Arthur - I would ask Lilian if she could give me the recipe for Cochineal and for Samble, produced in the Dutch cookhouse at Chungkai.
Lilian - >Arthur, I am glad you liked my article.
Can you give me more details on Cochineal ? That is alien to me.
However, if you can describe it
I might know what it is. the Sambal recipe I shall give you later. Of course, there are many sambals.
Do you mean the red hot one ??
Arthur - >Lilian, Please accept my apologies, I asked for the recipe for cochineal which is I understand an additive.
What I meant to ask for was Cochinitchu. I believe the main ingredients are what looked like small pease. A bit like the Geordie peas pudding.
I like my samble hot.
Lilian - >Arthur, as I am not British I do not know Geordie peas pudding - only steak and kidney pud, which we had at a very old inn (16th or 17th century) in London in the harbour quarters, way back when. However, do you mean the tiny sago balls with which puddings are made ?
The name cochinitchu doesnt ring a bell. It sounds Indian (South American Indian) or Japs.
What did they concoct of it in the camp kitchen ?
Arthur - >Lilian, To help the rice go down, the Dutch and Javaese POWs concocted various dishes including samble and others. My memory of Cotchanitchu was a very large wok filled with what looked like green and black peas. I have no idea what was added, but the wok was kept boiling or simering for at least a couple of hours. When served it was like a green and black paste hot, but also spicy.
One table spoonful was enough to flavour a dinner meal of around sixteen ounces of boiled rice They must have brought the ingredients with them because I never saw anything similar around Thailand. My son is married to a Thai national but she can does not know of any similar igredients being grown in Thailand .
George - >What Arthur and Lilian are discussing are Katjang Ijoe, a small green pea, and Sambal, a pepper paste. I have currently in my refrigerator three jars of different tasting Sambal - Sambal Manis, Sambal Oelek, and Sambal Badjak. When I visit Holland, I almost exclusively eat in Indonesian restaurants, a heritage of my days on Java. All food stores there carry a vast selection of Indo items.
Peggy - We too, like George, have those three flavors of sambal in the frig. There are a lot of recipes on the internet, but getting the authentic combination
is another matter.
I never got to Indonesia, but developed a taste for this condiment while living in the Netherlands for a couple of years.
George, do you know Too-Koo Joyce (or something that sounds like that) -- it was a carry-out and they made some incredibly hot food. They used to be a couple in the suburbs of Amsterdam.
Arthur - Thank you very much George. However what I am looking for is the recipe for Cotchanichi or Cotchanitchu.
Cooked in the Thai POW camps claimed to have body building ingredients
Lilian - >Arthur, George is right. From your description I also recognized the little balls as < katjan idju > (= green beans). It is supposed to be high in nutritious value. So if you had that in Thailand, you were very lucky. You mentioned that they didn't know these little green balls in Thailand, so I wonder how the got there. In Indonesia they are very common. Katjan Idju can be cooked as a porridge and eaten with brown sugar syrup (as a child I used to love it). The Dutch people in the former NEI also made a thick pea soup from the katjan idju beans like they do with (Dutch) green beans in Holland (Dutch nostaligia with an Indonesian slant. This thick pea soup is called SNERT and is a favourite when it is freezing.
The Katjan Idju is especially popular in Indonesia for making bean sprouts (TAUGEH). Taugeh is used in all sorts of side dishes to go with rice. It is full of vit. C and easy to cook, as it only needs blanching (a few minutes in hot water) or steaming (also a few minutes). Taugeh can also be added to wock dishes. It can even be eaten without cooking. The name of the dish you mentioned is unfamiliar to me. It is probably a camp name for the katjan idju porridge or thick soup. Recipe follows.
The hot red sambal (Sambal Ulek) is very easy to make. Take 10 red hot peppers (the long shiny red ones, which are called LOMBOK in Indonesian). Cut to pieces and put in the kitchen machine together with 1 teasp. of salt (pref. Maldon - seasalt crystals). Mix until pulpy. That's it. Wash hands thoroughly after having handled the lombok, because the hot can be very painful to the eyes or your facial skin.
A popular variation is SAMBAL MANIS (sweet pepper paste). Same as above. Omit the salt; instead add: 1 teasp. of fluid tamarind or tamarind paste (if not available replace it with some vinegar or lemon juice) - 1,5 tsp. brown sugar and 1 tablespoon of KETJAP MANIS (Indonesian sweet thick soy sauce).
I am wishing you SELAMAT MAKAN (a good eat)
Peggy - >Lilian -- Now at last we can make authentic sambal at home.
Thanks for sharing this.
Arthur - I can now see where my mistake was, the spelling in your "E" mail hit me in the face immediately Katja-udju.
When pronouced by our Dutch asociates it came out as Catchanitsu.
Thank you very much I will now go to our Oriental food shop and make enquiries.
Lilian - This is really very funny. Anyway, riddle solved.
I hope the Oriental Food shops in England sell them. Otherwise you have to come over to Amsterdam for your Katjan Idju. And other stuff. We have such shops, which are called TOKO galore. Give me a buzz and I will show you (and more of Amsterdam if you like).
Peggy asked George whether he knew Toko Joyce (that is the exact name, Peggy).
There are two Toko Joyces and a score of other Tokoes in Amsterdam (toko means shop).
They dont only sell a large variety of oriental products but also lovely take-away Indonesian meals.
One word of caution, though. There are also quite a few shops that call themselves TOKO, nowadays, but their owners are of Surinam origin, and their food is vastly
different from the original Indonesian food. The Surinam Javanese are not in the habit of using the original Indonesian herbs and spices. And between you and me, their food doesnt taste quite as good. The granddad of my grandchild is a Surinam
Javanese, and he is the cook in the family, so I know.
Not all the dishes are incredibly hot. They usually make two kinds: a hot one and a mild version.
Otherwise they wouldnt be able to sell their food to the Dutch people. Your tongue has to be used to being on fire.
Moreover, hot spices are more appropriate for hot climates.
Anyway, some like it hot. So you can always add the hot pepper paste (sambal) if you insist on hotness.
The authentic combination is a question of being able to buy the authentic spices and herbs in your neighbourhood.
I have a few Ind. cook books. so if anyone is interested (except for Arthur's Katjan Idju porridge), please, let me know.
Peggy - I'm not getting the message. I'd like too.
> Lilian, It looks like you are going to have to organize a FEPOW meeting in Holland -- a lot of us have hot tongues already. Can you imagine the conflagration with Toko Joyce and sambals? I'll bring the rice-cooker and a few condiments of Thai/Reunion origin -- also VERY HOT.
Sharif Dayan - Allow me to tell you the present spelling.
At 12:57 14-01-2003 -0500, "Capt. George W. Duffy" wrote:
>Katjang Ijoe
Kacang Hijau or Kacang Ijo
>Sambal Oelek,
Sambal Uleg
>Sambal Badjak.
Sambal Bajak.
If you want to make your own sambal, try to mix salted nuts and tomatoes
with the chillis. I like this kind.
Anne - Are those Indonesian beans very small, pale olive coloured ? If so they can also be bought in Chinese supermarkets. A similar porridge can also be made with red beans, either sweet or savoury. The wartime rice ration in Hong Kong was 6 taels 4 per ten days, which isn't much so they'd add the beans to rice to make a soup that lasted a bit longer. If, of course,. you could get the firewood or water to cook with.
Welcome so much to this group, Mr Sharif, we need people like you !!!
I studied the Aceh wars at university but that was a million years ago. The Achenese have so much to be proud of, including the first Koran in behasa, I think.
Arthur - >Lilian,
Thank you for the invitation, unfortunately at 82yrs my travel days are very limited. also I have just started a youth project in my home town which is going to take at least two years to complete with a great deal of attention. However I will keep in touch.
Maxine - I've enjoyed all the talk about food. What some people may not appreciate is that memories of food you did get and enjoy at this most devastating period of starvation are important. My father cooked his favourite dish Nasi Goreng every Saturday for most of my childhood. I remember how happy he was when doing this. His memories of the camp were very bad so it is good that he could relish this one thing that he had brought home with him as a happy memory having survived total hell.
Arthur - It may be strange to some people but from my own experience and knowledge a large number of former Far East POWs created a similar dish for their kids.
Mine was cooked on Sunday night and I called it a Lob Up. it composed of all the left overs, meat fish veg, you name it and it was all put into a big frying pan. My daughter who was then around three or four. always helped and thoroughly enjoyed cooking and eating with boiled rice. Today married with children of her own she will experiment with all types of food. Nothing ever gets left over.
Keith - My father was never that much of a cook, although he could cook if he wanted to. Nothing in our house was ever wasted, my two brothers and I were expected to clear the plates put before us.
When my younger brother refused to eat his cabbage, my father made him sit at the table until he did, from 1pm until 5pm. My brother got away with it, thanks to mum. Dad loved rice pudding of all things, with sultanas was his favourite. He worked at Shell at Waterloo, and in their restaurant he would always enjoy ice cream. This was way before the days of freezers in the home, so you can imagine how we three felt about that.
He would never have a second meal in the evening if he had eaten at work, just a snack.
I suppose all of this has a knock on effect, I do not like wasting any food. If we have roast on Sunday, cold on Monday, any leftovers, curry or Chinese Tuesday.
My wife dad served with the Royal Marines during the war, but in Europe. He was the same, nothing got wasted.
My first venture into cooking was to make custard to go with the sliced bananas for pudding. As I was about 9 at the time, the custard was also served by the slice!
ps. Sorry, I do realise this is not really FEPOW info.
Syd - I was rather suprised to note that someone was objecting to the letters with regards to the various Indonesian foods. if that man could understand how important food was in those days Ii am sure he would retract his comments. So heres to katchang ijou katchang merror and gadou /gadou.Now the winter has set in and it is too cold and wet to play golf I will get down to writing my memories of Banka and P alembang.
Janet - >Syd, I loved your message.
My Dad only had a little to say about food, be it Indonesian, Thai, Chinese, Indian or English, It was words to this effect: "All grub is bl**dy good grub, you just enjoy some more than others "
I didn't realise untill about 5 years ago, that my Dad wasn't really fond of marrow or corgettes's , why ? cos he had never said.
My oldest brother told me and when I asked the old chap he said," well I like some veg alot more, and alot of tropical veg tends to be marrow-ish but I DON'T DISLIKE IT ", just as well poor old chap, I had been feeding him for over 20 years and I didn't know !
He was the easist man in the world to feed, he ate his dinner and every single night he would say, " Thank you that was lovely ", every now and then ( usually when my hubby had cooked - approx twice a week ) he would say " By Jimeny, that was handsome ", translates roughly to : Thank God for Son-in-Laws, cos my daughter's a dreadfull cook !
There was always the old joke about a tin of dog or cat food being made into meat pie and the wife getting one over on the husband etc, but my Dad always insisted " If it doesn't kill your cat or dog it won't kill you, and anyway if our boys had all had a tin of that everyday we would have been all right ".
Well, I don't fancy Winalot pie & chips myself , but I know he's right of course !
Tracy - My grandfather returned from the war very ill, and had many medical problems for the rest of his life which - I was told - were from his treatment as a POW. Probably the biggest was that he was unable to digest food properly, and had to drink some sort of medicine (some kind of acid) after each meal in order to be able toproperly digest anything. My mother blamed this on parasites from poor food ("he had to eat maggots") - anyone else ever heard of anything like this?
Than you all again for sharing your stories and for posting them on the web - they are invaluable resources.
Tony - >Tracy,
Niacin (Nicotinic Acid) was sometimes prescribed for dry beri beri (which in many cases did not fully disappear until well after the resumption of a normal diet, if at all). Could that have been it?
Arthur - >Tony,
My apologies for cutting in. you mention a medicine or treatment for beri beri. Maybe this would be how it would be treated in life outside the prison camps. the way it was treated in the camps I worked in was by leaving the patient with his head higher than his feet, to control the acumulation of water until it eventually drowned his heart and lungs.
Sorry, but that is the truth.
Beri beri is a tropical disease caused by lack of vitamins B mainily, and a monotinous diet of rice.
Tony - >Arthur. Yes, that agrees with what other POWs have told me.
And you are right, I was quoting Dr. Charles Roland who was describing the treatment of ex-POWs after the war (as Tracy's original question was about post-war medication).
Arthur - >Maxine,
Your dad was similar to most of us when it comes to wasting food, we had gone without for long periods many times, and just to find a nice glossy pebble by the river. it would go into the mouth and remain there all day. One or two had their favourites and kept them in a safe place to use the next day and the day after.
Food I will not allow it to be wasted if I can help it. For myself, I eat a small breakfast, the odd bscuit with my morning cuppa and a normal meal around five or six and then nothing until next day apart from the odd can of beer. I am still 13 stone plus.
