Essential Cooking Equipment Guide

You might be surprising to find out the way such delicious food, often a complex blending of herbs, spices and seasonings comes out of the simplest of kitchens. The gleaming modern designer kitchen appliances is unknown to the majority of Indonesians.

Preparing Indonesian food in your own kitchen, does not require a complex array of ingredients, but there are certain utensils that will make your work a lot easier.

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Granite Grinding Stone

The most needed utensil in Indonesian kitchen. You will need it for grinding or crush the seasonings (bumbu) that form the basis of countless Indonesian dishes, and are also used as condiments or sambals. When you have a chance to go around Indonesia, you will find it easily in every traditional market. Yet nowdays, modern cooks like a food processor or blender can do the trick as the easiest way to prepare the basic spice paste or bumbu.

Rice steamer or Rice Cooker

Indonesian food is best eaten with steamed rice. Traditionally, Indonesians make the plain rice (nasi putih) by using a traditional steamer from the clay or a pan. But now there’s a modern electric Rice Steamer or Rice Cooker that make your work easier. Rice can be cooked with a pot over the cooking stove, but that risks burning if not closely monitored and takes time. At least, using an electric rice cooker, you can cook the perfect rice faster and it  switches to “keep warm” mode once the rice is cooked. I suggest choosing a model that has a non-stick pot to allow easier cleaning.

A Wok

This utensil is practical for deep frying  and also allows just the right amount of evaporation for many dishes which begin with a large amount of liquid and finish with a thick sauce. When choosing a wok, avoid alumunium or Teflon coated types. A heavy cast iron wok that won’t tip over easily is preferable, or best of all, the Rolls Royce of woks, which is made of a non-stick alloys that will not scratch when metal scoops are used.

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