Indonesian Kitchen: Some delights to enrich your vegetarian menu

Indonesian Kitchen: Some delights to enrich your vegetarian menu - In many regions across the country, people eat as vegetarians since early youth not because they intend to practice that lifestyle but rather because their daily income is insufficient to be able to purchase meat, fowl or fish for daily food intake.

Therefore, meatless dishes are many here.

The succulent flavor of meat or fowl has been replaced by the rich taste of fresh and crunchy vegetables or hearty beans.

Many variations of sayur are typical dishes of East, Central and West Java and even they became very famous dishes. The Sayur Lodeh, a soupy dish originated in Central Java with coconut milk and vegetables like young jackfruit, longbeans, melinjo leaves and fruit, became one of the most known dishes, here and abroad.

Eaten with fried tempeh, or tofu, sambal goreng telur (a hot egg dish), vegetable crackers or emping, it forms a very delicious and healthy fare, indeed.

Although a Sumatran menu is fast unthinkable, dishes originating from Sumatran cooking have gained recognition elsewhere. Anyang made of papaya flowers and grated young coconut dressing is enjoyed very much as an appetizer.

Meanwhile, pacri nanas or chilied pineapple is a refreshing sweet-sour accompaniment to heavily spiced dishes.

Sumatra also has various types of vegetables to offer. Take for instance the terung Medan, an eggplant variety. Small and crunchy, it can be stir-fried easily.

For mushroom enthusiasts, Bogor in West Java is really the place. Made into a pepes (spiced, wrapped in banana leaves then steamed), the dish just taste very satisfying when enjoyed with hot steamed rice.

Even as a sandwich topping, it deserves a place in a vegetarian menu. Shiitake, oyster mushrooms, black mushrooms or just normal straw mushrooms are Bogor’s contribution to a varied vegetarian lifestyle. Heaps of fresh mushrooms can be seen at markets or supermarkets.

West Java has its sayur asam a fresh sweet sour soup-like dish, a perfect accompaniment to various fried fermented bean products like tempeh and hot sambal. For those non-vegetarians add fried or grilled fish.

Just observe the vegetable stands at markets or supermarkets and a real creative vegetarian dish will be the result. Even a vegetarian burger is there.

For those yearning for something with a bite, there are vegetable crackers in many variations — there are garlic crackers, shallot spiced ones, mix vegetable crackers and rice crackers too.

And why not using paprika? It was previously not a familiar herb among people. But when international hotel chains set foot in several big cities, the demand for western oriented dishes increased, and vegetables — like asparagus, leek, large sized potatoes, onions and paprika — were cultivated to meet the demands.

Vegetable growing areas in cool mountainous regions like Lembang near Bandung, Sukabumi, Batu in East Java, Brastagi in Sumatra and Bedugul in Bali seemed to be successful in planting those newcomers.

Plump, multicolored paprika is now already common produce at a large vegetable growing plantation up the mountains near tea plantations in Sukabumi and nearly all so-called western vegetables and herbs are growing successfully.

Lemon also ripens to vivid yellow, broccoli to a deep green and all varieties of salad for salad enthusiasts are growing next to neat rows of herbs like oregano, marjoram, mint, dill and basil.

But not only do local farmers grow western oriented vegetables and herbs. Herbs generally used in Japanese culinary arts are also available locally. For instance, the much-used daikon, a large type of radish, is an excellent product from Sukabumi and Lembang.

Are those vegetables also used in Indonesian dishes?

Actually the paprika, coming from the same family as the cabai merah or red chili is already used in some stir-fries or tumis using long beans or eggplants and tomatoes. For those who do not really care about spices, sliced red paprika can be used as an alternative.

As chilies are noted for having therapeutic benefits such as helping to dissolve blood clots or are pain killers, paprika also has a lot to offer in maintaining health. Paprika is super rich in antioxidant vitamin C.

Therefore, it is a great food to fight colds, asthma, bronchitis, respiratory infections, cataracts, angina and cancer. When combined with the chili pepper or cabai, the stir-fries have a very distinct hot taste, caused by the mild flavor of the paprikas especially from the green paprika.

Onions which were very hard to find or were scarcely grown in Indonesia are now sold at wet markets, catering to the need of Indonesian-Chinese restaurants.

In traditional dishes, onion will be diced or finely sliced when used, because according to the common stir-fry procedures onion slices have to be of an even light brown color, which can not be obtained by onions in comparison to finely sliced shallots.

But nevertheless, onion is an addition to our bawang repertoire already in many kitchen shelves. Bawang merah (shallots), bawang putih (garlic) and bawang bombai (onion) are put into one container.

Onions, like shallots and garlic, have many uses. Very old cultivated plants, about 6,000 years, onions are already recognized as a flavor enhancer and at the same time form an important item in guarding one’s health condition.

Another thing, onion is a strong natural antibiotic. For heart patients, onions are an indispensable cooking ingredient. Raw onions are more effective in fighting diseases. For instance, half a raw onion a day (25–35 grams) can boost your good high-density lipoprotein blood cholesterol level by about 30 percent.

Here with the recipe of oseng terung medan: Cut the stems of 300-gram sized eggplants (especially terung Medan), rinse and soak 30 minutes in salted water, drain. Finely chop 200 grams of onion and 10 grams of garlic, roughly chop 100 grams of green paprika and 150 grams of tomato.

Stir-fry onion and garlic in 2 tablespoons of butter or margarine until aromatic. Add paprika, tomato and eggplants. Season with 1 teaspoon of salt (or to taste), ¼ teaspoon of pepper, and 1 tablespoon of lime juice. Continue stir-frying over low flame until done. ( thejakartapost.com )