recipes and conversations with my Indonesian friends, letter #4

Hellooooo,

How are you feeling? Have you buried yourself into a long, luscious hug yet? The first hint of unfurling in my life was marked by having two friends over for dinner, inside, with shared serving spoons. Just in time ––summer solstice is flashing a sexy, beckoning smile, we’re (mostly) vaccinated in California, so I think it’s time for cooling sunshine snacks worth sharing. Honestly, at this moment, I could hardly wish for anything more.

Speaking of, Indonesians love to snack at all hours. Take an after-dark stroll down the main drag of any city or village in Java and you’ll find smoke billowing from colorful rolling food carts as vendors fan skewers of chicken sate or woks full of hissing oil for fried noodles. During the day, especially in the morning, folks hawk small bites like fried bananas or jajan pasar, little street snacks. Many street snacks are made from three essential ingredients: pandan, coconut, and rice –– the holy trinity! Some jajan pasar are so tiny they’re served up on a sliver of banana leaf and eaten with a toothpick. These days you’ll also find many neon-colored fruit flavored treats (stroberi! mangga!) creating super psychedelic table spreads that practically blink at you like a marquee.

One of my favorite daytime street snacks is a sweet drink called es cendol (pronounced chen-dole.) When my mom was pregnant with me she craved this drink daily and would flag down the neighborhood cendol seller every time she wheeled her cart by. Maybe that’s why I find it so deeply divine? This treat is made from pandan-flavored rice ‘worms’, coconut palm sugar syrup, coconut milk, and heaps of shaved ice which is sometimes shaved on the spot with an ornate metal apparatus bolted to the cart. Cendol is so perfectly creamy, salty, sweet, chewy, and cooling, and you can decorate yours with fresh toppings like jackfruit, mango, avocado, agar-agar jellies, or fresh durian (my favorite.)

ICYMI, there’s heated controversy over the genesis of es cendol and who has the right to claim it as theirs (sparked by an uproar from neighboring cendol-loving countries when CNN named the drink as one of Singapore’s ‘top 50 desserts’). Well, the verdict is still out, but we do know it is a dearly loved snack for much of Southeast Asia, and there is written documentation of the drink dating back to 12th Century Java, Indonesia. My ancestors have been consuming this drink for many centuries, so I feel it’s only right to proselytize.

Cendol’s squishy green noodles are flavored from pandan leaf, a Southeast Asian native plant also known in English as ‘screwpine leaf’ (but since that was a name given by colonial traders let’s go ahead and ignore it.) Pandan has a grassy, floral, and almost vanilla-like flavor that is embraced in savory and sweet foods alike (oh my, it’s so aromatic steamed with rice), and is also taken medicinally to treat many ailments. These days, artificial pandan flavor seems as ubiquitous as the leaf itself and, to be honest, I like to make my es cendol flavored with a little of both.

The smoky, caramelized, mellow sweetness of coconut palm sugar (gula jawa) is also central to es cendol (and Indonesian food in general.) My great uncle, Kakek Endang, makes coconut palm sugar for a living. It’s not easy work. Every day he scales dozens of palm trees to hang his sap buckets and returns again in the afternoon to collect them once they’re heavy and dripping. In between frequent kretek smoke breaks, his late wife, Ibu Juju, was in charge of slowly stirring the sap in a large wok over a wood fire until it slowed to a thick, reddish syrup. She poured them into wooden moulds and plastic cups to cool before slipping them out into a stack. Now Kakek Endang does all of the work.

Every time I visit Indonesia, I pay well for a plastic bag of Kakek Endang’s sugar pucks to bring home. I often think of his family and that big bubbling wok when I dissolve a shaving of sugar on my tongue while I’m cooking, or as I’m taking a big slurp of es cendol. Flavor memories are such a powerful, lasting force.

Next month I’ll be in Hawaii visiting my family, finally! Be prepared for a LOT of Indonesian cooking and tiny children content. By the way, for the record, feeding kids es cendol is the cutest thing you could ever do.

As always, feel free to drop me a line. I love hearing from you.

xo and selamat,

Melati

Recipe: Es Cendol

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

Cendol

- ½ cup rice flour (not glutinous rice)

- ⅓ cup tapioca flour

- 3 ½ cups filtered water

- about 10 pandan leaves, roughly chopped

- pinch of salt

- ¼ tsp lye water (optional, but recommended for improved chewy texture. Can be found at most Asian markets)

- 2-3 drops pandan extract or ½ tsp vanilla extract, both optional

Sugar syrup

- ½ cup coconut palm sugar 

- 2 pandan leaves tight into knots

- 1 cup water

- pinch of salt

Coconut milk

- 1 cup coconut milk

- ½ cup water

- 2 pandan leaves tied into knots

Other items you’ll need:

- colander or metal strainer for making the noodles

- preferably square-tipped wooden spoon

- lots of ice, both for cooling the cendol and for serving

Topping suggestions (choose your destiny):

- sliced mango, jackfruit, or durian (all classics!)

- sliced banana, tossed in palm sugar and fried in coconut oil 

- any ripe fruit of choice that beckons

DIRECTIONS:

1. Bring coconut milk ingredients to a boil, lower to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes. Refrigerate until cold.

2. Similarly, bring sugar syrup ingredients to a boil, lower to a simmer and cook until the syrup thickens to a maple-syrup-like consistency, about 15 minutes. Refrigerate until cold.

3. To make the cendol, first blend the pandan leaves with the filtered water until finely blitzed. Strain into a medium saucepan with the remaining cendol ingredients and mix well to combine. Turn on heat to medium and stir constantly with a square-tipped wooden spoon until the mixture begins to stick to the spoon. Switch heat to low and continue stirring until the mixture thickens to thick mud and becomes almost translucent (no longer opaque and white-ish), about 10-15 minutes. Note: If the dough thickens to mud but is still opaque, mix in an additional ¼ cup water and cook for a few minutes longer, stirring constantly.

2. Remove from heat. Prep a big bowl or pot about 4 inches deep with chilled water and ice, then use your colander to press the mixture through with a wood spoon. The noodles should harden once submerged into the ice bath.

3. When all the ingredients are chilled, you’re ready to serve. Scoop one part cendol noodles, one part syrup, one part coconut milk into a glass. Add shaved ice (which can be made with ice cubes in a blender) and toppings of choice. Enjoy!

Selamat makan! Happy eating!

If you make the recipe, hashtag #threesaltedfish so I can see!