Sumatran Coffee

Arabica coffee production in Sumatra began in the 18th century under Dutch colonial domination, introduced first to the northern region of Aceh around Lake Tawar. Coffee is still widely produced in these northern regions of Aceh (Takengon, Bener Mariah) as well as in the Lake Toba region (Lintong Nihuta, Dairi-Sidikalang, Siborongborong, Dolok Sanggul, and Seribu Dolok) to the southwest of Medan.

In the past, Sumatra coffees have not been sold by region, because presumably the regional differences are not that distinct. Rather, the quality of the picking, preparation and processing of the coffee determines much of the cup character in this coffee. In fact, Sumatras are sold as Mandheling (Mandailing) which is simply the Indonesian ethnic group that was once involved in coffee production (see note below). The coffee is scored by defects in the cup, not physical defects of the green coffee. So a fairly ugly-looking green coffee can technically be called Grade 1 Mandheling.
Indonesians are available as a unique semi-washed process and (rarely) fully-washed coffees. Semi-washed coffees are best described as "wet-hulled", localy called Giling Basah, and will have more body and often more of the "character" that makes Indonesians so appealing and slightly funky. In this process, the parchment coffee (the green seed with the parchment shell still attached) is very marginally dried, then stripped of the outer layer, revealing a white-colored, swollen green bean. Then the drying is completed on the patio (or in some cases, on the dirt), and the seed quickly turns to a dark green color.

There is a tendency to over-roast Indonesians.
The reason is that they don't show as much roast color, and have a mottled appearance up until 2nd crack and even a bit into it. Don't let this make you think you have to roast them dark (although they can be nice this way too). Great Indonesians will be wonderful roasted just to the verge of 2nd crack but NOT into it at all. So ignore the wierd beans you see green, and ignore the mottled appearance of lighter roasts, and focus on the what you get in the CUP.

With prices high, you expect quality would be up to, but in general this is not the case: what's the incentive to pick and prepare the coffee better when the market guarantees a premium anyway? It's why we buy very selectively from Sumatra and cup our lots hard. What I have seen is blends of old crop and new crop early in the Grade 1 window (Nov-Jan in particular), which is a deceptive practice. Nonetheless, roasters need Sumatra and I am sure someone buys it ... someone who doesn't cup their lots that is! Problems aside, we have been able to find great Sumatras in both the rustic and the fancy triple-pick categories because we have established good relations directly with the sources.
Mandheling is an older Dutch spelling of Mandailing, which is an ethnic group, not a region. Here is an interesting anecdote on the use of Mandheling in the coffee trade. The grading of Sumatra coffees can be confusing. Many of our lots are standard, old-style Grade One grades that result in the classic, rustic, earthy flavor profile. But we also offer many super-grade lots throughout the year, so-called Triple-Pick coffees.


These can be as complex, and intense, or sometimes more refined and broader in the overall range of flavors. For more about the different styles and classes of Sumatra, here are some additional comments. I also included a google map marking Takengon and Lake Toba here. For more pictures of Sumatra than you would ever care to see, visit our travelogs for the Lake Toba- Lintong area, and the Lake Tawar-Aceh area.

Sambal Belacan, the Famous Spicy Dip with Shrimp Paste

Just like rice, South East Asians are very specific about the type of sambal belacan (sambal balacan), or shrimp paste chili dip they enjoy. Different ways of preparing can affect the way it taste. My family sneered at my sambal belacan made using electric blender – lack of character, they said. Pounding using mortar and pestle is really good exercise for your arm. After a few try, I am grateful I am not selling authentic sambal belacan for a living.

We serve our sambal belacan with fresh vegetables such as lettuce and cucumbers or boiled vegetables such as long beans and carrots. This is called lalap, vegetables served with sambal belacan. We have lalap as our version of fresh salad. Sambal belacan to us is what olive oil and balsamic vinegar to Italians.



If you would like to keep your kitchen pungent-free, try the shrimp paste-free sambal belacan.

Sambal Belacan

Makes 1 cup
Ingredients:

1/8 cup cooking oil
1 (120 g) medium size tomato, halved and seeded
5 (20 g) shallots
10 (75 g) red chilies
8 (25 g) green chilies
1/2 tbsp (5 g) shrimp paste (belacan/balacan)
2 tbsp shaved palm sugar (gula melaka/gula merah)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 lime

Directions:

Heat 1/8 cup cooking oil in a skillet over medium heat for 3 minutes. Fry tomato and shallots till soft and brown for 3 minutes. Remove and set aside

Next fry chilies until they turn a shade lighter for one minute

Drain the oil, leaving only 2 tablespoons of oil on the skillet and turn down the heat. Fry the shrimp paste quickly, break the paste using the spatula for 2 minutes. Remove from heat for later use

Pound the chilies and shallots in a mortal using pestle hard and slowly for 8 minutes. Add tomato halves (skin removed), shrimp paste, palm sugar and salt.

Pound till everything mixed well for 5 minutes

Squeeze lime juice into the mortar and mix well with spoon. Serve with selections of fresh and boiled vegetables

Notes:
Chilies used here are mixed of green and red chilies, for presentation purpose only since I thought all-red sambal is boring (although equally delicious). Red chillies are more common for sambal belacan.
If less hot sambal belacan is preferred, the chilies can be seeded before frying.
Some people likes smooth sambal belacan, some preferred a bit of texture to it. I like coarse, so pounding using mortar and pestle is the best way for me to get the specific kind of consistency. Smooth sambal belacan can easily be made using spice grinder / electric blender.
Sambal belacan can be stored in refrigerator in a covered container. Good for three days. Longer than that, the texture can be a little bit dry.

Step by Step



Preparing ingredients














Preparing Sambal Belacan using granite mortar

Vegetable Salad with Peanut Sauce, Pecel

I find myself very difficult to keep my head over water these days. With the expansion that is going on at work, people are finding it hard to keep their temper intact. When things are new and those who are working are looking for their comfort zone, everything can be as far away from the zone as you can never imagine. I wish I can bake muffins everyday and distribute them to everybody at work to bring up smiles, but I couldn’t. Smile is really a rare commodity these days. I find comfort in reading some of my favorite foodblogs between meetings and yellings. Ipad is my little genie.

A couple of months ago I purchased a plot of land without considering much, just like how I do things all this time. It is a wonder how I got this far. Long story short, I now own a piece of empty land up in the mountain, two hours drive away from my work. That thought really makes me want to scream. But every time I visit the place, it gives me the feeling of warm inside. It is a beautiful place to live at. The construction is planned to start next month and again, it is almost a miracle that I got this far without buying any home furnishing or kitchenware. I often wake up with bad dreams, how I have spent all my money in home decor and ultimately ended up with a house with no walls. But with really nice and tasteful leather sofa. So far it seems like I will have a nice house with no furniture. We will see how it goes.

My head is everywhere, back and forth between work, sales deadline, production deadline, and tiles, curtains, timber floorings, and all the kitchen stuff I would love to have. It is a real torture. In the mean time, I devour a lot of design websites. They hurt my eyes with their pretty space and interior photography, but I am hooked. Skonahem is one of my favorite. I think I have fallen in love with Emma too. It is a mystery how these Scandinavian folks got such great taste in designing and how I wish I understand the language. Also, I am thankful for Zinio for the amazing e-subscription of magazines. It is simply wonderful to be able to check out all the design and architectural magazines a fraction of their cost.

With all these going on, and guests from our last China trip last weekend, I hardly find time to cook these days. So one of those really old backposts is chosen. This is one of my father’s favorite Indonesian-style salad. As with other salad, it is literally soaked with peanut sauce. The peanut sauce is quite unique and have very distinctive smell from the use of lesser galangal, or kencur. Unfortunately, this rather strange looking root herbs is not substitutable. The intensity of the nutty taste of kencur is just so overwhelming. This salad dish is usually served as main course, with fried vermicelli as side dish (recipe here). The green vegetables prepared with the sauce is blanched. Some crackers, especially the red-and-white rice crackers is a must. This street
food is found everywhere in the country and famously known as pecel.

Spices for the sauce are red chilies, Thai bird’s eye chilies, shallots, garlic and kencur (lesser galangal). And some kaffir lime leaves, which seems to be missing from the plate.











Gula merah (gula melaka/ palm sugar), tamarind pulp and shrimp paste.











Of course, some fresh peanuts. Roasted peanuts can also be used. These peanuts are to be deep-fried with skin intact.











The important colorful rice cracker in red and white. These transparent sheets are to be deep-fried with hot oil, they will fluff into beautiful and light crackers.











Some fresh tofu, to be deep-fried and cut into smaller cubes.










Spinach, to be blanched.











Beansprouts, to be blanched and cucumber to be cut and sliced into thin slices.
















Long beans and cassava leaves, to be blanched.










Tempeh (soybean cake), cut into slices and then deep fried. The deep-fried slices are then sliced thinly into strips.










The deep-fried items on display. Does this make the healthy twin in you wanna click away? My evil twin always makes me stay.











Fry chilies, shallot and garlic in hot oil till wilted. Set aside.












We use this giant wooden mortar and pestle to grind the fried peanuts. The skin gives it texture. It is just not the same without the skin on.










At the end of thumping. I always love my paste with big chunks of peanuts, so I don’t overdo grinding them.













Remove the peanuts from the bowl. Throw in kencur (lesser galangal).

Grinding them till fine paste.














Combine the rest of the ingredients for sauce, chilies, shallots, garlic, kaffir lime leaves.













Work on them till resemble coarse paste. Add gula merah (gula melaka or palm sugar) and tamarind pulp.












Continue grinding until all mixed well and thick and gooey paste has formed.












Toss in ground peanuts and mix well. They are ready to be used. If you are not using the paste right away, it refrigerates quite well, although the peanuts might be slightly soggy if not used right away. I love it nonetheless.










When it is ready to be served, combine one cup of pecal sauce paste and add two cups of warm water in a bowl.










Dilute the paste.














It is ready to be used!














In a separate bowl, combine all the vegetables used, including tempeh and fried tofu and pour the sauce on top of everything.



















Mix everything together and serve with steamed rice or fried vermicelli (recipe here)





Vegetable Salad with Peanut Sauce, Pecel

Makes 6-8 servings
Ingredients:

For Peanut Sauce
2 shallots
1 garlic
25 g red chilies
10 g Thai bird's eye chili
5 kaffir lime leaves
20 g kencur (or lesser galangal)
10 g tamarind pulp
1 g shrimp paste
120 g gula merah (palm sugar or gula melaka)
300 g peanuts, deep-fried
1 tsp salt
Oil for deep-frying

For Vegetable Salad
100 g red and white rice crackers, fried till fluffy
150 g tempeh, deep-fried and sliced thinly
150 g tofu, deep-fried and cut into cubes
150 g beansprouts, blanched
1 cucumber, quartered and sliced thinly
150 g long beans, cut into 3 cm length
150 g cassava leaves, boiled
Oil for deep-frying

Directions:

Heat oil in a wok. Deep-fry peanuts till golden. Grind till coarse. Set aside.
Deep-fry chilies, shallots and garlic till wilted, about 2 min
Combine kaffir lime leaves, salt, kencur, chilies, shallots and garlic in a mortar and pestle. Grind to coarse paste.
Add tamarind pulp, palm sugar and shrimp paste in the mortar and pound till fine.
Add the peanuts. Mix well.
Remove the paste and keep in airtight container till serving.
To serve, add 1 cup of warm water to dilute 1 cup of peanut paste in a bowl. Pour on top of vegetables.

Fruit Rojak, Indonesian Fruit Salad with a Twist

We love our fruit with something kicking. Be it some sweetened plum powder with salt or some thick gooey palm sugar sauce called Rojak Sauce (bumbu rujak).

On the street side in our city, there are many rojak vendors pushing little carts around. There are several versions too. Rojak tumbuk kacang is the fruit rojak with young plantain banana with roasted peanut in the rojak sauce. Very tangy, and can be very spicy with extra shrimp paste. The simpler fruit rojak is the most basic rojak sauce made from palm sugar block, tamarind, shrimp paste and fresh chili. The other variation include the way the fruit is cut, shredded or big chunk cut, preserved or fresh.

Since the rojak sauce is extremely sweet and sour plus spicy, men don’t think too much of it, I never know why. But we girls adore them! There’s nothing better than a tea time with fruit rojak bought, iced tea and some prawn crackers with your girlfriends. Nibbling away and gossiping the neighbors, colleagues or the street cats. Most vendors only start selling after lunch and by 5pm, they’ll be all gone. These traditional rojak vendors don’t have cooler in their tricycle, so you wouldn’t want to buy fruit that has been out on the humid street for more than 6 hours. But all the sauce from these traditional vendors are made to order – meaning, they start grinding away in their mortal and pestle when you order them. That might take a while.

For those lucky few households with Javanese helpers, homemade rojak sauce is only a phone call away. Whenever I was away on long trip, I long for homemade rojak sauce. With a handful of basic ingredients found in Asian groceries, it is easy to make! Add some cut fruits, they are ready to be served. Dip away – keep the iced-tea close by.

Fruit Rojak Sauce

Makes 4 servings
Ingredients:

200 g palm sugar (gula merah/gula melaka), shaved
6 g (12) thai bird's eye chili (green chili)
15 g (1 teaspoon) tamarind pulp (asam jawa)
1.5 g (1/4 tsp) shrimp paste, toasted
1/4 tsp salt
5 tbsp warm water
50 g ground roasted peanut (optional)

Directions:

Combine all ingredients (except peanuts and water) in a mortar. Beat with pestle slowly until shaved sugar starting to melt, about 15 minutes. Add water. Alternatively, blend everything with electric blender / food processor until fine
Serve with cut fruits and ground peanut.

Note:
Refrigerates well, can last up to 2 weeks in tight container
It is common for rojak sauce to be served with fruits with hard texture and crunchy to bite, such as jicama, cucumber, wax apples or guava. I think the whole purpose of the rojak sauce is to make plain fruit edible.

Sambal Belacan, the Famous Spicy Dip with Shrimp Paste

Just like rice, South East Asians are very specific about the type of sambal belacan (sambal balacan), or shrimp paste chili dip they enjoy. Different ways of preparing can affect the way it taste. My family sneered at my sambal belacan made using electric blender – lack of character, they said. Pounding using mortar and pestle is really good exercise for your arm. After a few try, I am grateful I am not selling authentic sambal belacan for a living.

We serve our sambal belacan with fresh vegetables such as lettuce and cucumbers or boiled vegetables such as long beans and carrots. This is called lalap, vegetables served with sambal belacan. We have lalap as our version of fresh salad. Sambal belacan to us is what olive oil and balsamic vinegar to Italians.

If you would like to keep your kitchen pungent-free, try the shrimp paste-free sambal belacan.

Sambal Belacan

Makes 1 cup
Ingredients:

1/8 cup cooking oil
1 (120 g) medium size tomato, halved and seeded
5 (20 g) shallots
10 (75 g) red chilies
8 (25 g) green chilies
1/2 tbsp (5 g) shrimp paste (belacan/balacan)
2 tbsp shaved palm sugar (gula melaka/gula merah)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 lime

Directions:

Heat 1/8 cup cooking oil in a skillet over medium heat for 3 minutes. Fry tomato and shallots till soft and brown for 3 minutes. Remove and set aside

Next fry chilies until they turn a shade lighter for one minute

Drain the oil, leaving only 2 tablespoons of oil on the skillet and turn down the heat. Fry the shrimp paste quickly, break the paste using the spatula for 2 minutes. Remove from heat for later use

Pound the chilies and shallots in a mortal using pestle hard and slowly for 8 minutes. Add tomato halves (skin removed), shrimp paste, palm sugar and salt.

Pound till everything mixed well for 5 minutes

Squeeze lime juice into the mortar and mix well with spoon. Serve with selections of fresh and boiled vegetables

Notes:
Chilies used here are mixed of green and red chilies, for presentation purpose only since I thought all-red sambal is boring (although equally delicious). Red chillies are more common for sambal belacan.
If less hot sambal belacan is preferred, the chilies can be seeded before frying.
Some people likes smooth sambal belacan, some preferred a bit of texture to it. I like coarse, so pounding using mortar and pestle is the best way for me to get the specific kind of consistency. Smooth sambal belacan can easily be made using spice grinder / electric blender.
Sambal belacan can be stored in refrigerator in a covered container. Good for three days. Longer than that, the texture can be a little bit dry.

Step by step

preparing ingredients

Preparing Sambal Belacan using granite mortar

Indonesian Grilled Chicken with Yellow Sticky Rice

This is a classic dish for Indonesian Chinese one-month-old baby celebration. They are not normally prepared at home. Family with new-born babies are expected to send a complete dish of yellow sticky rice, grilled chicken, red bean cakes and red boiled eggs to relatives and friends who have sent their best wishes during the first month. I love the grilled chicken pack, although some families now choose to send overly decorated cupcakes, which I think are only good to look at. I would pick over grilled chicken over cupcakes any day.

This way of preparing Indonesian grilled chicken (or ayam panggang) was from our grandmother’s trick. It is not always fun to start up open fire to cook off the chicken, so the last charring period is done in oven.

Don’t expect the grilled chicken to be the much expected juicy roast chicken. Chicken, both fried and grilled, in Indonesian cuisine is meant to be cardboard hard, served with elaborated chili sauce or sweet soy sauce-based sauces. So do expect the chicken to be slightly tough and dry with succulent spicy sauce. The chicken with such strange texture may taste unpalatable, but it is to be served with well-cooked turmeric-scented rice or sticky rice.

Wash sticky rice thoroughly and soak it in a big bowl with a lot of water, until the rice is fully immersed. Grate the turmeric finely and put in a small muslin bag. Toss it in the bowl. Add white peppercorns in there too. White peppercorns are just peppercorns with the black skin removed. We use white pepper in all our cooking.

On the day of cooking, drain the soaking water off and remove the turmeric muslin.

Season the rice with salt.

Line the bottom of a steamer with some pandan leaves. Boil it over high heat for … minutes. The water should not touch the rice at all times, so it is important to watch the water level, start with middle level of water and add more boiling water if the water level starts to run really low.



Quickly remove the sticky rice together with the steamer and pour coconut milk into it. Mix the rice to incorporate the milk well with a wooden spoon.


Return steamer to the pan and continue steaming for … minutes.



We roasted a whole chicken for the dish. Indonesian grilled chicken is usually cooked with half a chicken or whole as the chicken needs to be braised and grilled, so small pieces of chicken won’t work that well.




Freshly ground curry paste and some more additional shallots for that extra kick, so that the chicken won’t taste too much like curry. For those with extra time at hands, this is the basic paste I used


Heat cooking oil in a big wok. When the oil is hot enough, toss in curry paste, ground shallots and curry paste.



Quickly stir-fry the paste for 2-3 minutes over high heat.


When the spice paste starts to curdle and the oil turn red, add chicken into the wok. Lower the heat and slowly baste chicken with the sauce for about 5 minutes.


turn the chicken and continue cooking for a couple of more minutes.



Cover the wok and simmer for 15 minutes.


Pour diluted coconut milk into the wok. Baste chicken with liquid.


Turn the chicken and pour some sauce on top.


Cover the lid and simmer for 25 minutes.


At the end of the braising period, the sauce would be greatly reduced. The leftover would be this thick and full of flavor curry paste. Pour the rest of the coconut milk into the wok and cook for 10 more minutes.


The chicken would be fully cooked by now and ready to be grilled.


We didn’t start open fire to grill this. Instead I roasted it in a preheated oven, at 180 degree celsius. Remember to scrape the sauce off the chicken as the sauce will cause the chicken to burn prematurely. The leftover sauce is to be serve as side dish by itself later.

Roast one side for 15 minutes, pull it out and baste the skin with a bit of oil.

The chicken is nicely charred along the edges.

Serve warm with yellow sticky rice and curry sauce on the side.

Ingredients:

For yellow sticky rice
500 g sticky (or glutinous) rice, soaked overnight
50 g turmeric, grate

d
1 tbsp white peppercorn
1 tsp salt
50 ml coconut milk

For Indonesian grilled chicken
1 whole chicken, about 600 g
250 g curry paste, homemade or store-bought
5 shallots, ground smoothly
5 curry leaves
500 ml coconut milk
250 ml water
1 tsp salt
100 ml vegetable oil

For curry paste
50 g fresh red chilies
10 g dried chilies
40 g galangal
5 candlenuts
10 shallots
3 garlic
3 g fresh ginger
5 g coriander seeds
5 g tamarind pulp
1 tsp salt

Directions:

To prepare the sticky rice, combine sticky rice, grated turmeric and peppercorns in a big bowl. Cover the bowl with water up to the rim.
Leave overnight at room temperature.
On the day of cooking, drain the water off.
Steam the rice over boiling water and high heat for 25 minutes.
Pour coconut milk into the hot steaming rice and stir well.
Continue steaming for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and keep warm.

For grilled chicken, heat cooking oil in a wok.
Stir-fry curry paste, shallot paste and curry leaves till fragrant, about 5 minutes over high heat.
Add chicken into the wok and cook for 2 minutes, turning once.
Cover the wok and let the chicken simmer for 5 minutes.
Add water diluted with 50 ml coconut milk into the wok. Put the lid back on and turn down the heat. Let simmer for 15 minutes.
Uncover and pour the rest of the coconut milk and cook for 10 minutes, basting chicken with the sauce.
Reserve the sauce for serving later.
Grill the chicken to get nice char over open fire, or in a preheated oven of 180 degree celsius for half an hour, turning once or twice.
Serve warm with leftover sauce and sticky rice.