Pempek Dos (Economical Indonesian Fish Cake)

Course: Entree

Cuisine: Indonesian

Prep Time: 1

Cook Time: 30

Total Time: 1 30

Servings: servings

Calories: 708kcal

Author: Marvellina

Learn how to make an Indonesian-style fish cake without the fish. It's an economical version of the traditional pempek ikan Palembang.

Put shallots, garlic, and half of the water in a blender and blend until smooth. Transfer to a saucepan. Add rice flour, the rest of the water, salt, sugar, pepper, and chicken powder. Whisk to combine
Put the saucepan on the stove and cook over medium-low heat and keep stirring until it forms a sticky dough. Let it cool down for about 10 minutes.
After that, crack in the egg, add tapioca starch, and all-purpose flour.
Use your clean hand to knead into a dough. The dough should be slightly sticky to the touch. DO NOT keep adding flour to make the dough not sticky because you will end up with a very touch chewy pempek later after you boil them
The kneading can also be done in a stand mixer using a paddle attachment

I divide the dough into half. I made 8 pempek lenjer (stick shape) and pempek kapal selam (shaped like dumplings). Pempek kapal selam is usually filled with egg on the inside
Keep both of the doughs wrapped tightly to prevent them from drying out
To make pempek lenjer, take one dough and roll it into a long log, about 1 inch in diameter, and then cut into 8 equal pieces using a very sharp knife. The cutting may "flatten" both ends of the pempek lenjer, but you can simply reshape them

Beat the eggs with a fork in a glass that has a spout for easy pouring
Divide the other half of the dough into 8 equal pieces. Roll each one into a round ball. Keep them covered tightly with a plastic wrap
Use your thumb to form a deep indentation in the center of the dough and use your fingers to turn the dough to form sort of like a "bowl" shape. Carefully pour the eggs into the bowl, just about 2/3 full. If you fill up too much, it will leak.
Carefully pinch the top to seal tightly without touching the eggs. The eggs make the dough slippery and it won' seal properly. Repeat with the rest of the dough and filling

Prepare a large bowl of room-temperature water
Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Add the dough and lower heat to medium and cook for 8-10 minutes for pempek lenjer or until they float to the top. To cook pempek kapal selam, gently lower the dough into the gently simmering water and let them cook for 12-15 minutes. Don't cook on high heat because the egg filling won't be as smooth
Once the float to the top, cook for another 2-3 minutes and then remove from the water and place them inside the bowl of water for about 5 seconds. This prevents them from sticking to each other. Then transfer to a rack to let the cooked pempek "dry" before we fry them (you don't want to fry them when they are wet, it's going to be a disaster!!)

Put the palm sugar and water in a saucepan. Cook until the sugar melts. Strain the mixture to make sure there's no impurities. Return the sugar mixture back to the saucepan. Add garlic, chili, vinegar, and salt. Bring to a boil and then cook for about 1 minutes. Remove from the heat. Once it cools down completely, transfer to a jar with a lid and it can be kept in the fridge for one week

In Indonesia, boiled pempek will be fried in oil until crispy. If you don't want to deep-fry, you can skip this step
Please make sure the pempek are dry before you fry so the oil won't splatter all over your kitchen (and on you!!)
Preheat about 2 inches deep of oil in a pan over medium heat. When you put a skewer in, you'll see lots of bubbles around it. The oil is ready
Fry in batches until they are light golden brown over medium heat. Remove from the oil using a skimmer if you have one, drain off excess oil and put on absorbent paper towel.

Cut the pempek into smaller pieces. Add cubes of fresh cucumber. If you want to make it a complete meal, add cooked yellow noodles, or mung bean thread noodles (soun) and generously pour the saus cuko over everything and enjoy!