Sulawesi Culinair

Gorontalo, Binte Biluhuta, Milu Siram, Corn Soup

Anybody remember the folk song of binte bilihuta? It’s not only a song title, binte biluhuta is a corn soup from Gorontalo. Gorontalo province is known as the largest corn producer in Indonesia. Beside as an export commodity, sweet corns are main ingredients in the Gorontalo signature food, Binte Biluhuta. In addition to corns, this dish is also used other main ingredients, such as cakalang (known as skipjack tunas), tenggiri (king fish mackerels) and shrimps. Binte biluhuta or milu siram is a soup base dish that has very unique flavour. Sweetness from the corns, sourness from bilimbi and lime, hot from chilies. If you desire to complete the taste with bitterness, you may add chopped papaya leaves. The dish is very suitable during the cold weather, especially for those who are catching the flu. You may wonder why I made this whilst it’s summer now. Don’t you think it will be too hot to enjoy this. Winnipeg’s weather is entering the fall. Some days are hot and the other days are gloomy, rain and cold. I chose making this soup in the gloomy weather since I still have had fresh corns. In the local language, binte or milu means corn, biluhuta mean flush or pour. I guess, I can translate binte biluhuta as corn soup. Gorontalo is located on the northern part of Sulawesi island and was established in December 2000 after splitting from North Sulawesi province. No wonder if this dish uses cakalang and lemon basils which are popular in Manadonese food as well. Again, I said I’m lucky enough, surround by the Filipino community. I can find frozen cakalang at Asian stores. You got to know the science names in order to find fish names in other languages. Through this fishbase list, I found the Tagalog’s name for cakalang. Thou many Indonesian sources stated that cakalang has a bigger size than tongkol (another variety of tuna which is very popular in the west part of Indonesia), cakalangs in Winnipeg are sold in big and small sizes.

Binte Biluhuta – Milu Siram - Gorontalo Corn Soup – recipe by Hayatinufus Tobing, modified and translated by me Ingredients: 425 g sweet corn kernels 300 g cakalang* 200 g peeled small or medium size shrimps 100 g frozen grated coconut 1 L water 4 shallots (8 shallots for smaller size), thinly sliced 10 bilimbi, sliced 25 lemon basils 4 key limes Spices to be ground: 3 long red cayenne pepper 5 bird eyes chilies (add more if you are able to handle spicy food) seasalt Directions: For Broiled Cakalang: 1. Clean and rinse off the cakalang under running water. 2. Drizzle 2 key limes over and rub with salt. Set aside for 15 minutes. 3. Broil each side for 2 minutes at high. Cool down and shred the meat by hand. For Binte Biluhuta: 1. In a pot, add water, corns and ground spices until the corn cooked. 2. Add grated coconut, shallots and bilimbi. Cook for the next 15 minutes. 3. Add shrimp and cakalang shredded; simmer for the next 5 minutes. Drizzle 2 key limes and add lemon basil. Stir and remove from the heat. Ready to serve. Cook’s Note: * Feel free to substitute for cans of skipjack tuna if you can’t find fresh/frozen cakalang (skipjack tuna) Makasar, Coto Makasar Coto Makassar Recipe Ingredients: 300 g beef sandung lumur 750 g beef innards (intestines, tripes, livers, kidneys, lungs) 2000 cc stock 2 tbsp coriander, fried without oil 1 tsp peres jinten (caraway seed/cumin) 5 cloves garlic 5 grains kemiri (fruits of candlenut) 3 tbsp cooking oil 4 stalks serai (lemongrass/citronella), crushed 4 citrus leaves 2 tbsp salt Pepper 3 tbsp peanuts, fried and grinded 2 stalks leeks, slice thickly 2 stalks celeries, slice thickly Sambal Tauco: 4 tbsp tauco (fermented bean paste used as condiment) 2 cloves garlic 5 chilies 2 tbsp cooking oil Complements: 2 calamondins Fried onion Directions: Boil beef until it is well-done, separate between well-done beef and the stock. Add water in stock until it reaches 200cc. Boil beef innards until it is well-done, take them out and drain. Cut beef and innards beef into small pieces. Boil stock while coriander, cumin, pepper, garlic, and kemiri are grinded. Heat cooking oil and cook grinded seasoning in some oil until it is fragrant. Put seasoning into boiled stock. Add serai, citrus leaves, and salt. Put beef and innards beef in. Add grinded fried peanuts, stir until it boils. Add leeks and celeries. Sambal tauco: Grind tauco, garlic, and chilies. Sauté at higher temperature, take them out, and drained. Serve it when it is still hot in a bowl gather with the complements and sambal tauco. Adding ketupat is preferred. Makassar, Durian Tarts This sweet treat has two slightly different name in bahasa Indonesia, Duri Duriang or Duri Durian which literally translated to English as Durian Thorns. I’d rather translate to Durian Tarts than Durian Thorns. I was quite surprised when I found some Indonesian fellows on my Facebook didn’t know what duri duriang is. This tart is popular among the South Sulawesi people while the Java people is more acquainted with Nastar. Nastar is another traditional tart that is mostly served during Eid as well. The different, nastar is filled with pineapple while Duri Duriang is filled with durian. When I was making the filling for duri duriang, it really reminds me of dodol. It is a toffee-like food delicacy popular in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines. I recalled vividly when I was a kid I used to have them during Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha. Also, it’s kinda a gift for someone else when we go away out of town. When one visit a city or town that has dodol speciality, he/she will bring some home and give away for relatives, friends, neighbours, and/or coworkers. The making process flavoured my whole house with durian, including my hair and body. Due to the rush process (very late night, the day before the Eid prayer in the morning) and my big scissor (too big to shape little tiny pastry), I failed to shape the thorns properly. Nevertheless, the taste was good if you like durian. This recipe was adapted from The Best of Indonesian Desserts cookbook by Yasa Boga team. You may also find the same recipe in Periplus Mini Cookbooks: Indonesian Cakes & Desserts, by William Wongso & Hayatinufus A. L. Tobing. Hayatinufus Tobing is also the person behind the Yasa Boga team. No wonder, I found the same exact measurements for this recipe. Ingredients: For the filling: • 300 g durian flesh, pitted • 75 g coconut sugar or palm sugar • 25 g (2 tbsps) caster sugar (I reduced to 1 tbsp)* * It depends how sweet your durian flesh is For the tart pastry: • 200 g butters • 20 g (3 tbsp) caster sugar • 2 egg yolks • 1 tbsp water • 300 g unbleached flour • 1 egg yolk, beaten, for brushing Methods: 1. To make the filling, place durian and both lots of sugar in a small, heavy-based saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly to prevent the base from burring, until mixture becomes thick and sticky, about 25 minutes. Transfer filling into a shallow plate and set aside to cool completely. 2. To make the pastry, beat butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl until creamy. Add the yolks and continue beating until light and fluffy. Stir in the flour with a metal spoon or spatula, adding a few drops of water if the mixture looks crumbly. Assembling: 1. Before you shape the filling onto little balls. The filling is sticky, so you need to flour your hands real well first. Divide the cooled filling up by 1 tsp and place those smaller portions onto a well-floured plate; set aside 2. Divide the pastry dough up by 1 tbsp and roll into a ball. To each, form a well in the centre and place one portion of the filling inside. Carefully pinch the dough to enclose the filling; shape the filled pastry into an oval/olive-like shape. Repeat the same to the remainder till all has been used up. Form a well in the center and place a teaspoon of filing. 3. Arrange filled pastrices 2 cm ( ¾ in) apart on a lightly buttered baking tray. In this case, I layered the baking pan with parchment paper, so I don’t need to grease the pan. 4. Preheat an over to 350 F (180 C) 5. Make shallow cuts into around each piece of pastry so it resembles thorns of durian. Lightly brush pastries with egg yolk and bake in the preheated over for 15 to 17 minutes or until pastries are crisp and very lightly browned. Set aside to cool before storing in a airtight container. Makassar, Es Pallu Butung, Iced Banana / Es Pallu Butung - Indonesian Banana Ice Dessert (Makasar) - recipe by yasaboga and kak Yaty, modified by me Ingredients: 50 g rice flour 400 mL coconut milk 200 mL water 3 pandan leaves 70 g granulated sugar ¼ tsp vanilla ¼ tsp seasalt 8 ripe raja or kepok (marketed as saba bananas in Canada), steamed, peeled and cut into pieces. red colour syrup ice cubes Directions: 1. Combine coconut milk and water. 2. Dilute rice flour with part of the coconut milk mixture. 3. Shred 1 1/2 pandan leaves and grind the rest. 4. In a saucepan, warm up the remaining coconut milk with shredded pandan leaves. Take 1/2 cup of the warm coconut milk and mix with ground pandan leaves. Squeeze the mixture to get pandan juice. Pour pandan juice in the saucepan back. Add sugar, vanilla and salt. Bring the mixture to a boil. 5. Pour the rice flour mixture into coconut milk mixture and stir well. 6. To serve: pour rice flour porridge onto bananas, then drizzle red syrup over and add ice cubes.

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