Save
Indonesia, made up of over 18,000 islands, around 6000 of which are inhabited is a country of dizzying diversity and eclecticism. There are over 1,300 ethnic groups in the country and over 700 recognised languages, making the country one of the most geologically and culturally varied there is, so it follows that the country’s cuisine is one that is based on each island’s individual terroir, utilising the distinct herbs and spices particular to each environment.
The country’s modernisation in recent times has led to a culture of convenience when it comes to food. The elaborate and complex recipes of Indonesian tradition are being lost. Fortunately, there is a chef, Wayan Sutariawan, at Four Seasons Resort Bali at Sayan, who is working to revive these lost culinary traditions.
One such dish that the chef has saved is ikan klengis, an ancient and rare recipe comprised of barramundi marinated in coconut oil. Its rich coconut flavour is due to the klengis, otherwise known as coconut oil, which is impossible to replicate with any other ingredient.
“Today, there are very few suppliers of klengis as this is a traditional process that takes seven hours of manual labour to yield only one and a half litres of coconut oil,” says Sutariawan. “At Four Seasons Sayan, we source our coconut oil from a local family microbusiness that produces klengis by hand. Klengis' shelf life is three weeks but if left unrefrigerated, only 24 hours. This was a forgotten recipe because of modern day food trends and the younger generation wanting quick and fast cooking techniques to produce convenient meals.”
Sutariawan can draw on his own experiences when it comes to making this dish, he remembers cooking it when he was 15 years old in the village with his mother. He later rediscovered the dish after he got married.
“I wanted our guests at Four Seasons Sayan to experience the same joy and flavours behind this ancient and rare recipe,” he says. “Hence, I decided to incorporate this dish at Sokasi, our resort's riverside cooking school and present this as part of our Chef's Table Dinner, a seven-course degustation celebrating authentic Balinese cooking techniques and ingredients.”
A revived culinary tradition must be shared beyond a chef’s table or a restaurant menu, as it must become part of ordinary people’s culinary oeuvre and last year, Sutariawan published his cookbook ‘Cherished Memories from My Childhood’, which includes this recipe. It both preserves his ancestral heritage and shares Balinese culture with the world.
Indonesian cooking is a complex and highly involved art form that takes dedication and a lot of time. These days, people are time poor and so the cooking suffers, but Sutariawan is determined to show people the value in slowing down and appreciating the slower approach to food preparation.
“Traditional Indonesian cuisine is not an ‘a la carte’ cuisine,” says Sutariawan. “All ingredients have to be prepped and each dish needs to be either stewed, fried or cooked in banana leaf, so everything can be brought out at the same time during a meal. It takes a balancing of ingredients that takes many hours to prepare and cook.
“Our cooking techniques are long and traditional and the younger generation does not have the time or patience to sit over an open fire or manually cook ingredients in bamboo or banana leaves. Our practice is to buy fresh ingredients, cook daily and finish whatever we cook during that day. Indonesians do not eat leftovers so most of the younger generation now prefer to eat out or buy readymade paste or sambal to save time when cooking.”
Cooking and the preparation of ingredients was and is integral to traditional life, cultural and religious practices. There is much to be gained from reflecting on and returning to ancient food ways in Indonesia.
“In Bali, we like strong, salty and spicy flavours and we still retain our Balinese cuisine culture through religious ceremonies and festivals,” he says. “We gather families and communities to pay tribute to Gods, humans and nature. During these events, we still use age-old traditional methods such as marinating with base genep [Balinese spice paste] and cooking babi guling [roast pig], [and] chicken and duck in bamboo.”
Latest
