lawar — Bali Island, Indonesia

Lawar is a Balinese preparation that combines chopped vegetables, grated coconut and minced meat with a heavily spiced base, tossed together rather than cooked as a single simmered dish. Vegetables reported in lawar include young jackfruit, green beans, papaya or banana stem, and the meat can be pork, chicken, duck or, in some households, raw blood mixed in for colour and flavour. The dish is reported from Bali, where it is found on the menus of everyday warungs and restaurants as well as at ceremonial meals, and it travels with Balinese cooking wherever it is practised outside the island. This entry follows a chicken and young jackfruit version, closer to what is served in restaurants and to visitors than the blood-mixed versions kept for family and temple occasions. The base is ground from red chili, garlic, shallot, turmeric, galangal and shrimp paste, then fried briefly to soften its rawness. Boiled and shredded chicken is combined with boiled, shredded young jackfruit, and both are tossed with grated coconut, the spice base, kaffir lime leaf and a squeeze of lime, then finished with fried shallot for crunch. Despite its vegetable-heavy appearance, lawar is not a vegetarian dish, since minced or shredded meat is folded through nearly every version, and the exact vegetable and spice ratio changes from one Balinese family to the next. It is served at room temperature rather than hot, usually alongside rice, satay and a clear soup as part of a wider Balinese meal.