July 2, 2010 Manggis, Bali: The Cooking Class

When we returned to the hotel from our visit to the market, we found the large center table in the dining room set up with burners, ulekan stones for grinding, woks, and ingredients laid out in small plastic dishes. We each donned an apron and settled into a work station.

After a short introduction to the ingredients we would be using and the various kinds of rice (5 out of the 12 kinds grown in Bali) and beans available in Bali, our first task was to make Bumbu Bali, a splendid combination of ginger, garlic, shallots, kencur, galengal, fresh turmeric, lemongrass, hot red chiles, candlenuts, nutmeg, tamarind, palm sugar, dried salam leaves, and shrimp paste. These ingredients, ground into a paste, form the basis for many Balinese dishes. Look at the next blog for more information and pictures.

Once the Bumbu Bali was simmering, we began to work our way through the remaining recipes, carefully following Chef Santika’s instructions.

Sate ayam, Chicken Skewers and Bumbu kacang, Peanut Sauce. These are the very same skewered bits of chicken you can find at any Thai restaurant. Peanut Sauce isn't really necessary because the chicken is marinated in the Bumbu Bali before being grilled. However, our chef chose to teach it to us because he knows that foreigners are so fond of it. Just delicious.

Cumi cumi isi bumbu Bali, Braised Squid Filled with Chopped Prawns. The top part of the squid is used as a pocket, filled with finely chopped prawns, closed with a toothpick, and steamed quickly. Meanwhile a sauce of Bumbu Bali, coconut milk, red chiles, tamarind paste, sweet soy sauce, and oyster sauce is simmered together. Before serving, it is poured over the squid.

Kare tahu dan tempe, Curry of Tofu and Soybean Cake with Long Beans and Jackfruit. Long beans are green beans almost a yard long.  I think they're tastier than our regular short green beans. The curry sauce is composed of Bumbu Bali, coconut milk, lemongrass, and a salam and a lime leaf. Once the tofu, tempe, and whatever vegetables you desire are stirred in, you can season it with tamarind, sweet soy sauce, and regular soy sauce. I loved the tofu part—I’m not so sure about tempe.

Sayur daun singkong, Cassava Leaves Braised in Coconut Milk. We stirred together the Bumbu Bali with a tomato and salt and then added the coconut milk and lemongrass until we had a delicious sauce to which we added greens (cassava or spinach or fern tips), the sweet soy sauce and some tamarind. This was a wonderful dish.

Nasi goreng, Indonesian Fried Rice. Each of us made our very own Nasi goreng using our wok and burner. When we finished, we packed the rice, chicken and shrimp mixture into a coconut shell bowl and turned it over onto our plates, forming a nice round mound. We decorated the mound with deep fried shallots and strips of egg.

The lunch was fantastic.

July 2, 2010 Klungkung, Bali: To Market, To Market

The four of us, Katherine, Ben and Stephanie, and me, signed up to take a Balinese cooking class taught by chef Nyoman Santika at our hotel. The class itself was preceded by a trip to the large market in Klungkung, maybe a thirty-minute drive from the hotel.

The market was just splendid: an incredible mixture of fruits, vegetables (jicama pictured), cooking oil in reused water bottles, fish, live animals, beans, snacks, sundries, and cooking equipment. We didn’t get close to the slaughtering area—steered clear by our concierge and guide, Ardika, who must have been worried about our squeamish foreign stomachs.

I had taken along the list of ingredients I was trying to find in Berkeley that would enable me to cook Balinese food at home. I had been surprisingly successful at Ranch 99, an Asian mall and grocery store in Richmond, and at the Berkeley Bowl. But there were a few things on my list that I hadn’t been able to find and had no idea what they looked like. All questions were answered during the course of the market visit. It was great.

This market opens around 1:00am—yes, that’s right. 1:00am. Traditionally women, who are the primary cooks in the households, get up very early to do their shopping and come back home to cook the food before preparing the offerings for the day. (Men cook for ceremonies because the women are occupied with making more complicated offerings.) The food pretty much stays on simmer for the day. Whenever a family member is hungry, he or she will come into the kitchen, prepare a bowl of food, and retire to a quiet spot to consume it. The family doesn’t all sit down to eat at the same time except on ceremonial occasions (which are pretty numerous in this culture).

This custom of eating the same food whether it is early morning or late in the afternoon explains what I noticed on our hotel menus. Some of the dishes were offered on all three menus: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Mie goreng (Stir Fried Noodles with Vegetables) and Nasi goreng (Fried Rice) in various forms were available at all three meals. Being a person who loves savory dishes for breakfast, I couldn’t have been happier. Many dishes are offered for both lunch and dinner with no difference in the size of the servings. Jererak ayam (Chicken in Coconut Sauce), for example, was available for lunch and dinner. It seems that porridges with a rice base are most often offered for breakfast, although porridges and soups show up on lunch menus as well.

In almost every village you pass through, you’ll see roosters in bamboo cages, like large loosely-woven baskets turned upside down over the roosters. The market at Klungkung was no exception. Turns out these roosters are used in ceremonial fights to the death on special temple occasions but are also used in village contests which involve gambling, illegal in Bali. The illegality doesn’t seem to stop the fights. In the market there was a circle of men holding their prized roosters. They let two loose to “practice.” As soon as the cocks got too close to each other, the owners scooped them up.

Back to the hotel for our cooking class.

July 1, 2010 Manggis, Bali: A Trek through the Rice Fields

Three of us from the hotel, Katherine, Bev from Adelaide, Australia, and me, set out with our guide Toto to take what we thought was an easy walk through rice paddies, scheduled to take two hours and twenty minutes.

In the van on the way to the trail head, we saw monkeys and ducks on the road and close by two golden cows and their master plowing a field. “We are not in Hawaii,” we said to ourselves.

Shortly after we reached the trail and our van with umbrellas disappeared into the distance, it started to rain—improbably and unexpectedly given that June and July are not part of the rainy season. Our guide, ever resourceful, cut each of us a banana leaf to hold over our heads. Problem solved. And off we went.

Over a rickety bamboo bridge, up a steep trail to a water channel used for irrigating the rice paddies, and through the rice paddies themselves.

These rice paddies have been terraced in these hills for more than a thousand years. The water system, a complex and ingenious network of irrigation channels, tunnels and aqueducts, is organized into water-sharing communities called subak. These regional communities make the decisions that determine how the water is allocated for each field under cultivation. Given that rice is the primary staple of the Balinese diet, the success of the crop is extremely important and water is, of course, crucial.

Looking at these terraces there is nothing to remind us of the 21st century: men working the fields by hand, no visible power lines, lunch carried to them on a fellow villager’s shoulders. (Lunch is wrapped in plastic but that’s it.)

All along the way Toto told us stories about the flora and fauna. He has a wealth of information at his fingertips and we were enthralled: red pineapples, mimosas closing up with our touch, shrines to the rice goddess, Dewi Sri, all the uses of coconut palms, etc. I am standing next to a rice goddess shrine.

About mid-way, the 21st century happily resurfaced in the form of a small shop with a much-appreciated outdoor toilet. An elderly fellow was playing a bamboo instrument called a rindik.

We continued through a small village whose clean water system was built by Engineers without Borders and then down an impossibly narrow, stony, and slick trail to the ancient village of Tenganan where pigs and sacred black cows were making themselves perfectly at home in the streets and temples.

We stopped along the main street to visit the studio of a weaver whose specialty was double ikat.

Back at the hotel four and a half hours from our departure—about two hours longer than anticipated, refreshed with frozen towels provided by the driver of our van, we are weary but proud trekkers. I am hugely grateful to Toto who held my hand down the trail, step by precarious step. It was a marvelous adventure.

sekadar renungan buat mereka yg masih mencari

poster taken from - blues untuk aku

mungkin dia adelah jodoh terbaek untuk kau.

tp die mungkin bukan untuk kau.

mungkin dia bukanlah jodoh terbaek untuk kau.

tapi mungkin die adelah untuk kau.

ainaaamira

28 julai 2010

Saga Sig makes me dream.

Maybe you don't know this gorgeous woman named Saga Sig. She's a photographer, and I really adore her artwork.
Saga is from Iceland, one of the most gorgeous places in this planet; but she's based at London.

Her art is a mixture of dreams, childhood, fairies, magic and love; if you don't believe me, just have a look at this gorgeous editorial for FLUX mag...

(more pictures here)

Or this shoots, from an editorial called Minnie...

Or Kron by KronKron shoes campaing...

Don't you wanna dream and fly away?

For more gorgeous pictures, visit SAGA SIG homepage.

Chorizo Stuffed Veal Chop

  

  
While the last recipe I posted came from Twitter, this came from a more 20th century source of a food magazine.  This Food & Wine recipe actually appeared in October 2005.  I clip recipes I like and put them into a binder (three actually at this point).  In this case, I am now just getting around to making this recipe.  Tastes come and go and moods evolve with the seasons.  I do have several stuffed veal recipes and I finally focused on this one last weekend.  They are all similar, with a green base, in this case spinach, mushrooms, cheese, and herbs.  Many include a pork product like pancetta or prosciutto.  This recipe is unique in its inclusion of chorizo.  The recipe write-up describes it as luxurious and indeed, how could a recipe with veal, pork and cheese not be?  The original recipe suggested a crispy fried polenta.  I paired it with a traditional polenta.  I think either is a nice balance to the veal versus potato as the starch.  Serves 2.  Enjoy!
    
Ingredients:
2" length of thick Spanish chorizo
4 tbsp olive oil
2 white mushrooms, stemmed and thinly sliced
salt/pepper
1 medium leek, white parts only, sliced thinly crosswise
1 cup baby spinach
2 tbsp pecorino cheese, coarsely grated
2 thick veal chops
1/2 cup Pinot Noir
1 cup chicken stock
1 tbsp butter
    
Directions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.  Bring a small saucepan of water to a boil.  Add the chorizo and simmer over low heat until softened, about 5 minutes.  Transfer chorizo to a plate and let cool.  Chop the chorizo into 1/4" cubes.  In a medium skillet, heat 2 tbsp of oil over medium heat.  Add the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper and cook until lightly browned, about 5 minutes.  Add the leaks, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add the chorizo, stir and cook a minute longer.  Add the spinach, stir, and allow to wilt, about 3 minutes.  Transfer the stuffing to a bowl and let cool.  Stir in the cheese.
Cut the veal chops horizontally from the outside edge toward the bone to create to flaps.  Use a mallet to pound the flaps to about 1/4" thick.  Place portions of stuffing between the two flaps and then close the edges and seal with toothpicks pinned on the edge.  Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a skillet over medium high heat.  Add the stuffed chops and brown on one side, about 5 minutes.  Turn the chops and put the skillet in the oven to finish cooking, 5 to 8 minutes.  When the chops are done, remove to a plate and discard the excess fat from the skillet.  Deglaze the pan with the red wine, scraping up any browned bits.  Bring to a boil and reduce to 1 tbsp.  Add the chicken stock and simmer down by half.  Turn off the heat and whisk in the butter.  Plate the chops and drizzle the sauce on top.  Serve. 
      

A Little Obsessed

I've been a little lot obsessed lately. Tick-Tock-Tick-Tock

Little Treasures

These are a glimpse of what's to come in my new Etsy Store. (click to view larger)

menjajah negeri orang

Hello my beloved fellas!
How are you today? Im so sleepy now. zzz
But i dont wanna fall asleep because my boss around. hihi.

Nah dari pada denger gue berngantuk-ngantuk ria, lebih baik kita bunuh diri wahai saudara saudari yang saya kurang sayangi. *PLOK PLOK PLOK*
Gue mau sedikit sharing.
Pernah tau kisah kegigit lidah, hmm umpama yang salah, menjilat ludah sendiri.
Gue pernah mati-matian ngebenci Belanda, negara penjajah yang menyiksa orang bodoh di negeri kita.

Tapi kini *ceilah*, gue justru jatuh cinta pada negara kecil yang luar biasa. 40% daratan mereka ciptakan sendiri, itupun total luasnya hanya sebesar Jawa Barat.
Tapi lihat dari segi manapun mereka adalah negara yang indah.
Kendaraan utama adalah sepeda. Dari direktur sampai tukang sampah sekalipun.
Pendidikannya terdepan di Eropa. Teknologinya matang dan terencana sempurna.
Kreatifitasnya patut diacungi jempol. Sepak bolanya bagus. Tidak suka merokok.
Negara yang jadi idaman, kecuali soal kebebasannya dalam segi atheis dan homoseksual ya.

Itulah mengapa gue jadi terinspirasi ingin bersemedi sejenak disana.
Gue mau menjajah mereka. Bukan seperti mereka menjajah bangsa kita.
Tapi mau menyelami dan menebar benih. alaaah. Geje abis.

Betapa indah dan pintarnya mereka. hi hi hi.
Thats why, akhir september nanti gue akan mulai kelas di erasmus. kursus bahasa belanda.

foto-foto from www.old-picture.com and google.