''Rengginang'' or ''ranginang'' is a variety of Indonesian thick

rice crackers A rice cracker is an East Asian cracker (food), cracker made from cooked rice or rice flour. Many regional varieties exist, though most are fried or baked and puffed and/or brushed with soy sauce or vinegar to create a smooth texture. Some may a ...

, made from cooked glutinous

sticky rice Sticky may refer to: Adhesion *Adhesion, the tendency of dissimilar particles or surfaces to cling to one another *Sticky mat, an adhesive mat used in cleanrooms to lessen contamination from footwear *Sticky note, a generic term for a Post-it Note ...

and seasoned with spices, made into a flat and rounded shape, and then sun-dried. The sun-dried ''rengginang'' is

deep-fried Deep frying (also referred to as deep fat frying) is a cooking method in which food is submerged in hot fat, traditionally lard but today most commonly oil, as opposed to the shallow frying used in conventional frying done in a frying pan. N ...

with ample

cooking oil Cooking oil (also known as edible oil) is a plant or animal liquid fat used in frying, baking, and other types of cooking. Oil allows higher cooking temperatures than water, making cooking faster and more flavorful, while likewise distributing h ...

to produce a crispy

rice cracker A rice cracker is an East Asian cracker made from cooked rice or rice flour. Many regional varieties exist, though most are fried or baked and puffed and/or brushed with soy sauce or vinegar to create a smooth texture. Some may also be wrapped ...

. This cracker is quite different from other types of traditional Asian crackers such as the Indonesian ''

krupuk ' (Javanese language, Javanese) is an Indonesian cuisine, Indonesian deep frying, deep-fried Cracker (food), cracker made from starch and other ingredients that serve as flavouring. They are a popular snack in parts of Southeast Asia, but are ...

'' and the Japanese ''

senbei , also spelled ''sembei'', is a type of Japanese rice cracker. They come in various shapes, sizes, and flavors, usually savory but sometimes sweet. Senbei are often eaten with green tea as a casual snack and offered to visiting house guests as ...

'' or '' beika''; while most traditional crackers' ingredients are ground into a fine paste, ''rengginang'' retains the shapes of its rice grains. It is similar to the Japanese '' arare'', and yet it differs because ''arare'' are individually separated larger rice pellets. In contrast, ''rengginang'' rice granules are stuck together in a flat-rounded shape. ''Rengginang'' is traditionally made from dried

leftover Leftovers are surplus foods remaining unconsumed at the end of a meal, which may be put in containers with the intention of eating later. Inedible remains like bones are considered ''waste'', not leftovers. Depending on the situation, the amoun ...

rice. In

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

, it is known as ''brong-brong''. ''Rengginang'' can be plain or flavoured sweet, salty or savoury. The most common ''rengginang'' are deep-fried with added pinches of

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

for a traditional salty taste. Sweet ''rengginang'' uses thick liquified

coconut sugar Coconut sugar (also known as coco sugar, coconut palm sugar, coco sap sugar or coconut blossom sugar) is a palm sugar produced from the sap of the flower bud stem of the coconut palm. Other types of palm sugar are made from the kithul palm ('' Ca ...

-coated or poured upon it. Other variants have other ingredients added to enrich the taste, such as dried

prawn Prawn is a common name for small aquatic crustaceans with an exoskeleton An exoskeleton () . is a skeleton that is on the exterior of an animal in the form of hardened integument, which both supports the body's shape and protects the intern ...

, ''terasi'' (

shrimp paste Shrimp paste or prawn sauce is a Fermentation, fermented condiment commonly used in Southeast Asian cuisine, Southeast Asian and Coastal Chinese cuisines. It is primarily made from finely crushed Shrimp and prawn as food, shrimp or krill mixed ...

), or ''lorjuk'' (

razor clam Razor clam is a common name for long, narrow, saltwater clams (which resemble a closed straight razor in shape), including: * Atlantic jackknife clam, ''Ensis leei'' (syn. ''Ensis directus'') * Gould's razor shell, ''Solen strictus'' * Pacific razo ...

Similar crackers

Central Java Central Java (, ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is bordered by West Java in the west, the Indian Ocean and the Special Region of Yogya ...

, especially in the

Wonogiri Regency Wonogiri Regency is a regency () in the southeastern part of Central Java Central Java (, ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is border ...

, there is an almost identical rice cracker called ''intip'' made from scorched rice, the hardened semi-burnt rice sticks to the inner bottom of rice-cooking vessels. These cooking vessels are filled with water to loosen up the stuck rice. After it is separated from the cooking vessel, the stuck rice is sun-dried until it loses all of its liquid contents. The dried sticky rice is later deep-fried in a lot of cooking oil to create a crispy rice cracker. There is no significant difference between ''rengginang'' and ''intip'' other than its size; because ''intip'' is created from the inner bottom of the cooking vessel, it is larger than a ''rengginang''.

References

{{Indonesian cuisine Indonesian snack foods Rice crackers

Similar crackers

See also

References