I LOVE OMELETS

Ever since I started Yummy Supper, I have wanted to do a post on my love of omelets, which may just be my favorite meal for lunch, breakfast, or dinner for that matter.  You can stuff them with greens, mushrooms, asparagus, crab, cheese, or keep it light and simple with just a bit of herbs. My mom has always made incredible omelets and she taught me her ways when I was a teenager. People can be quite opinionated about the "right" way to make an omelet.  I'm not so sure I buy into dogmas, but I do know that this is an omelet I love - the eggs are nice and fluffy, while the inside is tender and filled with goodies.



SPINACH + FETA OMELET (makes two)
(printable recipe)

• large bunch spinach, leaves removed and cleaned
• 1 small hot chili (optional), finely chopped
• 4 small or 2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 3 tablespoon butter (1 for cooking the spinach + 2 more tablespoons for cooking the eggs)
• 4 tablespoons crumbled feta
• 4 large or 6 small eggs
• salt 
• pepper

First, prep all of your ingredients for filling.  In a large saute pan, heat 1 teaspoon olive oil with 1 tablespoon butter over medium heat until bubbling. Add chili, garlic, and shallots. Cook a minute or two until everything starts to soften. Add the washed spinach leaves (we used beautiful water spinach - an ubiquitous ingredient in Bali - but any spinach would be wonderful.) Stir to coat. Saute until tender. Remove cooked spinach from heat and set aside to cool a bit. When the spinach is cool enough to handle, squeeze out any excess water. (If you don't, you'll end up with a sad, watery omelet.) Rough chop spinach and separate into 2 piles. Set aside.

Crumble feta. Set up two equal sized piles of cheese (2 tablespoons each).

Most people who regularly cook omelets have a pan they use just for this purpose. A little well-seasoned cast iron pan with rounded sides is my favorite at home in California. In Bali, where we made omelets at least once a week for lunch, we used a non-stick pan and it worked just fine.

In a small mixing bowl, thoroughly whisk 2 large, or 3 small, eggs. Add a pinch of salt (you may not need any salt at all if your feta is really salty), a few grinds from the pepper mill, and a splash of water. Whisk to integrate.

Here's the way my mom taught me, and this is the method I will pass on to my kids. I hope you like it too!

All of the cooking happens in a number of minutes so be patient with yourself if you are new to cooking omelets.....

Warm pan over medium heat. Plop in a tablespoon of butter. Tilt pan to coat all sides with the butter. When butter is hot and the bubbling has slowed, pour in eggs. Again, tilt the pan to spread the eggs evenly over the bottom of the pan.

When the eggs begin to cook, and big bubbles form, start the technique I show in the photos below: Use a wooden spoon to pull back the eggs from the side of the pan, then tilt the pan letting the runny egg fill the void....

Do this in three or four places until you have a nice, rumpled surface....

 Then add cheese....

Then spinach....

Then flip that omelet out of the pan and you are ready to eat.

Enjoy!

Makes 2 omelets.  

Travel note: We made it to the Greek Islands - so dreamy, yet completely different from Bali. Will have photos to share soon...

SWEET POTATO FRIES

I cannot believe we are leaving Bali next week! I keep having dreams about Berkeley and I already feel part of myself transitioning to that other life of ours. Even though we have another month of travel before we step foot in California, I feel in limbo. I am totally excited to see Bangkok, Greece, and Turkey, but after ten months on the road, I am also happy to be coming home.

I am putting together a few more posts from Indonesia to share with you in the coming weeks. These Sweet Potato Fries are the first...

As I have mentioned before, we are always trying to get creative about snacks for Otis and Lilah, who seem to be having continual growth spurts accompanied by insatiable appetites. A while back, our friend Johnny loaned us this little, light-weight box of an oven that rests on top of our two-burner stove. I thought you might get a kick out of this clever invention.



As you might imagine, we were thrilled to have an oven. We baked many batches of cookies and started regularly roasting veggies for supper.  The temp gauge wasn't exactly accurate and some corners of the oven were way hotter than others, so we've had to be pretty flexible about the whole affair. But who cares - we had an oven!

Recently The Notorious Experiments posted gorgeous sweet potato fries, which totally inspired me. Then I saw more yummy fries at A Chow Life.  I thought, why can't we make some of those here in Bali? Always a sucker for dishes using only 3 ingredients, I ended up doing a very simplified version of the fries. I hope you'll give coconut oil a try. It gives such a subtle sweetness that works beautifully with the sweet potatoes.


INGREDIENTS
(Printable Recipe)

• a few tablespoons of coconut oil (or olive oil would work here)
  
• 2 large sweet potatoes
• plenty of sea salt

Preheat oven to 425-450 degrees.

Peel sweet potatoes and cut into french fry-style sticks. Place potato pieces in a bowl and toss with coconut oil and a few pinches of salt to coat.

Scatter fries on a baking sheet (I did some batches using tin foil to cover the baking sheet, but finally gave up on the foil finding it unnecessary.) Place fries in the hot oven. After about 7 or 8 minutes, remove fries and turn them over to insure even cooking on all sides. Bake for a total of 15-20 minutes (depending on thickness of fries) until potatoes are tender and cooked through.

Sprinkle with additional sea salt. Serve. Enjoy!

Okay. Some of my fries are a little burnt, but I am doing the best I can with this funky oven! Otis and Lilah didn't complain at bit.

LEMONGRASS + GINGER GRANITA

Happy Mother's Day to all my favorite mamas out there, and especially to my own mom!

There are no Hallmark Cards or tear-jerking commercials to remind the Balinese that this is a day to celebrate mothers - I can only imagine how completely strange they would find this entire holiday. In Bali there are daily rituals and countless elaborate ceremonies to honor ancestors, nature, and spirits, but no Mother's Day. I am not complaining. In so many ways, the past eight months of travel have felt like one long Mother's Day for me; all this family time has been a dream, and every day I am grateful to be Otis and Lilah's mom. Okay, now I'm getting all sappy on you!

Let's get to a recipe that is easy enough for kids to make for/or with their moms....

Granitas make me happy - I love recipes that leave room for improvisation while still being reliable in their deliciousness. P, the kids, and I are devotees of this always-refreshing and easy-to-make dessert.

Since we hit the road last August and haven't always had the best equipped kitchens, granitas have become our favorite after dinner treat: we made ruby red grapefruit in Northern Australia; pineapple in Fiji; elderflower in New Zealand; and now, lemongrass granita here in Bali. Always curious to see food at its source, P and I took a shady walk along the rice fields just north of Ubud to visit Mr. Nomad's organic veggie farm. There was plenty of lemongrass sprouting and P remarked that maybe we could try growing this fragrant herb at home in Berkeley this fall.

Continuing our granita making tradition, I wonder what flavor we will make next month in Corfu when celebrate Abby's birthday. What delights will a Greek Island farmer's market have in June? I cannot wait to find out.

Note: Be sure to make your granita at least a few hours before you want to serve it. The freezing process takes a while.

SPICY QUINOA WITH TANGERINES, PISTACHIOS, AND HERB PUREE

Here in Bali, we've been buying these tangerines for months now and I still am awed every time I cut one open - the contrast of the ultra-dark green skin and the bright ripe orange interior is a thing of beauty. I wanted to celebrate these stunners with a recipe for you, and I came up with this new dish that I am crazy about.

I knew I wanted to make something with quinoa, tangerines, and pistachios. After adding a little of this and a little more of that, we have a recipe that is sweet, savory, spicy, salty, and wholesome all in one bowl.

In order to get the kids to eat this dish, I served all the elements separately. Lilah, favoring pistachios and tangerine slices, ate everything but the spicy dressing. Otis helped make the puree and loved everything but the feta. P and I doused our quinoa in the verdant puree and liberally sprinkled every goody over the top. We all went back for seconds - success!

This quinoa could easily be a vegetarian main course and I think it would make a delicious accompaniment for simple grilled chicken, or a whole roasted fish.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups quinoa (brown rice can also be used in this recipe)
• 1/3 cup fresh tangerine juice
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 4 teaspoons lime juice (approximately 3 limes)
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• pinch of fresh ground black pepper
• 1 or 2 jalapenos, de-seeded and chopped
• 1 (loosely packed) cup fresh cilantro leaves + extra for garnish
• 1/2 (loosely packed) cup fresh mint leaves + extra for garnish
• 1/2 cup pistachios
• 2 large, or 4 small tangerines
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta

 

Rinse quinoa several times. Then combine quinoa with 3 cups of water in a large sauce pan. Bring water to a boil. Cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until grain is tender and cooked. Rinse with cold water. Let cool to room temp.

Place tangerine juice, olive oil, lime juice, 1 teaspoon salt, black pepper, chopped jalapeno, 1 cup cilantro leaves, and 1/2 cup mint leaves into a blender. Blend until you have a nice vibrant green puree.

Prepare tangerines: Peel 2 large (or 4 small) tangerines. I kept the peels on for the photographs because I just love the look (and my one and only knife here is duller than you can imagine!), but I wouldn't recommend eating that much peel in the salad. Check out this post, for a really easy way to slice citrus for salad.  Or, if you happen to have tangerines with tender membranes, you can just peel them and use the sections unsliced. Set aside tangerine slices/sections.

If you have picky little eaters, serve all ingredients separately. Otherwise, toss room temperature quinoa and dressing together. Scoop a mound of dressed quinoa onto each plate. Scatter tangerine, pistachios, feta, and the remaining fresh herbs over the top.

Enjoy!

makes 4- 6 servings as a side dish, or 2-3 large mains

SAVORY BROWN RICE BALLS WITH OLIVES

Our time here in the world’s rice belt has shown us new rice varietals and inspired fresh recipes in our kitchen.  Today's recipe comes from our friends Johnny and Cath at Bali Eco Stay. An Italian, foodie friend of theirs introduced the rice balls to their resort kitchen and I had to bring them to yours. Using brown rice and herbs seems a healthy and modern twist on classic, Italian "Arancini," a Sicilian dish meaning "little orange" which dates back to the 10th century. I have always loved Arancini, though this is the first time I have made them myself. I adore this recipe and look forward to using it all sorts of ways. Maybe using red rice instead of brown? Different herbs, or even spinach? Mushrooms? Sun dried Tomatoes? Feta? Who knows, but the potential for deliciousness seems endless.

Rice has been a dominant theme of our time here in Bali. We are living right on the rice fields, have watched the green plants grow, then yellow for harvest time. Now our field lies fallow. The ducks have come to work their magic. As I write this, the hum of the tractor - prepping the field for a new crop - is working its way to our doorstep.

I do love seeing where our food comes from. Rice, just ready for harvest, is a golden delight I had to share with you and I think you'll love the rice balls!

INGREDIENTS adapted from Bali Eco Stay
(printable recipe)

• 1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice, still warm
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• 1/2 cup chopped basil
• 6 large green olives, pitted and chopped
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan
• 1 tsp paprika
• 3 red chilies (medium hot), finely chopped 
• 1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste if necessary
• pepper, to taste
• white rice flour
• 2 eggs
• brown rice flour
• raw coconut oil or other high heat oil

While your brown rice is cooking on the stove top, prep all ingredients. Place chopped herbs, olives, grated Parm, paprika, chilies, salt and pepper into a large bowl.

Take hot cooked rice and add it to the bowl. Using a wooden spoon, stir all ingredients to integrate. Taste for seasoning. I must warn you that the mixture is so good at this point, you will be temped to stop here and have risottoesque meal and be very very happy.

When the mixture is cool enough to handle, mold the rice into balls. Set aside.

Set out three low bowls for dredging. One with white rice flour. One with whisked raw egg. One with brown rice flour.

Take each rice ball and first roll it lightly in the white rice flour, then the egg, then the brown rice flour. You are ready to cook.

Heat coconut oil in a large frying pan. You want your oil to be hot and bubbly, but not smoking. The hot coconut oil smells so good!

Place four to five balls in the hot oil, with ample space between. Turn a few times until golden brown all over.  Remove the cooked balls from the oil and let cool a bit on paper towels, which will soak up any excess oil.

Add a sprinkling of salt if you desire. Serve warm with a leafy green salad.


Enjoy!

FRESH LIME FIZZ

What is it about Bali that makes us happy?  The tropical weather, colorful temples, family time, verdant landscape, open smiles, slowness. As I wrote a couple weeks ago, I am thinking of ways to take some of the magic of this trip home with us to Berkeley. Obviously we cannot take home the Balinese climate, amazing people, or their unique culture. But maybe the small joys of this place could work their way into our Berkeley lives, and into your kitchens as well!

On every menu in Bali, there is a list of fresh fruit drinks to choose from: papaya, watermelon, lime, pineapple, banana, lemon, etc... For Lilah, my 7 year old, these enticing drink menus even inspired her to really learn to read. All four of us guzzle down some kind of juicy concoction whenever we go out to eat. I try to avoid Sodas, filled with high fructose corn syrups and unpronounceable chemicals, but indulging in something cool, fresh, and homemade is a habit I would like to cultivate. We may not have ample tropical fruit available in Northern California, but we do have citrus, and plenty of it.

Almost daily, I have been making these Fresh Lime Fizzes for P, the kids, and myself. Seeing just how easy it is to whip up a "soda" at home makes me realize there is no excuse not to have citrus fizzes as a regular treat no matter where you are.

Wanting to keep these fizzes on the healthy side,  I tried them with honey instead of simple syrup. Paul liked the taste, but for me the flavor was a bit medicinal. I much prefer the simple syrup.

When we get home to Berkeley, I am going to get Otis' old fashion spritzer working so we can even make the sparkling water ourselves.

RICE FLOUR PANCAKES

Being that we are spending 5 months living on the edge of a rice field, it seems appropriate to share a recipe to mark the harvest in our field. When we first arrived in Bali in January, our field was a young, deep, dewy green. We have watched stalks grow higher, eventually displaying cascades of rice.  Recently the plants yellowed as their life cycle came to an end; and, last week, the farmers harvested the plot outside our door.

I am embarrassed to admit that these crepe-like pancakes are a daily indulgence for us here in Bali. Lilah prefers hers with a sprinkling of coconut sugar. P and I top ours with yogurt and fresh fruit. Otis takes his plain. With just a pour of palm sugar syrup - the pancakes are simply delicious...

VEGGIE FRITTERS

We are now two thirds of the way through our trip and we've begun to talk of going home. Of course the kids have already planned our first California meals. Otis wants to stop at Picante for grub on his way home from the airport, even before stepping foot in our house.

I look forward to being with friends and neighbors. I am curious to see our garden and I cannot wait to sleep in our comfy bed.

But I am also nervous about leaving our trip behind. Getting this much time with Paul and the kids is a dream that isn't a realistic scenario in Berkeley. I have never seen my family happier, more relaxed, and inspired. P and I talk a lot about how to weave some of this trip's experience into our lives back home. Maybe not filling the calendar with play dates and activities - staying spontaneous. Slowing down to thoroughly enjoy the family time we do have. We know we need to make traveling a regular part of our lives and we already talk about where we to go next year. Otis and Lilah vote for a return to Bali. They have so many friends here, are speaking more and more Bahasa Indonesia, and this lush island feels a lot like home.
 
In these next three months, I still have many tastes to share with you including these delectable Veggie Fritters...

A while back I wrote about a cooking class I took with with Dr. Kekada. Remember that creamy Chai latte? Well, there's more tastiness where that came from.

Dr. Kekada is an Ayurvedic doctor - for her food is medicine. According to Kekada, this "medicine" should be full of flavor as well as health. My girlfriends and I devoured a feast she made for us, and these veggie fritters (Pakora) dipped in Fresh Mint Chutney was the favorite dish for all.

I love that these fritters are not at all doughy - they are wonderful mix of mostly leafy greens and spices, with chickpea flour for binding. Simple, healthy and flavorful all at the same time.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups white or yellow onion, sliced
• 2 packed cups, chopped amaranth greens or kale
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 3/4 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
• 2 cups chickpea flour
• 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 3/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• raw coconut oil

MINT CHUTNEY

As most of you know, I am a sucker for fresh herbs and mint is one of my favorite ingredients. Here in Bali,  I am especially loving cooking with mint - just a taste of its flavor and I feel refreshed in the heat.

This Mint Chutney was part of a delicious spread cooked for us by Dr. Sujatha Kekada. She served the chutney as a dipping sauce for her Pakora. The cool minty goodness was a wonderful contrast to warm fried Veggie Fritters.

I think this sauce has potential to find other uses. I imagine it would be lovely served with grilled fish. Kekada also says the this recipe works well with cilantro replacing the mint. Yum.


INGREDIENTS

• 2 packed cups fresh mint leaves
• 1 cup shredded fresh coconut (or 1/3 cups dry coconut re-hydrated in water)
• 1/2 glass room temperature water
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• optional: 1/2 fresh hot chili

Simply place all ingredients in a blender and puree for 3 minutes.

Serve. It's that easy!

BALINESE TEA CAKES

Last fall in the mountains of Bali, we tasted a local delicacy that we ended up dreaming about for months: lak lak, small crumpet-like cakes made from rice flour.  P, the kids, and I were all smitten and found ourselves scarfing down these Balinese tea cakes as though we hadn't eaten in ages. When we returned to Mount Batukaru last month, we knew we had to eat more lak lak. Johnny, our ever-gracious host at Bali Eco Stay, not only plied us with daily doses of these fresh Balinese cakes topped with palm sugar syrup and shredded coconut, he arranged for Lilah and I to go and cook with the lak lak lady.

It turns out there are lak lak all over Bali, with many regional variations, but Ibu Yoga is the lak lak goddess of Kanciana village. She makes hundreds daily to sell nearby. Being invited into a traditional Balinese kitchen was a first for me, and I was psyched. Ibu Yoga's kitchen is without fancy gadgets, electrical appliances, or even running water. Everything is cooked over a fire. I was awed by the beauty of the walls blackened with years of smoke and wondered just how many lak laks had been cooked there.

 

With very little verbal communication possible, I studied Ibu Yoga's technique and tried to glean her recipe.  I watched closely as she made the batter. With her hands, she mixed only two ingredients, rice flour and very warm water, until the consistency was like watery paint. When I saw her special terracotta lak lak pan, I asked if there was somewhere I could buy one. She ended up giving me her old pan (the one used in these photos) assuring me she had a nice new pan for herself. I treasured her soot-covered ceramic pan and hoped that all its memories of lak lak-making with Ibu Yoga would lead to success in my own kitchen.

When we got back to our little Bali kitchen, I was itching to try my luck at lak lak. I knew that cooking over a wood fire was essential to Ibu Yoga's cakes. An open fire, aside from camping, is not the norm for me - so I put Ibu's pan over the gas flame and got cooking. Like Ibu, I heated water up in a kettle, chopped candlenuts for seasoning the pan, then I mixed rice flour and warm water with my hands until the consistency looked like the Ibu Yoga's batter.

My first few attempts at my own lak lak were not great: the cakes were too thick, chewy, or under-cooked. But after a couple of tries, I felt as though my brief training with the master paid off. Now, after school, I fire up the lak lak pan and my kids and their buddies line up panting and chanting for lak lak. Sometimes we top them with palm syrup and coconut in the traditional fashion. Otherwise we use a dollop of coconut cream and a sprinkling of coconut sugar, or even just a smear of Nutella.

In this year of traveling mostly in the world's rice belt, I have come to see rice and rice flour as astonishingly versatile ingredients. I never would have guessed that rice flour mixed with water could be transformed into something as delicious as lak lak. Even if Ibu Yoga's ceramic lak lak pan does not survive our journey home, I am going to try a cast iron aebleskiver pan on my gas stove top in Berkeley. We cannot live without lak laks.

BLACK RICE PUDDING

I apologize for making you wait. How could I spend all these months eating and cooking in Bali without sharing this island's signature dish?

Before we left home last August, everyone I know who has been to Bali pleaded with me to share a black rice pudding recipe. There is something magical about this dish. Even eleven years after our first visit to Bali, I distinctly remembered the creamy, sweet satisfaction.

Black rice pudding is served for breakfast, afternoon tea, as well as for dessert. I have yet to find a Balinese menu without it. 

I have heard that black rice is a highly nutritious grain. In my sleuthing, I read that black rice considered a super food, is loaded with iron, and is a powerful antioxidant. Black rice has been called "forbidden rice" in China where only the emperor was allowed to eat it. I must say, this grain does seem august and I'm quite happy it isn't forbidden.

I have tried a number of recipes for this dish. After much experimentation, I came up with this version that I hope you love as much as we do.

MASALA CHAI LATTE

The gorgeous produce at the Berkeley Farmer's Market inspires me to make veggie tarts, pesto, and big salads. In Bali, the market greens are lush, the fruit exotic, and the spices plentiful. Check out these meter-long cinnamon sticks and the pile of star anise at the Ubud Central Market....

Chai, made from an array of such flavors, seems a perfect celebration of the abundance of locally-grown Balinese spices. I have always been a fan of chai, but the Starbucksification of the drink has turned me off. Some buddies and I recently had the chance to cook with a very cool, smart, young Ayurvedic doctor and she taught us how to make Chai from scratch.

After Dr. Kekada's cooking class, I had a good excuse to buy all sorts of spices at the market. I have since made many pots of masala chai, played around with her recipe, and now am making a chai that P and I really love! My mom, a huge chai fan, comes to visit us this week and I cannot wait to make some for her.

While you might not find these spices at your local farmer's market, you should be able to easily get everything you need at the supermarket.

BALI MOUNTAIN WEEKEND

Do you ever dream of dropping out of the rat race?  Maybe... starting a bar on a Caribbean island; living in the hills of Mexico; sailing around the globe. P, the kids, and I are taking a single precious year away, and will return to our American life this summer.  Our friends Cath, Johnny, and seven-year-old Huey have taken a profoundly deeper plunge. Their little family unit has left behind Australian life on the gorgeous and posh Sunshine Coast in order to open a small resort in the mountains of Bali. So damn bold!

Johnny, Cath, and Huey are not vacationing - they are making a new life for themselves. They are now part of a village, very far from home. Kanciana is a small village where local kids run around, splashing in the river. Huey, too, joyously runs wild and talks eagerly of the natural world that is now his own.

We got to spend a long weekend at Johnny and Cath's newly opened Bali Eco Stay on pristine Mount Batukaru. The stunningly serene resort is no small undertaking. There are extensive permaculture gardens, hydro power, gorgeous bungalows, a sparkling swimming hole, and an airy restaurant with views down to the sea.

I'm not sure how many of you remember Mini, and her fabulous recipe for Cap Cay, that I shared here last September. Well, she and her husband are Johnny and Cath's local business partners at the Bali Eco Stay.  I got to go back into the kitchen with Mini while she made a sumptuous feast of Balinese duck, green beans from the garden, and local rice, of course.

Bali Eco Stay is remarkably peaceful, blissfully off the standard tourist path; plus, the service has a level of graciousness that is rare in this world. What a delicious weekend!

ICE POPS WITH LEMONGRASS

I hear that the weather has been unseasonably warm (even "balmy") at home in California so I thought it might be a good moment to share my new snack. 

Bali is not like home.  Here, I can't pop over to Berkeley Natural Grocery and pick up some healthy quick afterschool snacks for the kids. I have had to get creative.

In the past month, Lilah and Otis have snacked on kilos of roasted peanuts, plenty of taro chips, and even some delicious freshly baked bread from a bakery nearby.  I did roast my own chickpeas, though no surprise... the real hit with the kids has been these fresh fruit popsicles. I was looking for recipes on how to use lemongrass and I came upon this adorable idea for using lemongrass as popsicle sticks.  I was inspired!

Most kids (and I guess adults too) are suckers for a fun presentation of food. Yes, the kids dig slices of fresh juicy melon, but they beamed when they saw the ice pops.

Really, any fruit can be transformed into popsicles - pear, apple, berry, lemon, banana, whatever happens to be in season.

PALM SUGAR SYRUP

It is so good to be back in Bali. We four are truly happy here. The kids are in a fun school nearby. We have a little glass-walled bungalow overlooking a vast expanse of rice fields. Life is sweet.

Once I got over my jet lag, which sadly has gotten more and more tenacious as I get older, all I have wanted to do is dive into the local flavors. What are the most luscious and delectable local ingredients? Where are the best markets?  P has taken to waking up early for trips to our small daily village market. Everyone chuckles at him as the odd foreigner; he just keeps going and brings back fantastic goodies. Yes, we really dig rambutans, passion fruit, and mangosteens, but I promise not to share too many recipes using a bunch of obscure tropical ingredients that aren't available away from the equator - I want my travel finds to work in your home kitchens. 

The thing I really want to share with you today is my new love....palm (coconut) sugar! When we were first here late August, I fell for coconut sugar, its flavor dark, caramely, rich, and not-too-sweet. Now that we have a working kitchen, it has become my new favorite ingredient. Quick to melt, palm sugar is a great tool for bakers to have. And here in Asia it is used in both sweet and savory dishes.

Little did I  know that my new indulgence isn't so bad for you. I read up on palm sugar and found that it is low glycemic, high in iron, potassium, zinc, and a multitude of vitamins, etc. Turns out Palm Sugar is the new thing. Who knew?

Every morning we have rice flour pancakes (post coming soon, I promise) topped with yogurt and a drizzle of palm syrup. We use the syrup in a cocktail with Arak (a local Balinese spirit), lime, and mint. I also like to stir palm syrup into plain yogurt to achieve just the right sweetness.

If you try this palm syrup recipe at home, I'd love to hear what you think of the unusual and complex flavor and how you use it. I hope you love it as much as we do!

BALINESE GARDEN STEW

When we left Bali last week, my paradisical travel bubble burst: ceiling fans and lush sweet frangipani flowers have been replaced by fake orchids and round-the-clock air conditioning; locals devoted to poetic offerings to their ancestors are now overweight twenty somethings obsessed with beer, lots of beer; and the charming wood carving studios are now adult superstores.

I won't mention the name of the city we are currently stuck in in Northern Australia - but suffice it to say, I won't be coming back here. Did I mention that is is beyond expensive here too. Ugh.

In wanting to savor the taste, smell, and vibe of Bali, I offer Mini's superb recipe to you.....

Mini is a fabulous cook. Everything she makes is full of flavor and belly-warming goodness. Recently, I got to spend the afternoon in her kitchen and learned a number of her delectable dishes. This stew was my favorite. I ate it for lunch for five days straight! It was that good.

 At Sarinbuana, a small eco-resort tucked in the mountains of Bali, you order your meals at the beginning of the day so that just the right ingredients can be plucked fresh from the organic garden. This is not your run of the mill organic kitchen garden, but a permaculture food forest in the mountain jungles of Bali. Wow!

Okay, in most of our lives we don't have access to magical rain forest ingredients, but I do think that if you use whatever veggies you grow yourself or pick up ultra fresh at the market, you will be rewarded with a really tasty, and ridiculously quick meal. So many veggie combinations would work for this soup. Play around with the recipe and use what is in season.

Cap Cay ( pronounced "chap chai") is a traditional Indonesian dish and I think is going to become a staple meal in our household. Mini and I made this stew in a single serving size (for my dinner in fact) and I thought a solo lunch or supper recipe would be a nice thing to have on-hand.  You can easily double, triple, quadruple this recipe to suit your needs.

Mini's notes and condiments for the day's meals...

FISH WRAPPED IN BANANA LEAF

When I met Tonok, I knew I wanted to cook with him. I was eating a delicious curry chicken salad for lunch at the Bloo Lagoon and I peered into the outdoor kitchen to find Tonok at work. I told him how much I enjoyed his salad and he smiled broadly. He knew his food was good. I don’t mean to be hokey here, but Tonok’s food has that thing, that secret to all tasty food - love. This guy loves to cook and it comes through in the dishes he serves. As we started chatting, limited by his English and my non-existent Balinese and Indonesian, I asked him about cooking and his arms would start waving, he would give me a vigorous thumb’s up, and his smile would grow wide. I had heard that the Bloo Lagoon offered cooking classes so I asked him if he could teach me some of his favorite dishes. With total authority, he planned a meal of traditional Balinese food that we would make together the next day.

The next morning Tonok and I went to the local morning market in Padangbai. Without having my morning “Bali Coffee” aka Balinese jet fuel, I was bleary eyed until the action of the market woke me up. This tiny market, only half-a-block long, was jammin’.

Baskets of bananas, pineapples, and papayas lined the street. Women were weaving palm fronds and selling a rainbow of flowers for offerings.

Fresh, shiny fish were displayed on planks of wood.

And there were so many intriguing hand-made packages of just-prepared treats. With Tonok’s help in identifying the mysterious eats,  I started snapping up goodies: two newspaper packages of cooked yellow rice with spices; another paper-wrapped meal of pork on a stick, herbs and rice; black rice pudding. I even abandoned the squeamish American in me and bought a funky cassava, shaved coconut, and palm sugar treat made by a grandmother as I waited. What would the Health Department say?

I felt hungry and triumphant with this indulgent spree that cost me less than a buck.