Last weekend, we were very honoured to be a part of the Ubud Food Festival - an exciting three-day culinary festival which was held here in Ubud, Bali. The organiser invited us to present in one of the ‘Think, Talk, Taste’ sessions. And that got us thinking; it would be really great if we could demonstrate the pairing of two Indonesian delicacies; one from west Indonesia and one from the east. In the work that we do all across Indonesia, we see the vast differences in amazing flavours and spices from region to region. So, we invited two of our Wonder Women - Mama Kris from East Flores and Ibu Suriyati from Aceh - to cook their local specialties in front of the festival audience. And with a slight twist; they used our clean-cooking technologies, the biomass cook stove and Tas Mantap.
Arriving from the far west of Indonesia and the east, the two women met in Bali. Mama Kris and Ibu Suriyati had never met each other before but they made a very good team when it came to preparing for the show. Not long after meeting, the two women had already decided on their menu: spicy shrimp stir-fry to represent the west and fried sorghum as the signature from the east. And the very next morning, they travelled together to the market to get the best fresh ingredients for the cooking show.
THE SHOW BEGINS: A COOKING SHOW WITH A GOAL
The Think, Talk, Taste session began at 11.30am, right before lunch time, so the seats quickly filled up. The host of the show, Tria Nuragustina – a food journalist for Indonesia’s top female magazine, Femina – greeted the audience and started the show. Alongside Tria was our Communications Officer, Saraswati Ratnanggana, who briefly introduced Kopernik and our Wonder Women program. But after a little bit of talking, the two Wonder Women took over the stage and captivated the audience with their cooking.
Now, these two women did not attend the cooking show just to cook but also to explain how clean-cooking technologies help them in the preparation of food in the last mile. Whilst cooking her sorghum dish, Mama Kris explained that in her community, people like to use our biomass cook stove because they can make use of candlenut shells - a waste-product from a commonly farmed product in Flores - as the cooking fuel. Besides producing great heat, using candlenut shell is also a great way to reduce waste and save money.
Ibu Suriyati explained how she uses the Tas Mantap - a heat retention bag that serves as a slow cooker - and how she sees it as perfect for helping her spicy shrimp stir-fry to blend well without using any fuel at all. After the dish is brought to the boil on the stove, the hot pot can be placed inside the Tas Mantap to allow the cooking process to continue for several minutes or even hours more. Tas Mantap is an excellent solution for people in places where access to affordable cooking fuel is extremely limited.
As lunch time approached, delicious smells started to fill up the room and everyone became increasingly hungry. Luckily, the audience wouldn’t have to wait long, because the two dishes were ready and the audience was excited to learn that they could sample the food. Fried sorghum, cooked with shallots, garlic and soy sauce in combination with the curry-like shrimp stir-fry dish cooked with a lot of spices - yum! The whole audience agreed that the two dishes made a very good pair. It was a successful marriage between the east and the west!
We would like to send HUGE thank you for Mama Kris, Ibu Suriyati, Ubud Food Festival, and everybody who attended and supported the show.
And in case you are all wondering, I am going to spoil the ‘secret’ recipes of the two dishes:
SPICY SHRIMP STIR-FRY À LA IBU SURIYATI:
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 kg shrimp
- ½ kg potatoes, chopped
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 glass of coconut milk
- Salt and pepper
- Some curry tree leaves and screwpine leaves
BLEND TOGETHER:
- 3 Acehnese dried chillies
- 2 shallots
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 ginger
- 2 green chillies
- 2 ‘Asam Sunti’
DIRECTIONS:
- Saute the blended ingredients until fragrant
- Add the curry tree and screwpine leaves
- Add the shrimps until half-cooked, then add coconut milk
- Bring it to the boil and add potatoes and tomatoes together
- Again bring it to the boil, then immediately take it off the heat
- Put it inside the ‘Tas Mantap’ for 20 minutes
- Ready to serve!
FRIED SORGHUM À LA MAMA KRIS:
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 kg sorghum
- 1 glass of coconut milk
- 1 tbsp virgin coconut oil
- 2 shallots
- 2 cloves of garlic
- Salt
- 2 red chillies
- 1 onion
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp tomato sauce
- 1 tbsp chilli sauce
DIRECTIONS:
- Boil the sorghum with a 2:1 water/sorghum ratio
- When the sorghum is ¾ cooked, add the coconut milk and stir well until the water and coconut milk are fully absorbed into the sorghum.
- Then take the sorghum off the heat and place into the ‘Tas Mantap’. Put aside while you prepare the next part.
- In a different pan, saute together shallots and garlic using virgin coconut oil, until fragrant
- Stir in soy sauce, tomato sauce, and chilli sauce
- Then add the cooked sorghum to the saute mix
- Add onions and the red chilli
- Mix well until completely cooked
- Ready to serve!
