How to Build an Epic Rijsttafel

When you think of Indonesian food, you might quickly picture small toko’s packed with trays full of food. If you really want a night out, head to Blauw in Amsterdam or Utrecht. The rijsttafel here is unreal, and you can recreate it from start to finish with this wonderful cookbook.

You can order starters and main courses at the restaurant, but if you have any sense, you’ll go for the whole shebang and order the rijsttafel. The table is filled with more dishes than you can count, and you hardly know where to begin. The tender rendang, or perhaps the sayur lodeh? If you’re occasionally unlucky and order from a less-than-great Indo restaurant, the dishes may all taste a little alike, but at Blauw every dish stands out in its own way. Want to impress your friends with such deliciousness? You absolutely can.

The best of

Blauw’s cookbook contains all their best dishes. From the pangist goreng filled with minced beef, of which you could easily eat ten with a cold beer, to spicy roast chicken and a foolproof recipe for bami. All the recipes are easy to recreate at home and don’t take long. Except, for example, the rendang, but that can happily simmer away on the stove while you get on with something else.

Stocking the pantry

All you need to do is stop by the toko to pick up the basics—for example, trassi, candlenuts, gula djawa and djeruk purut. Everything keeps for a long time, and once you have it all at home, the feast can begin. Of course, you don’t have to start with an entire rijsttafel, okay? Start with some satay, cucumber acar and white rice. And have you ever made your own sambal?

Epic rijsttafel

I made the sambal goreng buncis (spicy green beans) on the day the book landed on my doormat. I thought they were so delicious that I made them three times in two weeks. There’s so much deliciousness in it that I honestly can’t decide what my next dish from this book will be. There’s nothing for it but to invite all my friends over and build a truly epic rijsttafel this weekend.

Title: Blauw
Author: Meta van den Boomen
Publisher: Terra
Price: €25.99