Bumbu Bali (Balinese Multi-purpose Spice)
Bumbu is the Indonesian word for spice mixture, used to season a variety of meats, poultries, seafood and vegetables. It can also be used as a base in stews, soups, sotos, curries, and barbecue. It is one of the most distinctive features of Indonesian cooking as it blends and grinds herbs and seasonings in a traditional cobek ulekan which is a flat mortar and pestle.
The main function of bumbu is to create an intoxicating taste and aroma to the food. However, in the past the preparation of food through spicing was to kill dangerous microbes and improve food safety. Ingredients such as garlic, shallot, ginger and galangal have antimicrobial properties and are used to naturally preserve food and inhibit the growth of microbes.
In Indonesian cuisine there is a vast variety of bumbu spice mixture depending on each regional cuisine tradition and access to local ingredients. For example, Sumatran cuisine has a stronger bumbu flavour as it has access to a larger quantity and quality of spices from the jungle. Whereas I have been told that Flores has a much weaker form of bumbu, as it lacks access to fresh spices, relying on the shipment of spices into the island from the larger neighbouring islands. We’ve been told that each restaurant and warung has its own bumbu, slightly different from others.
Ingredients
- 50 gr fresh ginger
- 100 gr fresh galangal
- 100 gr fresh tumeric
- 25 gr candle nut
- 400 gr garlic
- 500 gr shallot
- 100 gr red chilli
- 15 gr white pepper
- 15 gr coriander seed
- 25 gr aromatic ginger (baby ginger)
- 0.5 tbs nutmeg (whole not powder)
- 0.5 tbs clove (whole not powder)
- 2 pieces lemongrass
- 5 pieces lime leaves
- 5 pieces bay leaves
- 25 gr palm sugar
- 1 tbsp shrimp paste
Instructions
- Clean and peel all ingredients and then put into motor (or food processor) except for lime leaves, bay leaves and lemongrass. Mix until it becomes a paste.
- Heat the pan and drop the paste, lime leaves, bay leaves, and the lemongrass into the pan and mix.
- Cook until everything becomes soft and you can smell the strong aroma flavour.
- Keep cold or freeze as a base for your next cooking step.