Cooking Ingredients

Cel­ery

Cel­ery (daun seledri), com­mon name for a bien­nial herb of the pars­ley fam­ily, a native of Europe but now
widely grown through­out the world. The stalks, about 30 to 76 cm (about 12 to 30 in) high in cul­ti­vated vari­eties, are eaten, raw or cooked, as a veg­etable or salad. When allowed to grow nat­u­rally, the stalks are green­ish in color and slightly bit­ter in taste. They are often blanched dur­ing the last stages of their growth by pre­vent­ing access of sun­light except to the leaves; this process removes the color and the bit­ter taste, but also some of the vit­a­mins. If allowed to grow a sec­ond year, cel­ery sends up flower stalks about 61 to 91 cm (about 24 to 36 in) tall with small white flow­ers in umbels. The dried fruit of cel­ery is used as a condi­ment alone under the name of cel­ery seed or ground and mixed with salt under the name of cel­ery salt. Cel­ery seed is also used in phar­macy as a seda­tive or to dis­guise the fla­vor of other drugs.

Chili

Chilies (Lom­bok) Sev­eral types of chilli pep­per are used with the amount of heat increas­ing as the size dimin­ishes. Green chill­ies are the unripe fruit, and have a flavour dif­fer­ent from ripe red chill­ies. Fresh, finger-length red chill­ies are the most com­monly used in some dishes, espe­cially in Suma­tra. Dried chill­ies should be torn into pieces and soaked in hot water to soften
before grind­ing or blend­ing. Hottest of all chill­ies are the tiny fiery bird’s-eye chill­ies (cabe rawit). To reduce the heat of the dish while retain­ing the flavour, remove some or all of the seeds. Be care­ful to wash your hands throughly after han­dling chill­ies as the oil can burn your eyes and skin. You may even like to wear rub­ber gloves.

Cin­na­mon

Cin­na­mon (Kayu Manis) is yel­low­ish brown and has a dis­tinc­tive fra­grant aroma and a sweet­ish, pun­gent taste.
It has been used since early times as a spice in many culi­nary prepa­ra­tions, and it is also used in some med­i­cines. The aro­matic qual­i­ties of cin­na­mon result from a volatile oil, oil of cin­na­mon, that may be extracted from the bark by dis­til­la­tion. The oil varies in color from yel­low to cherry red; the yel­low is used in scent­ing soap and fla­vor­ing candy.

Clove

Clove (Cengkeh), com­mon name for a trop­i­cal tree of the myr­tle fam­ily, and for its dried flower buds.
The clove tree is a small-to medium-size ever­green; native to the Moluc­cas, east­ern Indone­sia, it is now cul­ti­vated else­where in the Trop­ics. The flow­ers are small and pro­duced in great pro­fu­sion in clus­ters. The leaves, flow­ers, and bark are aro­matic. The ripe fruit resem­bles an olive in shape but is smaller. It is dark red and is some­times sold in a dried state under the name mother clove; in this form it has an aroma and fla­vor sim­i­lar to those of clove but much weaker. The flower buds are gath­ered and dried by expo­sure to the smoke of wood fire and to the rays of the sun. Cloves are used exten­sively as a condi­ment and fla­vor­ing in many types of cookery.

Oil is obtained from cloves by repeated dis­till­ing. In den­tistry this oil is used as an anes­thetic and some­times as an anti­sep­tic.
It is also used in per­fumes and soaps.

Coconut

Coconut (Kelapa) are widely used in Indone­sia, not just in cook­ing but also for palm sugar, alco­hol, hous­ing, uten­sils, and
char­coal. The grated flesh of the coconut is fre­quently added to food; it is also squeezed with water to make coconut milk.

To make fresh coconut milk, put the flesh of 1 fresh grated ripe coconut into a bowl and add ½ cup of luke­warm water. Squeeze
and knead the coconut thor­oughly for 1 minute, then squeeze hand­ful by hand­ful, strain­ing into a bowl to obtain thick coconut milk. Repeat the process with another 2 ½ cups of water to obtain thin coconut milk.

Coconut milk can be deep frozen, thaw and stir thor­oughly before use. The best sub­sti­tute for fresh coconut milk to be used with
veg­eta­bles, seafood, meat and for sauces is instant coconut pow­der, some­times sold under the name ‘san­tan’. Com­bine this with warm water as directed on the packet. For the richer, creamier fla­vor required for dessert and cakes, use tinned coconut cream.

Corian­der

Corian­der (Ketum­bar), com­mon name for an annual herb of the pars­ley fam­ily that grows to a height of about
30 to 90 cm (about 12 to 36 in). The lower leaves are divided into fine, thread­like par­ti­tions; the white and pink flow­ers grow in small, loose clus­ters. Native to Europe and Asia Minor, corian­der has become nat­u­ral­ized in the United States. It is cul­ti­vated for its fruit, the dried seeds of which, also called corian­der, are used as a spice in a wide vari­ety of foods, and for its pun­gent leaves, called cilantro, a basic ingre­di­ent in Latin Amer­i­can and Asian cook­ing. Oil that is extracted from the seed is used in the prepa­ra­tion of liqueurs and is a med­i­cine for abdom­i­nal discomfort.

Cumin

Cumin (Jin­ten), also cum­min, com­mon name for a dwarf annual plant. Cumin is native to the Mid­dle East and
is widely cul­ti­vated for its seed­like fruit, which resem­bles car­away seeds in taste. Cumin is used to fla­vor cur­ries, soups, and meats. The plant attains a height of about 15 cm (about 6 in) and has a branch­ing stem that bears small, white or pink­ish flowers.

Fen­nel

Fen­nel (Jin­ten Manis), com­mon name for a peren­nial plant, char­ac­ter­ized chiefly by its aro­matic leaves and seeds. Fen­nel
grows from about 61 to 122 cm (about 24 to 48 in) in height and has small yel­low flow­ers. The com­mon fen­nel is cul­ti­vated in both Europe and Amer­ica. Its leaves and seeds are used for fla­vor­ing. Another vari­ety, called var­i­ously Flo­rence fen­nel, sweet fen­nel, Ital­ian fen­nel, or Cre­tan fen­nel, is cul­ti­vated in south­ern Europe. The bases of the leaf­stalks of Flo­rence fen­nel are greatly enlarged and form a bul­bous struc­ture, which is bleached by earth­ing and then eaten raw or cooked. The seed of Flo­rence fen­nel is used widely in Italy as an aro­matic condi­ment and as a medicine.