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

Tags: coconut, curry leaves, Malaysian, shrimp, Singaporean.

The Singaporeans claim the Chili Crab as their national dish. As a good Malaysian, this was ^our^ dish! But since my good friend, Karina Lee, gave me the original recipe for the dish, which I have now adapted to the abundance of this side of the Pacific pond, and she lives in Singapore now, I will gladly attribute this dish as Singaporean.

When you fly into Changi, after a grueling 16 hour flight, your food obsessed Singaporean friends (every Singaporean is a foodie) would say “Let’s go for Chili Crabs” and before you can say no as you struggle with your jet-lag stupor, you are already at one of the outdoor, jumbo seafood restaurants on East Coast Road!

Chili Crabs are finger lickin’ good. With the meaty Dungeness crab, you will have a little bit more crab meat to soak up the wonderful sauce and not be tempted to eat your fingers, too. Serve it with a loaf of baguette or horrors! toasted white wonderbread.

Chef’s tip: You will need live crabs for this dish. Some stores like Wholefoods will take orders ahead, otherwise, many Asian fishmongers carry live crabs.

Ingredients

Sauce:
6 tablespoon Asian sweet chili sauce
10 tablespoon ketchup
4 tablespoon vinegar
2 cups of water

2 egg white, beaten with 1 tablespoon water

3 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 3 tablespoons water

5 tablespoon canola oil
2 Dungeness crabs (2 ½ lbs each)
10 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
10 slices of ginger, julienned finely

4 tablespoon sugar (to taste)
1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup of cilantro, cut into 2 inches sprigs
1 cup of scallions, sliced into 2 inches strips

Preparing mise-en-place
1.    Mix chili sauce, ketchup, vinegar and water together; set aside
2.    Beat egg whites with water; set aside.
3.    Mix cornstarch with water; set aside.
Preparing the crab
4.    Ask your fishmonger to kill and clean the shellfish for you, but you must cook it within 2-3 hours of killing.  Remove gills and innards.  Clean and pat dry shellfish.  Crabs should be cut into 6 pieces each.  Keep the crab roe.
5.    Heat 4 tablespoon oil in wok.  Fry shellfish including crab roe till bright vermillon red and fragrant.  Remove crabs from wok.  Do not wash the wok!
6.    Using same wok, brown garlic, ginger with the rest of the oil till fragrant; about 2 minutes.
7.    Add chili-ketchup sauce mixture.  Add more sugar and salt to taste.
8.    Add egg white, wait half a minute then stir to get silky threads of whites.
9.    Add cornstarch mixture and stir to thicken.
10.    Add back the crab.  Mix well.
11.    Toss in the cilantro and scallions, leaving a small handful for garnish.
12.    Serve immediately garnish of cilantro and scallions.

Serves: 6

Tags: crab, Malaysian, shellfish, Singaporean.

When Chinese New Year comes around in Malaysia and Singapore, one cannot escape the symbolic dish of Yu Sang. When I was a corporate banker in Kuala Lumpur (in my previous life), we would take our customers out for Yu Sang lunch, and Yu Sang dinner during CNY. If it was served for breakfast, we would have taken them out for Yu Sang breakfast, too! When I got home, my mom would ask “We have to have Yu Sang!” Yu Sang, Yu Sang everywhere!

In the Cantonese dialect, “Yu Sang” is literally translated as raw fish. The words sound like the words for “abundance and growth”. This dish is also sometimes referred to as “Lo Hei” which sounds like “growth in business undertaking”. So when we do the “Yu Sang”, we are wishing our colleagues, friends and family, at the start of a new year, lots of prosperity, good luck and good business.

PS: Don’t forget the red packet!

Chef’s tip: To create the beautiful vegetable julienne spirals, use a Benriner Japanese spiral mandoline.

Ingredients

Special equipment needed A Japanese mandolin/ vegetable shredder

2 cups medium sized carrots
2 cups large white radish/ daikon
1 cup of small green papaya*
1 cup of spring onions
1 cup of cilantro leaves
½ cup pickled shallots*
½ cup of pickled ginger
1 pomelo or 1 grapefruit

½ lb fresh ahi tuna – sashimi grade
1 cup of Asian plum sauce* (Lee Kum Kee brand)
½ cup of grapeseed oil or other mild flavored oil
½ lime

½ cup of roasted peanuts, crushed
1 tablespoon black sesame seeds, toasted
1 tablespoon white sesame seeds, toasted
1 tablespoon Asian 5 spice powder
6 pieces of wonton skin
1 cup of canola oil for frying
1 red envelope

Preparing the crunchy topping
1.    Cut wonton skin into juliennes.
2.    Heat oil in pan.  Fry wonton skin till golden brown.  Drain.
3.    Roast peanuts in an oven 350F till golden brown.  About 7 minutes.
4.    Coarsely crush with a mortar and pestle.
5.    Dry roast sesame seeds till fragrant.
Preparing the vegetables and fish
6.    Shred all vegetables into thin long strips using a Japanese mandolin.
7.    Cut scallions into 2 inch long juliennes, and then slice lengthwise thinly.  Soak in cold water 10  minutes, then drain.
8.    Slice pickled shallots and pickled ginger finely.  Remove tough stems from cilantro.
9.    Remove skin and membranes from pomelo to obtain the fruit sac.
10.    Arrange all vegetables on a large platter in a circle, taking care to alternate colors.
11.    Slice fish about ¼ X 2 x 1 inch and place in the middle.
Assembly:
12.    Just prior to serving, drizzle with oil and plum dressing
13.    Sprinkle on peanuts, sesame seeds, wonton skin crisps
14.    At the table, sprinkle Asian 5 spice (served out of the red envelope).
15.    Squeeze lime over fish.
16.    Toss for good luck

Serves: 6-8

Tags: festive foods, Malaysian, Peanuts, Salads, sashimi, Singaporean, tuna.