I took my clients to Madam Puspa’s house to attend her Balinese cooking lesson. We learned to cook Balinese food such as chicken satay, mixed vegetables, Balinese chicken curry, and kolak pisang for dessert. It was really fun to watch the tourists, mostly from Australia, practicing Balinese cooking. For me, though, the taste had been toned down to make it less spicy for the tourists; otherwise, they might suffer from Bali belly or stomach upset.
The class consisted of a group of Australians, two Canadians, and an Arabic family. The staff introduced herself as the teacher, while others worked as cooking assistants. Everyone stood behind a long table where the staff had laid out all the ingredients and spices to be used.
In the middle of the table, there was a section with built-in gas stoves for cooking certain ingredients. This section was covered with wood when not in use, making the table look normal. This was also where the cutting of vegetables and spices took place.
There are about five recipes to try. First is to make ingredietnts omade of various spices, The staff introduce the spices for exampe galengal, aromatic galengal, peanuts,turmeric, lime, shallot, garlic, big chili (which was not as spicy as small chilli), coconut, the local ingredients that we used a lot in Balinese cooking, the shrimp paste. Then the vegetbles such as been sprout, long bean and cabbage. The begin by grinding the spices, shredding coconut to make coconut milk, and also grinding the peanut to make peanut sauces for cooking gado-gado ( steam vegetables in peanut sauce). Next they also make the satay (called the satay lilit) It is kind of kebab where minced chicken meat were wrapped in a skewer to be grilled later.
The teacher was very friendly and made all the participants feel welcome and enjoy the cooking lesson. Madam Puspa herself (the owner of the class and truly the master, I should say) came later to greet everyone and teach how to prepare the dessert.
So, here is something you can try when you visit Bali next time.