Among those who have bequeathed a culinary legacy to indonesia kitchen was Princess Ong Tien of the Ming dinasty.If you pass cirebon on your way to central java,then spare a moment of thought for her,the beautiful princess of the time of ming and daughter of the then reigning Emperor of china.The princess was sent as a gift to the mighty king in cerebon of the time,sunan gunung jati,who married her and made herhis fifth wife.
The poor princess : The marriage was childless and,although surrounded by about 100 courtiers,she still felt very lonely.To assuage her homesickness,she prepare authentic food from her country,whith the assistance of those loyal to her.
In a way,though ,she had plenty to be happy about,becouse the region of cirebon,a city on the north coast of west java,had seafood golore.Large shirmp ,crabs and many other kinds of crustceans and varieties of fish and saefood were ready to use for delicious dishes. Cirebon had long been famous port of call for ocean-going vessels from Portugal,China and Holland;sailors were always happy to drop anchor in cirebon.
Moreover,The Princess must have had a say in the palace kitchens becouse many cirebon dishes to today have a distinctly Chinese influence.Take ,for instance,the popular dish Cap Cay,which is a stir-fry of various vegetables.
In other parth of indonesia,cap cay is made whith vagetables ''ad random'',or just a bit of cabbage,carrots,leek and garlic plus shallots.But no Cirebon hausewife whould make it thus.
''cap'' explined a lady we met,shoping at one of Cirebon's popular shoping centers, mean ''10''.So ''cap cay'' has to be made whith 10 different main ingredients,such as carrots,baby corn,cabage,or pak choy,Chinese cabage,cauliflower,broccoli,clud ear mushroom,mung been sprouts,and hypyo(fish intestines made into s cracker).
The princess must have given the authentic recipe to the people of Cirebon ,because all these vegetable are still grown in the city arounds.
As a member of Sultan gunung jati’s court, the princess was very honored .many people still visit the gunung jati cemetery to seek the blessing of sunan gunung jati and those who want to be specially successful in trade go to the gate leading to the grave of the ming princess .
On aspecial day ,once in every 35 days,on the Jum’at Kliwon day according to Javanese customs,special prayer are made to seek the blessing of the Chinese princess.
To Cirebon, the sea has been given a living.Many products of prime quality have been used as trade items and even as tributes.Even the name Cirebon is connected to the sea: ‘’ci’’ mean waters (sea ,river) and ‘’rebon’’ mean small shrimp ( saltwater shrimp ).
Cirebon is also a place for spotted crab.If you drive along the coastal road,you’ll come across many vendors of spotted crab,offering their wares in baskets. Fresh,they say ,giving suggestion how to cook them.For those interested,the Indonesian mean for spotted crab is ,rajungan. Another famous delicacy,at least for adventurous gourmets ,is the ati hiu or shark liver.
Cirebon’s special is is shark liver cut into tiny pieces,then spiced and wrapped in banana leaves. After being grilled over charcoals, the hot stuff is served with steamed white rice .For those less brave ,there is red and white snapper and tengiri,Spanish mackerel.If you want to dine the local way ,ask for botok laut made from the above fish.
Though Cirebon is a coastal area, it does have agrikcultural regions. There fore meat also plays a part in everyday Cirebon dishes. One of the famous fruits is the Kawista; the fruit flesh is pressed to a refreshing drink.
The princess must have suffered from cirebon’s hot climate , she created drinks from local fruits such as kawista and mango .Kawista trees are typical of Java’s north coast area .The fruit has a dominating sourish and a rather fermented flavor so is usually mostly made into syrup.There are two varieties, feronta Limonia and feroniella Lucida.As t he latter has many pips,it is not used as much as the former.
But according to the cirebonese,you have not tasted Cirebon at all if you haven’t tasted the typical rice dish of the region: Nasi Lenko.It doesn’t look very pretty ,but it has a very distinctive flavor,because a portion of white steamed rice,sliced tofu and tempeh,pickled cucumber and raw bean sprouts are added,topped with a hot sambal consisting of pounded chilies ,terasi (shrimp paste),palm sugar ,onions,garlic,vinegar,soy souce and crushed peanut.This dish,our Cirebon hostess explained,combines sea and land.
Another Cirebon dish is sate kalong. Though kalong mean ‘’bat’’,the satay is definitely not made from bat’s meat ; rather ,it is grilled skewered water buffalo meat cut in thin slice after be ing marinated in coriander. So do try a taste of Cirebonand discover the culinary heritage of Princess Ong Tien.
Here a recipe for cap cay Curuban (the original name for Cirebon).Finely slice 250 g carrot, 150 g baby corn, 200 g Chinese cabbage , 200 g pak choy and 200 g cabbage. Prepeare 200 g cauliflower and 200 g broccoli. Slice 250 g meatballs. Fry 2 hypyo (Cirebon fish intestine crackers) untilcrispy , then soak in 300 ml hot water for 15 minutes;drain. Finely slice 4 shallots, 3 cloves garlic and 20 g ginger in fine slice. Stir-fry these in 3 tbsp oil untilaromatic. Add meatballs,carrot and baby corn and add water;let it came to the boil. Add the rest of vegetable, 50 g black mushroom, and 100 g bean sprouts, crackers and 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper and 1 tsp sesame oil.Continue cooking until done but not to soft.
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