Special Tour: Bali Cooking

There are many ways to enjoy your time in Bali. If you like cooking, why don’t you try cooking some Balinese food?

There are many programs you can participate where you canlearn Balinese cooking. One of them I will present here in this blog. Now, I will tell you about few recipes that you can try when you visit Bali.

This cooking program is conducted in a village, at asecluded area surrounded by rice fields. Nothing like classroom. With niceview, and cool rice field breeze you have beautiful memorable experience ofcooking the Balinese food. There are some ladies that assist you with your cooking. What you do is observe them whilethey are doing it, and next try it your self. In that way you can learn how todo it yourself and can apply your new cooking knowledge at home.

Okay, here are the recipes that we will try:

• Yellow Rice.
• Chicken Satay.
• Tumis Kangkung (Water Spinach).
• Tum Be Pasih (steamed Sea Fishwith spices wrapped in banana leafs).

Yellow Rice, the first recipe, which actually kind of ricepresented on special occasions like birthday, or anniversary is made of rice,(of course!) lemon grass, ginger, pandan leaf, coconut milk, turmeric and bayleaf.

How do you cook it? Easy. First, rinse the rice, and cook it.While the rice is cooking, you prepare the other ingredients. You should gratethe coconut and turmeric together and add some water to make coconut milk.Well, it will turn yellow because the turmeric colour. When the rice is halfsteamed, please take it out and place it on a bowl. Or bigger container. Putthe mixed coconut and turmeric on the rice. Put also a piece of ginger (is it apiece..?), a lemon grass, and bay leaf. Next, steam the rice again until it isready. That’s it. Your delicious yellow rice is ready to serve.

The Chicken Satay or Chicken Kebab.You’ll need chicken meat. And also, you will need these: First cut the chicken into little pieces,maybe the size of a lolly. When you finish, take the mortal and vessel, and grind the salt, macademian nut, white pepper and fried garlic together. Onceyou finish, mix them with the chicken meat and add also some sweet Soya beansauce. Next step is putting the meat into the skewers. Put 3 pieces for eachskewer. Done? Okay, head to the griller and grill the chicken satay for 10minutes. You will need coconut oil to put in the satay too. Ten minutes later you are ready with the satay, but still we need the sauce.

For the sauce, here are what we need: big chili ( In Bali we say big chili to refer to bigger size of chili which does not taste hot),tomato, onion and lime. Slice them into small pieces and mix with sweet Soyasauce. Okay, your sauce is ready. (In Bali generally what is used is peanut sauce for the satay, you can also use that. I think it can be easily found in the supermarket. We don’t use it, because some of you may be allergic to peanut).

Tumis Kangkung or Fried Water Spinach. What the heck is water spinach? Water spinach is a kind of vegetables that grow in thewater. We grow this on the rice field in where there are plenty of water. While the name is water spinach, it is nothing like spinach. So, if you are like me, not really fond of spinach, you can try this too. Here you will need (maybe a plate of) water spinach, garlic, onion, coconut oil, big chili, a bit of salt and shrimp paste (shrimp paste, is made of paste, it is for sale in the market or supermarket, if you ask me, it smells like million of dead shrimps, but it does taste nice if you mix it with other suitable food, reminds me of durian).

Okay, here is the first thing you need to do: slice the garlic,onions, big chilies, and tomatoes into small pieces and fry them in a coconut oil. You will need to put the garlic and onions first as they take longer to cook. Next put the big chilies, and tomatoes into the frying pan. Oh, remember also to put the salt and the shrimp paste. Wait until it turns reddish, and just put the water spinach. You can smell the shrimp paste in the air now. Stir it for fifteen minutes. Then, it is ready to serve. Simple.

That’s all the recipes that I can tell you right now. Whatdo you think? Do you have problem in trying them? Can you find all theingredients? Do you know any other Bali food you’d like to try so that I can post it here?

Note: For the fourth recipe, I will post it later with some photos. Thank you.