About 7-8 years ago Arran and I had a breakthrough, or breakdown – they feel remarkably similar! – and downsized our creative agency to just the two of us and put all our clients on hold. I paused all my meditation teaching, and we packed our bags with our young daughter and went traveling through Indonesia for 7 weeks with backpacks and surfboards. We were burned out, and veering off course in life, so we wanted a total reset. It felt crazy and risky and I cannot tell you how enlightening it was. Also when the pandemic hit, I recalled this trip often, and how grateful I was that we went on it.
It was one of those challenging and stunning trips. We stayed in tiny huts on even smaller islands, and snorkelled and rode motorbikes, walked through rice fields to go to yoga, and drank ice cold watermelon frappe’s. We read books, played too many card games, and befriended stray dogs and kittens and spent a lot of time searching for waves and eating rice in tiny brown paper packets on the side of the road topped with peanuts, as we tried to figure out what next in our lives. We had the time and space to craft the life we have now. We invested deeply in ourselves, in our spiritual practices, our creativity and all the things we knew would help us through thick and thin. I’ll be forever grateful for that clarity, that dedication and determination we cultivated as it truly held us through so much turbulence and joy that was in store.
One of the things that stayed with me on that trip was the way the Balinese cooked, as I did some cooking classes and I was stunned at the simplicity of this concept – one meal, served three times a day. It was explained as this to me – why cook three different meals when you can cook once in the morning and then layer in some extra vegetables or salads as the day moves through and keep serving the same dish. I loved this idea and have worked with it many times to save time. I’m a full time working parent, so these kinds of tricks are necessary for sanity. This recipe below is perfect for this. It is not Indonesian! It’s more like a healthy Italian mash up with Israeli style toppings.
RECIPE
Sautee a few handfuls of silverbeet or spinach in a little water with a clove of garlic, adding a heaped teaspoon of curry powder, a decent pinch of sea salt (don’t be shy with this) and some cracked black pepper. Then add to a blender with 1/2 cup coconut milk and 1/2 cup besan flour (chikcpea flour) and 1/2 cup gluten free self raising flour (if you’re not gluten free add regular). Blitz on the smoothie setting so it’s all mixed together, and check the consistency – if too thick add some more water.
Then melt a little ghee in a hot pan, and then pour from the blender making smallish pancakes. Make sure you have it more well cooked on the first side so you can flip it without it going everywhere – the impatience mistake I usually make myself!
Then top with whatever you want. I added boiled egg, avocado and cucumber and parsley here with green sriracha sauce. You could literally layer on whatever you please though! The socca as a base is fantastic and flavoursome and can carry pretty much anything you like. The base will also hold cooked for hours until lunch, and you can keep the mix in the fridge until you get home for dinner also and make fresh, it’ll last a day. The ultimate in flexibility!