Balinese spice paste for chicken

Adapted from Heinz von Holzen

Balinese cooking relies heavily on delicious, aromatic spice pastes. This is one of them. But you don’t need to be cooking Balinese food to use these pastes. Try them as a marinade. They freeze well, so you can make a large batch and have it on hand.

Time

15 minutes total

Storage notes

Keeps in the refrigerator for up to 7 days; freeze for 3 months

Difficulty

easy

Yield

1000 g (servings 8 )

Ingredients

Weight

Volume

Procedure

Chilis, red, small, finely sliced

50 g

10 small

Shallots, peeled and sliced

225 g

4 small

Garlic, peeled and sliced

125 g

14 cloves

Lesser galangal

50 g

10 small

Galangal

60 g

12 small

Turmeric, raw

125 g

10 small

Candlenuts

100 g

½ cup

Palm sugar

50 g

¼ cup

Coconut oil

150 g

½ cup

Combine.

Process to a fine paste.

Transfer to a saucepan.

Lemon grass, bruised

67 g

1 cup

Salam leaves

3 g

3 leaves

Water

250 g

250 ml

Salt

13.5 g

¾ tbsp

Add to pan.

Simmer until all water is evaporated and the paste is a golden color, about 1 hour.

Allow to cool.

Original: 2010. Adapted: 2013.

Notes

Traditionally, the Balinese make this paste using a coarse-stone pestle. If you’re not that motivated, use a food processor. Some of the tougher ingredients like galangal do not fully break down in the processor, though, so they do benefit from fine chopping.

The benefit of a mortar and pestle over a food processor is that the ingredients are squashed rather than chopped. This is significant. The process of pounding them squeezes the tasty juices out of the ingredient; compared with the process of chopping which simply reduces the ingredient to smaller pieces with many of the cell walls intact.

Try using a meat grinder, if you have one. Sometimes it works well.

Making ahead

Peel and slice all ingredients and store in an air-tight container in the fridge.

Nutrition

Serving size 125 g; calories 372.1 kcal, kilojoules 1556.8 kJ, protein 6 g, carbohydrates 27.1 g, sugar 9.8 g, fat 26.3 g, saturated fat 17 g, unsaturated fat 10.4 g, trans fat 0 g, fiber 6.3 g, cholesterol 0 mg,

Type spice paste marinade

Author bhsimon

Yield

Servings

Serving size 125 g

Serve	Per serve
Energy (kcal)	372.1
Energy (kJ)	1556.8
Protein (g)	6
Fat (g)	26.3
Carbs (g)	27.1
Sugars (g)	9.8
Fiber (g)	6.3
Sodium (mg)	660.5
Cholesterol (mg)	0

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