Krupuk

Krupuk

Krupuks in air-tight tin container
Course	Snack
Place of origin	Southeast Asia (Indonesia and Malaysia)
Created by	Traditional food
Serving temperature	Room temperature
Main ingredients	Deep fried dried starch and other ingredients, the most popular is prawn and fish
Variations	Different variations according to ingredients

Krupuk or kerupuk (Indonesian), keropok (Malaysian), kropek (Filipino) or kroepoek (Dutch) are deep fried crackers made from starch and other ingredients that serve as flavouring. They are a popular snack in parts of Southeast Asia, but most closely associated with Indonesia and Malaysia. Kroepoek also can be found in the Netherlands, through their historic colonial ties with Indonesia.

In Indonesia, the term krupuk refers to the type of relatively large crackers, while the term kripik or keripik refers to smaller bite-size crackers; the counterpart of chips (or crisps) in western cuisine. For example, potato chips are called kripik kentang in Indonesia. Both terms, krupuk and kripik, sound like the breaking or crumbling of this crispy snack to denote its crispiness.

Usually krupuk is made from the dried paste from the mixture of starch with other ingredients, while kripik is usually made entirely from thinly sliced, sun-dried, and fried products without any mixture of starch.

To achieve maximum crunchiness, most of this pre-packed raw krupuk must be sun-dried first before being deep fried at home. To cook krupuk, a wok and plenty of very hot cooking oil is needed. Raw krupuk is quite small, hard, and darker in color than cooked one.

Krupuk and kripik can be consumed alone as a snack, or cracked and sprinkled on top of certain food as a complement to add crispy texture. Certain Indonesian dishes such as gado-gado, karedok, rujak, asinan, bubur ayam and certain kinds of soto were known to require certain type of krupuk for toppings. Krupuk is an essential ingredient to make seblak, a savoury and spicy dish made of boiled wet krupuk cooked with protein sources (chicken, beef or seafood) in spicy sauce.