Halo y’all!
I’m back, and writing another post about Indonesian food.
Originally, I planned to write about Indonesian soups and their colour variety. However, I got side-tracked because of my last food post about salad where I briefly mentioned how Indonesians love crackers and that there are many different type of crackers. As such, I felt it more prudent to write about crackers first before I continue on with the heavier dishes.
Admittedly, crackers aren’t dishes. They’re more like snacks or a side, kinda like croutons or fries perhaps. They are there to add texture, as they are all very crunchy, to balance the taste of the dish, which is heavy most of the times, and to add the auditory value when eating. I won’t say they’re bad looking, but they’re not especially beautiful either, so visually they don’t add very much. Indonesian crackers are also great on their own as a type of snack, though. Or, well, dipped into the sauce/dressing.
Right, before we start, I give you some pictures of different crackers, or kerupuk (sometimes also read as krupuk), that we have.
White crackers (kerupuk putih)
Garlic crackers (kerupuk bawang)
Prawn crackers (kerupuk udang)
Fish crackers (kerupuk ikan tenggiri)
Rambak (which is mots commonly made by frying buffalo's skin)
Gendar (which my grandma said uses borax, though I don't know the truth and we're just fine even after years of consuming them....)
Emping
Peyek or rempeyek
Karak
We have a lot right? And we still have more! The ones I mentioned also come in a lot of sizes and coloured, with different fillings for some. Most, as I said before, is often used as a complement for rice dishes, but all of them are also good to snack on their own.
Crackers in Indonesia is commonly sold raw or ready to eat. Here’s a pic of the raw ones.
The difference is that the ready to eat ones are already fried by the seller, whereas if we purchase the raw one, we have to sun-dry and fry them on our own before they are fit for consumption. The raw ones have longer shelf life though, so sometimes it’s a good option for stocking your pantry or even for souvenirs.
The main ingredients of cracker are flour and water, though not all use wheat flour. Rice flour is also commonly used. For rambak, though, it is made of fried hide (skin) taken from either buffalo, cow, or sometimes pig (though this is rare other than in Bali since Indonesia is predominantly Muslim). Spices are sometimes added too to increase the flavour. Some, like the fish and prawn ones, are made by mixing flour, water, and spices with, well, fish or prawn paste. Naturally, they’re more expensive than the regular and most common white crackers. Peyek, on the other hand, is made by mixing whole peanuts or dried anchovies/small prawns into the batter before frying. Peyek in particular has many varieties, from the size, width, shape, and ingredients.
Most of them have no nutrition, and some even have negative side-effects for the body if consumed too much. Emping, for example, is not recommended to be consumed by those who have gout as it’s made from melinjo/belinjo (which Wikipedia said is called Gnetum gnemon in Latin, dunno what’s it’s called in casual English). Prawn crackers can also trigger allergic reaction in those who are allergic to seafood, so be careful.
Indonesian crackers are commonly eaten with soupy dishes, such as prawn crackers with rawon, and saucy dishes, such as peyek with pecel. For completely dry dishes, such as fried chicken with rice, kerupuk can be eaten together but it won’t really be a perfect match as both are fried (AKA oily) and dry. When eating those kind of dishes, we use raw vegetables which we call lalapan, usually consists of raw sliced cucumber, cabbage, and tomato, as a complement, along with sweet soy sauce and sambal if you like spicy (see my previous post on Indonesian salads to see a picture of it).
Alright, that’s it for my post about Indonesian crackers. If I ever try and successfully make one by myself from scratch, I’ll (probably) update this post.
See you next time~
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