For All Tastes

In the North Sulawesi homeland of Chef Tengker’s forebears, a meal is not a meal without a generous serve of the tiny but potent chilies that leave diners flushed and sweating. Tengker, who grew up in Jakarta and has worked in Bali, Los Angeles and Spain, among other places, likes his sambal, too, but prefers to keep the heat to a manageable level.

“It’s too overpowering for me,” he says. “I think you have to balance things for people to enjoy it.”

Tengker enjoys the process of creating new menus twice a year for the hotel’s five restaurants.

“Sometimes it comes so easily, sometimes I have to think ... It’s all your experience and everything you have [knowledge] that helps you decide ... It’s fun, because you are creating something.”

He is an advocate of fusion but warns that chefs have to take it slowly to avoid making a mishmash mess.

“Everything needs to be tried, and by that you know that something goes well with something else, or not. That’s the combination you need to know. Like with Balinese food when you mix it with Western. Either it will still taste Balinese, or it will taste awful.”

Here Chef Tengker provides a special menu for WEEKENDER for year-end celebrations that combines Asian and Western elements.

+Bruce Emond

Kambing Bumbu Rujak
(Grilled rack of lamb with turmeric rice and tamarind chili sauce)
Serves 1

200 g rack of lamb, cleaned
60 ml tamarind chili sauce (recipe below)
50 g turmeric rice (recipe below)
60 g sautéed vegetables (according to individual preference)
Garlic chives for garnish

Method:
- Marinate the lamb in tamarind chili sauce and season with salt and pepper. Grill on both sides then place in a pan, and cook for 10–15 minutes in a medium oven for medium doneness (or to own preference).

- Sauté the vegetables and season.

- Arrange the vegetables and turmeric rice on a plate.

- Cut the lamb off the bone, slice the meat and arrange over the vegetables.
Pour over the sauce and garnish.



Tamarind Chili Sauce (Basic)

30 cc oil for frying
25 g candlenut, roasted, ground
60 g shallots, roughly chopped
5 g shrimp paste, roasted, ground
15 g garlic, roughly chopped
2 salam leaves
75 g red chili, seedless, roughly chopped
10 cc tamarind juice
10 g galangal, roughly chopped
40 g palm sugar
15 g lemongrass, finely chopped
500 cc thick coconut milk
Stock to thin sauce
Salt and pepper to season

- In a saucepan, sauté shallots, garlic, red chili, galangal and lemongrass until aromatic. Add candlenut and shrimp paste.

- Leave to cool and then transfer to food processor. Puree the mixture until smooth.

- Transfer back to saucepan and add the remaining ingredients. Cook for 10 minutes. Season to taste.


Turmeric Rice

300 g jasmine rice
10 g garlic, crushed
15 g turmeric powder
2 lemongrass stalks, bruised
1 salam leaf
1 pandan leaf
300 ml coconut milk (medium consistency)
Salt to taste

- Rinse the rice until the water runs clear and then drain.

- Put the rice in a pot, add the remaining ingredients and mix well.

- Cook on the stove, covered, over medium heat until cooked.

Sup Ubi Kuning
(Sweet potato soup with chicken and chive potstickers)
Serves 4

300 g sweet potato, peeled and cut in cubes
100 g yellow pumpkin, peeled and cut in cubes
1 tbsp oil for frying
1 red onion, minced
2 cloves garlic
2 cm grated ginger
4 cups chicken stock
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp lime juice
5 g black pepper
Salt to taste
12 chicken and chive potstickers (recipe below)
20 g sliced spring onions
4 tbsp basil oil

- Heat oil in a pot. Cook onion, garlic and ginger for 3 minutes or until aromatic. Add the sweet potato and pumpkin.

- Add stock, season with fish sauce and lime juice. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes or until sweet potato and pumpkin are soft.

- Season with salt and black pepper to taste. Remove from the heat and allow to cool before blending to a smooth consistency.

- To serve, pour soup into a bowl, and add 3 chicken potstickers to each bowl. Garnish with sliced spring onions and basil oil.


Chicken and Chive Potstickers
Makes 12

200 g chicken thighs, minced
50 g white cabbage, brunoise
10 g chives, sliced
15 g garlic, minced
1 tspn ginger juice
10 g cornstarch
10 ml sesame oil
Salt and pepper
Potsticker skins/gyoza wrappers/wonton skins

- Place cabbage and salt in a mixing bowl, mix well and let sit for approximately 30 minutes or until cabbage has softened.

- Squeeze the cabbage to remove all moisture. In another mixing bowl, add all ingredients and mix well until homogenized. Season to taste.

- Lay out 1 piece of potsticker skin, brush with water and put 10 g / 1 tbsp of the filling in the middle. Fold up the sides, stick down the top and flatten out the bottom.

- Do the same with the rest of the filling. Keep refrigerated until use.

- Steam if needed, and fry in a nonstick frying pan until the bottom is browned.

Festive Mocktail
Makes 1

30 ml fresh mango juice, chilled
1 kiwi
10–12 strawberries
0.5 oz grenadine

- Blend kiwi to make juice.

- Blend strawberries with grenadine to make juice.

- Pour mango juice into a champagne flute glass.

- Add the kiwi juice and then pour the strawberry juice on top.

- Garnish with a fresh strawberry

Pandan Mousse with Coconut and Vanilla Bean Sauce
(serves 5)
Glutinous rice:
150 g glutinous rice
100 ml coconut milk
100 ml water
1 tspn salt

Pandan custard:
100 ml coconut milk
100 ml fresh milk
75 g granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tspn pandan leaf extract

- For the glutinous rice, bring the coconut milk and water to boil. Add glutinous rice and stir well until cooked and thickened, then set aside.

- For the custard, warm the coconut milk and milk in a pan. In another bowl, whisk sugar and egg yolk until mixed, then add pandan extract. Fold coconut milk into the egg and sugar mixture.

- Prepare mold using timbale ring (6 cm diameter) or ovenproof cups. Put glutinous rice on the bottom of each mold, and then pour in the pandan custard.

- Place on a baking tray in water. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 160 C for 30 minutes.

- Remove from oven when cooked and refrigerate to cool.

Coconut and Vanilla Sauce
100 ml fresh milk
100 ml coconut milk
4 egg yolks
100 g sugar
1 vanilla bean
1 tbsp vanilla essence

- Bring fresh milk and coconut milk to the boil.

- Add sugar, egg yolks, vanilla essence and the vanilla bean (scraped from the pod).

- Stir well until sauce thickens. Remove from heat and refrigerate.

- Turn mousse onto plates, and pour over the sauce. Garnish with vanilla bean pod and pandan leaf.

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