Udang Masak Lemak Nenas, a Nyonya Classic

Masak Lemak Nenas is another quintessential nyonya dish, a must-try dish when you attempt to explore nyonya cuisine.  You walk into any nyonya restaurant, this dish is undeniably one of THE dish that the waiter will highly recommend that you order.     

The sweetness from the pineapples and prawns, the saltiness from the salted fish, the creaminess from the coconut milk, the spiciness from the chilli paste coupled with the extra tang from the lemongrass, galangal, tumeric and ginger all of which just blend so perfectly, giving the whole dish a good balance, guarantee to please and satisfy your palate to the max.  This is indeed a dish your taste buds will thank you dearly.

Needless to say, this has always been one of my top favourite nyonya dish and my classic comfort food until today. Masak Lemak Nenas is always served with steamed white rice.  For my personal preference, I always complement it with sambal belacan (another must-try nyonya-style chillie paste) or sambal cili garam (another classic Nyonya sambal).  Like most nyonya dishes especially if they are gravy based, we the Peranakans (the Sraits born) will always eat using our five fingers as we can practically lick each of them if the dish is good.  Oh, I'm drooling now!!

Now, let's get down to the recipe.....

Ingredients

• 200g prawns
• 150g pineapples, sliced
• 2 cups of coconut milk
• 3 cups of water 
• 1 salted Ikan Sepat (Gourami fish)
• sugar
• salt
• oil to fry
• 3 kaffir lime leaves (optional), I omit this
• 1 teaspoon of tamarind paste

 To blend (A)

• 10 fresh chillies, I used about 6 as my family can't really take too spicy
• 15 shallots or a palm full
•  3 pips of garlic
• 1/2 inch of galangal
• 1/2 inch of turmeric
• 2 stalks of lemon grass, sliced
• 3 candlenuts
• 5g of belacan (shrimp paste)

Steps to prepare

1. Toast belacan over fire or on a dry pan until fragrant.
2. Blend all ingredients in (A). Add some water to ease blending process.
3. Add oil to pan and fry (A) until fragrant. When it’s fragrant, the paste will change into a darker shade of red.
4. Add water.
5. Add pineapples and allow to simmer for 5 minutes.
6. Then, add coconut milk. Make sure the fire is small and keep stirring or else the gravy will turn lumpy.
7. Add prawns, ikan sepat, tamarind paste and sugar. Wait until prawns cook.
8. Finally, switch stove off and add kaffir lime leaves. Stir evenly and serve.

Curry Puffs (Karipap)

Curry puff is an Asian snack commonly found in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.  It is basically a deep-fried small pie made of pastry shell and stuffed with curried potato cubes and diced chicken meat.  I am proud to say that I grew up eating lots of them.  Needless to say, this is one of my all-time favourite childhood snacks.  Who doesn't love curry puffs, anyway?

Until today, this savoury snack is not showing any sign of slowing down or being forgotten.  It is still widely found in any Malay warungs (a small modest family-owned restaurant) or even in any makeshift stalls along roadsides selling pisang goreng (banana fritters).  These two local snacks are really like brother and sister.  Where there is pisang goreng, there is karipap, for sure. 

It is commonly eaten during breakfast or afternoon tea.  It goes really well with a cup of hot coffee/milk tea but I like it better with a glass of iced orange juice especially on a scorching afternoon. 




This is my first attempt making karipap and I am absolutely pleased with the outcome.  I personally like this recipe a lot, thanks to Sonia of Nasi Lemak Lover, who has quite made a name in food blogging, where Asian food is concerned.  I invite you to see her recipe here.  I especially love the pastry.  To me, this is the exact texture I have been looking for.  It's  smooth, cripsy and most importantly flaky.  Just like making pineapple tart pastry, two rules of thumb you have to follow in order to produce a flaky pastry, they are:

1. USE cold butter and work quickly before the butter melts, so try avoid using your bare hands when mixing the flour and butter as we do not want the heat from the hands to melt the butter.  So?  Use fork;
2. DO NOT knead the dough, quickly bind it together with your hands.

So, if you wish to give this recipe a try, here are the ingredients and method:

Curry Puff (Karipap)

makes about 15 big pcs 

Pastry

185g all-purpose flour

35g rice flour

35g corn flour or tapioca flour

35g butter (salted)

35g cooking oil or vegetable oil

90g icy cold water

Filling

450g potato, peeled and diced

1 medium onion, diced

200g chicken breast (cut into small pieces, marinate with 1/2tbsp curry powder)

1/2tbsp red chili powder 

1tbsp curry powder (chicken flavour)

3tbsp vegetable oil

3 sprigs curry leaves

1 cup water (+/-)

1tsp salt

1tsp chicken powder

1tsp fish sauce

Method

To cook filling

1. Heat oil in wok, add in curry leaves and onion. Saute onion until translucent then add in potato.

2. Cook until potato has changed colour on the edges then add chicken breast, stir fry for 1-2mins then add in curry powder and chilli powder. Add water and bring to boil.

3. Add salt, sugar, chicken powder & fish sauce to taste, then turn the heat down and cook until potato is soften and the liquid has reduced and form a dry paste. Cool completely before use. 

Pastry

1. In a large mixing bowl, bring 3 types of flours together and mix well. Set aside.

2. Rub in butter with flours until crumble, then add in cooking oil, to mix well.

3. Pour icy cold water over flours, mix thoroughly with a wooden spatula in the mixing bowl. Then, lightly knead till soft dough, do not over work. Cover dough with plastic wrap and rest for at least 15 minutes. 

To assemble- Divide and shape dough into 13g each ball. Then roll out each ball into a 8-10cm circle, wrap in potato filling. Pinch edges to seal, then deep-fry in medium hot oil until golden brown.

 

Chicken Curry

I cooked this dish last Sunday.  My wife invited her mom and her sisters over for dinner.  As always, I will have to rake my head thinking of what to dish out.  And...as always, I will spend hours and hours thinking and surfing the net searching for ideas and after what seems like ages I finally come out with NOTHING!  No choice, my wife will have to come to my rescue and give her suggestion and I will always be like "Oh! Why didn't I think of that?" Useless bugger!!

So, this time round - chicken curry.  Well, this is my second attempt cooking a chicken curry after my disastrous shot on my kids' birthday gathering, exactly a year back.  I could still recall one of my guests asked, "who cooked this curry? Taste funny la..!"  &%$#@#$#

Well, I am proud to say that I have somehow succeeded this time round after I surprisingly received a thumbs up from my brother-in-law for the dish.  However, to say that this is the best curry I have ever tasted is perhaps an overstatement and a far cry. 

Of course, there are many variations of curries ie the Chinese, the Malay, the Nyonya or the Indian style.  Which does this version fall into?  I have no idea.  But why bother?  Nobody is going to say "I like the Indian/the Chinese curry I ate yesterday!"  If the curry is good, they will always say, "OMG, I love Kuan Yoon's curry yesterday!" So, who cares which curry you adopt?  Just adapt, add, mix and match.  Make it your own and that's exactly what I did on this dish!  There are scores of recipes on the net that will leave you spoilt for choices.  I simply did not know which to choose from.  All seemed so good.  So, the easy way out was I dug out the kiasu itch in me and used everything that caught my eyes.  I know that this may not work all the time but for this time round, it did!
 
Anyway, I adapted the recipe from Choesf from Happyhomemaker88 here, with quite a bit of modification.  Apparently, it was her mother-in-law's recipe.  It's nice to see recipes being passed down to our loved ones.  Although we may not be around, at least our food continues to provide comfort to the family.  I am now wondering what my future daughter-in-law will say about me once I am gone.  Will she say:

"Thank God, luckily I managed to learn from that senile old man how to cook 
his chicken curry before he kicked the bucket!"

The Ingredients:
3 whole chicken legs, cut up and marinate with 2 tbsps salt and 3 tbsps curry powder
3 large potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks deep fry in oil until half cooked *(I didn't deep fry)
2 large onions, peeled and cut into chunks
15 shallots, chopped

1 cinnamon stick*(I added this)
2 star anise*(I added this)
curry paste (pls see below for recipe)
2 cups coconut milk (mix 3/4 of the thick coconut milk with 2 cups of water, reserve the 1/4 left for later use)*(I only used 1 1/2 cup)

1 bunch curry leaves*(I used 5 sprigs)
2 stalks of lemon grass/serai – smashed a bit to release its aromatic oils
2 pcs tamarind slice/asam keping*(I added this to give the curry a little sourish tang)

Curry paste
5 tbsps curry powder, 
5 candlenuts/buah keras, 
5 cloves garlic, 
1 inch knob of fresh ginger, 
3 fresh red chilies 
(all blended) 

Method -
1) In a hot wok, heat up 1/2 cup (125 ml)  of oil and fry shallots, star anise & cinnamon stick 
    until golden and aromatic.

2) Add in the curry paste and keep stirring to prevent burning until the oil separates from 
    the paste and it is very aromatic, about 5 minutes or so. This gives the curry a rich, 
    bright orange colour when it is cooked.

3) Add in the marinated chicken pieces and stir fry until it is half cooked – this is to 
    seal in the chicken juices and make the chicken fragrant and tasty

4) Next, add in the half-cooked potatoes, large onions, lemon grass, tamarind slices 
    and curry leaves.

5) Give them a good stir for about 2 minutes.

6) Pour in the diluted 3 and 3/4 cups of coconut milk. My rule of thumb for this is 
    to make sure that the coconut milk is enough to just cover the chicken and potatoes.

7) Bring to a boil, and then lower the heat to medium to simmer the curry for about 
    25 to 30 minutes, until the chicken is tender, the potatoes soft. 
    Remember to stir the curry often to prevent burning. Add a little more water if 
    the curry appears to be drying up.

8 ) When the curry is ready, season with salt and pour in the last 1/4 cup of 
     thick coconut milk. The coconut milk loses most of its aroma when boiled for a while,
     and by adding a bit of thick coconut milk at the last minute gives the curry a 
     richer, aromatic taste.