It’s one of the key ingredients in sweet-and-salty Indonesian fried rice.
—a salad of sorts, made up of fresh and blanched vegetables, including long beans, cabbage, bean sprouts, and more, mixed with elements such as fried tofu and hard-boiled eggs—has kecap manis mixed into it, for a salty-sweet flavor profile. My mom’s ever-popular chicken) owes its deliciousness to a mixture of kecap manis, crushed peanuts, chopped garlic and shallots, and the juice and leaves of makrut limes, which she uses as both a marinade and a glaze.
But you don’t have to restrict your use of kecap manis to Asian dishes. I like to marinate steak with a mix of soy sauce, kecap manis, and black pepper, the sweetness of the kecap manis eliminating the need for brown sugar or honey to intensify the meaty flavor of the beef. As with sate, the sugar content also promotes browning, giving the steak a lovely burnished crust.
For the same reason, I'll use it to marinate beef and pork for stewing, patting the meat dry before browning it; if you like your stews and braises tinged with sweetness, you can also add a glug of kecap manis to the stew itself. Sometimes I’ll simmer together kecap manis, a touch of sherry, and butter for a sauce to serve alongside steaks or roasts.
Whole sides of salmon or arctic char—preferably skin-on—can be salt-and-peppered, grilled, and glazed with a mixture of sweet , tart , and spicy at the tail end of cooking. Or, skip the glaze and simply squeeze lime halves over the cooked fish, then serve with a mixture of kecap manis, garlic, cilantro, and more lime juice. The sweetness of kecap manis and the brightness of citrus play nicely together, producing a balanced flavor profile that’s not too cloying.
If you want to start building an appreciation for kecap manis, the simplicity of nasi goreng makes a great introduction. With that in mind, I've attached a basic recipe for the dish here. The use of terasi adds a big hit of umami that sets nasi goreng apart from Chinese-style fried rice, but if terasi proves hard to find, the uniquely sweet-savory profile of kecap manis will still make this version of fried rice exceptional.
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