Indonesian recipe : gado-gado

My favourite dish in Bali is gado-gado, a vegetable salad dressed in specially prepared peanut sauce.

For lunch, I usually go to a warung (snack) and have gado-gado with tempe, tofu and lontong!
Preparation of gado-gado is mainly the preparation of the peanut sauce, using cobek batu (Indonesian style stone pestle).
The pestle makes the peanuts not to become too soft and produce a certain kind of flavor which cannot be achieved by using blender or peanut butter. Using a pestle is not just crunching the peanuts but also mixes them with all other ingredients. To do pestling is not to pound but to grind and mix all ingredients together in circular hand movement with enough pressure to crush all ingredients. In Indonesia, this is called uleg or ulek, a technique used in making varieties of indonesian food.

Ingredients
Vegetables
100 g water spinach, boiled
100 g spinach, boiled
10 long bean, cut into small pieces then boil
1/2 chayote, peel then cut into small pieces (stick or cube shape) and boil
100 g bean sprouts, put in hot water

The peanut sauce (for each servings)
Chilli pepper (to taste)
2 clove of garlic
1/2 tea spoon fried terasi (shrimp paste)
1 tea spoon (or to taste) of salt
1 tea spoon (or to taste) coconout sugar or palm sugar (can be subtituted with brown sugar)
100 g peanut, deep fried
Water mixed with tamarind extract
Water

Additional ingredients
Deep fried tempe and tofu, cut into pieces
Deep fried emping (crackers made from gnetum gnemon)
Lontong (compressed rice roll) or rice.

Method
All prepartion is done in the cobek batu.
Pestle chilli pepper and garlic.
Add terasi, salt, coconut sugar, and the cashew nuts and peanuts.
Pestle more.
Add water and tamarind water little by little while keep on pestling until you get a thick sauce (don't put tamarind water too much, just put it to taste).
Add the vegetables (also add half egg, tofu, and tempe if you like). Mix it with the sauce.
Put into the plate
Pour a bit fried onion
Serve with emping and lontong (or rice).

Recipe from "http://recipes.wikia.com/wiki/Gado-gado"

I Ketut Sarjana : flute master. Tirtaganga, Bali.

I Ketut Sarjana playing the gangsa.

Nyepi, Bali

Nyepi is celebrated at the same time everywhere in Bali. It is not governed by the Balinese calendar, but by the Hindu Saka calendar and thus occurs every year between March and April.

It is said that one day, the master of hell, Yama opens the doors wide and unleashes a horde of demons over Bali.

In anticipation of their arrival, at the setting sun, we lure them to cossroads　by displaying tempting offerings on plaited rugs placed there (Demons are particularly fond of crossroads, as it is a place where they can easily harm humans by provoking accidents).
In fact, these offerings to the Kala and Bhuta are only tempting to them. The priest carries out a big ceremony at the place. At his signal, to close the ceremony, everyone stands up and begins walking around the rug, making lots of noise, and hitting the ground with split bamboo sticks.

With nightfall comes my favorite time of the year! We begin by making as much noise as we can with all sorts of things (firecrackers, saucepans, cymbals, and gongs). This is how we accompany our huge statue, the Ogoh Ogoh in a procession to the major cossroads where other banjars will meet us present us theirs. It takes at least 15 men to carry one single Ogoh Ogoh on its bamboo podium, or to push the ones with wheels.

These are giant monsters that can be more than 4 meters tall, and they are very heavy! When they meet up, the two groups simulate a ferocious battle between the monsters.

Then they proceed towards the sea and make room for the others.
The fights and noise are designed to terrify all the demons that we lured there, and to chase them away by showing them that there are those much stronger than them on the island !

The next day, the day of Nyepi and first day of the new Saka cycle, everyone must stay at home, meditating and praying, and respecting very strict instructions : to fast, not make noise and not use electricity... Of course, with the silence and deserted streets, the rare demons left on the island think that everybody has gone and so they leave, too, since what they like most of all is to bother the humans !

Ｔｅｘｔ　ｆｒｏｍ　Ｍｙ　Ｌｉｆｅ　ｉｎ　Ｂａｌｉ，　ｂｙ　Ｓａｎｄｒｉｎｅ　Ｓｏｉｍａｕｄ.

Ｐｈｏｔｏｓ　ｂｙ　Ｈｅｎｒｉ－Ｐｉｅｒｒｅ.

Kala Rauh and eclipses : a legend from Bali

It is said that eclipses originate from an old story between the moon, the sun and the demon Kala Rauh...

One day, the Gods and the demons, allies for once, struggled to obtain the immortal elixir, tirta amertha. First, they moved the huge Mount Mandara to the sea. Then, the snake, Naga Anantaga, coiled around it, and the Gods and the demons worked together at making it spin like a top, in order to stir up the sea like milk, and extract the elixir of immortality that they all coveted. They collected the elixir in a flask called kamandalu, which the demons stole right away from the Gods. Luckily, Wisnu was more cunning. Disguised as a very pretty girl (demons just love beautiful girls) he managed to easily seduce them. Having fallen under his charm, they immediately entrusted him with the flask. Wisnu ran away with it and brought it back to the other Gods, so that they could dring it down as quickly as possible. But having taken advantage of the confusion, the demon Kala Rauh had already taken an enormous sip of elixir. The sun and the moon immediately denounced him to Wisnu, who cut off his head. But unfortunately, since the elixir had already filled the demon's mouth, his head became immortal.
Since then, Kala Rauh has been relentless chasing the sun and the moon to take revenge. When he catches up with them, he swallows them; but since he doesn't have a body, he's forced to spit them out. This is what causes eclipses, that are luckily just temporary!

Ｔｅｘｔ　ｆｒｏｍ　Ｍｙ　Ｌｉｆｅ　ｉｎ　Ｂａｌｉ，　ｂｙ　Ｓａｎｄｒｉｎｅ　Ｓｏｉｍａｕｄ.