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Laksa in Dutch East Indies Cookbook • Oost-Indisch Kookboek Published 1866


Meta AI image of curry laksa based on description in Oost-Indisch Kookboek published 1866.


Oost-Indisch Kookboek or East Indies Cookbook was published in 1866. It is one of the earliest cookbooks of the Malay archipelago, so it is a very important document on Malayan / Indonesian food history.

We are so blessed to live in an era where such precious resources are available to all online at our fingertips free of charge.

There are several mentions of laksa in the 456 recipes in Oost-Indisch Kookboek which was published in the city of Semarang in Central Java, Indonesia in 1866 (that's 158 years ago today).

On a sidenote: Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's family who were Peranakan Chinese, came to Singapore from Semarang in the early 1900s.

Oost-Indisch Kookboek has a recipe on how to make fresh "Laksa Palembang" rice noodles (from scratch with rice grains). 

Take 1 kati of rice, soak it in water for a day and a night, pound it into flour and mix it with water into a porridge. 

Put this batter in a sieve bag and hang it up so that the water drips out.

Then boil water, when it boils well, then take a whiz (?), place a plantain (banana) leaf in it, put it in the sieve with the batter, let it boil briefly in boiling water with the sieve, then take it out again, mash it finely, and then mix with some warm water until it becomes a little thin.

Then put it in a mould, squeeze it into boiling water and, when it is done (cooked), put it in cold water.

This laksa (fresh rice noodle) is eaten with curry.

Note that here, laksa refers only to the rice noodles, not the dish itself which would include curry, broth, spice paste, toppings, garnish, etc. 

Oost-Indisch Kookboek has a second laksa noodle recipe called "Laksa for curry".

This is a repetition of the previous one named "Laksa Palembang".


Yet another recipe on making fresh rice noodles (laksa) called "Fresh laksa to be eaten with curry". Another repetition (third identical recipe though different words).


In this cargo manifest published in the Singapore Chronicle and Commercial Register in 1833, 24 baskets of laksa (vermicelli) were sent from Batavia (today's Jakarta), Dutch East Indies to Singapore. So, the Dutch East Indies was an exporter of laksa noodles implying that it had a thriving industry at that time.

Making laksa rice noodles go back, at least, to the Majapahit empire days of the Malay archipelago. In Le Carrefour Javanais: Essai d'histoire Globale II (The Javanese Crossroads) authour Denys Lombard (published 2005), stated that inscriptions excavated in Biluluk (Bluluk) dated 1391 mentioned Hanglaksa which means "laksa maker". 

Judging from the rudimentary equipment used, the recipe and technique of making laksa rice noodles in Oost-Indisch Kookboek recipes probably didn't changed much from Majapahit days.


There are many ways of eating fresh rice noodles, and spicy curry is one of them. There is a recipe for "Kerrie Laksa" (curry laksa) in 
Oost-Indisch Kookboek.

1½ tablespoons full of red onions, 

1 large tablespoon full of candlenut,

1 sioong bawang (garlic clove), 

2 teaspoons of ketembar (coriander), 

1 teaspoon of djinton (cumin), 

1 teaspoon of galangal (blue ginger), 

1 very small piece of ginger, 

2 teaspoon salt

Djerook purot peel (lime) juice, 

2 pieces of seré (lemongrass), 

1 teaspoon of trassie (belacan), 

5 lomboks (chili pepper), 

The trassie (belacan) must first be roasted, 1 half finger length of turmeric, rub all these finely; fry it, being fine, with fresh coconut oil in a pan with 2 teaspoons of salt, also add the kaldoe (stock) of 1 whole capon (cockerel) when the herbs are well roasted. 

Then take the capon, first well boiled, cut into pieces, and the santen (coconut milk).

Cook the soup on the stove for a while and then eat it with rice laksa, which must be cooked separately and put on a dish, with the following samballan (spicy relish), daon kemangie (lemon basil) and hard-boiled chicken eggs cut into quarters.

A second "Kerrie Laksa" curry laksa recipe in Oost-Indisch Kookboek.

Take 1 fat chicken, chop the breast finely, add one teaspoon of ketoembar (coriander), half a teaspoon of djinten (cumin) - both of which must first be dry roasted and finely chopped. 

1 teaspoon of fine pepper, 1 teaspoon of salt, and egg with the white; mix all this well and make small balls of it, fry them in coconut oil until brown. 

Furthermore, roast half a teaspoon of whole pepper, 

2 half teaspoon of ketoembar (coriander), 

2 half teaspoon of djinten poetie / jintan putih (cumin), 

2 tablespoons of finely chopped red onions, 

5 sioong (cloves) of white onions, 

6 pieces of kemirie (candlenut), 

1 small piece of turmeric, 

1 piece of galangal (blue ginger).

All these spices, first finely mashed, fry this with 1 tablespoon of butter. 

Now burn a piece of trassie / belancan (in a teaspoon) soak it with a little water, and add the water with the herbs with coconut milk of 1 coconut. 

When it is well mixed, add the stock from the chicken, from which the breast has been removed and the meat torn very thinly, with 2 teaspoons of salt, 

1 piece of mace, 

1 piece of seré / serai (lemongrass), 

2 pieces of daon djerook puroot (kaffir lime leaves).

Add soaked laksa (or fresh laksa), cook it all until well done, when it is done, squeeze in lemon juice to taste. 

Then take some eggs, fry them into thin crepe, which are cut into thin strips, and put some hard-boiled egg which are cut into quarters, on top of the kerrie (curry) with some peeled shrimps, cerst (?) fried in oil, with a little chopped parsley. and young daon bawang (scallion), also finely chopped.

For comparison, this is "Singapore Laksa" in In a Malayan Kitchen by Susie Hing published in Singapore in 1952. This fish and prawn based recipe uses no chicken unlike the Indonesian version. Uses thick bee hoon (rice vermicelli) and mung bean glass noodle (tanghoon).

The essential aromatic, for many people the definitive laksa ingredient daun kasum (laksa leaf) is mentioned in Susie Hing's recipe.

Observations

  • Curry laksa already existed in Indonesia probably before Raffles arrived in Singapore in 1819
  • "Laksa" refers to both the rice noodles and also to the dish with curry / sauce, garnishes and toppings




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Written by Tony Boey on 20 July 2024

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