Indonesian cooking, made simple enough to cook tonight
Citarasa Nusantara is a recipe collection for anyone who loves the deep, layered flavours of Indonesian and Southeast Asian food but wants instructions that actually work in a normal kitchen.
Every recipe here was tested in a home kitchen, not a restaurant. That means ingredients you can buy at an Asian grocer or online, pan sizes that fit a normal stove, and timings written for a cook who is doing three things at once. There are now eight recipes, each one cooked and rewritten until it holds up, plus a growing set of pantry guides.
Popular classics
Beef Rendang
The slow-cooked Sumatran classic. Patience, coconut milk, and a spice paste that does the heavy lifting.
Chicken Satay
Charred skewers with a peanut sauce that is savoury first, sweet second.
Nasi Goreng
Indonesia's fried rice, built around day-old rice and a spoon of shrimp paste.
Soto Ayam
A turmeric-gold chicken soup with vermicelli, egg and fried shallots.
Gado-Gado
Blanched vegetables and tofu under a warm peanut dressing.
More from the kitchen
Curry Laksa
Coconut curry noodle soup with a chilli paste base and a hit of lime.
Sambal Oelek
The raw chilli paste at the base of everything: four ingredients, five minutes.
Klepon
Pandan rice balls filled with palm sugar that bursts when you bite them.
All recipes →
See the full collection in one place.
Learn the pantry
Pantry: 15 ingredients to start
The fifteen things that make Indonesian cooking possible, and what to buy first.
Kecap Manis
What sweet soy sauce is, how it differs from light and dark soy, and how to use it.
Bumbu: the spice paste
Why almost every dish starts with a paste, and how to build one properly.
Regional cooking
How Padang, Javanese, Balinese and Peranakan kitchens differ, and where to start.
How these recipes are written
Indonesian home cooking is forgiving. Recipes vary from island to island and from one family to the next, so treat every quantity here as a starting point. What matters is the technique: when the spice paste is ready, how far the coconut milk is reduced, and when to stop cooking.
Where a shortcut is genuinely harmless, it is noted. Where it is not, it is flagged. Substituting something and getting a different dish is fine; being surprised by it is not. If a recipe has a gap or a step that does not work in your kitchen, the contact page is open.