When I got into this whole “food thing” back in the day, I had to learn how to make everything myself through trial and error, because hawkers in Malaysia were notoriously secretive about their craft.

One of these recipes was for roti canai (roti prata if you’re Singaporean), and I’ve been able to make decent enough rotis that I sold it for years at my now-closed restaurant, I’ve demonstrated the art of flipping roti on Australian television, and I’ve run cooking classes on it.

Even so, I always felt my roti dough recipe was missing je ne sais quoi compared to what you could find at a Malaysian mamak stall. (FYI “Mamak” in Malaysia refers to roti canai stalls and to the Indian-Muslim cooks who run them; I’m not talking about the restaurant chain by the same name here in Australia, much as I admire their business.)

This session with Chef Chandra, who is the in-house the roti canai specialist at Traders Hotel Kuala Lumpur’s Gobo Chit Chat restaurant, is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to learn from a master of the trade directly.

Chef Chandra started out as an apprentice at a Malaysian mamak stall who, after many years of learning and selling roti canai, was recruited by Traders Hotel.

I should mention that this roti canai, which is made fresh and served at the breakfast buffet at Traders Hotel’s Gobo Chit Chat restaurant every morning, is pitch perfect and as good as any roti canai I’ve eaten anywhere in Malaysia.

Here is the first part of my roti canai masterclass as taught by Chef Chandra; click to watch >>

Roti Canai Dough

INGREDIENTS:

100 grams Butter
25 grams Salt
75 grams Sugar
100 grams Condensed Milk
750 grams Plain Flour
100ml Fresh Milk
125ml water

METHOD:

1. Combine butter, salt, sugar, condensed milk, fresh milk and water. Mix well.
2. Add flour and knead for 10 minutes. Rest for 20 minutes.
3. Roll into balls (you’ll need to watch the video to see how it’s done; it’s important to learn the technique).
4. Coat with butter, then rest for 2 hours before using.
5. IMPORTANT – The dough balls will need to be at tropical room temperature for them to be easily manipulated & flipped; in winter time at my restaurant I used to turn the oven on for 1 minute at the lowest setting, turn it off, then store the dough balls in it until they’ve softened.

My Wok Around Asia Kuala Lumpur project is made possible through the support of the following >>

The post How to Make Perfect Roti Canai Dough first appeared on Jackie M..

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One of the highlights of my recent trip to Kuala Lumpur was to run a Hangout-on-Air at Traders Hotel, KL, which was a first in many ways –

1. It was the first ever Hangout-on-Air broadcast from Traders Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.
2. It was my collaborator Fay Khoo’s first time participating in a Hangout.
3. It was the first time I’d run one from my brand new Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro.

Watch on YouTube (opens new window) >> http://youtu.be/wuuvGmOwLJ0

Having just come from Penang where we had been shown the secrets to cooking Penang Char Kway Teow by Hotel Jen’s Chef Siva, it only made sense for me to have a go at this iconic Penang dish myself at Traders Hotel’s Gobo Chit Chat Brasserie.

The only change I made was in the order of ingredients going into the wok (proving my point that there’s no fixed rule about Malaysian cooking), but apart from that – the sauce, type of noodles etc. – was per that for Penang Char Kway Teow.  The recipe for that can be found here >> How to Cook Penang Char Kway Teow .

Gobo Chit Chat Brasserie’s Seafood Buffet runs every Friday and Saturday night, and the spread is really one of a kind – I’ve never seen such extravagant buffet, seafood or otherwise, as what was on display. Fay and I thought it’d be interesting to incorporate two seemingly disparate offerings – humble street food combined with superlative fresh grilled seafood – and see how well this fusion works.

Those of you who follow me on social media would have seen my post about the Chromebook I had bought for my Malaysian trip. It was broken almost as soon as I took it out of the box, thanks to #babyNoah dropping a PC monitor on it as I was configuring the settings.  That completely left me in a bind as I was due to fly out in about 3 days.

Thankfully, Lenovo heard about my predicament and stepped in with a beautiful Yoga 2 Pro in time for my trip.  This Hangout-on-Air was run from my Yoga 2 Pro without a hitch, and it is so multi-faceted in its functionality and features that I’m completely bowled over by it.  Thank you, Lenovo!

The post Char Kway Teow with Grilled Lobster and Tobiko first appeared on Jackie M..