As someone who's run a Malaysian food business for decades, I'm always trying to strike a balance between maintaining "authentic" flavours while cutting down on time spent in the kitchen (thanks to labour costs and staff shortage issues). My friends at MyBlueTea.com.au recently sent me some samples of their natural pandan powder (made from pure » Read More
Chillies (30 Days 30 Asian Ingredients Series)
In this Live broadcast on Chillies, I cover the different types of chillies used in Malaysian and Southeast Asian cooking, and explain their uses and preparation methods. I also reveal a good, cheap substitute that I’ve encountered in my recent trips to my local non-Asian fruit and vegetable shop, and how to “hack” the flavour to achieve the same » Read More
Blue Flower Power And The Case For Cultural Appropriation
(Originally published on The Huffington Post December 2017) I have a confession to make - I don’t spend a lot of time browsing through pretty pictures on Instagram; it’s just not how I consume content. No surprise then, that I missed the recent trend in blue butterfly (aka blue pea) flower-infused images of food and drink on social media. » Read More
How to Make Indonesian Sup Soto (Low Carb)
I was hesitant to call this a Soto since its defining characteristic is the use of compressed rice squares (ketupat) simmered in soup, and with the whole low-carb thing, I’m severely restricting my rice consumption. Instead, I added some coconut powder (I would have used coconut cream or coconut milk but I didn’t have any on hand) to compensate » Read More
How to Make Cauliflower Fried Rice (Low-Carb)
In this Live Asian Kitchen you will hear me say repeatedly how much I disliked cauliflower, and how much contempt I held for the attempts at cauliflower fried rice I’d seen online. They looked like gooey couscous or risotto, and bore no resemblance to fried rice as I know it. I thus came into to this session with very low expectations, but was » Read More
How to Make Sambal for Prawn Noodle Soup (Har Meen) (Low-Carb)
If you've followed my Live Asian Kitchen broadcasts for any length of time, you would know that the term sambal belacan" (shrimp paste sambal) covers a number of different chilli dips - there's raw sambal belacan which consists of pounding chillies with toasted shrimp paste, some seasoning plus a dash of fresh lime juice - popular in » Read More
How to Make Low-Carb Malaysian Prawn Noodle Soup (Har Meen)
This dish is known by different names depending on which part of Malaysia you grew up in; I know it as har meen (literally prawn noodles), and being pork-averse, I make mine with a combination of prawn and chicken stock, and top it with chicken in lieu of pork. The low-carb version covered in this recipe involves the use of konnyaku » Read More
How to Cook Stir-Fried Cucumber (Low-Carb)
This Live Asian Kitchen broadcast marks the beginning of my low-carb diet. For the record, I neither invented nor tweaked this recipe to fit into my current low-carb fixation; stir-fried cucumber is actually quite a common dish served up in Chinese homes back in Malaysia (and possibly other parts of the world; I don’t know). Stir-Fried » Read More
How to Cook Duck Soup with Salted Vegetables
I used the duck bones (with a generous amount of meat left on it) from the same duck in my last post, to make duck soup with salted vegetables, a well-loved Chinese homestyle soup that originated from the Fujian province in China. The duck soup segment begins about halfway through this live video - Duck Soup with » Read More