Rempeyek Kacang Ikan Bilis

One of my Indonesian friend recommended an Indonesian restaurant that serves authentic Indonesian food. We decided to give this restaurant a try and one Saturday, we made a visit to this restaurant. The food was OK. Not too authentic for my taste buds though but it was fine. I ordered some snacks as appetizers while we were waiting for our food and this Indonesian snack was so light, crispy and savory. These snacks are called rempeyek in Malaysia and I believe they are called the same in Indonesia as well. Rempeyek are savory rice snacks which are topped with peanuts and dried anchovies or ikan bilis.

Ingredients

A: Sift together 100 gms rice flour (thai rice flour) 25g tapioca flour 25g Hoen Kwee flour 2 tsps Knorr Chicken Powder ½ tsp salt or to taste
B: Wet Ingredients, mix together
200 gms water or more to get a watery consistency ½ cup coconut milk
C: Grind together 4-5 cloves of garlic 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp fennel 1 tbsps coriander seeds 10 dry chillies
D: Toppings Peanuts, raw Ikan Bilis
Directions

1. Mix A, B and C together. Add more water if needed to get a thin batter. If batter is thick, rempeyek will take longer to cook and will not be that crispy. 2. Heat a wok with oil under medium heat and make sure that the sides of the wok is also coated with oil. 3. Take a ladle of batter and add some peanuts and ikan bilis to the ladle full of batter. 4. Pour the batter along the side of the wok, just above the hot oil. 5. Let the batter fry for a while before pushing the batter that is sticking to the sides of the wok into the oil. 6. Fry until the peanuts are cooked and the batter is crispy. 7. Drain the rempeyek upright on paper towels, to absorb the extra oil. 8. When all the rempeyeks are fried, heat an oven to 300 F and put the rempeyek in the hot oven for just 5 minutes. This is my way to ensure that the rempeyeks are not oily.