Ayam Betutu Gilimanuk (Spicy Balinese Chicken)

Last year, during the summer, I met my girlfriend’s family in Indonesia. During that trip, I came across Flavors of Indonesia in the airport at Yogyakarta while I was waiting for the flight back to Jakarta. Anthony Bourdain recommended the book and RS mentioned that the chef who wrote the book was well-known and well-regarded in Indonesia.  So, with those endorsements in mind, I decided to buy the book.

Anthony Bourdain recently passed away, hanging himself in a bathroom while in France filming his CNN show.  It’s sad to see that someone who so successful, living a life that most of us will only ever fantasize about come to such an end.  That even with so much to live for, internal demons and struggles can snuff out even the brightest of lights.  Seeing what happened to Bourdain is a reminder that our doubts, our fears, and the lesser parts of ourselves don’t go away with money, fame or personal success.  Taking care of your health is a physical, mental, and spiritual endeavour. And, if you fail to tend any one of them, all will suffer the neglect.

My father suddenly took ill early this past summer. Generally, he’s in excellent health, but early in June, I got a message from my mother that he became really weak and started shaking from an infected cut on his kneecap – septic shock. She drove him to the emergency room. A quick google search revealed that this wasn’t just serious, it was deadly. I was initially supposed to teach classes during the summer semester, but given the situation, the university kindly released me from those duties so I could go back home and be with family. Dad was already well on the way to recovery by the time I got back to Canada in mid-June. I spent a very leisurely month hanging out at the house and showing off my new and improved cooking skills for them.

The downtime was actually much needed.  I hadn’t realized how worn out I was becoming until I took this break. I came back to Doha in mid-July and enjoyed some downtime chilling out with Gizmo and cooking some additional recipes. RS’s younger brother got married last week, so I left Doha on the tenth and did a little more travelling.  A few days in Bangkok hanging out with LC and SM. I never really did a guys trip before, it was an absolute blast.  I finished my time in Bangkok with a shave at a barbershop, whiskey, cigars, and galbi at a new Korean place on Soi 18. SM and I even got to chat up the owner in Korean while we all ate our fill.

From Bangkok, it was off to Jakarta to attend RS’s younger brother’s wedding.  The day itself was quite hectic, my main job was to get dressed in the traditional outfit and walk out with RS when called. I’m not that big by western standards, but the wedding planners weren’t prepared for a frame built by years of burgers, poutines, and physical neglect! Think of a mild version of fat guy little coat! Not enough to rip the jacket thankfully, but enough to look a little overstuffed.

The day after the wedding RS, her parents and I went to Bali for a trip. Overall, we had a great time. Mostly, it was site-seeing, but I did manage to get to do a cooking lesson in Kuta nearby our hotel with Chef Bagus, an entertaining chef who’s worked in a number of highly-regarded restaurants in Bali and internationally. We were divided into mama and papa Balis. The mamas were told they’d be cooking the simple dishes and the papas were responsible for the complicated ones. I could tell a couple of the women in the class didn’t like that, but the chef was quick to explain that in Bali, the mamas usually did the day-to-day cooking whereas the papas were responsible for ceremonial dishes for big events. In our kitchen, RS and I share the cooking and cleanup duties. We didn’t really cook each dish individually during the lesson. Instead, the chef did demos, and we took turns if we weren’t prepping, we were assisting our classmates by reading the ingredients and recipes out to them. The class done this way was wonderful and interactive.  Chef Bagus kept us entertained and engaged the entire time. He’s not just a great chef, but also a great teacher. One of the dishes we cooked was Ayam Betutu, which is a version of the dish I cooked from Flavors of Indonesia, presented below. I was disappointed with the first version of this recipe, so I made some adjustments based on the cooking lesson and other recipes I checked out online.  The updated recipe, given below, is quite nice.

Ayam Betutu Gilimanuk (Spicy Chicken)
Ingredients 2 L water or chicken stock (you just want to cover the chicken so use more or less water as needed to this end) 1 whole chicken (1kg) Ingredients – Betutu Paste 1 Tbsp palm sugar (brown sugar will do if you don’t have access to palm sugar) 1 Tbsp salt 13 shallots (~85 g) 2 candlenuts (hard to get – sub 6 skinless peanuts if you can’t find it) 8 cloves garlic (~40 g) 8 big chilli peppers, sliced finely (optional – makes the sauce red!) 4 bird eye chillies, sliced finely (remove the seeds before slicing to make the final sauce less spicy) 4 peppercorns 2 cm galangal, crushed 2 cm kencur aka lesser galangal, crushed (hard to get – sub with 1 cm galangal plus 1 cm ginger) 2.5 cm fresh turmeric, crushed (or 1/2 tsp powdered turmeric) 1/4 tsp nutmeg powder 2 tsp coriander powder 3 Tbsp cooking oil (coconut or vegetable) 2 stalks lemongrass, bruised 3 kaffir lime leaves

Place all paste ingredients, except the oil, lemongrass and leaves in a mortar and grind them into a  paste. Set the stovetop heat to medium and heat the oil in a wok. You can flick some water from your fingertips into the oil, to test readiness.  If the water sizzles when it lands, the oil is ready. Add the paste from the mortar, the lemongrass and the lime leaves. Heat and stir the mixture for about 6 to 8 minutes until it becomes. Set it aside to cool.

Rinse the chicken thoroughly and pat dry. Season both the inside of the chicken and the outside with salt and pepper. Rub some of the paste into the body cavity of the chicken, and rub the remaining paste over the chicken. Cover the chicken in the remaining paste and set it aside to marinate for 1 hour. Put the chicken into a medium stockpot and add water.  Bring to a boil.  Once boiling, turn the heat down and slow cook the chicken for another 90 minutes to two hours. Serve with rice.