It’s been raining cats and dogs here in Bali this week. So much for the rainy season being over. It’s like Take Two, but the uncut version. Think flooded roads and getting caught in the rain on my motorbike on the way to work in the kitchen.
All this rain makes me want to get cosy with food. Yes, even on a tropical island you sometimes want warm comfort food. So I’m thinking soup. And no, not the ubiquitous rawon that might spring to mind, but something a little less obvious than that.
Enter stage left one of my regional favourites, jukit undis.
A while back I wrote about Warung Jukit Undis in Denpasar and their penchant for 101 ways to serve up chicken, which does a good job at distracting you from the dish that is really their star player: a hearty but humble little bowl of jukut undis (black bean soup).
Their version includes grated coconut which adds a grittiness which is surprisingly good, though I make it without and it’s still pretty tasty.
It’s not a complicated dish to make though. The base is a thin, red-brown hued broth, made with a line-up of the usual suspects: chilli, shallot, garlic, onion and galangal.
What brings it to life is the black kara beans (or black pigeon beans, as they’re also called), known in Bahasa as ‘kacang hitam’.
If braving the heartlands of Denpasar for one bowl of soup isn’t really on the agenda, it’s easy to make at home.
Here’s a basic recipe to get you started.
Kitchen tip: you can source the beans at specialty Asian grocers or markets.
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