Malay for a day
You have to break the journey somewhere. I've had pleasurable pit stops in Hong Kong and did my bit to liven up my wardrobe at Shanghai Tang.
Singapore, the Garden City, also has its charms. But last time I embarked on that journey I chose to stop off in Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur, the sophisticated capital of Malaysia, affectionately referred to as KL by the locals, offers much more than diversion and respite from long haul languor.
In most senses it is a thoroughly modern multi-cultural city, but it hasn't yet been subjected to the kind of homogenisation that has robbed Singapore of much of its overt charm.
From a cook's point of view, KL is a glorious melting pot. Hawker food is central to the experience of eating in Malaysia it is sold from carts that each specialise in one type of food.
The food is varied and delicious and, for the most part, very cheap. There are lots of hawker centres to chose from and I made for Suria Klec, the mall nestled at the base of the Petronas Twin Towers, which also includes one of the best food halls in the country. I couldn't wait for my plate of chicken rice and a bowl of broth, plus some nasi lemak and a martabak and laksa and a satay.
It's difficult to know when to stop when faced with so many temptations.
A glass of carrot juice with condensed milk gave me the energy to make my way by underground to Chinatown in Jalan Petaling market.
The kaleidoscopic nature of Kuala Lumpur has resulted in a variety of social and religious mores. In this city are Malays, with smaller groups of Chinese, Indians, Eurasians, Portuguese and many of mixed race.
Chinatown is concentrated in Jalan Petaling. In the early morning, people throng the dim sum restaurant for breakfast. The wet market bustles as housewives pick up their fresh produce.
Fish is often filleted live by female fishmongers, meat is butchered very fresh and all kinds of unmentionable bits are offered for sale and relished. An intriguing variety of chicken await their fate in cages.
Other stalls sold vegetables, chillies, noodles, medicinal dried herbs and roots and other less identifiable products. There were fortune tellers, palm readers, tea shops, coffin makers, pet shops, flower sellers, cooking utensils, cheap clothing, and knick knacks.
If you're feeling peckish, order a bowl of soupy rice noodles or some pan, Chinese dumplings, or bak-cut-the, a fragrant pork and herb stew. In the afternoon there's a slight lull in Chinatown but in the evening everything springs to life again with after office hour crowds.
Some stalls stay open to cater for bleary eyed clubbers but I had to make my way back to the airport.
Apparently, the Malay and Indian neighbourhoods are also a feast for the senses, but they will have to wait for another time.
Madhur Jaffrey demonstrated this delicious recipe when she demonstrated at the Ballymaloe Cookery School a few years ago.
Serves 4
2 tbsp/30ml dried prawns
3 tbsp/45ml vegetable oil
2oz/60g 6-8 shallots, peeled and finely chopped (use onion as a substitute)
1 inch/2½cm cube of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
4-5 cloves of garlic, peeled and very finely chopped
6-8 whole "birds' eye" chillies or else fresh, hot green chillies
1 tbsp/15ml yellow bean sauce, finely chopped
1 tsp/5ml curry powder leaves from 2 full stalks of fresh curry leaves (15 dried curry leaves may be substituted) 1 lb (450g) prawns/shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tsp/5ml oyster sauce
1 tsp/5ml Chinese dark soy sauce
½ tsp/2½ml sugar
2 tsp/10ml chinese rice wine (use dry sherry as a substitute)
a little salt, if needed
Wash the dried prawns and soak them in hot water for 10-15 minutes.
Lift them out of the water and either pound them in a mortar or else whiz them in a blender for a few seconds or until they are powdery.
Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan over a medium-high flame. When hot, put in the shallots, ginger and garlic. Stir and fry for a minute. Put in the whole chillies and dried shrimp. Stir once. Put in the yellow bean paste. Stir once. Put in the curry powder and stir once. Throw in the curry leaves and prawns/shrimp. Stir once. Add oyster sauce, soy sauce and 4 tablespoons water. Stir and bring to a simmer. Cover, turn heat to low and cook for 2-3 minutes or until the prawns/shrimp are just cooked through. Uncover and put in the sugar and wine. Turn heat to high and stir for a few seconds. Taste, adding a little salt only if needed.
Serve with plain rice or Jasmine rice and assorted salads or vegetables.
From Makah-lah! The true taste of Malaysia by Carol Selva Rajah.
This is an entire meal in itself the rice is cooked in chicken fat then boiled in chicken stock, while the soup made from the stock is served with chicken pieces and chilli sauce. Although the preparation is lengthy, the result is worth the effort.
300g (10½ oz) long-grained rice
1½kg (3lb) chicken with skin
2 tsp sesame oil
2 star anise
3cm (1in) length ginger, chopped
6 cloves garlic
1.25l (40fl oz) chicken stock
3 stalks spring onions (scallions) chopped
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp salted turnip (tung chye) or pickled radish (tangchai)
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
salt, extra to taste
2 tbsp salted turnip (tung chye), extra or 2 tbsp sliced tomatoes
1 cucumber, halved lengthwise and seeds removed
spring onions (scallions)
125ml (4 fl oz) chilli garlic sauce or 50ml (2fl oz) sambal oelek
2 tbsp vinegar
2 cloves garlic
2cm (¾in) length ginger
Wash the rice in water until the water runs clear. Spread the rice on a tea towel in the sun and leave to dry. Clean the chicken by removing the fat from under the skin and around the back. (You need about 50g/2oz) of chicken fat). Dice the fat and render (melt) in a wok on high heat until the oil is released. Drain the fat into the dry rice.
Heat the sesame oil on medium-high in a wok and fry the rice and fat until aromatic, about four minutes. Blend the star anise, ginger and garlic together in a food processor or mortar and pestle. Rub the chicken inside and out with this mixture. Place the chicken stock in a large saucepan and bring to the boil.
Add the chicken to the saucepan with the spring onions (scallions), salt and pepper and salted turnip. Reduce the heat and simmer until the chicken is just cooked, but not overcooked, approximately 3-4 minutes.
The chicken meat should run red if pierced with a metal skewer. If preferred, the chicken can be coated with 2-3 tbsp of soy sauce and lightly grilled on medium heat for 15 minutes until the skin turns dark and aromatic. Remove the chicken from the stock.
Skim off some of the 'scum' that will have formed on the stock this is used for the sauce, to give a chicken aroma. Reserve the stock for soup and for cooking the rice. Rub the extra sesame oil and dark soy sauce over the chicken and cool on a rack. Cut the warm chicken into serving-sized pieces just prior to serving.
Cook the rice in a saucepan or rice cooker with 3 cups of the stock and salt to taste. The liquid should be about 3.5cm (1¼ in) above the rice. Cook until the rice has absorbed all of the water, approx. 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and fork through any remaining sesame oil.
Cover and keep the rice hot.
Reboil the remaining soup with the extra salted turnip. Serve in small bowls with the rice.
Mix the chilli garlic sauce with the vinegar. Pound the garlic and ginger together. Gradually add to the soup scum. Place in bowls to be served on the side.
Serve the pieces of chicken on the rice with the bowls of sauce and soup. Garnish with sliced cucumber and shredded spring onions (scallions).
Naranjan Kaur McCormack comes from Malaysia and fell in love with an Irishman, hence the surname. She now lives in Fermoy, Co Cork and delights our students with tastes of her native food, this is her recipe.
Although lemongrass is not as yet usually associated with sweets and desserts, it is actually fairly widely used in sweet and savoury dishes in the East!
"This is a recipe that I have adapted from a Malay version that my friend Aminah binte Ismail used to make when we used to have tea together on my visits home," she says.
Serve it at teatime with a lemon water icing, or make a lemongrass syrup, pour it over the cake while it is still hot and cut it up into diamonds or squares and pour condensed milk over each slice just before serving it as a pudding.
Serves 8-10
12ozs (340g) unsalted butter, softened
12ozs (340g) palm sugar
5-6 eggs, separated
6ozs (170g) self raising flour
A pinch of salt
2 tsp baking powder
8ozs (220g) desiccated coconut
2 tsp lemon juice
3-4 stalks fresh lemongrass cut up very finely so that the pieces resemble grains of sugar
Grease a 15 cm/6 inch round cake tin and line with greaseproof paper.
Sieve together the self-raising flour, salt, baking powder and the desiccated coconut. Cream the butter and the palm sugar together in a bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, then fold in the dry ingredients. Whisk the egg whites until stiff then fold into the cake mixture, together with the lemon juice and the finely chopped lemongrass. Pour into the prepared baking tin and bake in a preheated oven at 170C/325F/regulo 3 for about 1½ hours or until a fine skewer inserted into the middle of the cake will come out clean. Allow the cake to cool.
Brown Envelope Seeds: Madeleine McKeever is growing a variety of seeds for sale, many are heirloom varieties, others more modern. All certified organic List available from Madeleine McKeever, Ardagh, Church Cross, Skibbereen, Co Cork.
Tel: 028-38184; email: madsmckeever@eircom.net
Growing Awareness is holding a 'Seasonal Vegetable Garden Course' at Glebe Gardens, Baltimore on Sunday, February 6, from 11am to 4-30pm. Cost 25. Contact Jean Perry:
tel: 028 20232 or email: glebegardens@eircom.net
Café Glucksman is the newest café to light up Cork's Culinary Scene. Set inside the old gates of UCC in the modern surroundings of the Lewis Glucksman Gallery, it's run by Pamela Black, formerly of Ballymaloe Cookery School.
Tel 021-4901848; email: cafeglucksman@ucc.ie
The Good Things Café Cookery School Spring Programme 2005 by Carmel Somers.
Ring Carmel at 027 61426.
IN the winter when many fruits have abysmal flavour the citrus fruit are at their best, this delicious fresh tasting salad uses a wide variety of that ever expanding family.
It's particularly good with blood oranges which appear in the shops for only a few weeks, so make the most of them.
Ugli fruit, Pomelo, Tangelos, Sweeties or any other members of the citrus family may be used in season.
Serves 6 approx.
½lb (225g) Kumquats
12 fl ozs (350ml) water
7ozs (200g) sugar
1 lime
½ lb (225g) Clementines
¼-½ lb (110g-225g) Tangerines or Mandarins
2 blood oranges
1 pink grapefruit
lemon juice to taste if necessary
Slice the kumquats into ¼ inch (5mm) rounds, remove pips. Dissolve the sugar in the water over a low heat, add the sliced kumquats. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes or until tender. Remove from the heat. Allow to cool.
Remove the zest from the lime with a zester and add with the juice to the kumquats. Meanwhile peel the tangerines and clementines and remove as much of the white pith and strings as possible. Slice into rounds of ¼ inch (5mm) thickness, add to the syrup. Segment the pink grapefruit and blood oranges and add to the syrup also. Leave to macerate for at least an hour.
Taste and add a squeeze of lemon juice if necessary.
Serve chilled.
