Sambal goreng telor

Indonesian cuisine is not complicated. At least, not if you know which ingredients you need, where to buy them and how to use them. And if you also get a step-by-step explanation in words and images, your Indonesian rijsttafel cannot go wrong. You can find all this in the recently published Basisboek Indonesisch by Francis Kuijk, from which this recipe for sambal goreng eggs comes.

Francis: ‘Scoring the eggs allows the tasty cooking liquid to penetrate the eggs. My mother sometimes deep-fried the hard-boiled eggs (and I have never seen anyone else do this!). It takes a while before you see a light golden-brown color on the egg, but it creates a crispy shell.’

1. Make a boemboe from the chilies, onion, garlic, trassi, candlenuts and salt.

2. Pour a thin layer of sunflower oil into a wok and fry the boemboe. Fry the galangal, bay leaves, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves along with it until the mixture changes color. Add the gula dwaja, water, tamarind paste and santen, and stir-fry the spice mixture over medium heat. Bring the spice mixture to a boil and let it cook until it thickens slightly.

3. Meanwhile, make 6 to 8 incisions in the whites of the eggs, taking care not to cut the eggs completely in half.

4. Place the eggs in the sauce and let them simmer gently for about 10 to 15 minutes, turning them occasionally, so that the eggs can absorb the liquid and flavor.

Tip: This is how to boil hard-boiled eggs without any fuss: place the eggs on the bottom of a saucepan and fill the pan with water until the eggs are covered by approximately 4 to 5 cm of water. Bring the water to a boil. As soon as the water bubbles, remove the pan from the heat and cover it with a lid. For hard-boiled eggs, leave them in the covered pan for 12 minutes. Immediately shock the eggs with cold water.

And yes, peeling the eggs can also be done without any fuss! You can easily peel fresh eggs by shaking the pan with the eggs after cooking and gently letting the eggs bounce around. The bouncing and knocking against one another will crack the shells, making the eggs easier to peel.

Title: Basisboek Indonesisch
Author: Francis Kuijk
Publisher: Good Cook
Price: €30,95