Saya Suka Pedas Lagi!

It's been a while since I mentioned food. Rather unusual I know - it must be the heat. Malaysian food is rather tasty. The thing we first discovered was Nasi Lemak. This was first tested out in Langkawi and came wrapped in a parcel of newspaper. It consisted of a mound of coconut rice, with dollop of spicy chicken curry sat on top. We went on to discover the baby octopus, beef and prawn versions. Very tasty and kept you going all day. Going with the theme of portable foodstuff, we experimented with ominous morsels wrapped in banana leaves. Ranging from the barely edible to the downright unrecongizable, we soon learnt to give these a wide birth.

Nasi Lemak in other quarters involes a complicated mix of flavours and accompaniments. To compliment the chicken/rice combo, you typically get a kind of spicy jam ("spicy jam? The dirty..."), a boiled egg and a pile of little dried fish (ikan bilis). Nice all in all but a bit too heavy on the dead poisson flavour for me. I quite like saying it though "Ikan bilis!"

There is the usual array of Chinese and Indian eateries - mostly very lovely with a cracking array of seafood. One recent meal of note was a dish of soft-shell crabs in a tempura batter. Served whole (shell and all) we ate it with a soy/chilli/garlic dip. You then did a pick-and-mix of the veggies you wanted - very tasty. We were so impressed that we went back for seconds, except this time it all went wrong. I wasnt really sure what happened, but second time round, the crabs came rolled in a kind of Alpen mixture. Very weird and very wrong.

Talking of Ruby Murray, the best Indians we've found are the "banana leaf restaurants." You actually get a massive banana leaf instead of a plate and they just come round with all manner of pots and ladle it out. Mostly you eat with your fingers in these establishments - tricky first itme round. So tasty this eating-from-a-leaf lark, we have consumed our own body weight in dahl, chicken tikka and jalfrezi more than once. It's sad, but we still order the same as we would of a Friday night down Kemp Spice.

A bit of satay always goes down well and when this comes with nasi goreng (fried rice), a fried egg, a chicken wing and a few prawn crackers, you're onto a winner. However, trying not to look scared in the Filipino market, we bought a bit of satay which I think was made from chicken knuckles (it was ever so crunchy). We then went onto have a very good dinner of unidentifiable BBQ fish, prawns and squid. Non too keen on the squid, Andy put me right off by pointing out I was about to eat the "beak." Accompanied by salad, rice and green mango and lots of fresh chilli it was a great bargain at about 3 quid. Unbeknownst to me at the time, it seems they also threw in faw days worth of diarrhoea at no extra cost! Very good for a hangover or if you're really Hank Marvin, is a massive bowl of Laksa. Each region has it's own variation but it's basically a spicy coconut-based soup with noodles, beansprouts, slices of "fishcake" (weirdest fishcake I ever had - sort of squeeky) and a sprinkling of egg (of course), chicken and prawn and there you have it - three days worth of calories in one meal.

We may have mentioned it already, but Roti Canai is a favourite Malaysian breakfast. A very healthy (fried) unleavened bread with a tasty curry dip gets you fired up for the day ahead. Murtabak is a variation on this and involves a sort of meat-filled pancake with a curry dip.

Next up, puddings...What can I say? I'm not sure how they came up with it, but wandering around on a hot sticky day, you're bound to come across people enjoying ice cream sandwiches. Importantly, these are not the wafer-enveloped delights reminiscent of childhood of Sundays round your Nanna's. Neiewwww!!!! Ingeniously, someone has taken the sandwich element a step too literally. Your Malaysia (and Singaporean, for that matter) is actually a couple of slices of Mothers Pride wrapped around a lump of ice cream. To make matters worse, they dye the bread. I think it comes in pink and green...

The next weirdest pudding is a corker. O.K. you get a load of crushed ice in a bowl. You then add the best part of evaporated milk. You then add a generous helping of condensed milk and a few squirts of monkey blood (not they real item). Not to bad so far? Sorry, did I miss out the bit where the crushed ice is placed on a pile of kidney beans, sweetcorn, macaroni and cubes of jelly? I can hear you all rumaging around in your lofts for long-abandoned Mr. Frosty to try and replicate this one. I haven't tried this concoction which appears to be christened ABC, I already know it will taste crap and stupid. Nice lady ladling it out though.

Many places (Halal) don't serve booze. We obviously expected this, but I tell you, it's still a shock to the system. There is also a habit of replacing pork-products with beef. Beef bacon is a bit funny, as are chicken sausages, but when in Rome!! The porcine market is rather underground and you have to head to Chinese quarters for such "special meat" delicacies. In fact, China Town is also the place to seek out booze.

To end on a positive note, they enjoy a bit of spice and Malaysian curries are good - especially a rendang. To keep you on your toes, the word for chilli is phrik, but rather than ask for this directly, it's probably more ladylike to exclaim "Saya suka pedas lagi!" (I like it hot and spicy). Obviously there are the ubiquitous noodle affairs and rice a plenty. Sometimes these are garnished with flower petals and I'm not casting nasturtians here. The beer is Tiger (of course) and this almost excuses the fact that it is thought to be a good idea to drink cold soya bean milk in a can.

Words by Croom.

Roti Canai

Roti Canai is a delicious breakfast we've been enjoying throughout Malaysia, particularly in the Perhensian islands. I don't know if its a pain to make or not until I've tried it, but you could certainly freeze a load afterwards. As to the sauce, you can use any curry sauce that takes your fancy, I'll be using some kind of dhal with lots of chilli.



Roti means bread in Hindi (and Malay) The term 'canai' comes from 'channa', a mixture of boiled chickpeas in a spicy gravy from Northern India which it was traditionally served with.

Ingredients:

10 oz plain flour
Salt to taste
½ cup ghee [clarified butter] or margarine
½ cup water

Method:

Sieve flour and salt into a mixing bowl
Mix in the ghee, add water gradually, knead until the dough is a smooth, medium consistency
Let dough rest for 2 to 3 hrs to soften
Take a portion of dough, shape into a ball, oil the work top with ghee and work each ball into a very thin sheet - first flatten with your oiled palms, then thin it further by pulling the edges [professionals do it by flipping the dough in the air in a circular motion like a pizza maker does]
Sprinkle the dough sheet with 1 tsp of ghee and fold in edges forming it into a square then sprinkle a little flour and roll out slightly
Alternatively, you can thin out the sheet, oil and roll it up - coil it up like a sea shell, flatten, oil again and repeat the flattening 1 or 2 more times
Preheat griddle or pan, grease well with ghee; when hot, put one roti dough on, cook for 2-3 mins till golden brown. Lift Roti with a spatula, grease the griddle with a tsp of ghee, cook the other side

Further Reading:

Wikipedia
Geocities
More roti

Thai Green Curry

Here we go kids, its a Thai classic and its top banana tasty stuff!
We learn't to cook this at our cookery school in Chiang Mai, so this recipe is similer to theirs, but we've changed it slightly, basically cause it needed some Corriander in it and definately a lot more chilli! First make the paste then go on to make the curry.
This recipe should be good for 4 people, but don't quote me on that.


Green curry paste

Ingredients:

8 small green chillies
4 Garlic cloves
4 Shallots
2 Lemon grass sticks ( the white bit and about a third of the soft green bit)
1 thin slice of Galangal ( half a human ear size)
1 handfull of fresh Coriander
2 small 10p size pieces of Kaffir lime rind or normal lime rind
a pinch of Salt

To make the paste, shove all the ingredients in a blender or cut up till they're tiny, weeny pieces. Now put this green, gorgeous smelling mush into a morter and 'mash it up' till its a smooth paste. This will take 5-10 mins of mashing. This bits important cause it binds all the flavours together and won't leave any annoying bits of lemon grass floating around your curry.

Making the Curry

Ingredients:

1/2 a sliced Onion
2-3 breasts of chicken cut into smallish bits
some veggies, eggplant if you can get it, otherwise, courgette, broccoli, potatoe, etc)
2 teaspoons suger (brown or white)
2 tablespons fisg sauce
6 or so Kaffir lime leaves (fresh if possible, but dry will do)
a few Thai Basil leaves (Must be Thai basil, ordinary won't do)
1 can of coconut milk (not the half-fat crap)
1 pinch of salt

Cooking it:

Tip the coconut milk in a saucepan and bring to the boil, then lower the heat.
When you can see oil (coconut oil that is) on the top, it's time to put the chicken, onion and your paste in and give it a stir.
Once the chicken is cooked (4-5 mins) put your veggies, suger, fish sauce and salt in.

When everything is cooked, remove from the heat and stir in your lime and basil leaves.

Serve with rice (sticky or jasmine)

You may need to experiment with amounts of herbs and chilli to get your perfect curry.

Fruit with chilli?

Short one this. Ever dipped pieces of fruit into chilli and salt? No? Well its about time everyone did, cause its grrrrrreat! Its very simple this, get some salt, get some chilli flakes, more salt than chilli and mash together with a pestle and morter. You should end up with orange salt thats got a chilli kick, if you want you could add a small amout of suger as well, but see how it goes.
Then the fruit; the best fruit / chilli /salt combination we've had had been green or normal mango and pinapple, but try it with anything. If you get a mango, my advice it to not let it get soft and cut it up when it has the texture of an apple. Then relax and dip away, have a drink standing by in case the chilli or salt is to strong for your tastes, mmmmm, wicked stuff.

Beef Laap

Next up is Laap or Lap or Lab or Lahp (the name seems to change from menu to menu). It's the national dish of Laos and its well tasty! Eat it with sticky rice of course and papaya salad (recipe another time).
I've amalgamated a couple of recipes that I've found on the net, so hope it works, all the main flavours are there anyway, you're supposed to put in a banana flower to, but I'm guessing thats going to be to hard to get in the old UK.


Ingredients

Minced beef, a normal sized packet. You could use pork or chicken too or if you are particularly weird....tofu :(

2 large cloves garlic, sliced

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons ground roasted sticky rice (fry some sticky rice in a pan carefuly, it will easily stick, until brown and then crush using a pestal and morter).

2 red chillies, finely sliced (less or more dependent on spicyness you want)

1/3 cup finely chopped spring onions.

3 tablespoons chopped mint

3 tablespoons coriander finely chopped

1 kaffir lime leaf

½ teaspoon chopped lemon grass

2 - 3 tablespoon fish sauce

2 - 3 tablespoon squeezed lime

½ teaspoon chopped galangal or ginger



Method

Heat oil in wok until hot, then add the beef. Fry over medium to hot heat. Remove from oil, drain and cool.
Then fry your garlic, lemon grass and ginger until barely golden, then add the fish sauce, the lime juice and the soy sauce.
Sprinkle the ground roasted sticky rice over the mixture, and mix together. Taste and adjust soy sauce if necessary.
Take off the heat and add the sliced chillies and chopped spring onions, mint and coriander. Lightly mix, then pile on a serving dish.

You should end up with a plate of minced, herby deliciousness, fairly dry but with just a little juice that you can dip your little balls of rice into!

Easy! Eat with sticky rice of course :)

Further reading:

Laocuisine.net
Epicurious
More Laap
Further Lao food Links

Sticky or Lazy?

For a long time I used to think that sticky rice was cooked by lazy people.
How could you let rice cook so long, that it became that sticky and what was enjoyable about rice that you couldn't seperate easily with a fork.
Well, in Laos I have dicovered why sticky rice is so good. First off, it tastes nice. That helps obviously, but I've found it to be a grower and now I have to have it every day. It's just a little bit different tasting to normal rice, its really hard to articulate the taste, maybe its a bit sweeter? Its definately more chewy!
What I really like about sticky rice though, is that its practical.
I would watch people buying chicken on a stick through the bus window thinking, mmmmm chicken, mmmm flies and then I spotted what else they were buying, yup, sticky rice in a bag. Its so easy to eat on the go, you just grab a little bit off and roll it into a ball, then pop it into your mouth with said chicken and hopefuly no flies. Its so simple and tasty, sad I know, but its really captured my imagination and tastebuds. It always arrives in a little basket, even in Brighton and you just grab a bit and dunk it, like bread into whatever you're eating. It really soaks up any juices on your plate without falling apart like normal rice. I'm investing in some cheap as chips Laos rice baskets at the next available market and you're all welcome round for some sticky fun in 2007 :)

Making sticky rice:

First you need to buy some glutinous or sweet rice. Thats probably the tricky part, but I'm sure that Taj in Brighton would sell it and maybe some supermarkets?
No other rice will do, so don't bother otherwise.

Soak the rice in water for 4 hours.

Then steam it for 1/2 hour and whallah, sticky rice :)

Actually it might even be a bit more technical than that, so heres some websites that tell you more detail and to remind me when I get home.

Import food.com
AsiaRecipe.com
Thaifoodandtravel.com

It begins...with Ramen

What's the point of a new site?
Well I keep coming across things I want to buy, plans I want to make, noodles I want to eat when we return home to Brighton in 07. I am well known for the uselessness of my brain to remember stuff, so thought I'd set up this little site to jot down ideas along our journey (see Andy and Sam blog).

First up then (while I remember) is mmmm Ramen! We couldn't get enough of the stuff in Japan, in fact we pretty much had a bowl a day, so when I get home one of the first things I want to do is to recreate the perfect bowl of Ramen! A very difficult task I'm guessing. That stock of chickeny pork gorgeosity, the chilli, the pork slices and of course the noodles, ahhh, soon my love, soon...

Some Ramen websites: World of Ramen
Ramen