During the celebration of agriculture, food and culinary arts at Patali (Market) Day on February 23, we put a special focus on kids. Since the event planning stage began we have been trying hard to come up with programs that include young children.

Patali (Market) Day organizers were ecstatic when the Young Chefs® Academy Indonesia agreed to join in the celebration.

Young Chefs® Academy is teaching thousands of children across the world that cooking can be creative, full of discovery, and a whole lot of fun! In the Academy, imaginations are free to run wild as kids discover new science, math, reading, health, and social skills through hands-on cooking classes, parties, camps, and more.

We have had two posts on this cooking school for kids: Young Chefs Academy and Little Zachra’s Tuna Fishcakes. 

An excellent piece on Why Should Kids Learn to Cook?  described the reasons: “Kids are more likely to eat what they make. By putting their own effort into their culinary creations, kids will most likely eat their own creations because they are proud of having made it. Kids learn real recipes and real life skills when preparing food. From project planning, organizing and making good food choices to carrying out a plan to completion, cooking is a great way to learn these important life skills at an early age.”

A few weeks before the event, the Young Chefs® Academy Indonesia convened several meetings to discuss what food to cook based on several criteria: an Indonesian delicacy, easy to make and does not take long to cook.

The academy decided on klepon, glutinous rice balls stuffed with palm sugar and rolled in grated coconut. It is one of Indonesia’s traditional market munchies commonly found on the island of Java.

The secret delight of glutinous rice balls is the liquid brown sugar in it. Detik Food  termed the snack "a sweet surprise wrapped in chewy dough and delicious grated coconut."

On Patali (Market) Day, Young Chefs® Academy had 2 sessions, an hour each. Children as young as 3 years old seriously followed directions from attentive instructors. As always cooking safety was first on the agenda.

Kids loved the hands on activities of flattening small dough, filled it with palm sugar, and shaping it into a small ball.

Dough ingredients:

1. 250-gr glutinous rice flour
2. ¼ teaspoon salt
3. ¼ teaspoon kapur sirih water
4. 2 table spoon suji leaves water 25 ml warm water
5. 100 grams solid palm sugar, finely sliced

Coating ingredients:

1. 1/3 coconut, coarsely grated
2. ¼ teaspoon salt
3. Pandan leaves

Note:

Kapur sirih is limestone paste used in fried foods and pastries to enhance crispiness.

Suji (Dracaenae angustifolia) leaves are usually used together with pandan leaves (Pandanus amaryllifolius) to give a particular green color and does not add flavor to the dish.

Method:

1. Steam coarsely grated coconut and salt for about 5 minutes. Set aside.
2. Mix glutinous rice flour, salt, kapur sirih water and suji leaves water. Stir.
3. Take 1-2 teaspoon of dough, round and flatten, put 1 teaspoon sliced palm sugar at the center of dough, cover and shape it round again.
4. After all the dough is formed, put in boiling water, cook to float and drain.
5. Immediately roll the balls in grated coconut.
6. Serve

When a child is learning how to cook, according to Culinaryschools.org, it is best to begin with recipes that are simple to follow. These recipes often have ingredients that are familiar to most kids. After a child masters some simple recipes, he or she can build on that success by trying more complicated recipes with unfamiliar ingredients.

Kids went home from Patali (Market) Day happy carrying a goodie bag filled with klepon recipe, information on Young Chefs® Academy Indonesia, a free trial voucher, a blue chef’s hat from Omar Niode Foundation, and a box of klepon that kids made themselves.

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Images: Monchichi Photography, Omar Niode Foundation