We met Dewa
Jana and his young son Nata in the “White Kitchen” and it was obvious they had
been busy preparing for our visit as they had the ingredients all measured and
laid out in readiness, it looked amazing.
As did the pavilion which is the White Kitchen, which had been renovated
and made big enough to accommodate large crowds, back in 2002 according to Made
to allow them to have all the village people that assist them throughout the
year over when there are ceremonies to celebrate. It was Dewa that saw an opportunity for the
family to utilise the area in conducting their cooking classes, which began
approximately 14 months ago, given so many of the family have backgrounds in
hospitality and Dewa is a qualified chef and this fantastic facility, they had
to be off to a great start and their professionalism showed throughout the day.
I took to
Dewa, like a duck to water, it is like that sometimes when you meet people, he
was so very humble, patient and his skills were first class, both as a chef and
as a coach, and to top it all off he has an infectious smile, just one of the
many things he has passed down to his chip off the block, Nata!
After the
introductions, we were all fitted out with aprons and clothes, to work with, I got an apron with short
strings, so I could not wrap it around twice like everyone else, but the once
around did the job! Given we were now
ready for work, Dewa took us over the days menu, again I was impressed, eight
items listed in all, I was getting very excited now, excited to cook and to
eat, today was going to be very special!
We started
with Chef Dewa taking us through the various ingredients and giving us a few
tips on the techniques we would be using, and a little about managing time to
ensure we brought our meal all together at the right time, then he asked for a
volunteer to be in charge of cooking the rice, to my surprise it was Jo that
put her hand up first.
Dewa explained
the rice would take an hour and fifteen minutes to cook, and that he had soaked
the rice in water for the past 20 minutes, the rice would now be steamed for 20
minutes, then removed in to a bowl and have another 2 cups of water added to it,
then allowed soaked for 15 minutes, he would then add finely diced sweet potato
before returning it to the steamer for another 25 – 30 minutes cooking. He was very passionate about the way the rice
was cooked and was onto Jo if she had missed the timing on any step, needless
to say the rice was perfect when it was finally served.
Once the
rice was on to steam we were shown to our cutting boards and the various trays
of ingredients were feted out to sliced or diced, depending on which dish they
were for. I was happily slicing shallots
and garlic when Dewa walked by and commented that I was doing a great job,
puffing my chest out I got stuck in to show him exactly what I could do and
proceeded to slice my finger, and it bled like a stuck pig, no more than 2
minutes after being told to be careful as the knifes were sharp! Poor Ed, the other chap with us not being a
cook of any sort, went to jelly be became so nervous, I was patched up and the
show went on.
Having
prepped all the ingredients it was time to cook, first thing on the stove was
the peanuts for the satays sauce, quickly followed by the base spice paste
which was going to be for the Ayam Bakar Bumbu Bali, or BBQ marinated chicken
in spicy coconut sauce. When Dewa
explained this dish, he started off telling us it is best to kill and clean the
chicken earlier in the morning, so the meat is at its best, I was really glad
that had been done earlier! As the
ladies cooked these sauces we boys were kept busy grinding spices and nuts for
the remaining dishes, as we went through Dewa would pick something up, like a
jar of palm sugar syrup and as we had not prepared the ingredient, he would
take the time to explain exactly how it was made, these little tips were worth their
weight in gold and I found along the way the Tamarind sauce I made a few weeks
ago, was made exactly as it should have been, I was happy!
I got to
make the soup, cooked the tuna for the salad, cooked the tomato sambal and made
the marinade for the pork satays, which was whisked away and threaded onto
skewers by Nata and another young lass in the kitchen. As we were doing this, Made had returned and
was out the back firing up the BBQ by burning coconut husks. We took the marinaded chicken to him and
whilst it BBQ’d some of us basted the meat, alongside the BBQ was a herb garden,
having asked if a certain plant was ginger, Made came across and explained each
of the plants and fruit trees above them, it was very interesting, especially
when he pulled up a peanut plant to show us the peanuts.
The BBQ’d chicken was brought back to the kitchen and cooked a second time in a spicy coconut sauce, I took charge of a beautiful tuna steak which I was told had to be medium rare, so just golden on each side, as I was cooking the other ingredients for this salad were prepared, once cooked the tuna sliced and gently tossed through.
Before we
knew it all the dishes had come together and seem to appear on a long table all
set for serving, as we were admiring our work, as if timed to perfection, Made’s
mother reappeared with a tray carrying the baskets which were almost ready for
the offering, which would be made before we would sit to eat, but we had to be
dressed appropriately for this part of the day, whilst Made prepared himself to
explain the offering, we were dressed in sarongs and prepared to assist in the
offering.
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