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

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

cracker Cracker, crackers or The Crackers may refer to: Animals * ''Hamadryas'' (butterfly), or crackers, a genus of brush-footed butterflies * '' Sparodon'', a monotypic genus whose species is sometimes known as "Cracker" Arts and entertainment Films ...

, made from cooked glutinous

sticky rice Glutinous rice (''Oryza sativa var. glutinosa''; also called sticky rice, sweet rice or waxy rice) is a type of rice grown mainly in Southeast and East Asia, and the northeastern regions of South Asia, which has opaque grains, very low amylose ...

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 oil used in conventional frying done in a frying pan. Norma ...

with ample

cooking oil Cooking oil is plant, animal, or synthetic liquid fat used in frying, baking, and other types of cooking. It is also used in food preparation and flavoring not involving heat, such as salad dressings and bread dips, and may be called edible oil ...

to produce a crispy rice cracker. This cracker is quite different from other types of traditional Asian crackers such as the Indonesian ''

krupuk ''Krupuk'' ( Javanese), ''kerupuk'' ( Indonesian), ''keropok'' ( Malay), ''kroepoek'' ( Dutch) or ''kropek'' (Tagalog) is a cracker made from starch or animal skin and other ingredients that serve as flavouring. Most krupuk are deep fried, ...

'' and the Japanese ''

senbei are 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 a courtesy refreshment. ...

'' or '' beika''; while most of traditional crackers' ingredients are ground into a fine paste, ''rengginang'' retains the shapes of its rice grains. It is similar to Japanese ''

arare Arare may refer to: *Norimaki Arare or Arale Norimaki, the main character in ''Dr. Slump'' media *Arare (food), a bite-sized Japanese rice cracker *Japanese destroyer Arare, a warship sunk in 1942 {{disambig ...

'', and yet it differs because ''arare'' are individually separated larger rice pellets, while ''rengginang'' rice granules are stuck together in a flat-rounded shape. ''Rengginang'' traditionally made from dried leftover rice. In

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the nor ...

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 Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

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 (Caryo ...

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 and ten legs (which is a member of the order decapoda), some of which can be eaten. The term "prawn"Mortenson, Philip B (2010''This is not a weasel: a close look at nature' ...

, ''terasi'' (

shrimp paste Shrimp paste or prawn sauce is a fermented condiment commonly used in Southeast Asian and Southern Chinese cuisines. It is primarily made from finely crushed shrimp or krill mixed with salt, and then fermented for several weeks. They are ei ...

), or ''lorjuk'' (

razor clam Razor clam is a common name for long, narrow, saltwater clams (which resemble a closed straight razor in shape), in the genera ''Ensis'', '' Siliqua'', ''Solecurtus'', and '' Solen'', including: * Atlantic jackknife clam, ''Ensis directus'' *Razor ...

Similar cracker

Central Java Central Java ( id, Jawa Tengah) is a 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 Yogyakart ...

, especially in

Wonogiri Regency Wonogiri Regency is a regency () in the southeastern part of Central Java province in Indonesia. It covers an area of 1,822.36 km2, and its population was 928,904 at the 2010 Census and 1,096,138 at the 2020 Census. The capital and largest t ...

, there is an almost identical rice cracker called ''intip'' made from

scorched rice Scorched rice, also known as crunchy rice, is a thin crust of slightly browned rice at the bottom of the cooking pot. It is produced during the cooking of rice over direct heat from a flame. Varieties Cape Verde In Cape Verdean Creole, the bu ...

, the hardened semi-burnt rice that sticks to the inner bottom of rice-cooking vessels. These cooking vessels are filled with water to loosened 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 cooking vessel, its size is larger than ''rengginang''.

References

{{Indonesian cuisine Indonesian snack foods Rice crackers

Similar cracker

See also

References