Kerisik

What is kerisik ? It is simply grated coconut dry fried in a hot pan until golden brown and crispy and pounded into a paste. Kerisik is an essential ingredient when cooking rendang as it imparts that signature taste and aroma to the dish.  There is ready made kerisik available but I am a little cautious and prefer to make my own.

So how do we go about making kerisik ? What you need is grated coconut and a frying pan. I get my grated coconut from the supermarket or you could buy from the market. 

One packet grated coconut.

Heat up the pan (no oil is required) and when hot, simply put the grated coconut in and stir fry. What you are doing is slowly roasting the coconut to dessicate it. In the beginning, the coconut feels dense and heavy as it has lots of moisture. Keep stirring. It is a simple process but time consuming. And you will work up a sweat.

Dump grated cocnut into hot pan and stir fry.

After about 15 minutes, you will notice that it starts to brown and the grated coconut feels lighter. Keep going.

Coconut starting to brown.

Eventually, after about 45 minutes, you will get golden brown crispy coconut. Test it by crushing a small amount with your fingers. If it is crispy and crumbles easily, you are done. Take some and taste it. It is quite yummy and you can use this as topping for some of your desserts.



Almost there.

Golden brown crispy coconut. Taste soem, it will make you smile.

At this point, pound the crispy coconut. Pound until you see coconut oil oozing from the paste.



My family heirloom, the "lesung batu". Heavy as hell.



 

 

Pound to a shiny paste.

You don't need to make such a big amount like I did. I normally do it in a big batch and freeze some for future use. It is very convenient.

Before and after.