Sumatra: the Minangkabau of West Sumatra give masakan Padang — rendang, gulai curries and a spread of dishes served at once — rich with coconut, chilli and turmeric leaf. Aceh uses more dried spices, reflecting Indian and Arab trade.
- Bali: base genep, a complete paste of a dozen or more spices and aromatics, used for babi guling and bebek betutu. Bali being Hindu, pork is common.
- Manado (North Sulawesi): notoriously hot; rica-rica and sambal dabu-dabu.
- Maluku: fish, sago and the native nutmeg and cloves, though they feature more as exports than as everyday flavourings.
Malaysia and Singapore¶
Malay cooking shares much with Sumatra. Alongside it, Malaysian Chinese cooking (Hokkien, Cantonese, Hainanese), Malaysian Indian cooking (largely Tamil, including the Indian-Muslim mamak tradition) and Peranakan or Nyonya cooking — the fusion of Chinese settlers and Malay households — are all part of the national table. Nyonya laksa, ayam pongteh and kuih desserts show the blend of rempah pastes with Chinese technique and pandan sweets.
Key techniques¶
- Pounding the paste: a stone ulekan or lesung crushes aromatics to a coarse, oily paste. A blender works if you add a little oil rather than water. See pestle-and-mortar.
- Tumis until pecah minyak: the paste is fried in plenty of oil over medium heat, stirring, until it darkens, smells sweet rather than raw, and the oil "splits" out. This can take 10–20 minutes and is the most commonly skipped step; raw-tasting rendang or laksa usually comes from rushing it. Compare blooming-spices-in-oil.
- Slow reduction: rendang is simmered in coconut milk for several hours until the liquid disappears and the meat fries in the rendered coconut oil. Wet kalio is the halfway stage.
- Toasting coconut (kerisik) and grinding it into a dark, nutty paste for rendang.
⚠️ Toast the shrimp paste
Belacan and terasi are toasted before use — wrapped in foil in a dry pan, or held over a flame — which tames the raw smell but produces a powerful one while you do it. Open a window.
Landmark dishes¶
Rendang, nasi lemak with sambal, laksa (curry laksa, Penang asam laksa, Sarawak laksa and more), satay with peanut sauce, nasi goreng, gado-gado, soto ayam, sayur lodeh, ayam penyet with sambal, beef rendang, babi guling, and the Nyonya kuih.
Stocking the cupboard¶
- Shallots, garlic, fresh chillies, galangal, ginger and fresh turmeric
- lemongrass, makrut lime leaves and pandan (all freeze)
- Coriander, cumin and fennel seed
- White pepper, cloves, star anise, cinnamon and nutmeg
- Candlenuts (or macadamias as a substitute)
- Belacan or terasi, kecap manis and tamarind pulp
- A jar of sambal oelek for everyday heat — and then learn to make sambal belacan