Balinese cookery course

After our very late finish last night we enjoyed a long relaxing lie in until 11:30. Breakfast was served poolside on the table next to our rooms door. It was amazing to have the first proper bacon of the trip and really good scrambled eggs on toast.

With a few tender heads we decided to have a pool day and then booked a cookery class for the evening. Rubber rings, volleyball and general mucking around was the order of the day. After yesterdays villa fiasco we again had to move rooms but at least were in the same hotel!

At 4pm we were picked up for our cookery class in a small home just outside of central Ubud. We were given welcome dribks on arrival and the hostess gave us a brief history of the property that we were working in.

We found out at this point that we would be cooking 8 dishes! We had presumed we would be cooking a traditional main course and maybe a pudding. 8 courses sounded a bit daunting but it was so much fun though.

We were more prepping and compiling dishes rather than actually cooking but it was great fun all doing it together. We chopped all the raw ingredients and then the ladies who were teaching us did a lot of the initial steaming and blanching of the veg etc.

The first dish that we created was the 'basic yellow sauce' which is an amazing mix of gentle spices and forms the basis of 85% of Indonesia dished. After roughly chopping the ingredients we used a traditional 6ft high pestle and mortar to grind into a paste.

We then continued to work our way through and cook an assemble all of the courses. Highlights for me wer ethe clear mushroom soup for starter, chicken satays, tofu and tempe in soy suace and a delicious fern salad. All the recipes were simple to assemble and packed full of flavour!

After our cooking we sat down to enjoy the food. The head of the family gave us a quick lesson in presentation and making flowers and animals out of fruit and vegetables. The food was all really lovely and we had a really lovely meal together.

After last night we're still all knackered so after a few beers in Ubud we headed back for an early night. Tomorrow we plan to get up earlier and explore Ubuds culture further. We're hoping to organise massages for late morning and meet more friends for dinner.