Semi liquid in nature, it is used to enhance the flavor of many local dishes.

During a week stay in Surabaya and a tour of the East Java coastline, I was invited by friends who served me a salad with kangkung (water spinach) and cingur (ox or water buffalo nose).

Then, they explained how to make the East Javanese specialty. My host asked me to have a taste.

“You will be addicted to petis and the ox noses are not bad,” they said. It was really not bad, but I asked her to give me more recipes with petis, not with ox-noses as the main ingredient. She did and said that we could add it when preparing chicken or deep-fried sprouts (bakwan).

That evening we had mini bakwan tauge (mungbean sprouts) with a petis sauce, served as an appetizer in a set menu at a sit down dinner. Petis is going upmarket.

Petis is generally a side product, the raw material of which is partly or entirely of fish origin. Meanwhile shrimp petis or petis udang is an extract of shrimp, obtained through boiling and curdling with additional spices for taste and color beside the required consistency.

There are two kinds of petis, for example, the extract and meat of shrimp. Nevertheless, shrimp waste may also be utilized in food produced in powder form.

Petis made from fish or shrimp is certainly not unfamiliar to the Indonesian people. But fish petis is in fact not to the taste of the most producers or consumers as a result of its high watery content, so that it will be easy to putrefy during storage.

The woman busy making petis showed us the procedure, explaining that based on the method of preparation, shrimp petis is grouped in four qualities: super, extra, #1, #2.  Meanwhile the super quality is not profitable for small scale producers due to its high price, so the marketing will be limited among the affluent people.

The raw material of the super quality is of the werus shrimp species, while #1 and #2 qualities comes from the waste of the extra quality. Petis of low quality is made from shrimp heads and small shrimps.

In principle, the process of cooking petis consists of several stages, for example, preparing the raw material, boiling and curdling. Meanwhile the additional material or ingredients are tapioca flour, white sugar, kitchen salt, charcoal powder and water.

To many people in the coastline area, petis as a home industry is profitable because it is easy and simple to make. Raw material such as crabs are easy to obtain and cheap, and even the waste of shrimp (head, crest, the scale or crust) is used in processed form.

Processed shrimp petis is made from shrimp heads is simple. Initially the material is washed and drained with a sieve. It is then boiled for a period of 1 ½ hours to obtain the shrimp extract. It is obtained by sifting the boiling mass with a sieve, where the waste is separated from the extract.

Daging petis merah Courtesy of Suryatini N. Ganie

Afterward the extract is reboiled to make it lumpy. During the second stage of boiling, white sugar, kitchen salt, tapioca flour and other spices are added. This is the curdling stage, which is performed over 4 to 6 hours.

Finally the mash is cooled off and stored in covered bottles. The bottles are sterilized in advance through boiling in water for an hour. The bottled petis is stored for several months at room temperature.

Normally, black colored petis has a trasi flavor and a soft texture. The change in color, texture and flavor may be used as an indicator to judge petis quality. Fungus growth is an indication of product putrefaction.

Bakwan Tauge Saus Petis Udang
Mung bean fritters and petis sauce. Clean 150 grams of mungbean sprouts and discard the black part. Mix with 150 millimeters of medium thick coconut milk and 100 grams of flour. Season with 2 mashed cloves of garlic, 1/2 teaspoons of salt or to taste and 1/2 teaspoons of pepper. Mix well. Heat 300 millimeters of frying oil and alternatively fry 1 tabelspoons until finished. To make the sauce: mash six chili paddies (tiny chilies) or to taste, 1 tablespoons of fried garlic and 1 teaspoons of petis udang super quality. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons vinegar, 2 tablespoons of palm sugar, 3 tablespoons of sweet soy sauce and 100 millimeters of water. Bring to boil on low flame until sugar is dissolved. Take from flame, sieve, return to the pan and add 1 teaspoons of maizena. Bring to boil on low flame until thick. Makes 12 portions.

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