I’m constantly amazed at the popularity of pre-cooked or de-shelled prawns in seafood shops here in Australia, over and above the raw, shell-intact varieties. To me, if they’ve been pre-cooked, the shells (not to mention the meat) have lost most of their flavour, and if they’re peeled and treated (ie. what we Asians called “restaurant prawns”) you » Read More
How to Prepare Ikan Bilis (Dried Anchovies)
April 23, 2015 by
Print PDF I remember when Delia Smith's cookbook came out back in the day and the scorn she received (in my household, to be fair) for her "How to Boil an Egg" tutorial - as we collectively ranted about its perceived redundancy - who doesn't know how to boil an egg?! Well, call this culinary karma if you will, but I've been compelled to produce » Read More
How to Make Roti Canai
January 16, 2015 by
Print PDF Roti Canai is seen as a bit of a dark art, and there is quite a bit of speculation as to what makes the dough stretchy, but if you’re lucky to get a mamak to reveal the recipe, he’d tell you it’s basically just flour, water and salt. All the other ingredients in my recipe are really there for flavour rather than to help with the » Read More
How to Make Kaya Bread and Butter Pudding
June 19, 2014 by
Print PDF They say necessity is the mother of invention and that's kind of how "Breakfast Roti" - one of the signature menu items at my markets, came about. For the uninitiated, it consists of Roti Canai (Malaysian flaky pancake) served with Kaya (Pandan and Coconut Jam). Fun fact - "Breakfast Roti" ie. "Roti Canai Kaya" isn't what we Malaysians » Read More
10 Must-Have Malaysian Pantry Ingredients
August 24, 2011 by
Print PDF 'Must have' in the sense that they're what I would personally get if I were limited to only 10 items - again, depending on your own (Malaysian) cultural upbringing, you might have a vastly different list to mine. Will elaborate on these another time along with suitable recipes. As mentioned in a previous post, when hunting down » Read More