Woku


Woku is an Indonesian type of bumbu found in Manado cuisine of North Sulawesi, Indonesia. It has rich aroma and spicy taste. Woku consist of ground spices paste; red ginger, turmeric, candlenut and red chili pepper, mixed with chopped shallot, scallion, tomato, lemon or citrus leaf and turmeric leaf, lemon basil leaf and bruised lemongrass. Rub main ingredients with salt and lime juices, and marinate for 30 minutes. All spices are cooked in coconut oil until the aroma came up and mixed together with the main ingredients, water, and a pinch of salt, well until all cooked well.

Etymology

Woku is an authentic Manado sauce that get named from daun woka. Daun woka is a kind of young coconut leaf that is usually used as a rice wrapper. Originally the initial woku dish are all wrapped inside young coconut leaf or banana leaf before being cooked, in similar fashion of cooking pepes or ketupat.

Variants

Almost any kind of meat, poultry and seafood can be made as a woku dish. The most common and popular are ayam woku and kakap woku. Woku belanga is a woku variant cooked in a belanga or any kind of saucepan, while woku daun is a woku dish cooked and wrapped in banana or woku leaves.