Pindang


Pindang is an Indonesian cooking method of boiling ingredients in salt and certain spices, usually employed to cook fish or egg, originating from Palembang, South Sumatra, Indonesia. Pindang has preservative property, which used to extend the shelf life of fish. The technique is native to Java and Sumatra. The Indonesian dictionary describes pindang as "salted and seasoned fish, and then smoked or boiled until dry for preservation."
The term also could refer to a specific freshly sour and spicy fish soup which uses sour-tasting spices, usually tamarind. Although pindang method and dishes could be found all across Indonesia, the pindang dish is associated especially to Palembang, where pindang patin is its specialty.

As a dish

Pindang as a dish refer to a certain sour and spicy fish soup. Freshwater fish such as ikan patin, catfish, carp or gourami are popularly used to cook pindang. However, seafood such as red snapper, milkfish, mackerel, tuna or shrimp can be cooked as pindang too. The cleaned fish flesh is boiled in water mixed in spices, including tamarind juice, garlic, shallot, ginger, turmeric, lemongrass, galangal, chili pepper, daun salam, citrus leaf, shrimp paste, palm sugar and salt. The soup usually also contains pieces of chili pepper, tomato, cucumber, lemon basil and pineapple. This soupy dish has a pronounced sourness with a hint of mild sweetness and light hot spicyness.

As preservation method

The term pindang refer to the cooking process of boiling the ingredients in salt together with certain spices that contains tannin, usually soy sauce, shallot skin, guava leaves, teak leaves, tea or other spices common in Southeast Asia. This gives the food a yellowish to brown color and lasts longer compared to plainly boiled fish or eggs, thus pindang is an Indonesian traditional method to preserve food, usually employed for fish and eggs. The technique is native to Java and Sumatra. In Indonesia, various preserved pindang fish are available in traditional markets. Common fish being processed as pindang are tongkol, bandeng, and kembung.
Compared to salted fish, pindang uses less salt, thus the taste is not as salty as salted fish. Other preserving methods common in Indonesian cuisine include asin or cured and dried in salt, and dendeng which is cured and dried in sugar, acar, and also asap.

Variants

Pindang variants can be differentiated according to the kind of fish species used, or according to specific regional recipes which use different ingredients and spices combination. Pindang recipes can be found in various cooking traditions of Indonesia; from Javanese, Betawi to Malay South Sumatran cuisine. Pindang recipes show exceptional diversity in South Sumatra.