Indonesian cuisine 101: how to get started at home

Anyone who has ever stood in a kitchen where shallots, garlic and trassi were sizzling in the wok will not soon forget the smell. Indonesian cuisine revolves around a boemboe slowly frying in oil, around santen that makes everything soft and rounded, and around a small bowl of sambal that is always within easy reach. It is food to share: rice in the middle and around it whatever the pans produce that day. For many people in the Netherlands, it tastes like home, and not for nothing is toko simply the Indonesian word for shop. In this guide you will read what to stock in your pantry to get started in your own kitchen.

What makes Indonesian cuisine so recognizable?

You recognize Indonesian cuisine by four things that appear almost everywhere: a boemboe as a base, santen, ketjap and sambal, and all of that around a plate of white rice.

• Boemboe (bumbu): a spice paste made of shallots, garlic, red chili, kemiri, galangal and turmeric, which you grind finely and fry in oil until it smells fragrant. Almost every stew, soup and rice dish starts with it.
• Santen: coconut milk, for creamy sauces such as opor and sayur lodeh, and for rendang, in which it simmers for hours until only spices and fat remain.
• Ketjap (kecap): ketjap manis is thick, dark and sweet from palm sugar and gives nasi goreng, semur and sate their shine. Ketjap asin is thinner and salty.
• Sambal: spicy, often with trassi in it, and always on the table so everyone can decide how hot it will be.
• Rice: nasi is the centerpiece of the meal. What you eat with it, the meat, the vegetables and the egg, is called lauk.

Around it, everything revolves around balance. Sourness comes from asem, such as WR Purified Tamarind (Assem), or from a squeeze of lime, sweetness from gula jawa and depth from trassi, the fermented shrimp paste that smells quite strong when raw but becomes rounded and savory in the pan. You also get that same savory seafood flavor from ebi, small dried shrimp that you grind finely for sambal or boemboe, from dried anchovies (ikan teri) that you fry until crispy, and from petis, a black, syrupy shrimp paste from Java.

How does Indonesian cuisine differ from island to island?

Indonesia consists of thousands of islands, and every region cooks in its own way: on Java you eat sweeter, on Sumatra spicier and richer, and on Bali and in Manado quite differently again.

• Java: sweet and soft, with lots of ketjap manis and gula jawa. Semur, opor ayam, soto ayam and nasi kuning come from here, and from East Java also rawon and petjel. In West Java, among the Sundanese, you like to eat raw vegetables with sambal and lotek with sweet peanut sauce.
• Sumatra: in West Sumatra, the land of the Minangkabau, you cook spicy and rich, with lots of red chili and santen. Rendang and gulai come from this Padang cuisine, which became known throughout Indonesia via food stalls with showcases full of small dishes.
• Bali: the island is predominantly Hindu, so pork plays a larger role than in the rest of the country, such as in babi guling. The Balinese boemboe is full of galangal, turmeric and kentjoer.
• Manado: in North Sulawesi you eat notoriously spicy, with rica-rica full of fresh red chili and sambal made from smoked fish.

In the Netherlands you mainly know the Javanese side, supplemented with rendang from Sumatra. Ayam bali, chicken thigh in a spicy tomato-ketjap sauce, is a dish that you encounter on almost every Indisch menu here.

What is the difference between Indonesian and Indisch food?

Indisch food is the cuisine of the Indo-Dutch: Indonesian dishes as they were cooked in the Dutch East Indies and later in the Netherlands, adapted to what was available. After the independence of Indonesia, many Indo-Dutch and Moluccans came to the Netherlands, and with them the toko's, the boemboes and the rijsttafel. That rijsttafel, with all its small dishes around the rice, originated in the colonial era and is now mainly an Indo-Dutch tradition; how to compose one yourself, you read in Rijsttafel at Home.

The influences also go the other way. Perkedel is derived from the Dutch frikadel and became a flat potato cake with minced meat on Java, and you can taste the Chinese influence in bami goreng, whose name comes from Hokkien.

What products do you need for Indonesian cuisine?

ABC Ketjap Manis, sambal oelek, trassi, santen, gula jawa, sereh, djeroek poeroet, salam, galangal, kemiri, a ready-made boemboe, fried shallots and kroepoek: with these thirteen products in your pantry you can cook the majority of Indonesian cuisine. Most stay good for a long time, so you can build up your stock gradually.

Ketjap manis kecap manis · sweet soy sauceFor nasi goreng, semur and sateSambal oelek sambal ulek · ground red chiliThe basic sambal, pure heat to cook withTrassi terasi · shrimp pasteA pinch in the boemboe for savory depthSanten santan · coconut milkFor opor, sayur lodeh and rendangGula jawa palmsuikerCaramel-sweet, grate or melt it throughSereh serai · lemongrassFresh and citrusy, for soto and oporDjeroek poeroet jeruk purut · kaffir lime leafA few leaves in soup or coconut sauceSalam daun salam · Indonesian bay leafSpicy leaf that steams, not regular bay leafLaos lengkuas · galangal, driedPeppery and fresh, for rendang and oporKemiri kemirinootFinely ground it makes the boemboe creamy and boundBoemboe bumbu · spice pasteReady-made per dish, here for rendangGebakken uitjes bawang gorengCrispy over rice, soto and gado gadoKroepoek krupuk udang · shrimp kroepoekFry yourself in hot oil, for with every plate

Fresh sereh, galangal and djeroek poeroet give the freshest taste if you can get them, but dried or ground they work just fine in a stew or soup, as long as you take a little less of ground spices. For ketjap manis you can also grab Bango Kecap Manis besides ABC. They are the same bottles that stand in the supermarket in Indonesia and that people there simply have at home in the kitchen cabinet. What ketjap you use for what, you read in Ketjap Explained, which sambal suits which dish in Sambal 101, and how to use or make a boemboe yourself in Boemboe 101. Everything about santen is in Coconut Milk 101.

View all Indonesian spices and cooking ingredients →

Which Indonesian dishes should you know?

Nasi goreng, rendang, sate ayam, gado gado, soto ayam and opor ayam are the Indonesian dishes that you encounter first, and they are all six well at home. After that follow sayur lodeh, semur and the rest of the Javanese cuisine.

Nasi gorengCold rice from yesterday with chicken thigh, terasi, sambal and ketjap from the wok.RendangBeef ribs slow-cooked for hours in santan and bumbu.Sate ayamChicken thigh fillet skewers with grilled ketjap and peanut sauce.Gado gadoThe Indonesian version: vegetables, potato, tahu and egg with peanut sauce.Soto ayamYellow Javanese soup made with chicken thigh, glass noodles and bean sprouts.Opor ayamChicken thigh fillet in a mild, white coconut sauce with salam and sereh.Sayur lodehCabbage, green beans, eggplant and tahu in a creamy santan broth.SemurBeef ribs stewed in ketjap manis with nutmeg and cloves.

For rendang you grind the boemboe yourself or use a pack of Bamboe Bumbu Rendang, for sate ayam and gado gado there is ready-made saté sauce and gado-gado sauce, and for rawon made with beef shank you need kluwak, the black nut that gives the soup its colour. If you want to go further, make bami goreng with Indonesian egg noodles, nasi kuning, sambal goreng telur, seroendeng or the Indonesian petjel from East Java, which tastes different from the Surinamese one.

Almost every dish here starts the same way: you fry the boemboe in a layer of oil over medium heat and keep stirring until the raw smell of shallot and garlic has disappeared, the paste becomes a shade darker and the oil separates at the edge of the pan, and only then do you add the meat and santan. If you rush this step, you will taste it later, because a boemboe that has not been fried long enough remains sharp and a little raw, no matter how long it simmers afterwards.

View all boemboes and spice pastes →

Where can you find Indonesian products by category?

You can find Indonesian products from us by category, from ketjap and sambal to boemboes, kerupuk, noodles and kue. Choose below what you want to continue with.

Ketjap kecapSweet, medium and salty from different brandsShop nowSambal sambalFrom oelek and badjak to terasi and ijoShop nowBoemboes bumbuSpice pastes and mixes per dishShop nowPeanut sauce saus kacangFor sate, gado gado and petjelShop nowSpices and cooking ingredients bumbu dapurTerasi, santan, gula jawa, salam and laosShop nowRijsttafel side dishesAtjar, seroendeng, emping and kerupukShop nowSnacks camilanRempeyek, cassava chips and moreShop nowNoodles miEgg noodles for bami and IndomieShop nowDesserts and baking kuePandan, agar-agar and baking mixesShop now

Read more about Indonesian cuisine

Sambal 101Which sambal to use for what, from oelek to badjak and trassi.Ketjap explainedSweet, medium and salty ketjap: the difference, the brands and when to choose which one.Boemboe 101Ready-made or grinding yourself, and how to fry a boemboe until it smells.Rijsttafel at homePutting together a rijsttafel yourself, with a menu and what to make a day earlier.

Frequently asked questions

The best way to get to know Indonesian cuisine is to simply start, with a bottle of ketjap, a jar of sambal and a pack of boemboe, and after cooking a few times you will naturally notice that you fry a boemboe by smell instead of by the clock and that there is always a bag of kroepoek in the cupboard. If you are in the toko in Amsterdam in front of the Indonesian shelf and do not know which ketjap or which boemboe you should have, feel free to ask us, because we are happy to think along with you. On that shelf are the Indonesian brands as you find them there in the store, next to the brands that Indische families have used for generations. All the recipes are together in our Indonesian recipes, and the whole selection can be found in the Indonesian cuisine.