Indonesian recipes

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Sambal andalimanAndaliman pepper sambal

Around Lake Toba the Batak table nearly always holds a bowl of sambal andaliman, pounded fresh before lunch to go with grilled fish, arsik and boiled vegetables. Its signature is andaliman, a citrusy berry related to Sichuan pepper that makes the lips tingle and numb while the chillies bring the heat. It is raw, bright and lemony, best made the day you eat it. Dried andaliman is sold online and in Indonesian shops; Sichuan pepper is the nearest substitute. Chef's tip: toast the andaliman only briefly and pound it first; skipping that step leaves gritty husks and a dull, woody taste.

16 min

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Kue putuPandan palm sugar cakes

After dark in Yogyakarta and Jakarta you can hear a kue putu seller before you see him: the steam cart whistles as the bamboo tubes cook. Each little cylinder is coarse pandan-green rice flour packed round a nugget of palm sugar, steamed for a few minutes until the sugar melts into a dark syrup, then pushed out and rolled in salted grated coconut. Eat them warm, straight away, as an evening snack. At home, small metal moulds, egg cups or a cut bamboo tube set over a steamer work well. Chef's tip: the rice flour must be damp and crumbly like wet sand, not a dough; pressing it too hard into the mould makes dense, rubbery cakes.

45 min

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Kue kastengelCheese biscuit sticks

From Medan to Makassar, Lebaran open houses set out glass jars of kue kering, and kastengel (from the Dutch kaasstengels) are always among the first to go. These short, crumbly fingers are rich with butter and grated aged edam, glazed with yolk and topped with more cheese, so they bake into a salty, savoury biscuit that balances the sweet nastar and putri salju beside them. Chef's tip: don't overwork the dough once the flour goes in; kneading makes the sticks tough and they shrink in the oven instead of staying short and sandy.

75 min

Indonesian Baking

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Es cincauGrass jelly drink

Glasses of es cincau are handed out at Ramadan iftar tables across Java and sold from roadside carts all year on hot afternoons. Cubes of black grass jelly, with its slightly bitter, herbal taste, sit in pale coconut milk and dark palm-sugar syrup over crushed ice, and the contrast is the whole joy of it. Ready-made grass jelly in tins is fine; this recipe sets your own from grass jelly powder. Chef's tip: let the jelly set fully and cold before cutting; cut warm, it tears and melts into the drink.

30 min

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Kue lumpurPotato coconut custard cakes

The name means 'mud cake', a joke about the batter, which is almost liquid when it goes into the moulds. Betawi bakers in Jakarta make kue lumpur for arisan afternoons and Ramadan iftar boxes: mashed potato, coconut milk, eggs and a little flour bake into tender, custardy rounds with a single raisin or a slice of young coconut on top. They are best on the day, slightly warm. Chef's tip: don't overfill the moulds or open the oven early; the centres sink and stay wet if the heat drops before they set.

60 min

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Kolak pisang ubiBanana and sweet potato dessert

In the last hour before maghrib during Ramadan, Javanese pavements fill with takjil sellers, and a bag of warm kolak is the first thing many families eat when the call to prayer ends the fast. Plantain or ripe saba bananas, sweet potato and pumpkin simmer in palm sugar and pandan until tender, then coconut milk turns the syrup creamy and caramel-brown. Serve warm or chilled. Chef's tip: add the bananas last; they collapse into mush if they cook as long as the sweet potato.

35 min

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Es buahIced fruit cocktail

Ramadan evenings in Jakarta mean queues at the es buah carts, where melon, papaya, pineapple, jackfruit and nata de coco are scooped into glasses with swollen basil seeds, red rose syrup and a ribbon of condensed milk over crushed ice. It is drunk with a spoon at iftar, after dates, and it is just as welcome on any hot afternoon. Use whatever ripe fruit you have. Chef's tip: soak the basil seeds fully before adding them; dry seeds clump and stay gritty in the cold syrup.

15 min

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Beras kencurRice and ginger drink

The other half of the jamu seller's basket, beras kencur is milky-white and gently sweet, made from soaked rice blended with kencur, a peppery, camphor-scented relative of ginger, then strained into palm sugar syrup. Javanese children are often given it as their first taste of jamu, and adults drink it mid-morning. Kencur (sometimes sold as aromatic ginger or sand ginger) is found fresh or frozen in Asian shops. Chef's tip: use only a little kencur at first; too much makes the drink medicinal and soapy rather than fresh and spicy.

25 min

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BandrekSpiced ginger drink

Up in the cool tea highlands around Bandung and Garut, bandrek warms people through damp nights; vendors carry it in big kettles to night markets and football matches. It starts like wedang jahe but goes further, with cinnamon, cloves, pepper and lemongrass, and Sundanese sellers often float slivers of young coconut in each glass. The flavour is sweet, spicy and lingering. Chef's tip: simmer the whole spices, don't boil them hard; a fierce boil draws out bitterness from the clove.

20 min

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Jamu kunyit asamTurmeric tamarind drink

Jamu gendong women still walk Solo and Yogyakarta lanes in the morning with baskets of bottles on their backs, and kunyit asam is the one most people buy: earthy fresh turmeric and sour tamarind boiled with palm sugar, strained and drunk cool. It tastes bright, tangy and faintly peppery, rather like a spiced lemonade. Families also make big jugs at home for hot afternoons. Chef's tip: wear gloves or scrub the board straight away; fresh turmeric stains hands, wood and plastic bright yellow within minutes.

30 min

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Kue putri saljuSnowball crescent cookies

'Snow princess' cookies are a Lebaran favourite in every Indonesian city, set out in jars for the stream of visiting relatives during the first days of Syawal. Little crescents of buttery, nutty shortbread made with ground cashews melt the moment you bite them, under a thick snowy coat of icing sugar. Children love helping to roll the crescents. Chef's tip: dust them twice, once while warm so a thin layer melts on and once when cold for the snowy finish; dusting only hot cookies leaves them patchy and damp.

55 min

Indonesian Baking

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Lapis legitThousand-layer spice cake

Indonesian Chinese and Dutch-descended families bake lapis legit for Christmas, Imlek and Lebaran, and in Jakarta a whole cake is a prized gift that can cost a small fortune. Rich batter of butter and a great many egg yolks, scented with cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and cardamom, is grilled one thin layer at a time, giving perfect tree-ring stripes when sliced. It takes an afternoon, but it is mostly patience. Slice it thinly; it is very rich. Chef's tip: press each layer gently with a flat spoon to burst air bubbles before adding the next; skipping it leaves holes and the layers separate when cut.

180 min

Indonesian Baking

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Sambal kecapChilli and shallot soy sambal

Satay sellers in Jakarta and Madura hand out sambal kecap in little saucers, and at home in Java it gets spooned over fried tofu, grilled corn or a bowl of soto when there's no time to pound a proper sambal. It takes five minutes: raw bird's-eye chillies, shallot and tomato are sliced into glossy, treacle-sweet kecap manis with a squeeze of lime. The result is sticky, sweet, sharp and very hot all at once. Chef's tip: don't make it hours ahead; the shallots wilt and the lime turns bitter, so slice everything just before the food comes off the grill.

5 min

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Wedang jaheHot ginger drink

When the evening rain comes in over Yogyakarta, angkringan street stalls start ladling out wedang jahe, a fiery hot drink of grilled, bruised ginger and lemongrass simmered with palm sugar. It is sipped slowly from glasses alongside sticky rice snacks and fried tofu, and families make it at home whenever the weather turns cool. Chef's tip: grill or dry-roast the ginger until scorched before bruising it; raw ginger gives a sharper but flatter drink, without the smoky depth.

20 min

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Opor ayamChicken in coconut milk

Ask anyone in Java what they eat on the first morning of Lebaran and the answer is opor ayam with ketupat: chicken simmered slowly in a creamy, ivory coconut sauce perfumed with coriander, lemongrass, galangal and salam leaf, rich but not at all fiery. Families cook a big pot the night before so the flavours deepen, then serve it with sambal goreng ati and crackers. For a vegetarian version, use fried tofu and hard-boiled eggs. Chef's tip: toast the candlenuts and coriander before grinding; raw, they make the sauce taste flat and slightly bitter.

75 min

Indonesian Chicken

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Bakwan sayurVegetable fritters

Gorengan carts across Java fry bakwan sayur from mid-afternoon, and office workers and students buy them by the paper bag, eating each crisp, lacy fritter with a raw green bird's-eye chilli bitten alongside. Shredded cabbage, carrot, bean sprouts and spring onion are held together with just enough garlicky batter to set into craggy, golden-edged rounds. Serve them hot with sambal kecap or with a bowl of soto. Chef's tip: the classic mistake is too much batter, which makes heavy, doughy fritters; the vegetables should be barely coated, with batter just clinging between the shreds.

30 min

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CombroCassava balls with spicy filling

Combro comes from the Sundanese 'oncom di jero', oncom inside, and that hidden centre is the point: crumbled fermented oncom fried with chilli, shallot and a little palm sugar, wrapped in grated cassava and fried until golden. Families in Garut and Bogor eat them warm with sweet tea in the late afternoon, and they appear at village arisan gatherings by the tray. Oncom is hard to find outside Indonesia; crumbled tempeh gives a similar nutty, savoury filling. Chef's tip: squeeze the grated cassava hard in a cloth; if it stays wet, the balls split open in the oil and the filling leaks out.

45 min

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Getuk lindriSteamed cassava sweets

Magelang is the getuk capital of Central Java, and market stalls there pile up these soft cassava cakes in stripes of pink, green and white, cut into slices and showered with grated coconut. Cassava is steamed, pounded with palm sugar or white sugar and a little salt, then pressed through a mincer into ribbons (lindri) or simply rolled into a log. It is eaten in the morning with tea or as an afternoon jajan pasar. Chef's tip: mash the cassava while it is steaming hot and remove every stringy core; cold cassava turns lumpy and won't come together smoothly.

45 min

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WajikSticky rice palm sugar cake

Wajik means diamond, the shape it is cut into for Javanese weddings, Lebaran open houses and the trays carried to a family's new baby. Glutinous rice is steamed, then folded through a bubbling caramel of palm sugar, coconut milk and pandan until every grain is glossy and the mass pulls away from the wok. Pressed and cooled, it slices into chewy, toffee-brown pieces that keep for days. Chef's tip: keep stirring once the rice goes into the syrup; walking away for even a minute lets the sugar scorch on the bottom and the whole batch tastes bitter.

75 min

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KetupatRice cakes in coconut leaf pouches

On the eve of Idul Fitri, kitchens and mosque courtyards across Indonesia fill with people weaving janur, pale young coconut leaves, into diamond-shaped pouches; filled loosely with rice and boiled for hours, they swell into dense, faintly grassy cakes. Sliced, ketupat is served on Lebaran morning under opor ayam, sayur labu siam and sambal goreng. If you can't get coconut leaves, ready-woven casings are sold frozen in Asian shops, or you can use the bag method in the last step. Chef's tip: fill the pouches only a third to half full; packed tight, the rice has no room to swell and the centre stays hard and raw.

260 min

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Sambal bajakCooked chilli sambal

In Solo and Yogyakarta warung kitchens a jar of sambal bajak sits beside the rice pot, ready for fried tempeh, boiled greens or a plain omelette at any meal of the day. Red chillies, shallots and candlenuts are blitzed and then fried slowly in plenty of oil with palm sugar and tamarind until the paste turns brick-red, glossy and jammy, mellow rather than raw-hot. This version is vegan: a spoon of salted fermented soybean paste brings the savoury depth that Javanese cooks usually get from toasted terasi (shrimp paste); swap 1 tsp of terasi back in if you eat it. Kept under its layer of oil, it lasts two weeks in the fridge. Chef's tip: the common mistake is stopping too soon; a pale, watery bajak tastes harsh and spoils quickly, so keep frying until the oil splits clear away from the paste.

45 min

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MisroCassava palm sugar fritters

In West Java combro and misro are sold side by side, savoury and sweet; misro's name means 'sweet inside', and biting through the crisp shell releases a trickle of melted palm sugar into the chewy grated cassava. Gorengan sellers in Sumedang and Bandung fry them in the afternoon and they vanish with glasses of hot tea. They need only cassava, coconut, salt and gula aren. Chef's tip: let them rest for two minutes before eating; the sugar centre is far hotter than the shell and is the most common burnt tongue in Java.

40 min

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Tahu isiStuffed fried tofu

Bandung commuters and Jakarta schoolchildren grab tahu isi from roadside gorengan stalls on the way home, biting into the crisp batter and the soft, peppery vegetable filling with a fresh green chilli. Squares of fried tofu are slit open, packed with stir-fried cabbage, carrot and bean sprouts, then dipped in a light garlic batter and fried again. They are just as good at room temperature for an afternoon snack. Chef's tip: let the filling cool and squeeze out its juice before stuffing; a wet filling steams inside the tofu and makes the batter slide off in the oil.

45 min

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Kue cubitMini soft pancakes

Outside Jakarta's primary schools at home time, kue cubit vendors work a cast-iron pan of tiny scalloped hollows, scooping out the bite-sized cakes with a pick, the 'pinch' (cubit) of the name. The fashion is to serve them setengah matang, half-cooked, so the tops are still soft and molten under a shake of chocolate sprinkles. A poffertjes or æbleskiver pan works well at home. Chef's tip: resist turning the heat up; a hot pan burns the base before the middle rises, so keep it medium-low and cover briefly to set the tops.

25 min

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Lemper ayamSticky rice rolls with chicken

Lemper turns up in every Javanese snack box, from office meetings to selamatan prayers: a log of savoury coconut sticky rice wrapped round chicken shredded and cooked down with coriander, lemongrass and coconut milk, then rolled tight in banana leaf. Some are grilled afterwards for a smoky leaf flavour. They make a filling mid-morning snack and travel well. Chef's tip: cook the chicken filling until it is quite dry; a saucy filling soaks into the rice and the rolls fall apart when unwrapped.

90 min

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Wedang uwuhSpiced herbal infusion

The name means 'rubbish drink', because a glass looks like a jumble of twigs and leaves, but around the royal tombs at Imogiri, south of Yogyakarta, wedang uwuh is a point of pride. Chips of sappan wood stain hot water a deep ruby red, while ginger, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg leaf and rock sugar give a sweet, woody spice. It is sold by roadside warung as a dry pack to brew at home. Chef's tip: steep it, don't boil it for long; sappan wood turns from red to a muddy brown and tastes tannic if cooked hard.

15 min

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Risoles sayurVegetable crêpe rolls

A Dutch colonial snack that never left, risoles fill the glass cabinets of Jakarta bakeries and the snack boxes handed out at every Javanese meeting, wedding and pengajian. Thin crêpes are wrapped round a creamy white-sauce ragout of carrot, potato, beans and sweetcorn, then crumbed and fried until golden and shatteringly crisp. The vegetable version is the most common; meat versions add chicken or smoked beef. Serve with fresh green chillies or chilli sauce. Chef's tip: chill the ragout until firm before rolling; warm, runny filling soaks the crêpes and makes them burst in the oil.

75 min

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CirengFried tapioca snacks

The name is Sundanese shorthand for 'fried tapioca', and in Bandung cireng is sold from carts outside schools and campuses, eaten piping hot from a paper cone. A garlicky scalded tapioca dough is shaped into flat ovals and fried until the outside is crisp and blistered while the inside stays stretchy and mochi-like. The dipping sauce is a quick rujak of palm sugar, tamarind and chilli. Chef's tip: use truly boiling water to scald the starch; with merely hot water the dough stays crumbly and the cireng turn hard as stones once fried.

30 min

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Sambal roaSmoked fish sambal

Manado families in North Sulawesi keep sambal roa in the cupboard the way others keep jam, and visitors leave with jars of it as a souvenir. Ikan roa, a garfish split and smoked on bamboo racks until dry, is flaked and fried with a mountain of chillies, shallots and lemongrass into a deep, smoky relish that turns plain rice or tinutuan porridge into a meal. Outside Indonesia, smoked mackerel gives a similar result. Chef's tip: pick through the fish carefully for fine bones before frying; once it is mixed into the sambal they are almost impossible to find.

45 min

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Sayur labu siamChayote and tofu coconut curry

On Lebaran morning in Java and Jakarta, sayur labu siam is the mild, soupy vegetable ladled over cut ketupat beside the richer opor and sambal goreng. Crisp-tender chayote, long beans and fried tofu simmer in a thin, pale-gold coconut broth fragrant with turmeric, galangal and salam leaf; it also makes an easy weeknight lontong sayur. This version is vegan, while many home cooks add a little terasi and dried shrimp to the spice paste. Chef's tip: let the broth simmer gently after the coconut milk goes in; a hard boil splits it into oily curds.

40 min

Indonesian Curries

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Sambal goreng atiBeef liver in chilli coconut sauce

Next to opor ayam on the Lebaran table in Java sits a bowl of sambal goreng ati: cubes of beef liver and fried potato cooked in a sweet-hot red chilli sauce loosened with coconut milk and scented with galangal and lime leaf. It is rich, a little sticky and meant to be eaten in small spoonfuls with ketupat. Some cooks add fried quail eggs or petai beans. Chef's tip: blanch the liver in boiling water first and cook it right through in the sauce; underdone liver is unsafe, and boiling it too long beforehand makes it dry and grainy.

60 min

Indonesian Meat

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Lumpia SemarangBamboo shoot spring rolls

Semarang's lumpia carts trace their recipe back to a 19th-century Chinese-Javanese couple, and today the city's Gang Lombok and Pemuda Street sellers still roll them to order. The filling is young bamboo shoot stir-fried with prawns, egg and garlic, giving a juicy, faintly sweet crunch inside a crisp wrapper. They are eaten as a snack or light lunch with a thick garlic-palm sugar sauce, pickled cucumber, spring onion and chillies. Chicken can replace the prawns. Chef's tip: canned bamboo shoots must be boiled and drained first; skipping this leaves a sour, tinny smell through the whole roll.

75 min

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BajigurCoconut palm sugar drink

Bajigur carts in Bogor and Bandung come out in the late afternoon, steaming pots of coconut milk with palm sugar, ginger and pandan served alongside boiled peanuts, cassava and sweet potato. It is creamy and caramel-sweet with a warm ginger finish, a drink to wrap your hands round on a cool highland evening. Some sellers add a spoon of coffee; this version leaves it out. Chef's tip: keep it below a boil once the coconut milk is in; boiling makes it grainy and an oily film forms on top.

20 min

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Sambal bawangGarlic chilli sambal

Surabaya's ayam penyet stalls and the pecel lele tents along East Javanese roads serve sambal bawang in the stone mortar it was pounded in, so diners can scrape it straight onto fried chicken, tempeh or catfish. Raw chillies and plenty of garlic are crushed with salt and a little sugar, then hot oil is poured over, which tames the garlic's bite and makes the whole mortar crackle and smell toasty. It is coarse, oily and brutally hot. Chef's tip: the oil must be properly hot, just beginning to smoke; lukewarm oil leaves the garlic raw and sharp instead of nutty.

15 min

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Wedang rondeRice balls in ginger syrup

Wedang ronde came to Java with Chinese tangyuan, eaten at the winter solstice, and in Yogyakarta it has become an all-year evening treat: sellers set up on the Alun-Alun Kidul and along Malioboro, and families sit on mats eating it as the night cools down. Soft, chewy balls of glutinous rice, some white and some pandan green, are filled with crushed peanuts and palm sugar, and floated in hot ginger syrup scented with pandan and lemongrass, sometimes with roasted peanuts and kolang-kaling on top. Bite one and the filling oozes warm and sticky against the clean burn of the broth. The common mistake is making the dough too dry: it cracks as you shape it and the filling leaks out during boiling. Add water until the dough feels like soft earlobe and smooth any cracks with a wet finger. The balls are done when they float, then stay at the top for two more minutes. Make the broth first so it is ready as soon as the balls are cooked. Chef's tip: chill the filling into little balls before wrapping; firm filling is much easier to seal.

65 min

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Nasi liwet SoloCoconut rice with shredded chicken

In Solo (Surakarta), Central Java, nasi liwet sellers set out at dawn with baskets of rice cooked in coconut milk and fragrant salam leaves, served on a banana leaf with shredded chicken, a mild chayote stew in coconut gravy (sayur labu siam) and a hard-boiled egg, all topped with a spoon of thick coconut cream called areh. It is a soft, gentle, savoury breakfast. The usual mistake is boiling the coconut rice too fast, which scorches the bottom before the grains are soft. Chef's tip: once the liquid is absorbed, finish the rice on the lowest heat with a clean tea towel under the lid so it steams fluffy, not wet.

80 min

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Semur tahuTofu in sweet soy

Semur is the dark, glossy sweet-soy stew of Java, shaped by Dutch spice traders' love of nutmeg and clove, and the tofu version is a thrifty bekal favourite that tastes better each day it sits. The tofu is fried first so it holds together and soaks up the sauce like a sponge. The common mistake is using silken or soft tofu, which crumbles; choose firm tofu and fry it until the skin is golden. Chef's tip: let the sauce reduce until it coats the back of a spoon, then rest the semur for an hour before eating so the spices go right into the tofu.

35 min

Indonesian Vegetarian

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Arem-aremFilled rice rolls in banana leaf

Arem-arem are what Central Javanese cooks pack for meetings, trains and bekal lunchboxes: logs of coconut-scented rice wrapped round a spiced filling, rolled in banana leaf and steamed until firm, so they can be eaten in the hand, cold or warm. Chicken fillings are common in the city; this one uses tempeh, potato and carrot. The common mistake is cooking the rice fully before rolling, which makes the logs mushy; it should be only half-cooked, so it finishes in the leaf. Chef's tip: soften the banana leaves over a flame or in hot water first, or they will split as you roll.

90 min

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Empal gepukSweet spiced fried beef

Empal gepuk is a Sundanese speciality from Bandung in West Java: beef simmered in coconut water and spices with palm sugar until the liquid is gone, pounded (gepuk) to loosen the fibres, then fried until the edges are crisp and sweet. Because it is dry and keeps for days, it is a classic in Indonesian bekal lunchboxes with rice, sambal and raw vegetables. The common mistake is cutting the beef with the grain, which makes it stringy; slice it across the grain before pounding. Chef's tip: pound gently with a pestle just until the slices fan out, then fry quickly; too long in the oil and they turn hard.

120 min

Indonesian Meat

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Nasi timbelRice with fried chicken and tofu

Nasi timbel is the packed lunch of West Java: rice pressed tight into a banana leaf, which keeps it warm and fragrant until noon, served with turmeric fried chicken, fried tofu and tempeh, crisp salted fish, raw vegetables (lalapan) and a fiery sambal terasi. Sundanese restaurants in Bandung and Jakarta serve it as a lunch platter. The usual mistake is frying the chicken straight from raw, which browns the outside long before the bone is cooked; simmer it in the spice paste first. Chef's tip: roll the rice in the leaf while it is very hot and wrap it tightly, then let it rest for 10 minutes so it sets firm.

85 min

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Nasi bakarGrilled banana-leaf rice with chicken

In Jakarta, nasi bakar parcels are sold from warung grills at lunchtime and in office canteens: rice cooked with coconut milk, lemongrass and salam leaves, filled with spicy shredded chicken (ayam suwir) and lemon basil, wrapped in banana leaf and grilled until the leaf chars and the rice crisps at the edges. Small dried anchovies (teri) are the other classic filling. The common mistake is wrapping the parcels loosely, so they fall open on the grill; fold them tight and pin with toothpicks. Chef's tip: grill until the leaf is blackened in patches; the smoke perfumes the rice inside.

65 min

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Gulai pakisFern tip coconut curry

Gulai pakis is one of the green dishes on the counter of every Minangkabau rice shop (rumah makan Padang), from Bukittinggi to Jakarta, and it is cooked at home in West Sumatra whenever fern shoots are gathered from the riverbanks. Tender fern tips simmer in a yellow coconut milk sauce of turmeric, galangal, chilli and lime leaves until rich and gently spicy; many cooks add tiny dried shrimp, which this vegan version leaves out. Serve it with rice, sambal and fried tempeh. The usual mistake is boiling the coconut milk hard or covering the pan, which makes it split into curds; stir it often and keep it at a simmer. Chef's tip: always cook fern shoots thoroughly as below, as some ferns are not safe raw or lightly cooked; buy vegetable fern (paku) or fiddleheads sold for eating.

40 min

Indonesian Vegetarian

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Sop konroBeef rib soup

Sop konro is the pride of Makassar in South Sulawesi, where warung near the harbour serve big bowls of beef ribs in an almost black broth from lunchtime into the night, often with burasa (rice cooked in coconut milk) or plain rice. The colour and earthy, chocolatey depth come from keluak (kluwek) nuts, simmered with a paste of shallots, garlic, ginger, galangal, toasted coriander seed and candlenut until the rib meat slides off the bone. The usual mistake is using raw keluak: the nuts are only safe after long fermentation, so buy them ready-prepared from an Indonesian shop, and discard any that smell sour or are dry inside. A pressure cooker gets the ribs tender in 50 minutes. Chef's tip: toast the coriander seeds until they crackle before grinding; they carry the whole soup.

180 min

Indonesian Soups

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Kue apePandan pancakes with crisp edges

Kue ape (also called kue tetek for its shape) is a Betawi snack sold from pushcarts outside schools and along the lanes of Kebon Kacang in the late afternoon, when children come out hungry. The vendor swirls pandan batter around a small domed pan so the edges fry paper-thin and lacy while the centre puffs into a soft, slightly chewy bump. They are sweet, fragrant and best eaten within minutes. A small non-stick pan or a Chinese wok-shaped crêpe pan works at home. The batter contains wheat and egg. Chef's tip: the swirl must happen the second the batter hits the pan; hesitate and the edge sets thick instead of lacy.

30 min

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Teh talua (egg tea)

In the lapau coffee shops of Bukittinggi, Payakumbuh and Padang, the sound of a spoon or a small whisk clattering against a glass means someone has ordered teh talua. A raw egg yolk, traditionally from a free-range kampung hen or a duck, is whisked with sugar until thick and almost white, strong hot tea is poured on from a height, and a wedge of lime goes on the side. Minangkabau men drink it in the late afternoon or evening as a pick-me-up after work in the fields. It comes out with a creamy, caramel-coloured body under a deep layer of foam, rich like a light custard, with the lime cutting any eggy edge. The common mistake is whisking too little: the yolk stays yellow, the tea curdles it in strings and it smells of egg. Beat until the yolk has doubled in volume and falls in a thick ribbon. Use pasteurised eggs for anyone pregnant, babies and small children, older people or anyone unwell, as the yolk is only lightly warmed. Some lapau add condensed milk; this one is dairy-free. It contains caffeine. Chef's tip: pour the tea in a thin stream from high up while still stirring, to build the tallest foam.

11 min

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Acar timunPickled cucumber and carrot

Order sate at a Madurese stall in Java, or nasi goreng from a night-time warung tenda, and a little saucer of acar timun comes with it: cubes of cucumber and carrot, whole small shallots and a few green or red bird's eye chillies in a sweet, sharp vinegar dressing. It is also spooned beside martabak telur and served at kenduri feasts and weddings. It is cold, crunchy and refreshing, sweet first, then sour, with a sudden bite when you hit a chilli, and it cuts the richness of peanut sauce and fried rice. Make it fresh: it is at its best the same day. Common mistake: pouring the dressing on warm or cutting the cucumber too thin, which turns everything limp and watery; dissolve the sugar in warm water, then let it cool before mixing. It is ready after 10–15 minutes, when the shallots have lost their raw edge and the cucumber is lightly seasoned but still snaps. Chef's tip: leave the bird's eye chillies whole so guests can choose whether to eat them; slit one or two if you want the dressing itself to carry heat.

17 min