Ary grew up in a small town called Pekalongan in Central Java, Indonesia, where local food and farming is a huge and important part of life. She was living with her family when she ended up meeting a young American man, Ben and moving to live with him in East Java. That was 22 years ago, and after some time living in Bali, Seattle and Yogjakarta and 3 children later they came to settle in Darwin.

Ary has a love of plants and has been learning about native landscapes and conservation at a training program for migrant women, through Greening Australia. Part of this program also encourages the sharing of stories and connection through the love of plants and food. Ary loves Darwin and the good Tropical weather, the local produce that is easily grown, the markets and the diverse but inclusive community feeling. She also love that is not so far from Indonesia but has a lot less traffic and people.

Ary cooked this wonderful cassava dish to share at a local food lunch. She loves this dish as it reminds her of home, and often makes it for special occasions. Every two weeks when there are particular muslim gatherings for women and children (“Majlis Taklim Shasisoma” = Bahasa for knowledge sharing), these are either at the Darwin Mosque or at community members houses; food is shared and she always asked to make this dish as it is a favorite among her friends.

This dish can be easily made from leaves grown in the backyard, so it is inexpensive, You can then buy turkey mince, tempee or tofu mince to add to it. The cassava leaves need to be fresh and young.

BALADO CASSAVA LEAVES

Ingredients

Young cassava leaves- enough to be about 600g when boiled and squeezed dry.

300-500  g Turkey mince/ Tofu mince or tempe

1 can Coconut cream

2- 3 sticks of lemongrass- cut and smashed

1 Onion

3 Cloves of Garlic

7 Red long chilies (medium)

2-3 tomatoes

1 Cube veggie stock

Oil (coconut or rice bran)

 Method

Clean the leaves really well- boil in a pan of water for about 10 minutes, cool,  squeeze, and then cut when cold into slices.

Chop and Fry the onion and garlic and then the chili, add in tomatoes, then the tofu or turkey mince or tempe, fry for 10 minutes (until browned and cooked through)

Now add veggie stock cube (not in water)

Add in the smashed up lemongrass

Now add in the chopped up leaves and stir

Add in the coconut milk, stir a little more and cook for 15 minutes more.

Now serve in bowl and enjoy with rice and friends.

If you know a community cook in Darwin who would like to share their recipe, GULP NT can organise a gathering with their small team. $100 plus ingredients can be offered to the participating cook for hosting and sharing. Get in touch today and share your stories and food love. 

gulpnt.com | gulpcommunity@gmail. com

The Community Cooks project and story write ups  have been made possible by City of Darwin community grants.

Community Cook- A Taste Of Sri Lanka

Darwin community cook, Karunika creates fantastic curries with all the care and attention and wisdom that has been passed on for many generations within her family and certainly as is customary throughout Sri Lanka. She migrated to Australia from Sri Lanka in 2009 and is delighted to share her knowledge with others. Her heritage defines all women as doctors as traditional medicine foods are at least 5,000 years old and cooking for the family entails taking into account their ages and health needs. There are 2000 plants used for food and medicine in Sri Lanka and in the past there were 2000 varieties of rice alone! Rice and other plants can still be fed by an ancient complex irrigation system consisting of reservoirs fed by rain.

Karunika feels at home in tropical Darwin and embraces the tropical lifestyle with its unique blend of cultures and cuisines. She advocates eating preferably locally grown produce which is best practice for health. It was exciting for her to find familiar fruits and vegetables like cassava, jack fruit, bananas, okra, coconut, fresh chilli and of course spices like turmeric, ginger, coriander, fennel and many more. Her advice is not to overuse spices in terms of quantities in a dish. She has offered cooking classes and even had a stall of traditional Sri Lankan food lovingly prepared at 3am to ensure freshness at the Rapid Creek markets. Her interests also extend to Indigenous bush foods and she enriches her knowledge through field trips with local people.

What a pleasure to watch Karunika prepare two varieties of papaya curry. Preparation, she said, is like meditation as you use patience and love! The meal served with rice was fragrant and delicious and shared with GULP members in the edible garden of Karunika’s home.

Papayas are so easy to grow in the Top End region if you have a little room in the garden (Male and female plants needed or bisexual plants) or they are widely available at local markets all year round.

Sri Lankan Papaya Curry

Ingredients

1kg half ripe papaya

I onion

1-2 green chillies

3 sprigs curry leaves

1 pandan leaf

1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds

1 tsp tumeric powder

1/2 tsp chilli powder or paprika

2 tsp Sri Lankan curry powder ( coriander 100gms, cumin 50gms, fennel 25 gms )

3 cloves garlic

2 tbsp ground mustard seeds

1tsp ground black pepper

Pinch roasted curry powder garnish ( optional)

1 and 1/2 cups thick coconut milk ( can adjust)

Salt ( preferably Himalayan)

Water 1 and 1/2 cups

Method

1. Peel papaya and cut into chunks. Slice onion, chop chillies.
2. Add all ingredients except coconut milk into a pan. Mix together and cook for 8-10 minutes until papaya becomes soft. Do not overcook.
3. Add coconut milk. Mix gently while cooking for another 5-8 minutes.
4. Add salt and serve with rice

Below is an extra Green Pawpaw recipe (seen held by Emma on the left)

Green Papaya Curry

Ingredients

1 green papaya

 Mellum mix

3 cloves garlic

1 cup freshly grated coconut

4 sprigs curry leaves (remove stems)

1 green chilli

1 tsp tumeric

Pinch salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 cup water

Method

1. Peel papaya, slice lengthways then into thin, small pieces and place into pan
2. Add water and bring to the boil
3. Blend Mellum mix in processor. Add to papaya
4. Simmer until papaya’s tender

Bitter Green Salad

Finely slice ‘dark leaf’ – Aguna Kola. Add a sliced red onion and a handful of freshly grated coconut then squeeze half a lemon or lime as dressing.

This community cook recipe is made possible by City of Darwin Environment Grant. If you know a community cook in Darwin that uses local produce and would like to share their story, please email gulpcommunity@gmail.com

$100 is available for the cook, plus ingredients to show our small team at a gathering.

Pedro community cooks features in this month Off The Leash

Hidden right in the middle of The Mulch Pit Community Garden over 60 attendees enjoyed a sit down meal under the stars, and were served 5 courses, by volunteers and people who had chosen to get involved with the innovative ticketing system. The tables were decorated with local flowers, provided by a lovely participant and decorated with jars and op shop finds and the whole event was surrounded by many of the plants appearing on the plates.

There was an adjacent “chill out area” reminiscent of a Moroccan tent, adorned with fairy lights and lanterns, mats and cushions, but actually under 2 hills hoists covered in passionfruit vine.

The  5 dishes were created by local cooks, using local ingredients and accompanied by the creator’s story of their journey to Darwin or being from Darwin and connection to this place, to these people, to our produce, to here and now; the dishes were served to everyone with a heart felt story about why they were chosen by their creators. Yo Bell from Story projects helped the community cooks construct their stories and deliver them on the night.

This is not the first time GULP NT has run story telling and food events to inspire the Darwin community to embrace local produce, but the first time it has been the focus at a sit down meal. Some of the cooks have been involved before in either radio stories about cooking or at the community cooking stage at the Tropical Garden Spectacular, at the Local Roots festival or Banana Festival, or are familiar with the project so had personal connections and a love of local food.

Most of all we love to be involved in connecting community and connecting to our wonderful Top End produce and this is a wonderful way to bring people together.

The idea behind the event was to create a magical atmosphere to connect community, to connect people to their food and to encourage everyone to embrace growing and using local produce (GULP!) all held together by story telling; with the added bonus that those coming could become more involved and pay less or even pay more- with the mid ticket at an affordable price.

There was lots of preparation of the ingredients involved, lots of foraging, market shopping and coming together, there were menu preparations and story telling mentoring and there are many many people to thank- but we will do a little behind the scenes post separately!

So all those attending were welcomed to the space and to this place and blessed with the original food story, one of Larrakia legend, Leslie Gordon. The story was so much more than a ‘Welcome to Country” but a personal story of growing up in Darwin in the surrounds, spending time with family hunting and going bush for food, particularly on show day and learning to see yams with her siblings.