Tired of your regular festive season feast?
Why not mix things up this holiday period by cooking some Malaysian cuisine?
Despite Malaysia being one of our closest neighbours, research reveals that half of Australians have never tried Malaysian food!
Poh Ling Yeow – of Masterchef fame – has joined forces with Malaysia Kitchen Australia to try and bring Malaysian food onto Aussie dining tables.
Rescu. caught up with Poh, who is a fifth-generation Chinese-Malaysian, to find out more about Malaysian food and why we should be letting our tastebuds give it a go.
RESCU: How would you describe Malaysian food and what makes it so special?
Poh: The country’s population comprises mainly Malays, Indians and Chinese. Because these cultures have lived together for so long, the cuisines have fused into many fascinating permutations which make for a truly vibrant way of cooking and eating. Nyonya and Mamak cuisine are probably the most famous of the hybrid cuisines; Nyonya is a fusion of Malay and Chinese and Mamak, Malay and Indian.
RESCU: What is your favourite Asian ingredient to work with and why?
Poh: I have so many it would be very difficult to say but pandan, belacan (dried shrimp paste), galangal, tamarind, chilli, petai (stink bean), coconut, ikan bilis (dried anchovies), gula melaka (palm sugar), glutinous rice and torch ginger flower are just some.
RESCU: Why did you throw your support behind Malaysia Kitchen and what do you think you’ll bring to your role as ambassador?
Poh: So much of my food journey has been driven by the fact that I’ve lost so much of my heritage as a child migrant trying to assimilate in Australia. After realising my aptitude for relearning the languages I grew up with was zero, I turned to food as a way of reclaiming my cultural roots. Food has given me a link to the history of my ancestors and something of my culture I now can hand on so it’s something I value greatly. When I went on Masterchef, I declared that I was determined to get Malaysian cuisine on Australian dining tables, so when the opportunity came up for me to represent Malaysia Kitchen Australia, I knew it was a role I could take on with genuine care and passion.
RESCU: What do you think Australian’s can learn from Malaysian cuisine?
Poh: It’s an entirely different way of eating because street food has a huge presence in the food identity of the country – it’s very fun, progressive and inventive. The flavours are typically South East Asian; punchy and playful in the use of salty, sweet and sour.
It can sometimes be confusing for the western palate because the flavours challenge conventional perceptions of what is savoury or sweet. For example, a meat dish can be very sweet and a dessert quite salty. One of my favourite ‘sweet’ pastries has caramelised onion in it!
I love the no rules element, as long as it’s delicious, so I hope Aussies latch onto this uninhibited way of thinking about ingredients and flavour.
We asked Poh to share one of her favourite recipes with us and we can’t wait to give it a go. Her Chicken or Beef Satay with Homemade Peanut Sauce is one of the most popular dishes in Malaysia, so if you’ve never tried Malaysian food before this is a great place to start.
Preparation Time: 2 hours + marinating 5 hours or overnight
Cooking Time: 90 minutes Serves: 8-10
Ingredients
Homemade Peanut Sauce
1-2 Tbs tamarind paste from a jar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp salt + more to balance at very end
1L water
2 Tbs lime juice + more to balance at very end
500g salted, roasted, crushed peanuts
Rempah (wet spice paste)
20 dried, long red chillies*, deseeded*, soaked in boiling water until soft, drained and chopped
2 cm (thickest part) galangal, peeled, thinly sliced, chopped
2 stalks lemongrass, thinly sliced (use pale part only and remove any dry outer layers)
8 cloves garlic, peeled, sliced
15 small red eschallots or 3 medium Spanish onions, peeled and sliced 200 ml vegetable oil
* Dried chillies – There are several types of dried chillies. For this recipe choose the type that are about finger sized. The smaller ones are very hot and the broader, larger ones mild. Also please never replace dried chillies with fresh ones as they don’t impart the smokiness of flavour and depth of colour required for this dish.
* Deseeding chillies – Before soaking, snip chillies into quarter segments with scissors into a colander with largish holes and then shake the seeds out.
Chicken or Beef Satays
Skewers soaked for an hour
2 kg chicken thigh fillets, cleaned of sinew and fat OR 2 kg chuck steak Marinade
2 cm (thickest part) galangal, peeled, thinly sliced, chopped
8 stalks lemongrass, thinly sliced
2 Tbs ground turmeric
4 clove garlic, peeled, sliced
10 small red eschallots or 2 medium Spanish onions, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dark soy
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 Tbs ground coriander
2 Tbs ground cumin
Accompaniments (also to be dipped into the peanut sauce)
2 cups jasmine rice, washed and drained
4 cups water
1 tsp salt
1 fresh pineapple, skin and core removed, cut into 1cm thick triangles
2 Spanish onions, peeled, diced into large 2 cm cubes and layers separated
2 continental cucumbers, quartered lengthways and then sliced into 2 cm pieces
Method
To make peanut sauce, blend rempah ingredients until you achieve a fine paste. Set aside. Pour rempah into a heavy bottom saucepan or wok and bring to a medium heat. Stir continuously to make sure the bottom isn’t catching and cook until there is very little steam rising from the sauce. At this stage, the oil will have split from the spice paste, caramelising into a lovely dark red and developing a beautiful fragrance.
Add water and bring to boil. Add tamarind, lime, sugar and only 1 tsp of salt and half the crushed peanuts. Bring to boil again, remove from heat and set aside until required. Add the remaining nuts and give sauce a stir just before for a nice bit of crunch. At the very end, TASTE. If you feel something is lacking, the sauce just needs some balancing with more seasoning or a squeeze of lime juice. Set aside.
Cutting the meat for a satay is very difficult to describe because it’s not a straight slice or dice. What you want to achieve is something like an elongated triangle that is cut against the grain, no more than 2 cm wide at its widest, 1 cm thick and 3-4 cm long, irregular in shape but similar in size. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate in a large mixing bowl.
To start the marinade, blend all marinade ingredients to a fine paste.
Tip all the meat and marinade into a snaplock bag. Massage meat through bag, ensuring to coat every piece of meat with the marinade, push all the air out and seal. Refrigerate for at least 5 hours or overnight.
Following the length of each piece of meat, pierce evenly through the centre making sure each piece is sitting flatly. Thread about 3-4 pieces onto each skewer. The end appearance of each skewer will be a thin thread of meat which basically has 2 flat sides, making the satay easy to turn and cook. Grill over coals or on a bbq until meat is slightly charred and cooked through.
To make pressed rice, combine rice and water in a medium saucepan and bring to boil. Boil for 10 minutes then cover and simmer on medium heat for another 10 minutes. Turn heat off and allow rice to rest for another 15 minutes.
Spread rice evenly into a foil-lined, 20 x 20 cm square baking tin, cover with foil and then press with an oven mitt over your hand, to compress the rice evenly. Allow to cool completely to room temperature before cutting into 2 cm cubes.
To serve, divide peanut sauce into individual bowls and place satays, pineapple, onion, cucumber and cubed rice at the centre of the table to share.
