Indonesia's Petis

"Petis" is the component in the Indonesian cuisine made from soup (usually from pindang, kupang or shrimp) that is heated until liquid becomes thick gravy like sauce that is more dense. In subsequent processing, sugar caramel nut paste added. This causes a dark chocolate color and sweet taste.


Petis tuna and petis lorjuk from Madura Island, East Java

Generally, petis made from shrimp paste and colored dark black. But at Pamekasan, in Madura Island, it made from tuna fish juice that contains protein. And the color is yellowish brown with distinctive taste delicious tuna.

Petis is also can made by lorjuk in Madura Island. Lorjuk is a solid paste from the boiling lorjuk. That is widely used to mix East Java cuisine such as rujak or spice of lontong balap. Almost all the people of East Java and Madura like this petis because of delicious taste.

Petis sapi from Boyolali, Central Java

In addition to shrimp, kupang and lorjuk, at (Boyolali), central Java, Indonesia, as the producer of such products of petis that made from raw cow's fresh milk, dendeng (beef jerky), abon (shredded), skin and rambak (crackers made from cow hide), also known as petis sapi.
Petis made from a byproduct in the manufacturing process of abon (shredded) and dendeng (beef jerky). The smell 'fishy' in this petis is different between petis udang (shrimp), petis kupang with petis sapi (beef).

The typical aroma of petis

Unlike terasi (shrimp paste), that known and consumed by residents of Southeast Asia generally. Petis seems only known in Indonesia. The aroma of petis is very typical. It's different with terasi. Almost all countries in southeast Asia, like Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, know shrimp paste, with a variation of dosage forms, dry, wet or semi-moist, and the name. But the aroma coming out of the shrimp processed the same countries.

How to storage petis?

Basically, the petis is a food product is durable, because the sugar content is high (such as soy sauce). Paste shelf life of 3-12 months, depending on the process of packaging and storage. Once the packaging is opened, in order to remain durable, store in refrigerator. If not, the possibility of paste will be damaged which is characterized by the growth of fungus (mold) on the surface.

Some foods that flavoring or seasoning by petis

Petis was used as a flavoring (seasoning) in some foods such as rujak, rujak cingur, rujak gobet, rujak manis, kupang lontong (Sidoarjo), semanggi suroboyo(Surabaya), lontong balap (Wonokromo, the name of the area in Surabaya), tahu campur(Lamongan) , tahu tek (Lamongan), or campor (Madura). Telor petis is a favorite home dishes in Surabaya.

Source:
http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petis
http://www.wpi.dkp.go.id/epaper/wpi0310/pages/maret10.pdf