It is deep fried pork belly (I think Babi stands for pork in Bahasa Indonesian), chopped in 1,5 cm strips and served with a thick sweet & sour sauce and the Southeast Asian version of pickled sauerkraut, which is called atchara.
Atchara, on the other hand, is pickled with not just cabbage, but with julienne carrots plus small onions. This, I find, is very good with any fried dish, but surprised that it is served with a sweet & sour sauce, which makes it disappear if you do not look for it.
Had this good portion of Babi Pangan, which was sitting in the fridge, and I hate eating the same dish too often. Since we were fresh from work, the easiest way would just cook the rice then heat the Babi Pangan and mix it, but like I said, I prefer (said hate earlier ... HAHAHAHA ... Trying to tone it down now ... HEHEHEHE) to have a newer dish.
Here is the variation to such dish .... Prepared to cook rice (the proper Asian-way, not the Western way of draining it before serving ... Yes, for those who haven't heard it, most Europeans I met boils rice in abundant water and after a period of time of boiling they drain it and we've it. Guess, this is why they seem not to mind the "crunchy" type that I usually tasted from their cooked rice.
What is wrong with that procedure is that you follow a fixed cooking time, and usually from the experience with the previous rice. Not all rice are alike, they may be the same variety, but their cooking time can still differ and like pasta, you cannot leave it in liquid too long lest you want them soggy.
Before telling you the variation of the Babi Pangan dish, need to talk about how to cook rice properly.
First, pick a pot that is too thin that heat is transmitted on the food too fast, pick one with has a thickness ... Like around a cm or two, at most. Put the rice and wash and fill with water.
The important question is how much water!!! Level the rice and touch the top of it with your middle fingertip ... Not your finger nail tip!!! The first line from the tip of your middle finger should be the level of your water.
Put the pot on a medium to high fire and let it boil, with then lid closed. This usually takes about 5-7 minutes. Then when it start boiling, take out the lid and stir (this is my extra step, but you can just let it boil further),after which, you put the fire to medium to medium-high (or even just in medium-low), until it is like a lava boiling with that little holes in the rice and the water bubbling up. When you reach this stage in the rice, put the lid on the pot and lower the fire to low and cook this for 15 minutes. If the rice is still wet, cover the pot and set the fire to very low for another 5 minutes.
Haven't cooked rice that often, so will have to update this when I have photos or even video to assist how it looks like ... Please be patient ... And let me know that you are waiting for the photos/video.
Now, back to the Babi Pangan rice ... Do the same procedure to cook the rice, but this time throw in the Babi Pangan and even add in some frozen peas. Just note that if you add frozen peas, make sure the water is from until half from the tip of your finger to only covering your rice.
Serve it with the pan-fried garlic, which was mentioned in "Garlic ... Ways to store them ... plus Steak with pan-fried garlic!!!".
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