If you find traditional Soy Sauce too ‘harsh’, earthy or salty for your taste, think about trying Kecap Manis – a well-kept Indonesian secret no serious Southeast Asian chef would dream of being with-out. It may be the next ‘swavoury’ sensation!
Not hot but definitely spicy, Kecap Manis is a traditional Sweet Soy sauce rooted in Indonesian cuisine, which is considered as indispensable as Sriracha in its homeland….
Runaway favourite…
According to Wikipedia, “It is by far the most popular type of soy sauce em-ployed in Indonesian cuisine and ac-counts for an estimated 90 percent of the nation’s total soy sauce production [there].”
It’s described as, “similar to kecap asin, the mildly salty regular soy sauce. […] The sweet soy sauce has a slightly thicker consistency and tastes much sweeter. This condiment is made from a fermented paste of boiled black soy-beans, roasted grain, salt, water, and Aspergill us wentii mold, to which palm sugar is added.”
“Indonesian sweet soy sauce is often enriched with spices, including star anise, cinnamon, black pepper, cor-iander, and clove.”
A pro’s prescription…
“Chef Ming Tsai is a beloved American chef, restaurateur, and television personality,” FoodBeast contributor ‘Seannen’ says, by way of introduction. “[He’s] celebrated for his innovative East-West cuisine that blends Asian and Western flavors.”
“Ming Tsai is also the owner of the acclaimed restau-rant Blue Ginger in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and [is] best known for his cooking show Simply Ming, which has garnered numerous awards. A prominent figure in the culinary world, he’s earned accolades for his contributions to the culinary arts, including the James Beard Foundation Award.”
Ming is also a shameless promoter of Kecap Manis…
Seannen interviewed Chef Ming recently, and in so doing uncapped a veritable gusher of ‘home-team’ enthusiasm.
Foodbeast: What’s a single pantry item you swear by that most people overlook?
Chef Ming Tsai: Kecap Manis, a thick sweet soy sauce from Indonesia. It’s fantastic for adding sweet umami to any dish and because it’s thick, you can plate it like a pro – drizzle, zig and zag!
Did we mention that a little goes a long way?
By any other name…
Kecap Manis is commonly referred to as Indonesian Ketchup. The similarity in sound to our Western word ‘ketchup’ can’t be ignored, either. It’s postulated that ‘ketchup’ as we know it evolved from ef-forts by westerners associated with the 18th and 19th Century European-Asian Spice Trade to dupli-cate (or at least approximate) it’s fulsome, umami, not-too-spicy flavour.
The origins of the Indonesian favourite go even further back, to China, where it enjoyed it’s earliest manifestation as a fermented fish sauce called ‘ke-tsiap’ (also spelled ‘ke-chiap’). That delicacy made its way, via early trade routes, to Thailand – where they still revere ‘Nam Pla’, or ‘Fish Sauce’ – Malay-sia and Indonesia.
My take
Gotta get a bottle of this stuff next time I’m at the Asian supermarket! I don’t know how I’ve over-looked it this long… But from what Chef Ming Tsai says, I’m definitely not the only Westerner who has!
~ Maggie J.