Indonesian cooking lessons

Our school is amazing….as part of class you can opt to take a field trip or do a cooking class. Ben and I paid to take an additional lesson and do some cooking! Two of Ben’s teachers, Poppy and Anna took the lead and showed us how to make grilled fish and spicy eggplant. The fish was marinated in the most amazing spices like ginger, palm sugar, chillies, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, garlic, etc. The dishes were quite simple, but the preparation of the marinades and the sambal sauces was the intricate part.

Making the sambal sauce

Ben & Poppy frying the eggplant

The eggplant was placed in salted water and then quickly fried in the wok. It was then covered in the sambal marinade and then put back in to the wok. The Javanese like their food spicy, but also VERY sweet. Kecap manis is the sweet sauce that most of you might know of. Sometimes a little too sweet for me. Less on the sugar, guys!! I learnt very quickly to say “tanpa gula” (without sugar). We also had a lot of fun.

What's a cooking class without aprons?

The finished product

Ibu Wiwik, from my homestay, is also a master chef and really cooks some amazing dishes. We’re always asking what she’s doing, how she does it, ingredients etc etc. She offered to give us a lesson on our last night in Yogyakarta, and we jumped at the chance to learn a bit more of the Javanese cooking style.

We cooked five dishes – Spinach & baby corn soup (Sayur bening bayam), Corn fritters (Bakwan jagung), Stirfried bean sprouts with fried sardines (Oseng-oseng kecambah pakai ikan teri), Crispy fried prawns (Udang tauco) and Nasi bakar (Coconut rice wrapped in banana leaves then grilled).

It was heaps of fun and the best part about it, it tasted really good! I love the coconut rice! The rice is par-boiled in coconut milk and thinly diced corn, carrots and beans and herbs are also added to the rice at the last minute. Once the coconut rice is wrapped it is steamed in the leaves for about 45 minutes and then grilled.

Ben and I practising the rice wrapping process

Wrapping the cooked coconut rice

Voila!

Ibu Wiwik even wrote down the recipes for me so I wouldn’t starve in Bali….how sweet is she?!! I’m going to miss Yogyakarta. I’ve met so many wonderful people whilst living here just in one month – very kind people – from the homestay and from the language school. Not to mention my AVI buddies, Erin and Ben (and late-comer Jane, who arrived from Oz only last week to live and work for a community arts group in Salatiga in central Java). They have been great company and we’ve had many laughs and a few beers along the way too. It really helps to have people you can laugh with and also share the ups and downs of being in a new country with. As much as it probably sounds fantastic to friends back home, there are moments when it can get hard and things are different, and that’s when its nice to have others around you, also feeling the same way. Alas, we have all now parted company, each to our respective new homes for the next year (two years for Erin). I will never forget my time in Yogya!

I read a great article in the Jakarta Post today about the mutual willingness to push harder for better ties between the people of Indonesia and Australia. The Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY for short) came out and said it was time we dropped the “preposterous caricatures and age-old stereotypes” of the image of “white Australia” on the part of Indonesians and the image of Indonesia being a ‘hotbed of Islamic extremism” on the part of Australians. Each country sees the other through a sometimes very narrow, sometimes crass and highly inflamed magnifying glass portrayed by the tabloids. And I agree with SBY….we need to keep pushing to drop the generalisations and stereotypes because it will only make things worse. I would encourage everyone to see Indonesia for themselves. The people here are just like you and me.