Sunday, February 22, 2009

Kelah Celok – The Baweanese “National” dish

Celok Tongkol dish

''Kelah Celok'' is an authentic Baweanese dish. ''Kelah'' is the Baweanese word for dish and ''Celok'' means sour. There are two types of Kelah Celok ; fish and vegetable.

Celok Bechok dish

The fish “Kelah Celok’’ is the dish in which big fish such as Tuna, Red Snapper, or Humphead Wrasse (Bechok) is sliced thinly and cook in a boiling pot filled with water, tamarind juice, salt, blended fresh red chili, green chili, garlic, turmeric, onion, shrimp paste (belacan) and few corriander seeds (ketumbar).


Humphead Wrasse (Bechok)

Smaller fish such as Gold banded Scad (Selar Kuning), Herring (Tamban), or Indian Mackerel (Kembong) is the substitute for the big fish. However, in cooking the smaller fish, usually fresh sliced pineapple is added into the boiling pot. During preparation of the cooked dish for dining, few stalk of small fresh chilies (chili padi) are added into the bowl. Lime juice is squeeze on to the dish to make it tastier. The dish is to be served steamy hot with white rice .

Herring (Tamban)

The other type of ‘’Kelah Celok” is prepared using vegetable such as long beans or ladies fingers. When cooking long beans in ‘’Kelah Celok’’, the beans are cut into smaller pieces and added into a boiling pot filled with water, tamarind juice, salt, sugar, blended fresh red chili, onion, shrimp paste and few corriander seeds. Eaten with white rice, this dish goes well with fried fish such as sliced Tuna or Kembong. Sambal belacan with cucumber make the meal appealing.

Celok Bendi dish

Sambal belacan is grilled belacan pounded with fresh red chili and sugar. Usually it is prepared to be eaten with cucumber. Sometimes it is prepared with mashed hardboiled eggs and shreaded green sour mango to add more flavors to the meal. The Baweanese from my Pondok called this side dish as ''Pencek-pencek''.

Celok Otok dish

It has been quite awhile since I last ate rice with ''Kelah Celok Otok'' ('Otok' is the Baweanese word for long beans) with fried tuna fish and ''Pencek-pencek''. I hope my mum will prepare them during my next visit to her home! Endek, Endek, Endek....nyaman Ongku!

Friday, February 13, 2009

''Cukok Tongkol'' - the Baweanese delicacy

''Cukok Tongkol'' - Tuna fish

Generally, Singaporean Baweanese enjoy eating ''Cukok Tongkol''. ''Cukok'' is a Baweanese word for fish and ''Tongkol'' refers to ''Tuna''. The Tuna fish is associated with the Baweanese people due to their passion eating the fish, turning it into a delicacy in their daily meals. This is a well-known fact among the people living in the Malay community. Some Baweanese take pride of this fact for they can be easily identified as a ''Boyan'' living among the other Indonesian ethnic groups in this community.

Like any other Singaporean Baweanese, I love to eat ''Cukok Tongkol'' which can be cooked into variety of dishes. My mother often cook dishes such as ''Celok Tongkol'', ''Semur Tongkol'', ''Penteng Tongkol'', ''Samble Tomes Tongkol'', ''Tomes Tongkol''. They are my favorite dishes eaten with white rice. Yummy!

''Samble Tomes Tongkol'' (Baweanese version of the Malay Asam Pedas dish)

''Celok Tongkol'' - the pride of Baweanese delicacy

''Penteng Tongkol'' (Baweanese version of the Malay Pindang dish)

During my childhood days in the 1960s and 1970s while living in Pondok Kelompang Gubuk, I remember helping my grandmother to grill the Tuna fish. To go with it, she would prepare black sauce mixed with fresh pounded chilli, thinly sliced onion and lime juice. In other occasion, she would prepare ''Buja Cappi'' – pounded fresh chilli with salt mixed with lime juice. ''Buja'' is the Baweanese word for salt while ''Cappi'' is the Baweanse word for chilli.

Sliced Tuna

Green vegetables coconut soup

Tuna fish can also be sliced thinly and marinated with salted tumeric powder paste before deep fried. Fried Tuna can be eaten with white rice and green vegetables coconut soup. My grandmother used to prepare ''Pencek-Pencek'' - boiled eggs mashed with chilli shrimp paste (sambal belacan) and green sour mango shredded very thinly, to make the meal appealing. In other occasion, she would steam ''Paes Tongkol'' - thinly sliced boiled Tuna fish with dried chilli paste mixed with tamarind juice, sugar and salt wrapped in banana leaves. Hmmm! I miss very much eating my grandmother's cooking!