An Indonesian Feast

Ramadan is a time of fasting yet after sundown it's a time of feasting. Muslims throughout Indonesia celebrate it with a variety of traditional foods. The holiday nights end with a mix of spicy and sweet, all filling after a day of prayers and austerity.

Tejal Rao wrote about this in Wednesday's New York Times Food section, traveling to Boston to interview chef Retno Pratiwi owner of the pop up restaurant Kaki Lima. She recreated the holiday fare her mother used to make for Eid al-Fitr , also known as Idul Fitri in Indonesia. She and her husband, Peter Geller who used to write for the Times, are passionate about the food of her native Jakarta. They obsess over the authenticity and minute details of their food at the restaurant , named for the food stalls. They traveled back to archipelago of islands located between southeastern Asia and Australia, visiting home chefs, and garnering more recipes from them. They went to the various islands to gather up a variety of different dishes. Recreating them here was difficult, namely in trying to get the exact ingredients. Fresh lemongrass and galangal,a type of ginger are hard to come by as are salam leaves,a variation of bay leaves.Sometimes the couple has to travel down to New York City to get another vital ingredient candle nut , a macadamia type nut. Sometimes they just order from Amazon.

Home chefs can create Chef's Pratiwi's dishes. The article includes opor ayam or Indonesian chicken curry. Some of the ingredients like the galanga root and kafir lime leaves can be hard to find.Again go to Amazon or your local Asian market and see if they have the ingredients there.The rest is attainable such as the chicken and coconut milk along with the coriander and ginger.  The chicken is cooked in the sauce for forty minutes before serving.It' is a labor intensive dish but worth it. The other recipe offered is shrimp and potatoes in sambal. This is a spicy sweet dish that gets its' heat from chile peppers along with Thai bird's eye chilis.. The recipe is a mix of different flavors and textures from the brininess of the seafood to the mildness of the tomatoes and lemon grass. The potatoes are roasted before hand for a nice crunchy texture,. The sambal or sauce is pureed and then sweetened with coconut sugar.The shrimp and potatoes are added to the sauce and cooked for ten minutes.It's served with rice.Again it's worth a trip to the local Asian grocery to stock up on the rarer ingredients such as lemongrass and galangal.

Ramadan is a holiday of fasting and prayer. Yet it is also is nights full of feasting. The Indonesians know how to celebrate with delicious foods, full of flavor and spice.

Braai Barbecue South African Style

Barbecue is universal.  All it takes is good weather a grill,  and excellent cuts of meats. South Africans practically celebrate it with braai or grill in the Afrikaans language. It is an involved affair that features time honored recipes and good food.

Julia Moskin wrote about it as well as getting to try the recipes in yesterday's New York Times Food section. The issue featured everything fire grilled and barbecued . Braai fits right into this as it's beyond a national pastime , it's part of South African heritage, uniting everyone in this once segregated country. it is even celebrated as a recognized holiday on September 24th,or Heritage Day. Braai is an ancient technique, first being named shisa nyama, Zulu for burnt meat, and is done in every neighborhood, from shanty towns to villas.barbecuing has grown in popularity thanks to more supermarkets selling more affordable cuts and shows featuring it such as "Ultimate Braai masters" and  Siba's Table.It can be the everyday chicken or toasties, grilled cheese sandwiches to more elaborate steaks and sausages.Lamb ,beef and pork are among the most popular to be grilled.T-bone steaks Some even sell ostrich meat along with bok or antelope and wildebeest. Supermarkets even sell braai packs, although there are still many butcher shops here that sell customized cuts. where customers  can also buy  already cooked barbecue, red hot from the grill. There are even restaurants that feature braii and the side dishes that accompany it.

What makes a braai so delicious?It's the influences of different cultures on the cooking. Spices play a big role in the flavoring thanks to the influence of the area's Cape Malay population. These were the people transported to Africa's tip from Indonesia in the 17th and 18th Centuries.Many worked as cooks and their recipes and spices are still used today. They brought sweet chutney, fiery ketchups and grilled skewers along with different curries. Sosataties, a descendant of satays are also big on the braai menu. These are lamb chunks marinated in a tangy sweet jam and perfumed with fresh citrus or curry leaves. Peri-peri,a type of chili pepper that came with the Portuguese settlers from nearby Mozambique is a braai must have.. The South Africans also serve the highly spiced with coriander and cumin sausages called boerewors and use a salt rub called braii sout  seasoned with those same spices along with clove cinnamon and cumin.Brais aren't just about meats. Home barbecuers also throw corn on the grill, but it's not the mild ears that we serve. Theirs are full of heat and kick thanks to being rubbed with butter zested up with fresh , hot chiles, garlic and hot sauce. There is also umxhaxha, a mix of corn and squash simmered with salt sugar and cinnamon stew like dishes, umngqusho and chakalaka, made with  various veggies and more spices.

Braai just isn't a barbecue. It's South Africa itself, uniting a still fractured country with grilled meats and sides. Delicious , yes, but much more than that.