Chef Joost
Blinde Vinken (Dutch Blind Finches)
Blinde vinken are not birds but a butcher's little joke: seasoned mince tucked into thin veal or beef, browned dark in butter, then braised until the jus tastes of onion, mace, and patience.
Culinary Explorer
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Babi Ketjap
Created by
Pork, sweet soy, ginger, and patience: the Indo-Dutch braise that carried the colonial table into Dutch kitchens and made rice feel like Sunday dinner.
Soups & Stews
Dutch
Comfort Food
Make Ahead
Dinner Party
20 min
Active Time
1 hr 45 min cook•2 hr 5 min total
Yield6 servings
The name already tells you where the pot has travelled. Babi is Malay and Indonesian for pork, ketjap is the old Dutch spelling of kecap, the soy sauce that became a household word in the Netherlands long before many Dutch cooks could pronounce the islands that taught it to them. History and cookery, they cannot be separated, especially when the history is sitting quietly beside a bowl of rice.
But let me tell you a secret. Babi ketjap is not restaurant theatre. It belongs to the Indo-Dutch home table, to the rijsttafel, rice table, yes, but also to ordinary weeknights when one dark, glossy braise could make the kitchen smell of ginger, garlic, clove, and caramel. The Dutch brought back spices and habits, but Indo families brought back memory, and memory is the stronger seasoning.
The method is mercifully simple. Brown the pork properly, let the onions collapse, then give the ketjap time to turn from sweetness into depth. A spoonful of vinegar or tamarind matters because sweet without sour becomes flat, like a story told without its difficult chapter. Hou het altijd simpel: rice, cucumber, sambal if you like heat, and the pot in the middle of the table.
Babi ketjap entered Dutch home cooking through the Indo-Dutch community formed during and after the colonial Netherlands East Indies, especially after Indonesian independence in 1945 and the repatriations of the late 1940s and 1950s. The dish uses kecap manis, Indonesian sweet soy sauce, which Dutch spelling preserved as ketjap and which became common in Dutch supermarkets through Indo shops, household brands, and the popularity of rijsttafel. Because pork is central to the dish, it reflects Chinese-Indonesian and Indo household cooking more than Javanese Muslim foodways, a distinction worth keeping at the table.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
pork shoulder or pork belly
Quantity
1kg
cut into 3cm pieces
neutral oil
Quantity
2 tablespoons
onions
Quantity
2 large
thinly sliced
garlic cloves
Quantity
4
minced
fresh ginger
Quantity
3cm piece
finely grated
red chillies or sambal oelek (optional)
Quantity
2 chillies or 1 teaspoon
sliced
ketjap manis
Quantity
150ml
water or light chicken stock
Quantity
250ml
rice vinegar or tamarind paste
Quantity
2 tablespoons vinegar or 1 tablespoon tamarind
whole cloves
Quantity
2
cinnamon stick
Quantity
1 small
bay leaf
Quantity
1
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
1 teaspoon
salt
Quantity
to taste
cooked white rice
Quantity
to serve
cucumber slices
Quantity
to serve
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| pork shoulder or pork bellycut into 3cm pieces | 1kg |
| neutral oil | 2 tablespoons |
| onionsthinly sliced | 2 large |
| garlic clovesminced | 4 |
| fresh gingerfinely grated | 3cm piece |
| red chillies or sambal oelek (optional)sliced | 2 chillies or 1 teaspoon |
| ketjap manis | 150ml |
| water or light chicken stock | 250ml |
| rice vinegar or tamarind paste | 2 tablespoons vinegar or 1 tablespoon tamarind |
| whole cloves | 2 |
| cinnamon stick | 1 small |
| bay leaf | 1 |
| freshly ground black pepper | 1 teaspoon |
| salt | to taste |
| cooked white rice | to serve |
| cucumber slices | to serve |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy braadpan or Dutch oven, 4-liter or larger
- •Wooden spoon
- •Sharp knife
Instructions
- 1
Brown the pork
Pat the pork dry and season it lightly with salt. Heat the oil in a heavy braadpan, Dutch oven, over medium-high heat and brown the pork in batches until the edges are deep golden. Do not crowd the pan. Pale pork boiled in its own juice will still feed you, but it will not tell the same story.
Pork shoulder gives a cleaner braise; pork belly gives a richer one. Either is honest, but trim away any hard rind before cooking. - 2
Soften the aromatics
Lower the heat to medium and add the onions to the same pan. Cook for ten minutes, scraping up the browned bits, until the onions slump and turn sweet at the edges. Stir in the garlic, ginger, and chilli or sambal, and cook for one minute more, just until the raw sharpness leaves the pan.
- 3
Build the sauce
Return the pork and its juices to the pan. Add the ketjap manis, water or stock, vinegar or tamarind, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf, and black pepper. Stir well and bring it only to a gentle simmer. Ketjap carries sugar, and sugar burns when it is bullied.
- 4
Braise until tender
Cover the pan with the lid slightly ajar and let the pork murmur gently for about one hour and fifteen minutes, stirring now and then. The meat is ready when a piece yields easily under a spoon but has not collapsed into threads. If the liquid drops too low, add a splash of water; this is a braise, not a test of stubbornness.
- 5
Reduce and serve
Remove the lid and simmer for fifteen to twenty minutes more, until the sauce turns dark, glossy, and thick enough to coat the pork. Taste before salting, because ketjap brings salt of its own. Serve with white rice, cucumber slices for coolness, and sambal at the table for those who want the sharper road.
Chef Tips
- •Use ketjap manis, not thin Japanese soy sauce with sugar stirred into it. The texture matters: it should pour slowly, dark and glossy, with soy, palm sugar, and spice already speaking together.
- •Make it a day ahead if you can. The sauce settles overnight, the pork firms slightly, and reheating turns the braise even silkier.
- •Keep the heat low once the ketjap goes in. A fierce boil makes the sugar catch on the bottom, and burnt sweet soy is a hard lesson in a small pan.
- •Serve with plain rice and something cool: cucumber, quick pickled onion, or atjar, Indonesian-Dutch pickled vegetables. The braise is rich enough; the table needs contrast.
Advance Preparation
- •Can be cooked fully one day ahead, cooled, and refrigerated; reheat gently with a splash of water until the sauce loosens and turns glossy again.
- •Keeps three days refrigerated. It freezes well for up to two months, though pork belly will soften more after thawing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 440g)
Calories
765 calories
Total Fat
38 g
Saturated Fat
11 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
24 g
Cholesterol
115 mg
Sodium
1250 mg
Total Carbohydrates
71 g
Dietary Fiber
2 g
Sugars
22 g
Protein
35 g
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