Balinese Bumbu Spice Blend

One Aromatic Spice Blend, 20 yummy dishes

I took my first trip to Indonesia at the end of my first year nursing, so I was 18, it was the early 1980’s and it was my first big trip overseas. Is overseas still a term people use? I haven’t heard it for years, but going OS was big news back then, involving lots of planning, dreaming, saving, and many trips to the travel agent. So much has changed since then, for myself, the world of travel and for my beloved Bali. I haven’t been back for a few years now, and I understand it has transformed beyond recognition. After a quick look on google earth just now, my fears are confirmed, Ubud now looks like a tropical metropolis, so removed from the sleepy town I first got to know well in 90’s.

In those carefree years of endless travel, I’d fly over to Bali for my days off. I’d arrive late at night without reservations, jump into a car and head up to the hills to my little get away in the heart of Ubud.

There were only 4 rooms at Gusti’s Guest house, run by Gusti, then Wayan as the years went by. I’d settle myself into a room as everyone slept, and announce my arrival the next morning once the cocks started crowing. I’d take thick black sweet Bali coffee on the terrace overlooking lush gardens, and watch the morning parade of my Balinese neighbours starting the day. Offerings, showers, market trips, babies in tow, all passing by with that unique gait peculiar to the Balinese. There is nothing hurried about it, almost a languid shuffle, I think of it as the Balinese waltz. So it’s no surprise that I rarely headed out early, though up from dawn to see yet another Balinese morning. I’d sit and watch, read, sketch, talk with friends and taking breakfast without moving from my terrace. Eventually I’d head out and walk for hours, seeing people I knew, going to temples, popping into art galleries to see favourite works then stopping for lunch somewhere nice, then eventually finding my way to the Nur Beauty salon for a traditional massage at the end of the day. I’d come out into the early evening, scrubbed clean, and meander my way back to my little sanctuary often in time for evening offerings.

I fear this Bali no longer exists, the Russians have moved in, and the Chinese too, lots of big money, big secret deals, decimating a culture so gentle, wise and yielding. I hear they are trying to resist, but its like a feather trying to hold back a tsunami. It is sad beyond measure to see a culture decimated by the greedy grab for land, and a slice of their sacred paradise.

Kuta Beach Early 1980's, Off to a Wedding, Ubud 1990's

The food culture in Bali has changed too, more restaurants and fast food outlets and high end dining, but traditional Balinese food remains the same. When I go to the coast in Eastern Bali, I spend a lot of time visiting with friends in Samuh Village. I’ve known this extended family for over 30 years, the dishes served at the evening meal are unchanged in that time. I’ve seen lean times when the fish served were too small to be taken from the ocean, and more abundant ceremony times where poultry and babi gulang take center stage. But the central dish is always rice, with sambal, and some tofu or tempeh cooked in a sweet aromatic sauce, and of course those tiny red peanuts, cooked with equally tiny fish and chilli. There are other dishes too, but this combination of these aromatic dishes, with textures ranging from smooth to crunchy and flavour profiles to match is the taste of Bali in my mind. The young boys I met in the 90’s, now men with families, working away on ships for months on end. They tell me the thing they miss almost as much as their wives and babies is their mothers cooking, and that means rice and sambal. I was the same until I learnt how to make these aromatic wonders for myself. But it’s never quite the same as eating with your friends in Samuh village.

Ketut, Kade, Ketut (Left), Manis, my friend and cooking teacher (Right)

Manis taught me to cook Balinese food, over many visits and years, always early in the morning after a trip to the market, always over an open fire, which she prefers to the cooker she now has, along side her fridge, which she uses for storing flower offerings. She buys food fresh each day, just enough for the day, although she always has a basket of aromatic spices like turmeric, kencur, galangal, ginger, and chillies. There is always rice, stored in large quantities, in special rice vaults or boxes, a sign of abundance, a rice treasury. No Balinese family would allow their rice store to be depleted, it’s a sacred symbol of life, although I have been there during hard times, when the best thing to do to support the family was to buy large quantities of rice as a gift of gratitude.

Manis at the markets

The thing that distinguishes Balinese cooking from other South Asian cuisines is the use of freshly roasted spice pastes called a Bumbu. There are different and specific spices added for different purposes, but the basic bumbu spice blend is pretty perfect in my view. I’ve been experimenting to see how many dishes I can create with this one paste, and without too much effort I’ve come up with 20 different dishes. Now unlike Manis I generally make a huge batch of this bumbu and pop it into large silicon ice cubes and freeze it. I can then pop one out to make something delicious at a moments notice and it will taste like I’ve spent all day cooking.

So my plan is to teach you the spice blend, then show you how to use it over several posts in the coming weeks. There is a lot to cover, but it’s all easy, so get ready for an aromatic journey into the heart of Balinese cooking.

Now here’s something funny that just happened. Bodhi is upstairs barking at dusk walkers, something he loves to do when I am busy working. I let him go for a while to have some fun, then thought I’d better put a stop to it. So I called out “Bali” as I was writing instead of Bodhi, he ignored me of cause. Why wouldn’t he when his mother can’t get his name right.

Aromatic spices, Bumbu spice blend frozen cubes

Please join me for this Balinese series, if you haven’t already subscribed. I’d love you to experience the taste of Bali in your own home no matter where in the world this finds you.

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