Cooking Class in Bali (Why You Have to Do One)

When exploring a new country one of the things we love most is trying the local cuisine and if possible do a cooking class.

Apart from the local street food and Warungs in Bali we wanted to prepare some of the most common dishes ourselves.

So we signed up for a cooking class in Bali.

Read on and we’ll make your mouth watering. ;)

Where To Do a Cooking Class in Bali

Cooking classes are offered through all districts in Bali.

We decided to do a cooking class during our stay in Northern Bali, Lovina, at Warung Jegeg which is owned by Wayan, a super friendly and patient cook.

The cooking class in North Bali costs 350.000 IDR per person, which is not cheap for Indonesia but it was totally worth the experience and it was a private class.

Wayan offers her cooking classes at 2 different times.

One in the morning and one in the afternoon.

The morning class (the one we chose) also includes a walk through the local market where we bought all the ingredients for our Balinese dishes.

Wayan explained all the different ingredients and what dish we need them for.

The morning class starts at 8 am and the meeting point is at Warung Jegeg.

Visiting a Local Market in Bali

When we arrived at the market it was already super busy.

All the restaurant owners and local families, as well as some tourists, were wandering through the small alleys.

The market offers everything a cook could need.

A huge variety of fruits and vegetables, some we had never seen before, self-made baskets, spices, and even brushes and jewelry were sold.

There was also an area with prepared offerings – the ones you find in front of every Balinese entrance. ;)

The most impressive was definitely seeing all the vegetable and fruit stands and how people were bargaining in front of them.

Cooking Class in Northern Bali

After we finished our tour at the local market, we drove back to Wayan’s Warung and prepared everything we needed for the cooking class.

Wayan told us which ingredients we need for our menu and then we started unpacking, peeling, cutting and grinding.

She also explained which spice or kind of vegetable is important for the overall taste and answered all our questions patiently.

But to be honest we were so focused on doing everything right, we didn’t talk that much. :D

All our ingredients were nicely put together on a separate plate so we didn’t mix the wrong ones together.

This also gave us a great overview on what belongs together and is relevant for the special taste of each dish.

The day we registered for the cooking class we had to choose from a big menu what kind of dishes we wanted to cook.

2 per person.

We chose the following 4 for our cooking class in Bali.

Ayam Kecap

Ayam Kecap is chicken in a Balinese sweet sauce.

It has a sweet taste and is served with steamed rice.

This was definitely our favorite one!

We tried to find this dish in many other restaurants in South Bali but weren’t lucky. :(

So if you’re in Northern Bali make sure you try it!

Tempe Bumbu Manis

The second Balinese dish we cooked was Tempe Bumbu Manis.

As the name already reveals, it’s made out of tempeh, peanuts, a little chili and sweet soy sauce.

This is our second favorite one.

And we found Tempe Manis also in southern Bali, which was a delight! :)

Ingredients

200g tempeh/soybeans

5 onions

3 cloves of garlic

2 big chilies

1 tsp. of salt

2 tsp. of sweet soy sauce

2 tsp. of sugar

40cl of oil

Instructions

Slice the tempeh in very thin slices, deep fry them until golden and crispy.

Chop the garlic, onions, chilies and put them with two spoons of oil in the wok.

Add the other ingredients and stir until half done.

Add the salt, sweet soy sauce, sugar and mix it all together.

Finally add the dry tempeh stir again (you can add fried peanuts if you like them).

Ready to serve!

Beregedel

When we googled Beregedel most of the time we found recipes for fish cake.

The one we cooked were like potato nuggets – no fish at all!

For the nuggets we mainly used smashed potatoes a few different spices and herbs.

Ingredients

4 peeled potatoes

1 large chili

2 cloves of garlic

1 small chili (if you like spicy)

1 tsp. salt

1 handful celery leaves

1 egg

Instructions

Chop the chilies, garlic and celery leaves.

Slice the potatoes into thin slices.

Deep fry the potatoes for 5 minutes (until half-cooked).

Mash both small and large chilies, garlic, salt and celery together to make a paste.

Add the half cooked potatoes and mash everything together.

Add the egg and stir well.

Make small potato balls, about 3cm in diameter, and flatten them slightly in your hands.

Deep fry them in hot oil until they are golden brown.

Kare Ayam

A curry was the last dish we had chosen for our cooking class.

Kare Ayam is a chicken curry and it was really good.

We told Wayan that we don’t want it too spicey (Julia can’t eat that hot), so we only used a little chilli, but this dish usually is quite hot.

Ingredients

250g of chicken breast

5 spring onions

4 cloves of garlic

3cm galangal

3cm lemongrass

1 tsp. shrimp paste

1 tsp. coriander

1 tsp. cumin

3 pieces of hazelnut

3 cm turmeric

3 cm ginger

1 tsp. of salt

1 tsp. black pepper

tomato paste

1 cup of coconut milk

50cl of water

2 pieces of bay leaves

3 tsp. of cooking oil

Instructions

Boil the chicken and then tear it into small pieces (keep the water).

Chop and mix all the other ingredients: onions, garlic, galangal, lemongrass, shrimp paste, coriander, cumin, hazelnut, turmeric, ginger, salt, pepper, tomato paste

Heat the pan with cooking oil, add the mashed mixture and fry until fragrant.

Add one glass of water, the chicken, bay leaf and boil until all the flavors are infused in the chicken.

Add coconut milk and boil for another 3 minutes.

Our Cooking Class Resume

Every dish we prepared with Wayan was delicious!

We learned about ingredients, we hadn’t known before, had a fun day in the kitchen and enjoyed delicious self-made meals.

Wayan sent us all the recipes so we can try the dishes again at home and were able to share them with you! ;)

Our favorites are definitely Ayam Kecap & Tempe Bumbu Manus Crispy.

We just couldn’t get enough of the sweet sauce!

But we will definitely try all four of them at home.

Maybe we’ll do a cooking class Bali style for family&friends.

What better event to tell them about our adventures in Bali than by sharing a Balinese menu.

Wayan told us that the 4 dishes we prepared are for 2 – 4 persons.

Our estimation: 4 – 6 persons (we were so full).

So either we are really small eaters or it was just too much.

If you want to learn more about the Balinese and international food in Bali check our post Why Foodies Love Bali. ;)