Perhaps the most popular Asian dessert.  Sticky, chewy, sweet, salty, sour.  Truly a great texture + flavor combo.  If you can find black glutinous rice, it makes for a dramatic presentation.  And it’s so simple to make.

Chef’s tip: You would ask, why is there salt in this dessert recipe?  Salt brings out the full flavor of coconut.

Rice:
2 cups sweet glutinous rice, soaked overnight
4 pieces of pandan leaves*
2 ½ cups coconut milk
¾ cup coconut milk, reserve
¾ cup sugar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Fruit:
3 large ripe mangos
2 limes, zest only

Preparing the rice:
1.  Wash the rice and cover with water.  Set aside at least 6 hours to overnight.
2.  Prepare a large pot of boiling water with steamer.  Line steamer with cheesecloth.
3.  Drain rice.  Place rice evenly on the cheesecloth.   Place a knotted pandan leaves in the rice.
4.   Steam for about 20 minutes.  Test for doneness ie rice is tender and cooked through.
5.  In the meantime, combine sugar and salt with the coconut milk and bring to boil until sugar is dissolved.  Make sure you don’t over boil the mixture.
6.    When rice is done, quickly transfer to a serving bowl.  Pour the coconut mixture into rice mixture and stir.  Leave to stand 10-15 minutes.

Preparing the fruit:
7.   Peel the mango and cut the flesh into slices.
8.   Using a rind peeler or a peeler with a knife, make fine lime rinds strips.

Serving:
9.   To serve, place the fresh mango on top of a scoop of rice, drizzle the reserve coconut milk and garnish with lime strips.

Serves: 12

This is a classic chicken curry, Chinese Malaysian-style.  It goes really well with tumeric sticky rice.

Chef’s tip: Curry powder is commonly used in Malaysia, the concoction is similar to Sri Lankan curry powder.  Here’s a recipe to make your own curry powder.

Ingredients
6 pieces chicken legs with thighs, bones and skin on
2 tablespoons curry powder

3 small Russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 2-inch wedges
2 cups canola oil

Spice paste:
5 red jalapeno chilies, seeded
8 shallots
3 stalks lemon grass
1 inch galangal
1 inch fresh turmeric / 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 tablespoon roasted belacan
5 candlenuts

Sauce:
¼ cup canola oil
5 sprigs curry leaves
1 cup water
3 cups coconut milk, reserve 1 cup of the cream
2 tablespoons kosher salt, to taste

Marinating the chicken:
1.    Rub the curry powder over the chicken
Preparing the potatoes
2.    Peel the potatoes and cut each into 4 pieces. Pat dry.
3.    Heat a skillet with about 2-inch of oil.  Fry the potatoes till it is golden on the outside.  Remove and set aside.  The potatoes need not be cooked through.
Preparing the spice paste
4.    Roughly chop up all the spice paste ingredients (except lemongrass and galangal that needs to be finely chopped).
5.    Place all spice paste ingredients in a food processor and grind into a fine paste.
Cooking the curry
6.    Heat about ¼ cup of oil in a pot on medium high.  Add the spice paste and curry leaves fry till fragrant and red, about 5 minutes.
7.    Add the marinated chicken and fry for about 3 minutes.
8.    Add 1 cup water and 2 cups of coconut milk and salt.  Simmer for about 10 minutes
9.    Add the fried potatoes and reserved 1 cup coconut milk, and simmer uncovered until chicken is tender and gravy has thicken, about 30 minutes-45 minutes.  Let sit for 15 minutes before serving.

Serves: 6

Of the many different types of curries in Malaysia, the rendang is the most loved.  The rendang is always the star of any kenduris (wedding ceremonies) or raya (Id) festivities.  It’s a very dry curry with sweet tones of toasted coconut.  Slow cook it till it’s fork-tender.

Chef’s tip: To toast coconut, use a dry skillet and toss it frequently over medium heat.  Alternatively, pop it into a 350F oven for 5 minutes.

½ cup of finely shredded desiccated coconut

Spice paste:
10 red jalapeno chilies
2 shallots
2 cloves garlic
3 stalks lemon grass
1 inch ginger
1 inch galangal
2 candlenuts

Whole spices:
1 cinnamon stick (about 2 inch)
3 cloves
4 whole star anise
2 cardamon pods
2 pieces daun salam

¼  cup canola oil

2 lbs beef cubes – cuts for stewing, briskets, cubed

2 cups thick coconut milk

1 slice of asam gelugur* tamarind/ ½ tablespoon fresh lime juice
4 pieces of kaffir lime leaves
1 teaspoon kosher salt, to taste
1 tablespoon sugar

1.    Toast coconut till golden brown in an oven or in a pan.  Set aside.
2.    Using a food processor, grind all spice paste ingredients into a paste
3.    Heat oil on medium high.  Fry paste and  whole spices till fragrant, red and oil has separated, about 5-7 minutes
4.    Add beef  and fry for about 3 minutes till brown.
5.   Add coconut milk, finely shredded kaffir lime leaves, tamarind slice, salt and sugar, and braise uncovered on low, stirring occasionally, until beef is tender and gravy has thicken, about 2 hours depending on beef cut till fork tender.
8.    Mix in toasted coconut.

Serves: 6

My grandmother used to make and sell nyonya “kuih”.  I wish she was still around so that I can pick up the right skills from her!

Chef’s tip: The green is natural from the pandan leaves.  Besides adding fragrance to the cake, it gives it this beautiful green color.  Blending the leaves with a little water and then extracting the liquid is how you get pandan juice.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups sweet glutinous rice
1 cup coconut milk
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 pieces pandan

8 pandan leaves
½ cup water

3 eggs
¾ cup coconut milk
¾ cup sugar
6 Tablespoons pandan juice (see step 5)

1 Tablespoon corn starch
1 ½ Tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon rice flour
½ teaspoon kosher salt

Banana leaves

Preparing the rice.
1.    Wash the rice. Add water till it covers the rice by 1 inch. Let rice soak at least 6 hours to overnight.
Cooking the rice
2.    Drain rice.  Place the rice in a cake pan lined with banana leaves.   Place in a steamer rack.
3.    Combine sugar and salt with the coconut milk.  Add to the rice.  Bury a knot of pandan leaves in the rice.  Steam for about 20 minutes.
4.    When rice is done, remove the pandan leaves.  Using a piece of banana leaves or aluminum foil, flatten the rice down to form an even compact layer.  Steam for another 10 minutes.
Preparing the pandan juice
5.    Chiffonade the pandan.  Place the pandan and water in a blender and puree.  Strain out solids.  Reserve juice.
Preparing the custard
6.    In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs, coconut milk, sugar and pandan juice.  Set aside.
7.    Place the 3 different flours and salt in a bowl and whisk to mix.  Slowly add the liquid egg mixture, a little at a time, and incorporate till it is smooth and there are no more lumps.
8.    In a double boiler, heat the custard, stirring constantly till just begins to thicken.  Remove form heat.
Completing the serimuka
9.    Pour the thickened custard over the compressed and steam over low heat for another 20 minutes, or until set.
10.    Allow to cool completely before cutting.

Serves: 8

Singapore and Malaysia’s favorite kopi tiam breakfast – kaya on toast (with slabs of butter, and preferably on white, fluffy bread), a cup of coffee with condensed milk and two half-boiled eggs with a dash of dark soy sauce and lots of white pepper.  We’ll settle for just kaya on wholewheat toast and a Starbucks latte here.

There are 2 schools of thoughts in kaya – the smooth, dark brown jam and the greenish curd ones. Some say the former is for toast only, and the latter is to serve with glutinous rice such as pulut tai-tai or pulut tekan. The brown kaya has more of a caramel flavor to it. I have always liked the fragrance of the greenish one – somehow pandan and coconut just go so well together.  A union made in food heaven  This recipe is for the greenish version.

Chef’s tip: Tempering eggs is the process of blending uncooked eggs into a hot or warm liquid without having the eggs scramble or curdle.  To do this, you gently add a little hot liquid at a time, streaming it into the beaten eggs while whisking continuously.  You continue to do this until the temperature of the bowl holding the eggs is close to the temperature of the hot liquid.  Another tip is using a double boiler while making a custard.  It will prevent the custard from scorching.

Ingredients:

1 250-ml can coconut milk
1¼ cups sugar
5 large eggs, or 6 small ones
6 pieces pandan leaves, tied into 2 knots

1.    In a double boiler, heat the coconut milk with the sugar until the sugar dissolves.  Remove from heat.
2.    In a large bowl, whisk the eggs.  Using a ladle, stream in the hot coconut milk into the egg mixture, while whisking continuously.  Add one ladle at a time.  It is very important to whisk continuously and pour the hot liquid in a stream while tempering eggs so that the eggs won’t cook and curdle.
3.    When done tempering the eggs, return mixture into the double boiler, add pandan leaves (tie into a knot) and cook under a simmering boil.  Continuously stir the first 20 minutes until the liquid has thickened, do not let the eggs curdle.
4.    Once thickened, you need to stir it every 5 minutes, until it reaches the desired consistency, about 20 minutes more.
5.    Remove pandan leaves.

Makes: 2 cups

This week, I got a big box of spices from my friend, Karina, from Singapore.  She sent me a kilogram of dried “bunga telang” – blue pea flower, a type of tropical morning glory. It’s an edible flower and we use its brilliant indigo blue pigment as a natural food dye.  See the pictures below for a view of the brilliant blue color!   You can’t imagine how excited I was.  Even when I lived in Malaysia, bunga telang is hard to come by.  If we see it on vines by the roadside, we would stop the car to pick some.

So what do you do with these blue flowers?  Nasi Ulam or in the East Coast of Malaysia, sometimes refered to as Nasi Kerabu.  “Ulam” means a medley of herbs.  The rice salad is tossed with, yes, a medley of Asian herbs, dried coconut and dried fish flakes.  If you want to keep it vegetarian or serving the rice to less adventurous palates, just skip the dried seafood part.  It tastes just as yummy.

Chef’s tip: Toasting coconut is just as easy on the stove top as in the oven.  Coconut burns really fast, so remove it from the heat source a tinge below your desired color, and it will continue cooking on its own.

3 Tablespoons dried bunga telang, soaked in 1½ cup water
1 cup Jasmine rice
1 cup Jasmine rice + 1½ cup water

2 oz salt cod, soaked 10 minutes, drained, optional
¼ cup dried shrimp, soaked, drained, optional

1 cup shredded, unsweetened desiccated coconut

Herb mix
½ cup mint leaves, chiffonade
½ cup Thai basil leaves, chiffonade
½ cup Rau Ram leaves, chiffonade
½ cup cilantro leaves, chiffonade
¼ cup perilla/shiso leaves. chiffonade
½ cup Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped
¼ cup sorrel leaves, finely chiffonade
2 tablespoon kaffir lime leaves, chiffonade
½ cup shallots from 2 shallots, thinly sliced
1 inch fresh tumeric, thin juliennes
1 inch galangal, thin juliennes
1 lemon grass, white only, finely sliced
1 ginger flower, finely sliced
Note: You can use any fragrant herb, if you cannot find all the herbs listed, or try new ones

½ cup roasted peanuts, chopped
1 Tablespoon roasted belachan, optional

Preparing the 2 types of rice:
1. Rinse 1 cup of  rice until the water runs clear.  Then soak rice in 1½ cup water with the blue flowers (in a tea ball or wrapped with cheesecloth) for at least 1 hour.  Remove flowers just before cooking.
2. In a small pot, bring the soaked rice and blue soaking liquid to boil. When it comes to a boil, cover the pot, turn to low simmer, and simmer for 20 minutes.  Remove from heat and let it sit, still covered for 10 minutes.
3. Rinse the other 1 cup of rice till the water runs clear.  In another small pot, bring the white rice and 1½ cups of water to boil. When it comes to a boil, cover the pot, turn to low simmer, and simmer for 20 minutes.  Remove from heat and let it sit, still covered for 10 minutes.
4. Fluff the rice and toss together into a large bowl to cool.
Preparing the coconut and seafood, if using:
5. Toast the coconut till golden brown. Add to the big bowl of rice.
6. Soak and drain salt cod and dried shrimp.  Place salt cod in food processor and grind coarsely.  Set aside.  Repeat with dried shrimp.
7. Heat a sauté pan with 1 tablespoon of canola oil and fry the salt cod till fragrant.  Add to the rice.
8. Toast the dried shrimp till fragrant.  Add to the rice.
Preparing the herbs
9. Finely chiffonade all herbs.
Assembly:
10. Toss all ingredients – salt cod, dried shrimp, coconut, herbs – together with the cooled rice.
11. Sprinkle with chopped roasted peanuts and roasted belachan.  Serve at room temperature.

Serves: 8

A true fusion of Malay, Chinese, Indian and Western flavors.  It is highly advisable to fry the shrimps with shells on to capture the full flavor of the shrimps.

Chef’s tip: If you prefer to have your dish without the prawn shells, follow these steps: Remove head and shells, leaving tail-on. Separately, fry the shells and heads in a cup of oil. Pass oil through a sift to make a scampi oil. Fry the peeled prawns as main recipe above, however, substitute half the butter with 3 tablespoons of the scampi oil. Reserve remaining delicious scampi oil to toss with pasta or drizzle on fish.

Ingredients

2 cup of desiccated coconut

1 teaspoon kosher salt
5 tablespoon sugar
2 Tablespoons light soy sauce
2 Tablespoons Chinese rice wine or sake

2 lb large shrimps, shells on, heads on, deveined
1 cup of canola oil for deep frying

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 red jalapeno chilies – sliced
10 sprigs of Indian curry leaves*
4 cloves of garlic – minced
Cilantro

Preparing the mise en place
1.    In a clean pan over medium heat, dry fry coconut till golden and fragrant.  Set aside.
2.    Mix salt, sugar, soy sauce and rice wine together.  Set aside.
Preparing the prawns
3.    Clean prawns – trim legs and tentacles, deveined.  Keep shells and heads on. Pat dry thoroughly.
4.    Heat about ½ inch oil, and fry the prawns in small batches.  Drain and set aside.  Remove all but 3 Tablespoons of the shrimp oil.
5.    Add butter to the pan high heat.  Add chilies, curry leaves, garlic and salt and fry for 1-2 minutes.
6.    Add sauce mixture.  Toss in coconut.  Toss in fried prawns.
7.    Stir fry over high heat for another 1 min.
8.    Garnish with cilantro.

Serves: 6