Nasi Lemak ( Rice in Coconut Milk )

Nasi Lemak literally means rice in cream, adopted from the cooking process whereby rice is soaked in coconut milk/cream and then the mixture is steamed. This is my first time tryin my hands on cooking this particular dish. When i was growing up, whenever we have Nasi Lemak served at home , I'd get excited cause i can put as much gravy as i want on my rice unlike the store bought ones, dry without much gravy.

Usually Nasi Lemak would be served with spicy anchovies and since i don't have any at home, i substituted it with spicy prawns (sambal udang). You may also serve this dish with fried fish (sardine, mackerel, etc), peanuts and just bout anything that you desire. I don't quite fancy peanuts, therefore i excluded it.

Ingredients

RICE

* 3 cups rice

* 4 cups of water

* 1/2 cups of coconut milk

* 3 screwpine leaves (knotted)

* 3 shallots (thinly sliced)

* 1/2 inch ginger (thinly sliced)

* A pinch of salt

Method :

1) Wash and rinse the long grain rice for at least 5 times to get rid of the starch and also any particles in the rice.

2) Add in the rest of the ingredients in the rice cooker and let it cook.

3) After 10 minutes or so, stir the rice so that the remaining ingredients will be well blended with your rice.

4) Once the rice cooker's "keep warm" indicator is on , fluff up the rice with your fork and cover it up with the lit and let it sit approximately 15mins before serving.

SPICY PRAWNS

* 800g-1kg prawns (shelled and deveined)

* Tamarind juice to taste

* Salt and sugar to taste

* Olive oil

Spice Paste

* 3 medium red onions

* 3cm ginger

* 5 cloves garlic

* 2 tsp shrimp paste powder

* 5 candle nuts

* 5 tbsp chilli paste

Method:

1) You can either blend or pound all the ingredients for the spice paste.

2) Fry your prawns with a little bit of oil for less than a minute and dish out.

3) Heat up your work and add olive oil and stir fry the spice paste until fragrant.

4) Season with salt and sugar to taste and finally add in your tamarind juice until it reaches the consistency you desire.

5) Taste again and season accordingly if you need to.

6) Add in the prawns and simmer for less than 5 minutes otherwise the prawns will turn hard and rubbery.

Note:

If you like the gravy to be more spicy, adjust the amount of chilli paste you included in your spice paste.

San Bei Ji ( 3 Cups Chicken )

Despite the name 3 cups chicken, literally translated from San Bei Ji, instead of using a full cup of each ingredients, i've modified the portion. I was first introduced to this dish when i was having dinner with a friend at a Kocha Taiwanese restaurant. That was my first time having it, i like the combination and the aromatic thai basil in this dish , therefore i was looking around and i even asked a Taiwanese friend for the recipe. Too bad she didnt have it but lucky me i found a few versions of the recipe over the net. I like this particular recipe the best.

INGREDIENTS

* 1 whole chicken

* 2 cups basil leaves

* 1/3 cup sesame oil

* Half a bulb garlic

* 10 slices ginger

* 2 chillies

* 3 tbsp brown sugar

* 1/3 cup light soy sauce

* 1/3 cup rice wine (Shao Hsing Hua Tiau)

Method:

1) Crush/roughly pound half bulb of the garlic, cut the chillies diagonally into a thick strip and set aside.

2) Heat the wok/non stick pan and pour 1/3 cup of sesame oil into the wok and add the chopped chicken pieces and stir fry until its bout 1/2 or 3/4 cook. Drain and set aside.

3) With the sesame oil in the wok, add in the crushed garlic and sliced ginger and stir fry till fragrant.

4) Add the cut chillies and give it a quick stir and add in the chicken and stir for a while.

5) Add in the rice wine and the light soy sauce and let it simmer.

6) Lastly add in the basil and sugar and let it simmer.

Note:

Its important to use thai basil for the sweet basil available will not give this dish that particular taste and aroma.

Asam Pedas Bawal Hitam ( Hot/Spicy and Sour Black Pomfret )

Asam Pedas is a well known dish both in Malacca and Johore.

Different culture has got a different interpretation of this particular dish. As for the one i've prepared over here, i'm not too sure bout its origin because i was told that there's the Malay-style and the Nyonya style of Asam Pedas. But one thing i know and very sure of is that i'm loving this dish!

This dish alone , got my bro goin for 3 servings of rice and for my mom, 2 servings! So i'd take this as a compliment from my bro since he's pretty fusy with fish. He loves his fish to be fried. Typical of him.

INGREDIENTS

* 800gm black pomfret

* 12 okras

* 2 tomatoes ( cut into wedges )

* 1 tbsp fish curry powder

* 5 springs daun kesum (Vietnamese coriander )

* 1 bunga kantan ( torch ginger)

* Oil

* Salt and sugar to taste

* 2 medium shallots (pound)

* 4-5 cups tamarind juice

Spice Paste (pound)

* 2 cloves garlic

* 2 stalks lemon grass (white part only)

* 15 shallots (small)

* 20 dried chillies (soaked )

* 2 tsp shrimp paste powder

* 4cm fresh ginger

* 3cm fresh turmeric

Method:

1) Stir fry the pounded shallots until fragrant and add in the spice paste and stir further until aromatic.

2) Pour in the tamarind juice and let it simmer.

3) Add in daun kesum and simmer a while and add in bunga kantan and okras.

4) Put in the pieces of fish and let it simmer further. Add in the tomato wedges.

5) Season with salt and sugar to taste.

Note:

You can replace the dried chillies with chilli paste to speed up the cooking process.

Its best to use fresh ginger and turmeric instead of the powdered form.

Halved or quartered the bunga kantan. If you like, you can slice it finely.

Add in more tamarind juice for those who wants more gravy to this dish. To make the tamarind juice : 1 1/4 cups water with tamarind pulp the size of small ping pong ball. To make this dish more savoury, always add in tamarind juice, be it thick or thin but never add in water.

Usually stingray will be used to prepare this dish but since my granny dont take stingray , therefore i've replaced it with a black pomfret. You can basically replace it with any type of fish you fancy.

In order to have a less oily asam pedas, be sure to cut down the oil use to fry the pounded shallots and spice paste. Start off with a lil and add more oil if you need to. I used a deep non stick to cook this dish therefore i only needed very little oil.

If you do not like your okras and tomatoes to be to cooked, add the okra at the same time you add your fish pieces and let it simmer and add in the tomato wedges. I added the okra first so that it will be soft enough for my granny.

Ayam Masak Rendang ( Chicken in Coconut Milk)

Rendang is an Indonesian dish originated from the Minangkabau, one of the etnic group in Indonesia and one of the characteristics food of this culture, it is served at ceremonial occassions and to honour guests. This particular dish is also popular in Singapore and Malaysia and its traditionally prepared by the Malay community during festive occasions. Usually rendang is made from beef but this dish can be prepared with chicken or mutton or even vegie.

Ingredients

* 1.3kg chicken

* 3 lemongrass (bruised)

Spice A ( Pound/blend)

* 15 shallots

* 15 cloves garlic

* 3 inch galangal

* 3 inch ginger

* 9 stalks lemongrass

* 30 dried chillies

Spice B

* 9 cloves

* 9 star anise

* 9 cardamon seeds

Spice C

* 3 cups thick coconut milk

* 3 cups water

* 3 tsp tamarind puree

Spice D

* 18 kaffir lime leaves

* 18 tbsp grated coconut

* 3 tbsp palm sugar

* Salt to taste

Method:

1) Dry fry the grated coconut until it turns golden brown and set aside.

2) Add some oil and stir fry Spice A and Spice B together until fragrant

3) Then add chopped chicken pieces and bruised lemongrass and saute

4) Next, add Spice C and let it simmer , stir occassionally.

5) Add spice D and reduce the heat to low and simmer. Preferably cover your pot/wok. Cooking will take approximately 2hrs for the gravy to dry up.

Note:

You can also add in some turmeric leaves, bay leaves and fresh turmeric. I omitted all of it. Its all up to your preferences. You can also include candlenuts as well.

Do chop your kaffir lime leaves finely when you add in to the wok together with your grated coconut.

The dry fried grated coconut produces oil as well , so its best to sieve the oil from time to time, like how i did it to reduce the amount of oil in the rendang.

This dish is best served with white steamed rice, ketupat or even lemang.

Adobo Chicken with Ginger

I recently came across the word, Adobo and i thought to myself , what's this adobo? I did some reading and i was really pleased with what i found out! For those that understands Spanish , adobo means marinade or season. As for the Filipino, this word represents a type of cuisine and often refer to as a common and popular cooking process.

According to some of my friends who have tasted this dish , they claimed it to be really really good, so i thought why not give it a try and see if i like it as much as the 3 cups chicken i tried previously.

INGREDIENTS

* 1.3kg chicken (bite size)

* 1/2 cup light soy sauce

* 3/4 cup vinegar

* 1 bulb garlic

* 2 tbsp thinly sliced ginger

* 2 bay leaves

* 1/2 tbsp crushed black peppercorns

Method:

1) Marinate the chicken with some salt and pepper. Pan fry the chicken pieces, remove and place it on a kitchen towel.

2) Peel and pound the garlic slightly. Stir fry garlic and sliced ginger until fragrant.

3) Add in soy sauce, vinegar, bay leaves and peppercorns and let it simmer before adding in the pan-fried chicken.

4) Let it simmer further on a low heat until the sauce has thicken and reduced to half.

5) Dish it out and its ready to be served.

Note:

The method written has been modified. The original cooking style is to dump everythin in the Dutch oven and let it stew under low fire. Since i dont have the required kitchen tool, i decided to do it my way

It tasted good for me , but for those that would want a less tartness, you can adjust the ratio of soy sauce and vinegar to suit your liking. You can add a lil sugar to it as well.