Indonesian Cooking Class

One thing I have really enjoyed doing over the past 4 years has been taking cooking classes with CHIC. I have taken Persian, Mexican, Japanese, Indian, fusion, and baking classes. This week I was able to take a new class –– Indonesian!

 One of the early trips our family took was to Bali and we absolutely loved the food, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to learn how to make some of our favorites at home. While I did not learn how to make Matt's favorite Indonesian recipe, Nasi Goreng, I did get to try first hand in making four other recipes.

First up was Kari Ayam, an Indonesian chicken curry.  This recipe was full of many flavorful spices––  cardamon, cumin, star anise, coriander, turmeric, ginger and curry powder –– along with chicken, shallots and potatoes. Sadly, the recipe also included coconut milk, which I am allergic to, so I only was able to take a small taste before having to scratch the hives on my hands.

The chicken was sauteed in all the yummy spices before adding the coconut milk.

This dish, best served over rice, is totally up Matt and Chris's alley. (Like father like son!)

Next up, was our personal family favorite, Chicken Satay.  It started off making the peanut sauce and ending grilling the chicken skewers right on the stove. This will be a must try at home.

First we had to brown raw peanuts for the sauce.

After browning, we ground the peanuts and added sugar, lime, salt, chili powder, water and kecap manis (a dark sweet soy sauce). This all went on the stove to cook until thick and bubbly.

Next you take some of the sauce, along with some more kecap manis, chili sauce and sweet chili sauce, and marinate cut up chicken pieces. You then skewer them and grill.

 Serve with the peanut sauce and you have an awesome dish.

The third dish we made was Gado Gado, an Indonesian salad. This was by far the easiest dish. Basically you steam any vegetable you like, hard boil some eggs, cut up some tomatoes, carrots, lettuce and atsu-age (thick, fried tofu) and put them on a plate. Serve with peanut sauce and you are done.

 Last, we made Vietnamese Spring Rolls. While this dish isn't specific to Indonesia, who can't help but love spring rolls? The inside of the rolls is a mixture of abura-age (thin fried tofu), cucumber, spring onions, lettuce, shiso leaves and glass noodles.

All these items are then rolled in rice paper. The rice paper is quite tricky and as you can see, I need much more practice. 

The spring rolls are best served with sweet chili sauce. Yum!

After 2.5 hours of learning how to cook these recipes, we finally were able to sit and enjoy ourselves.

 I've signed up for two more cooking classes in November–– Persian and Cajun. I can't wait.