Petty Elliott Could Have Written A 5,000-Recipe Book
(This interview was transcribed and edited)
Who are you, what do you do and where are you really from?
I’m Petty Elliott. I am an Indonesian food writer and chef based in England. I’m from Manado, North Sulawesi. I grew up in Jakarta. Of course in Indonesia people also ask where are you from because there are 17,000 islands in Indonesia! I’ve been in England for four years, although I know England very well because I’ve been married to an English guy for over 30 years.
What do you know about Asian slaw?
Honestly, I’ve never tried Asian slaw. I know what it is - coleslaw with ‘Asian’ flavours, but I’ve never tried because Asia is so huge! I think it’s very misleading to say Asian slaw. It should be specific to regions. You could have Thai slaw? Chinese slaw? Indonesian slaw?
Does Indonesia have its own slaw or cabbage salad?
There are so many cabbage dishes, as I mentioned, Indonesian cuisine is as regional as Chinese cuisine. My favourite Indonesian slaw is asinan jakarta or asinan betawi, which is pickled cabbage that includes other vegetables such as carrot and beansprout. You can pickle it for a day or a week, so it’s a very light and tangy pickle and you serve it with spicy peanut sauce and limes, with rice crackers on top of it. But the texture is chunky, rather than thin.
How is cabbage used in Indonesia’s regional cuisines?
Cabbage is used in so many different dishes, such as gado gado. Actually, my other favourite dish - not so much a salad or slaw - is siomay, which is related to the Chinese siu mai. It’s a fish dumpling that includes cabbage, potato and tofu, and again, it’s served with peanut sauce.
Cabbage mostly grows everywhere in Indonesia; it’s a basic vegetable that isn’t expensive, is accessible to so many, and you’ll find it in traditional markets in every region.
Is pickling a common technique then?
Pickling, from what I’ve found, is only common in Jakarta, or Betawi (which is the old name of the city). You know, Jakarta is centuries old and had several names during colonisation. One reason is that Jakarta is a melting point of communities, as one of the most important ports even 500 or 600 years ago, so there are lots of influences from everywhere: China, Europe, India, Arabia. I know pickling is strong in Chinese and Arabic culture.
Pickling is not big in every Indonesian regional cuisine, but I just love pickled vegetables. Even in the UK [food media], Indonesian cookbooks hardly have any references to pickled vegetables. I have a book coming out at the end of March, and even so, I talk very little about pickling because Indonesia is so big and my assignment was to write only 100 recipes! I could have had 5,000 recipes.
Is there a repertoire of cooked and raw vegetables? I’m just thinking about that Chinese thing of always cooking vegetables, even salads…
Everyday veg is mostly stir fried. Cabbage is part of that - we call it tumis, or oseng in Javanese. You might stir fry cabbage with carrot and beansprout or any other vegetable. It’s ‘basic basic’. But also we have cabbage in curry to replace cassava leaves in some area, or cabbage in soups. In certain soto (noodle soups), there’s always an element of very thinly sliced cabbage with tomato and bean sprout as a topping. When you mix it with the hot broth it’s instantly cooked.
In Manado you would stir fry cabbage with french beans, carrots and noodles, and you would eat it with rice and a little bit of chicken - or just as it is.
What role does cabbage have in Indonesia’s cuisines?
In my eyes, every ingredient has a role, has a gastronomic value. But we still judge ingredients by their price, or as a trend. I love to appreciate each ingredient and I really value their own unique personalities, just like humans! You cannot judge and say “this is a cheap ingredient with no role in society!”.
In Indonesia, tempe used to have a negative perception in the past. We used to look down on tempe, as it was food for the poor - but now in the UK we celebrate it! The mindset in Indonesia is changing now, but in the 80s people would compare tempe against cheese, because cheese was expensive and tempe is cheap. They would equate what you eat with your status. But I love tempe, and I’ve always loved to champion accessible ingredients.
Recipe for Asinan Jakarta
This recipe orginates from Betawi, the old name of Jakarta, capital city of Indonesia. This tantalizing salad is sweet, spicy and tangy with deep umami notes. I use a julienne vegetable peeler to create short matchsticks from the jicama to introduce texture to the salad. Prepare this dish several hours ahead of your guests’ arrival (or even the day before and refrigerate it until needed). This recipe is featured in my new book, The Indonesian Table published by Phaidon. If you would like to use the whole cabbage to replace all the vegetables and fruits, it still works perfectly.
(Serves 8)
For the pickling brine:
200 ml/7 fl oz (generous ¾ cup) rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
100 ml/3½ fl oz (scant 1 cup) Simple Syrup (see below)
1 tablespoon salt
For the salad:
150 g/5½ oz firm tofu, cut into 1-cm/½-inch cubes
2 carrots, grated
1 cucumber, seeded and cut into 1-cm/½-inch cubes
¼ white, pointed or savoy cabbage, finely shredded
200 g/7 oz pineapple, cut into 1-cm/½-inch cubes
100 g/3½ oz jicama or kohlrabi, cut into matchsticks (optional)
50 g/1¾ oz (¼ cup) beansprouts
50 g/1¾ oz (scant ½ cup) roasted peanuts or cashews, coarsely ground, to serve (optional)
For the spicy peanut sauce:
1 teaspoons shrimp paste
2 tablespoons dried shrimp
1 quantity Peanut Sambal (see recipe below)
Method:
For the pickling brine, combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Add 1 litre/34 fl oz (4¼ cups) water and mix well. Set aside.
For the salad, bring a medium saucepan of water to the boil. Reduce the heat to medium. Add the tofu to a steamer basket or bamboo steamer and place over the pan of simmering water and steam for 10 minutes. Remove the tofu and set aside to cool.
Layer all the ingredients in a large container, then pour in the pickling brine to cover the salad. Cover with a lid and refrigerate for 24 hours.
For the spicy peanut sauce, dry-roast the shrimp paste in a frying pan for 2–3 minutes. Transfer to a a pestle and mortar and grind finely into powder. Stir into the peanut sambal and mix well.
To serve, place the salad into a bowl or individual glasses. Add the sauce, then top with the toasted nuts and chives.
Simple Syrup / Sirup Gula
This very handy syrup is a staple in my home. I highly recommend doubling up the recipe and storing it in the fridge.
(Makes 500 ml/17 fl oz (generous 2 cups))
400 g granulated sugar
Method:
Put sugar and 200 ml/7 fl oz (scant 1 cup) water into a pan and bring to simmer until the sugar has dissolved. Set aside to cool. Refrigerate until needed. Leftover syrup can be stored in the fridge for 4 weeks
Peanut Sambal / Sambal Kacang
Peanut sambal and the peanut sauce for gado-gado may be similar, but do not mistake them as one and the same. Peanut sambal is prepared with fried garlic and boiled or fried chiles whereas gado-gado sauce does not.
This delicious sambal has the thick consistency of honey and is tinted red from the chiles.
(Serves 8)
3 tablespoons coconut oil or sunflower oil (divided)
150 g/5½ oz (1¼ cups) peanuts, with or without skin
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 banana shallot, finely chopped
3 large red chiles, finely chopped
2 red bird’s eye chiles, coarsely chopped
2 lime leaves, centre stem removed and thinly sliced
3–4 tablespoons coconut sugar or palm sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Sweet Soy Sauce
Juice of 1 lime
Method:
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil a frying pan over a medium, heat. Add the peanuts and sauté for 5–7 minutes until the skin begins to peel. Transfer the peanuts to a bowl.
Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in the same frying pan. Add the garlic and shallots and sauté for 3–4 minutes. Add the chiles and lime leaves and sauté for 4–5 minutes. Turn off the heat.
In a blender, combine the chile mixture, 2–3 tablespoons coconut sugar and 200 ml/7 fl oz (generous ¾ cup) water. Blend until smooth.
Transfer the mixture into a bowl, season with salt, sweet soy sauce and lime juice. If needed, add 1–2 tablespoons water t0 loosen the sambal.
This sambal can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 1 week.
How will you serve your slaw?
For many Jakarta people or Bogor people (there are two different styles), we would serve it as a snack and not necessarily part of the meal. In Asia we just love random snacking! I like to serve this in summer as a starter, or as a large sharing plate with friends and family.
And a drinks pairing?
For drinks, it would go down well with bir pletok - a Jakarta ‘beer’ which is actually ginger tea, though it’s beer-coloured. Or it would go with an ice lemon tea or a lime and lemongrass tea. The fragrance of the lime and lemongrass would complement the salad!
Who will you invite to eat your slaw?
I’d love to serve it for my late grandmother (mother's mother), who taught me how to cook, but she never saw me cook like I do now. I love beautiful colours, and would love to showcase this Jakartan dish for her - because she’s from Manado and would never have tried asinan Jakarta.