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 is a vegan version of a popular grilled sticky rice in banana leaf snack that I used to sell at numerous markets. The original version contained minced dried shrimp and belacan (shrimp paste) but in this broadcast, I substituted the dried shrimp with minced preserved radish (commonly used in Pad Thai), eliminated the belacan,…
I remember the time I was invited to Singapore to film a series of cooking videos for an online media company. I was quite happy with the results but for the fact that they described me on their portal as a “food blogger”. Anybody can blog, but I’d bet my bottom dollar there aren’t many…
Serunding, aka spicy meat floss, is another iconic Kelantan food that goes well with Nasi Kerabu, as is a simple grilled or pan-fried fish, typically ikan kembung (mackerel). I used barramundi (well, half of one) in my Live Asian Kitchen broadcast. Serunding INGREDIENTS: 250g cooked beef 1 cup desiccated coconut ½ cup coconut cream 1…
This post relates to my broadcast that covered 2 dishes – chilli crab, and the chilli sauce typically served at Chinese restaurants for Yum Cha. Chilli Sauce for Dumplings (1 hr 16 mins into video) INGREDIENTS: 2 cups large chillies 5 cloves garlic 1 Tbsp white vinegar 1 Tbsp sugar ½ Tbsp salt Cooled, boiled…
This eggplant sambal dish is from the same broadcast as the fish with tom yum sauce (hour 2) but I thought I should split it into two posts so it’s easier for people to find the recipe. Eggplant Sambal INGREDIENTS: 1 large eggplant, cut into chunks 4 cloves garlic, minced 4 Tbsps dried shrimp,…
I knew this Malaysian childhood snack as Mah Chee, though it’s entirely possible I had the name wrong my whole life; such is the lot of an entire generation of fluent but illiterate Chinese speakers who grew up in Malaysia. The cookbook from which this recipe was extracted (Agnes Chang’s Hawkers’ Delights) calls it “Chi…
Most people are familiar with Vietnamese Beef Pho, but what’s less well-known is that we similarly grew up with our own version of beef noodle soup back in Malaysia. I sort of split the difference in this broadcast where I retained the use of hearty chunks of beef brisket found in the Malaysian version, but…
Much like cereal prawns, an overwhelming number of online searches for “kerisik” yield misinformed recipes (what I like to call Fake Food News) for this Malaysian rendang ingredient. For the last time, kerisik is not toasted desiccated coconut; it’s roasted creamed coconut, sometimes called “coconut butter”. Kerisik INGREDIENT: Block of creamed coconut METHOD: Cook the…
Cereal prawns is one of those dishes that emerged on the Malaysian food scene AFTER I moved to Australia back in 1984, so I never got to try it growing up. That didn’t stop me putting it on my Concord restaurant menu back in the day, however, so I set off to learn the recipe…