''Botok'' or ''ꦧꦺꦴꦛꦺꦴꦏ꧀'' ''(Bothok)'' (sometimes called as ''Bobotok'' in its plural form or ''Botok-botok'') is a traditional Javanese dish made from shredded coconut flesh which has been squeezed of its

coconut milk Coconut milk is an opaque, milky-white liquid extracted from the grated pulp of mature coconuts. The opacity and rich taste of coconut milk are due to its high oil content, most of which is saturated fat. Coconut milk is a traditional food i ...

, often mixed with other ingredients such as vegetables or fish, and wrapped in

banana leaf The banana leaf is the leaf of the banana plant, which may produce up to 40 leaves in a growing cycle. The leaves have a wide range of applications because they are large, flexible, waterproof and decorative. They are used for cooking, wrappin ...

and steamed. It is commonly found in Javanese people area of Java Island (

Yogyakarta Special Region The Special Region of Yogyakarta (; id, Daerah Istimewa (D.I.) Yogyakarta) is a provincial-level autonomous region of Indonesia in southern Java. It has also been known as the Special Territory of Yogyakarta. It is bordered by the Indian Oce ...

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

, and

East Java East Java ( id, Jawa Timur) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia located in the easternmost hemisphere of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean bord ...

. Botok seems to be a byproduct of coconut milk production, to save and reuse the grated coconut flesh that might be otherwise discarded. Commonly, the grated coconut flesh flakes are discarded after squeezing it to acquire the coconut milk. However, by cooking them in banana leaf with additional mixture and spices, they can also be eaten as additional dish. Another way to save the grated coconut residue is to saute them as ''

serundeng Serundeng refers to a side dish or condiment to accompany rice in Indonesian and Malay languages. Serundeng may taste sweet, or hot and spicy according to recipe variants. Its best known variant is an Indonesian preparation of sautéed grated ...

''. Today however, to acquire tastier and richer taste, many recipes insist on using only freshly grated coconut flesh that still contains coconut milk. Botok is typically consumed with

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

Preparation and serving

The grated coconut flesh is mixed with

chilli Chili or chilli may refer to: Food * Chili pepper, the spicy fruit of plants in the genus ''Capsicum''; sometimes spelled "chilli" in the UK and "chile" in the southwestern US * Chili powder, the dried, pulverized fruit of one or more varieties ...

, salt, pepper,

lemon basil Lemon basil, hoary basil, Thai lemon basil, or Lao basil,Dorothy Culloty (''Ocimum'' × ''africanum'') is a hybrid between basil (''Ocimum basilicum'') and American basil ('' Ocimum americanum''). The herb is grown primarily in northeastern Afr ...

and ''salam'' (Indonesian bay-leaf) and additional ingredient. This mixture is placed upon a piece of banana leaf, and then the leaf is wrapped tight and secured with a stick, then placed on a steamer. The most basic ''botok'' usually uses simple and cheaper ingredients, such as minced tempeh, tofu or anchovy. After the ''botok'' is cooked, the banana leaf package is opened and served with steamed rice. After perfectly cooked, the grated coconut and sometimes the egg addition, acted as the binding agent of the whole ''botok'' ingredients.

Variations

To add flavor and nutrients, many botok recipes and variants might use additional ingredients as protein source, such as '' petai cina'', '' belimbing wuluh'', ''ares'' (the core of a banana trunk),

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. ''Toadstool'' generally denotes one poisonous to humans. The standard for the name "mushroom" is t ...

tofu Tofu (), also known as bean curd in English, is a food prepared by coagulating soy milk and then pressing the resulting curds into solid white blocks of varying softness; it can be ''silken'', ''soft'', ''firm'', ''extra firm'' or ''super firm ...

tempeh Tempeh or tempe (; jv, ꦠꦺꦩ꧀ꦥꦺ, témpé, ) is a traditional Indonesian food made from fermented soybeans. It is made by a natural culturing and controlled fermentation process that binds soybeans into a cake form. A fungus, ''Rhizopus ...

anchovy An anchovy is a small, common forage fish of the family Engraulidae. Most species are found in marine waters, but several will enter brackish water, and some in South America are restricted to fresh water. More than 140 species are placed in 1 ...

wahoo Wahoo (''Acanthocybium solandri'') is a scombrid fish found worldwide in tropical and subtropical seas. It is best known to sports fishermen, as its speed and high-quality flesh makes it a prized and valued game fish. In Hawaii, the wahoo is kno ...

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the three largest species alive, ...

salted fish Salted fish, such as kippered herring or dried and salted cod, is fish cured with dry salt and thus preserved for later eating. Drying or salting, either with dry salt or with brine, was the only widely available method of preserving fish unt ...

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

salted egg Salting or Salted may refer to: People *George Salting (1835–1909), Australian-born English art collector, who left the Salting Bequest, which included the ** ''Salting Madonna'' (Antonello da Messina), National Gallery, London Other * Salting ...

shrimp Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...

, minced

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantity ...

or even

bee Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyly, monophyletic lineage within the ...

larvae A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

.Indonesian: modern and traditional Indonesian cuisine. Mae Chandra (2014) 192 pag. The ''botok'' method is used in several variant ingredients, and also become the name of a dish prepared in this manner, for example: #''Botok ares'' (the core of a banana trunk botok) #''Botok belimbing wuluh'' (

Averrhoa bilimbi ''Averrhoa bilimbi'' (commonly known as bilimbi, cucumber tree, or tree sorrel) is a fruit-bearing tree of the genus ''Averrhoa'', family Oxalidaceae. It is a close relative of the carambola tree. Description ''Averrhoa bilimbi'' is a small tro ...

botok) #''Botok beluntas'' (

Pluchea indica ''Pluchea indica'' is a species of flowering plant in the aster family, Asteraceae. Its common names include Indian camphorweed, Indian fleabane, and Indian pluchea.

leaf botok) #''Botok daging'' (minced

botok) #''Botok jamur'' (

botok) #''Botok lele'' (

botok) #''Botok mlanding'' ('' petai cina'' or ''lamtoro'' botok) #''Botok ontong'' (''jantung pisang''/

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...

flower bud botok) #''Botok tawon'' (

for

honeybee A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosmo ...

botok) #''Botok tahu'' (

botok) #''Botok tempe'' (

botok) #''Botok telur'' (

botok) #''Botok telur asin'' (

botok) #''Botok tengiri'' (

botok) #''Botok teri'' (

botok) #''Botok tempe tahu teri'' (tofu, tempeh, anchovy combo botok) #''Botok udang'' (

botok) #''Botok wader'' (

Silver rasbora The silver rasbora (''Rasbora argyrotaenia'') is a species of ray-finned fish in the genus ''Rasbora ''Rasbora'' is a genus of fish in the family Cyprinidae. They are native to freshwater habitats in South and akistan s_...''._It_occurs_in_th ...

botok)

Similar dishes

Buntil Buntil is a traditional Indonesian- Javanese dish of grated coconut meat mixed with ''teri'' (anchovies) and spices, wrapped in papaya, cassava, or taro (or other similar aroids) leaves, then boiled in coconut milk and spices. It is a favouri ...

'' is prepared in a similar way, but used

papaya The papaya (, ), papaw, () or pawpaw () is the plant species ''Carica papaya'', one of the 21 accepted species in the genus ''Carica'' of the family Caricaceae. It was first domesticated in Mesoamerica, within modern-day southern Mexico and ...

cassava ''Manihot esculenta'', common name, commonly called cassava (), manioc, or yuca (among numerous regional names), is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively ...

leaves instead of banana leaves, making the wrapping edible as part of the dish. Botok is often considered as the variations of ''

pepes ''Pepes'' is an Indonesian cooking method using banana leaves as food wrappings. The banana-leaf package containing food is secured with ''lidi seumat'' (a small nail made from the central ribs of coconut leaves), and then steamed or grilled on ...

'', the cooking method using banana leaf. However botok is identified more specific by using shredded coconut flesh, while pepes usually contains no coconut at all. The

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

n dish of ''

bobotie Bobotie (Afrikaans: ) is a well-known South African dish consisting of spiced minced meat baked with an egg-based topping. Origin of name and recipe Bobotie appears to be a variant of ''Patinam ex lacte'', a dish documented by the ancient R ...

'' is thought to be the derivative of Indonesian ''bobotok''. It is however, quite different as it uses minced beef and eggs, with the absence of grated coconut and banana leaf package. The role of grated coconut and eggs as binding agent in ''bobotok'' seems to be replaced by beaten eggs, milk and shredded bread in ''bobotie''.

References

External links

Botok tofu tempeh and anchovy recipe

{{Indonesian cuisine Javanese cuisine Banana leaf Foods containing coconut Anchovy dishes

Preparation and serving

Variations

Similar dishes

See also

References

External links