Biji salak is an Indonesian dumpling made using sweet potato & soaked with various sauces.
It’s time again for MFB Challenge & this month Indonesian cuisine was chosen. After a long time I have started participating in different challenges. These challenges force me to move out from my comfort zone and try different cuisine. Which I am pretty sure , I won’t attempt otherwise.I googled many recipes for Indonesian food. At a time I was a bit confused as lots of recipes had similarity to Malaysian cuisine. I also harrassed a tiny bit my dear friend Rafee as she host this mfb challenge.My search led me to an understanding that like India, Indonesian food varies according to different region.There were fritters, Sambal, satay, noodles and rice among the common few.
But as I mentioned earlier, I had to try something totally new, so I opted for this simple recipe of Biji Salak . In simple english it is Sweet Potato Dumpling dipped in two types of sauces. This recipe required palm sugar which I tried to find but was unable to do so. Again I remembered my malaysian friend Nadia , once mentioned about using dark jaggery as a subsititute to palm sugar. According to her it is somewhat similar in taste. As I have never tasted palm sugar in my life, I cannot be a judge of that. On one of her trips back home, Nadia had gifted me pandan extract & essence which I have used in Biji Salak.
So the first syrup is combination of palm sugar, pandan essence and salt. And second syrup
is coconut milk with pandan. What I liked about this recipe is that Biji Salak is very simple to make and flavors are very raw. Not raw in technical terms but with each spoon the flavor of sweet potato , sugar and pandan are visible. If you are confused forget it. Today I am in a mood to write, (which is quite less) so just ignore my blabber and check out the recipe.
I am updating this post as many of you asked about the taste of this dumpling. Whether my my family liked it or not and so on. Well to answer all your questions. The taste was more like eating Sweet potato with sweetened & flavored water. Whenever I explore new cuisine, for the first time I try to remain authentic to the recipe and make it in smallest proportions to avoid wastage. But yes, I would definitely would make changes according to our taste whenever I make it again. Meaning add a bit of flavor of cardamom or saffron maybe. My family consist of me and Hubby. So K just tasted 1 dumpling and his reaction was neither positive or negative. It means I need to make changes drastically in terms of flavor.
Huma Kalim
Serves 2 -3
Biji salak is an Indonesian dumpling made using sweet potato & soaked with various sauces.
5 minPrep Time
10 minCook Time
15 minTotal Time
Ingredients
- 150 gm Sweet Potato (boiled,peeled & mashed)
- 1/8 tsp Salt
- 2 tbsp cornflour
- 300 ml Water
- Sauce I
- 100 gm palm sugar/jaggery/ brown sugar
- 100 gm water
- 1/8 tsp pandan extract
- Sauce II
- 50 gm coconut milk
- 1/4 tsp pandan extract
- 1/8 tsp salt
Instructions
- Step 1
- Mix together sweet potato mash with cornflour & salt to form a even dough.
- Take care no lump is there while mixing.
- Divide the dough into 14 equal part
- Make balls.
- Heat water.Once boiled add in the prepared bowls. Once the balls float on top. Remove & keep aside.
- Step 2
- Mix together all the Sauce 1 ingredients & bring to boils.
- Add in the sweet potato balls again.
- Once the balls float on top, remove from flame
- Keep aside
- Step 3
- Mix together all the Sauce 2 ingredients & bring to boil on a low flame.
- Keep Aside to cool.
- Serving:
- In 2 to 3 separate bowls pour over the syrup along with the sweet potato balls.
- Top with coconut sauce.
- Mix & serve.
