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Recipe

Base genep

The raw Balinese spice paste — shallot, garlic, galangal, turmeric, ginger, kencur, and candlenut — ground and then fried into the cooking paste used across the Petulu class.

All recipes·Serves About 1 cup of paste·Prep 25 minutes·Cook 10 minutes

A wooden table set with bowls of ground spices, chilies, grated coconut, and banana leaves

Base genep is the complete spice paste of a Balinese kitchen. It is mixed raw, then fried in coconut oil until the moisture cooks off and the paste smells sweet rather than harsh. That fried paste is what seasons sate, pepes, and the vegetable dishes around them. The bowls themselves are the subject of how to read a Balinese spice table.

Candlenut must be cooked. Do not taste the raw grind. Shrimp paste is part of the classic mix; leave it out when the table is vegetarian or vegan, which the same kitchen does on request.

Ingredients

  • 8 shallots, roughly chopped
  • 6 garlic cloves
  • 3 candlenuts
  • A thumb of galangal, sliced
  • A thumb of fresh turmeric
  • A thumb of ginger
  • A thumb of kencur (aromatic ginger), if available
  • 2 lemongrass stalks, chopped
  • 4 lime leaves
  • 4 bird’s eye chilies
  • 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon shrimp paste (omit for vegetarian and vegan)
  • 1 teaspoon chopped palm sugar
  • Salt
  • 3 tablespoons coconut oil, for frying the paste

Method

  1. Pound or blend everything except the coconut oil into a rough paste. A stone mortar gives a coarser, better texture than a smooth puree. Add a splash of water only if the blades stall.
  2. Warm the coconut oil in a wok over medium heat. Add the paste and fry, stirring, until the raw smell disappears, the color deepens, and the oil starts to separate at the edges. This usually takes 8–10 minutes.
  3. Salt it once the paste has fried. Raw salt on an uncooked grind will taste different after the water cooks off.
  4. Cool what you will not use today. The fried paste keeps in a covered jar in the fridge for several days, under a thin film of the cooking oil.

This is the paste Chef Wayan Suryana has guests grind before anything else goes into the wok. Vegetarian bookings skip the shrimp paste and keep the rest of the roots.