Learn the secrets of cooking Balinese dishes at luxury resort

Canggu, on the southwest coast of Bali, may be best known as a hipster and surfer hangout but its oldest hotel also offers cooking classes with a difference.

The Hotel Tugu Bali, the resort's grande dame, sits by the quiet surf beach, surrounded by its vast collection of Indonesian relics. But the hotel is not stuck in the past. The cooking class at Tugu Bali offers visitors a new perspective on Indonesia's centuries-old culinary traditions. The instructor is a celebrated chef in Asia and has cooked for several Indonesian presidents, including Abdurrahman Wahid and Megawati Sukarnoputri, who loved her stir-fried eggplant.

It is a hands-on cultural experience with Ibu Soelastri, unlike most cooking classes where you only get to garnish with some coriander or a squeeze of lime after a cursory presentation by an instructor. Hailing from the island of Java, Soelastri has been honing her craft since she was four years old, taking lessons from her grandmother. Now more than 60 years old, Soelastri is cheerful with a permanent smile. She speaks no English, but is assisted by effervescent interpreter/ sous-chef Komang Nuriani, known as Nuri.

Classes are conducted at Waroeng Tugu, an open hut with a thatched roof, the hotel's outdoor warung-style kitchen, with terracotta pots and a wood fire.

At Waroeng Tugu, guests can learn five dishes from a selection of traditional Balinese and Javanese recipes. As I'm in Bali, I pick all Balinese dishes. I add a sixth, begging them to teach me how to make sambal matah, a simple shallot and lemon grass condiment that accompanies every authentic Balinese meal.

As with many Southeast Asian cuisines, Balinese cooking involves pounding and grinding of ingredients, a great way to work out those arms and gain wrist strength.

The preparation of Balinese-style satay lilit is truly a lot of fun. Lemon grass, turmeric, lesser galangal, candlenuts, shallots, garlic, red chillies, grated coconut and kaffir lime leaves are ground into a paste on a rough slab of stone that acts as a mortar. The paste is then mixed with freshly minced snapper and then moulded onto stalks of lemon grass. An elegant screw shape is traditional, but I can only manage the easier tapered cylindrical bule (foreigner) style.