Learning how to cook Balinese

I like to cook almost as much as I like to eat. So, taking a cooking class seemed to be a good way to more deeply understand Indonesian and Balinese food. Leena and I settled on the Bumi Bali restaurant and cooking school, primarily because it had a market tour and seemed to be relatively hands-on.

We arrived at the restaurant and immediately saw the setup. Four chairs (we were joined by two nice Japanese women), each set up a plate, napkin, apron, and cooking book. Hilariously, the cookbook was an American study abroad student's final paper from her time in Bali in 1991. It was a photocopied hand-me-down, and included a note of appreciation for the person (not the student) who handwrote the entire 60 page book, in really neat and tidy handwriting, no less. There was also a mess of ingredients already chopped for the demonstration.

Then we were off to the market. I had walked by the Ubud market many times, but hand only seen row after endless row of mass market handicrafts. Our guide, Ketut*, led us into the back and down a narrow ramp into the basement. This is where the food market was! It was dark, crowded, full of foods of all types, and not that sanitary. We learned about the various veggies and starches the Balinese use. Lots of different kinds of rice including black and brown were present. There were also lots of root spices: ginger, greater galangal, lesser galangal, and whole tumeric, which I had not seen before. There were also some glorious chilies and some dried fish. Moving to the middle of the basement we saw a half of a roast suckling pig (babi guling) just waiting for eaters. We also saw some really large Chinese eggplant (the green ones below). Finally, there was the spice stand with lots, including big pieces of cinnamon and handcrafted graters that looked like little nails pierced through a thin board.

On our way out there was blood literally trickling down the ramp we used to exit, fresh from the recent death of some chickens. We made our way back to the restaurant and began the class. First up, base gede (basic mixed spices), a compound that is used as a marinade and spice rub in many recipes. It had lots included: a ridiculous amount of shallots, long red chilies for color, spicy little chilies for taste, galangal of both types, tumeric, shrimp paste, and more. That all got blended up and sauteed to bring out the flavors, then it sat to mingle a bit more.

Next was the first full dish, sayur urab (mixed vegetable with spicy coconut). This dish combined a slew of vegetables (in our case, cabbage, carrot, spinach, and bean sprout) with a handmixed sambal matteh (uncooked spices of red chiles, shallots, and garlic) and a lot of freshly grated coconut. Leena really took nicely to the grating and I offered up my assistance for the hand-mixing of (as it turned out, still hot from the boiling) vegetables and spices. The result: a pretty tasty, very fresh dish that probably took 15 minutes start to finish.

Third came the tuna sambal matteh (tuna with uncooked spices). This was also sinple and also very fresh and good. We watched ketut take a handful of tuna fillets and season them with live, salt and pepper. Then he fried them on a grill to order (medium-rare here please). Finally, it was topped with the same sambal matteh from the sayur urab. Leena's turn to handmix this one. Nice! So tasty I didn't have time to snap a pic of the final product.

Fourth was the tempe manis (sweet, fried tempeh). Tempeh was all over the food map here, usually sold in bricks that look like large white granola bars. Not that good in this fresh form, it's often sliced and fried, mixed with other things, and served as tempe manis. The tempeh itself was fried in a whole bunch of coconut oil. From there, a bit of sambal matteh is added as well as some palm sugar. The whole thing is mixed in a pan and, voila, you have tempe manis. It was ok - I like mine a little crunchier and with more spice than this version.

Next Ketut started the opor ayam (chicken curry). This was chicken thighs, bone-in; the base gede at 1:4 spices:meat; carrot, potato, and other stewy vegetables; and coconut milk. Apparently, coconut milk is what turns the dish from chicken soup to chicken curry. The chicken and spices were cooked in water up to their height until the soup boiled. Then the vegetables were added for another 30 minutes. Finally, the coconut milk finished the dish as was cooked for 10 minutes. (See photo below with prawn dish.)

The final listed dish was bali sate lilit (minced pork satay). This dish took minced pork and some of the base gede spice rub at the same ratio as previously. This was then made into little meatballs that were carefully spread on the top of thick skewers (both wood and lemongrass stalks). Finally, the satays were lightly fried on all sides until the pork was cooked. These were scrumptious, so much so that Leena and I stole the extras and made sure they found our plates.

We got two extra dishes. The first was a prawn dish with prawns, the spice mix and coconut milk. It was pretty good - I didn't take detailed notes as my sister has made it so I don't cook with prawns. Finally, we had some black rice pudding with coconut milk, a warm and soothing dessert (but it takes too long to prepare, so we just got the finished product).

A pretty good meal. I was surprised how many dishes used one of two combinations of the core spices (base gede and sambal matteh) - while these are tasty they don't offer much variation, which often lied only in the protein used. I was also a little disappointed that there fewer opportunities to actually cook than I had expected. It was more of a "watching cooking" school, with a bit of hand-mixing and sate making but very little cooking on our parts.

*Brief note: In Bali, names are given according to birth order, which goes Wayan, Made, Nyoman, Ketut for, first, second, third, and fourth, respectively. Thus many people are named each name and the various Ketuts, Mades, and Wayans (no Nyomans feature prominently) on my blog are all different people.