Urban Urab: Balinese style coconut and vegetables

Urab Sayur is a green vegetable and coconut salad that we often enjoy in Bali.

Whilst we can’t get the ingredients for our favourite fern tip “Urab” in Sydney, my so-called Urban Urab comes close to replicating the fresh and delicious flavours using local ingredients.

Bubu’s famous Fern Urab in Ubud

It goes well alongside Zuchinni in Coconut Milk Curry Sauce and Balinese Pork or any grilled or roast seafood or meat.

Ingredients:

  • 250g green beans, finely sliced
  • 2 cups of baby spinach sliced finely into shreds
  • 1/2 cup dessicated coconut
  • 2 small red chillis
  • 4 eschallots or a small red onion
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic
  • 1/4 teaspoon shrimp paste (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon fish sauce
  • juice of one lime
  • 1/4 cup Asian fried shallots
  • 2 tablespoons oil

Method:

  1. Pound garlic and chillies together in a mortar and pestle to create a paste
  2. Finely slice eschallots or red onion and the green beans….as finely as you can. Keep them in seperate bowls.
  3. Heat oil, add onion and cook slowly until caramelised and brown, then add garlic chilli paste and shrimp paste (if using) and cook for 1-2 minutes. (The shrimp paste will be smelly but adds depth and authenticity)
  4. Add green beans, fish sauce and water and cook until beans are tender but still have some crunch …about 2-3 minutes (I don’t use extra salt as the shrimp paste and fish sauce are salty but you can add salt to your taste)
  5. Remove from heat, add shredded spinach, dessicated coconut, drizzle with lime juice and scatter over the Asian fried shallots

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Zuchinni in Coconut Milk Curry Sauce

Inspired by the delicious, light “Kari Sayur” or vegetable curry side dishes which accompany most Balinese meals, this is a simple, quick side dish alongside Balinese Pork or just eat the whole bowl as a main course!

This version is very simple but comes close to the real deal using basic ingredients which are easy to get outside of Bali.

Ingredients:

1-2 eschallots (small red onion) finely diced

2-3 cloves of garlic

2 small red chillies

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

1/4 cup coconut milk

1 tablespoon of fish sauce

1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder

1/4 cup water

2-3 zuchinnis cut into medium size chunks

Salt to taste

Method:

  1. Pound together garlic and chillies to create a paste or if easier just use a garlic press and finely chop the chillies.
  2. Finely dice the eschallots or red onion
  3. Heat oil over medium heat, add onion and cook slowly until soft and transparent about 5 minutes
  4. Add garlic and chillies, turmeric powder and cook for about 1 minute, then add coconut milk, zuchinni, salt, fish sauce and water…bring to boil and simmer slowly until zuchinni is tender. You might need to add more coconut milk and/or water as you want the end result to be soupy and not dry.
  5. Serve as a delicious side dish to anything, but great with Balinese Pork and jasmine rice.

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Real-good #Ramen @Canteen in #Canberra

Absolutely rocking ramen lunch recently at Canteen http://www.eatcanteen.com.au

It’s tucked away in Dairy Road behind the Capital Brewery in Canberra. Ramen by day, izakaya by night.

Already lauded by the SMH Good Food Guide (https://www.smh.com.au/goodfood/topic/canteen-restaurant-6gha), they specialise in delicious Tori style ramen.

We started with a delicious chicken katsu white bread sando shared between 4 of us as a starter!

Mouthwatering katsu Sando at Canteen, Canberra

We then progressed to the real-good ramen Classic Daddy, Hot Daddy and Spicy Pork Matzesoba (soba noddles without the soup)

Hot Daddy Ramen with spicy pork

The ramen is delicious and stands true to the promise of respecting time honoured tradition in creating the quality broth and noodles.

Classic Daddy Ramen

Canteen have created a lovely contemporary bar, garden and restaurant which is a great spot for really-good ramen in Canberra!

Spicy Pork Matzesoba
Busy Ramen kitchen at Canteen in Canberra

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Sunday Buffet @yellowflowercafe #ubud #penestanan

If you want a truly authentic Balinese buffet experience then this is it! Stunning setting, warm and friendly service, off the beaten track. Take your phone torch and trek up through the back lanes of Penastanan village on the outskirts of Ubud for a truly memorable feast,

View of Mt Agung from Yellow Flower Cafe
Red bean soup appetiser
Not just veg, Sunday buffet at Yellow Flower Café Ubud
Fern salad, tempeh, tofus, chicken lawar, sambal, pandan rice….list goes on!
Stunning setting for Sunday buffet at Yellow Flower Cafe Penestanan, Ubud.

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Cinammon, coconut, apple cake

This cake combines so many things I love: crunchy cinammon topping, icing glaze, moist cake and coconut-flavours.

Easily a dessert if served with whipped cream/sour cream/ice-cream….or just delicious on its own with a cup of tea!

Cake Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup almond flour

1/2 cup dessicated coconut

1 pink lady apple, 1/2 roughly chopped and 1/2 cut into,thin slices

3/4 cup white sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1/2 cup plain yoghurt

1/2 cup coconut oil or any vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cinnamon topping:

1.5 tablespoon butter melted

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons white sugar

Icing Sugar Glaze:

1/2 cup icing sugar

2 tablespoons milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven 180 degrees Celsius, line an 8 inch cake tin with baking paper.

2.in one large bowl whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda sugar, salt and dessicated coconut (all dry ingredients), add chopped apple and mix gently through.

3. In another bowl whisk eggs, then add oil, yoghurt and vanilla extract.

4. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix together until just combined, do not over mix.

5. Melt butter, add to brown sugar, white sugar and cinnamon mixture until just combined

6. Pour batter into cake tin, place sliced apples creatively on top of cake, cover apples with cinnamon topping.

7. Bake in oven for 30-35 minutes until firm and skewer comes out clean.

8. Allow to cool totally, mix milk with icing sugar to create glaze. Drizzle cake with glaze, then sprinkle liberally with extra icing sugar.

9. Serve with or without cream or sour cream.enjoy!

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Risi e Bisi e Gamberi #rice #peas #prawns

This recipe is a Venetian classic, based on an Elizabeth David classic recipe with some delicious twists contributed by word of mouth by some very well known Sydney chefs who my husband Adrian hangs out with.

Here’s the Elizabeth David recipe:

The big difference of course is using frozen peas which don’t take as long to cook, so to recreate a bit more pea flavour, I added some of the frozen peas to the onion mixture and cook along with the rice, in addition to adding peas towards the end as well.

Adding seafood to this dish is optional but makes for a lovely meal in itself. The sweetness of the peas and the creamy texture along with prawns and calamari flavours is delish!

For 2 people as a main course:

Ingredients:

1/2 onion finely diced

50-60g fatty pancetta diced

50g butter

1 cup Arborio or carnali rice (round rice)

500ml chicken stock

250ml water

3 cloves of garlic

1.5 cup frozen peas

6-8 raw peeled and deveined prawns

150g thinly sliced calamari rings

Grated Parmesan

Method:

1. Melt 40g butter along with pancetta and cook gently in flat bottomed pot until pancetta fat starts to melt.

2. Add onion, garlic and cook until starting to soften, add half a cup of frozen peas and cook until peas and 1/2 cup stock and cook until pea “start to absorb the stock, fat and butter”. Smash peas with the back of a wooden spoon or fork to release pea flavour into the cooking liquid, simmer until liquid evaporates and butter/fat is “evident” again.

3. Add 1 cup rice and mix gently to cover grains of rice in butter fat mixture, then add 1.5 cups stock and simmer without stirring much until liquid just starts to disappear, stir and add then add 1 cup of water and simmer again.

4. Check rice to see if just cooked, add more water if necessary, then add rest of the peas, prawns and calamari and simmer for 5-6 minutes until peas and prawns just cooked through.

5. stir through the rest of the butter and half a cup of grated parmesan cheese, and serve either wedge of lemon, and extra parmesan, pepper on the side.

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