Pempek Adaan & Saus Cuko - Chicken and Shrimp Balls & Spicy Tamarind Sauce

5.0 from 15 reviews

Author: Anita Jacobson

Categories: Snack

Cuisines: Indonesian

Ingredients: Chicken Seafood

Prep Time: 45 mins

Cook Time: 45 mins

Total Time: 1 hour 30 mins

Serves: 8

Ingredients

• Pempek adaan (chicken and shrimp meatballs)
• 500 gram ground chicken
• 250 gram ground shrimp
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 100 gram shallots (Indonesian: bawang merah), grind into a fine paste
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 100 ml coconut milk, from canned coconut milk
• 500 gram tapioca flour/starch
• Saus cuko (spicy tamarind sauce)
• 8-10 cloves garlic, minced
• 10-15 bird-eye chilies (Indonesian: cabe rawit), thinly sliced
• 200 gram coconut palm sugar (Indonesian: gula Jawa)
• 50 gram tamarind (Indonesian: asam Jawa)
• 1 liter (4 cup) water
• Accompaniments (optional)
• 8 servings of boiled egg noodles/vermicelli/rice noodles/ramen
• 1 cucumber, thinly sliced

Instructions

1. Saus cuko (spicy tamarind sauce): Boil all sauce ingredients in a pot. Turn off the heat once all the sugar melts. Let the sauce steep while we prepare the meatballs. Strain the sauce right before serving.
2. Prepare pempek mixture: In a mixing bowl, combine ground chicken, ground shrimp, ground shallot, salt, sugar, eggs, and coconut milk into a uniform mixture.
3. Add tapioca flour and use a spatula to gently fold into the ground chicken and shrimp mixture until uniform.
   TIPS: Sometimes, there is no need to add the whole 500 gram of tapioca flour to create the meatball mixture. I start with about 2⁄3 of the tapioca flour, then only add as much as needed until the mixture reaches a meatball-like mixture consistency.
4. Chill this mixture in the fridge while we heat a pot of oil for deep-frying. If you don’t wish to fry the meatballs on the same day, you can wrap the bowl with a plastic wrap and just rest it in the fridge overnight.
5. Heat oil: Heat about 3 inches of oil in a pot over medium heat until the oil is hot (170 Celsius/340 Fahrenheit).
   TIPS: If you don’t have a thermometer, try dropping a tiny meatball mixture into the oil. The oil is ready when the mixture floats to the surface instead of sinks to the bottom of the pot.
6. Fry meatballs: Remove meatball mixture from the fridge, drop tablespoonfuls of meatball mixture gently into the hot oil and fry until golden brown.
   TIPS: If you use a medium-size cookie scoop, you can use the scoop release trigger to drop the meatball mixture easily into the hot oil.
7. Drain meatballs: Remove fried meatballs from the hot oil with a slotted spoon or a strainer ladle. Place them on a stainless steel strainer over a mixing bowl to drain off excess oil so they will remain crispy.
8. Serve pempek: Cut fried meatballs into halves or quarters and place in individual serving bowls. Serve with strained kuah cuko (spicy tamarind sauce), and optionally with boiled noodles and cucumber slices.