Has Bali changed the way you cook?

ronb

ronb

Well-Known Member
As I was quickly preparing a pumpkin soup the other day occurred to me that I largely continue to prepare food from the same menu I used back in Sydney - pasta, omelettes, baked veges, etc. To be sure, how I flavoured the soup has changed - basically some chilli.

So my question to those balipodders who cook and spend some time in Bali - how has your cooking style changed?

The other change for me is adapting to my Bali style kitchen with a 2-burner cooktop, a rice cooker, a blender - and not much more. So I have learnt to use the rice cooker as a general purpose slow cooker, and a steamer; and I use a heavy bottomed casserole type pot as a dutch oven for baked veges and baked puddings. I mean "dutch oven" in the sense described here Dutch oven - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The other jokey meaning described here Dutch oven (practical joke) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia is something else again.)
 
Similar to you, Ron. I don't cook often and only pasta with various different sauces (pesto, tuna, marinara, boscaiola). If I want Indonesian food, it's cheaper to buy already cooked.

Oh, and sometimes I make French onion soup, but that's about it.
 
living in Bali has changed how often I cook...over here I do it a bit more then I did back in NL :icon_smile:.
and also what I make (or try to, hahaha) has changed significantly..back in NL some meatballs with baked potato-slices together with some coliflower covered with cheesesauce was about it (all ready to cook/use ofcourse :icon_razz:).
Overhere I tend to make things more from the ground up sort of speak..for example buy different kinds of meat, then mince that myself-mix it-add salt pepper etcetc..
potato skin 'm - cook them, and then bake 'm...well you get the picture :)
I did say "a bit more" and that equals out to about 2 or 3 times a week :icon_lol:
 
More or less the same story, I am Dutch too and I love to cook back in NL and Spain (where I lived for 8 years) but here not more than max 3x a week and than European and special Mediteranean style. For the rest we go out and decided what we eat when we have a menu-card in front of us. Tasty, easy and most at the time cheaper than shop, cook, washing up etc.
The things I do make at home ones in awhile are the Dutch type 'erwtensoep' (peasoup) with sausages I smoke first in the BBQ and 'bitterballen'. Greatly appreciated by my family and friends.
The only thing I can't find here is a real kitchenmachine, NOT a juicemaker or blender or handmixer with a bowl, but the stronger type.
BTW RonB, in my Bali kichen with a solid tiled worktop, I bought a 4 gas-burner top, designed to build in but with al small frame underneath it works perfect.
To answer the question in general, yes Bali did change my way of cooking, my lifestyle etc and I LOVE IT!
Regards
Dick
 
ronb said:
As I was quickly preparing a pumpkin soup the other day occurred to me that I largely continue to prepare food from the same menu I used back in Sydney - pasta, omelettes, baked veges, etc. To be sure, how I flavoured the soup has changed - basically some chilli.

So my question to those balipodders who cook and spend some time in Bali - how has your cooking style changed?

The other change for me is adapting to my Bali style kitchen with a 2-burner cooktop, a rice cooker, a blender - and not much more. So I have learnt to use the rice cooker as a general purpose slow cooker, and a steamer; and I use a heavy bottomed casserole type pot as a dutch oven for baked veges and baked puddings. I mean "dutch oven" in the sense described here Dutch oven - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The other jokey meaning described here Dutch oven (practical joke) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia is something else again.)
Click to expand...

My cooking hasn't changed too much since moving to Bali. Maybe too old to change. Living in a climate that is warm year-round has made a difference. Winter foods just aren't right for our climate. I do find that i've been somewhat influenced by the spiciness of the food around us and cook with more chili and more spices. The other thing that has influenced my cooking is the availability of ingredients, some more available here, some less or non-existent. And we do eat far more rice than we ate in Oz.

Ron, like you, I've discovered that I can use my rice cooker as a slow cooker. When I figured that out, for a while everything we ate seemed to be coming out of the rice cooker. There is a whole cookbook dedicated to cooking foods in a rice cooker.

There are some foods I never ate until we moved here. Black rice pudding with lots of coconut milk for breakfast. Oh, Yum. Can post a recipe if anyone wants it.
 
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