ACC hosts cooking demo

Carefully pouring some creamy, light green goo into an 8-inch frying pan, Evita Luminto, senior and president of Permias, the Indonesian Student Association, prepared a flat pancake for the Indonesian cooking demonstration Friday afternoon.\nThis month’s cooking demonstration, held at the Asian Culture Center, showcased some common Indonesian cuisine. Leading the demonstration, Luminto prepared bakwan jagung, a corn fritter appetizer, and dadar gulung, a stuffed pancake roll dessert, which the audience got to taste. \n“It was really challenging,” Luminto said about trying to create the glossy green finish on the pancake. “The stuffed pancake roll is very popular in Indonesia, but people don’t make it because it is very complicated.” \nBesides making sure the pancake doesn’t get dry to the point where it looks like a green tortilla, Luminto said the green dye is difficult to obtain. In Indonesia, Luminto said most people use the actual Pandan leaf, which adds to the sweet taste, but too much can make the dish bitter.\nWhile smuggling a Pandan leaf though customs in Indonesia isn’t advisable, Luminto said some ingredients are available at Kroger and that the Tenth Street Market offers some unique Indonesian ingredients. \nThe first dish that Luminto created, the corn fritter, is always popular and more manageable, she said.\n“Everybody loves it when I make it; it’s one of my favorites,” she said. \nBesides being a favorite, the corn fritters’ ingredients of corn, flour, eggs, spring onion and cooking oil are all readily available.\nAfter mixing the ingredients, Luminto plopped small spoonfuls into sputtering oil in a large skillet. During the demonstration, she said the recipe is flexible and that substitutions can be made for the customary shrimp and corn. \nAfter trying some samples, Mindy Metzcar, graduate assistant to La Casa, said she was going to try recreating the fritters at home but with some different ingredients. \nMetzcar said she learned new recipes but also a lot about Indonesian culture. \n“I really didn’t know anything before I came in here,” she said. \nIU employee Jelene Campbell said she always walks away with new recipes to try and a better understanding of a culture. \n“I like learning about the students and their culture, and I love trying the food,” she said. \nWhile Luminto had only an hour to demonstrate two recipes, she also tried to answer questions about the Indonesian culture. \n“Most people don’t know where Indonesia is and that we are the fourth largest population in the world,” she said. \nShe said there are only about 70 Indonesian students at IU, and only a few other students are familiar with the culture.