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Cireng – Fried Tapioca Cakes
Cireng are fried cakes from West Java made almost entirely of tapioca starch. You scald part of the starch with hot water into a paste and mix in the rest, which creates the chewy, elastic center. Fry the flat cakes in oil that is not too hot, and they stay soft inside and crisp outside. For dipping there is bumbu rujak of palm sugar, chile and tamarind.
Cireng – Fried Tapioca Cakes
Laura Chen
4
20 minutes
25 minutes
340
Indonesian
Snack
Cireng come from West Java and are made almost entirely of tapioca starch. You scald part of the starch with water into a paste, mix in the rest and fry flat cakes that are crisp outside and chewy and elastic inside. You dip them in bumbu rujak, a thick sauce of palm sugar, chile and tamarind.

Ingredients
- 250 g tapioca starch (starch from cassava)
- 200 ml water
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 garlic cloves, finely grated
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
- 2 scallions, cut into fine rings
- 500 ml oil for frying
For the bumbu rujak:
- 50 g palm sugar (gula jawa, sugar from palm blossom sap), chopped
- 2 red chiles, roughly chopped
- 1 bird's eye chile (cabe rawit, small hot chile)
- 1 tsp tamarind paste (sour fruit pulp of the tamarind)
- 1 pinch salt
- 3 tbsp water
Instructions
- In a pot, stir 50 g tapioca starch with 200 ml water, the salt, garlic and pepper. Heat the mixture, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes, until a glassy, sticky paste forms.
- Put the remaining 200 g starch and the scallions in a bowl, pour the hot paste over them and stir everything with a wooden spoon. Press the mixture together by hand once it is hand-warm.
- Shape walnut-size pieces into flat cakes 1 cm thick. Press them into shape only loosely; the edges may stay cracked.
- For the bumbu rujak, cook the palm sugar, chiles, tamarind paste, salt and water for 3 minutes, until the sugar has melted. Pound everything in a mortar into a thick sauce.
- Heat the oil in a pot to 160 °C (320 °F). Fry the cakes in batches for 5 to 6 minutes, turning them, until light golden and crisp.
- Drain the cireng on paper towels and eat them hot with the bumbu rujak.
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