Kuih Cara Berlauk Recipe (Malaysian Mince Beef Dumplings)

By: Erna Dyanty

Kuih cara berlauk is a Malay inspired dumpling cooked on a hot plate like the Japanese style dumplings called Takoyaki. It’s a savoury snack that can be prepared for breakfast or tea. Suitable to serve during special occasions. It is also great served as appetizer during a fancy party.

If you have a special takoyaki pan, use that, if not use any flat frying pan.

Pecal Sayur/Gado-Gado Recipe

By: Erna Dyanty

My mother in-law loves it when we come by the house. She would always make me her famous pecal sayur which is blanched vegetable salad with spicy peanut sauce. In Indonesia, this dish is known as gado-gado. You can alternatively use cabbage and/or lettuce. Here is the recipe to make this delicious healthy Asian salad.

Otak-Otak is Not Zombie Food!

By: Erna Dyanty

Otak-otak is a type of fish cake or fish pate that is cooked in a parcel. Otak means ‘brain’ in Malay and Bahasa Indonesia, yet otak-otak has nothing to do with brains, so don’t be afraid to try out this delicious treat! This parceled food can either be a meal on its own or a snack that contains either deboned fish fillets, prawn or crab meat. The seafood is smothered in a paste that blends chili, thick coconut milk, aromatic herbs and spices. The parcel that is made out of either banana or coconut leaves is either steamed or grilled.

This wrapped goodness is a famous snack in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. In Malaysia, you can find many different versions of the otak-otak, starting with the Nyonya Peranakan style where the parcel is folded into a bundle and eaten as a main dish. The Muar-Johor style folds the otak-otak into rectangular neat folds, which it is then grilled on a bed of charcoal, very similar to the Singaporean style and from the east-cost of Peninsular Malaysia in Terengganu known as the satah.

Malaysian Seafood: Malaysian Stuffed Grilled Fish

By: Erna Dyanty

This month we are going to bring to you recipes that highlight Malaysia’s glorious selection of seafood - starting with ikan bakar sumbat that translates as stuffed grilled fish. This style of grilling a fish is very famous amongst local Malay stalls all over Malaysia. If you walk into Kampung Baru the oldest Malay settlement in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, you can’t miss the smell of grilled fish as almost each food stallserves op BBQ fish.

What distinguishes the stalls that serve this type of grilled fish is definitely the stuffing. The stuffing for the fish varies from grated coconut  to chilli paste mixed with onions. It is then served with a dipping sauce which is a mix of soy sauce and thinly sliced chillies or a tamarind juice mixed with diced shallots, sugar, salt and hot green chilli. Served over hot steaming rice or just as good to be eaten on its own. In this recipe I used Hardtail Scad fish, but you can also use spanish mackerel or red snapper or any other medium sized type fish available. Alternatively, you can use squid.

Fat-free Malaysian Food: Daging Salai/Smoked Beef Recipe

By: Erna Dyanty

When we think about Malaysian food, you start imagining satay dipped into spicy peanut sauce, roti canai pan fried with enough ghee to last you a decade, teh tarik loaded with condensed milk, sambal tumis ikan bilis swimming in at least two inches of oil and the warm steaming nasi lemak cooked in a gallon of coconut milk. Is there anything on the Malaysian list of food that can be gorged without feeling a tad bit guilty?

Hey, you’d be surprised to learn that there are just as much low-fat-calorie dishes here in Malaysia and throughout Southeast Asia. You just haven’t found them yet. Our low-fat meals are usually prepared through cooking methods such as smoking, grilling, steaming or boiling. No excessive oil is used in preparing food this way – sometimes there isn’t any oil at all.

This month we will support all your good intentions and New Year’s resolutions, by offering you some low fat Southeast Asian recipes. We start off with Smoked Beef!

Asam Laksa: Hot and Spicy Northwest Malaysian Specialty

By: Erna Dyanty

Asam Laksa is a serving of short and fat Asian rice noodles. It is served in a bowl of piping hot-spicy-fish broth infused with tamarind juice to enhance the flavor of the fish. This laksa can be found mainly in the north-west cost of the Malaysian Peninsular, in states such as Penang, Kedah, Perak and Perlis.

All laksa broths have the same base which starts out with using fish as its main ingredient. There are three types of laksa categories in Malaysia; the asam broth laksa, the curry base laksa and coconut milk based laksa. The type of noodles used in the laksa also differs according to recipes. Sarawak laksa is a light curry based laksa that uses vermicelli noodles; where as in Johor they use spaghetti and topped with thick sardine and coconut milk gravy and in Kelantan the Somtam uses a light coconut milk and fish broth with short chunky2 inch noodles.

Sirap Rose Recipe

By: Erna Dyanty

The list of all time favourite thirst quenchers in Malaysia are just endless. With 365 days of sun and humidity, everything from Nescafe, the ais (milk tea), fresh fruit juice, carbonated drinks are usually served on ice. However, there is one all time favourite drink that any home in Malaysia has to have, chilled in a bottle ready to serve on a hot sunny day. This drink is equivalent to your cool aid or ice tea in summer. The Air Sirap Ros or Rose Syrup Drink is a popular drink amongst both children and adults alike.

Recipe: Beef Soup Malaysia

By: Erna Dyanty

Malaysia being a multi racial country, it has multiple cultures intertwined into one another - even soups has its own variations. This particular recipe is a Malay style beef soup. I would make this when its rainy outside or when I'm in need for comfort food - and in need of a quick solution as a pick-me up meal.

This recipe makes up to 10 servings. You can keep this in your fridge for a good one and a half week. If frozen it can last up to a month. Best to prepare over the weekend.

Total cost: MYR 10 - 13
Preparation and cooking time: 45 - 60 minutes.
Work load: If you have a slow cooker, you can just leave it on and by the time you come home, its ready to be served.
Serves: more than 4.

Recipe: Sambal Tumbuk with Salted Fish

By: Erna Dyanty

When I wrote my first food article for Latitudes, on masak lemak recipe, I had already planned to write a complimentary side dish as my second article. The best condiment to pair up with masak lemak has got to be the one and only sambal tumbuk.

Sambal is a chilli based sauce, which is made by either sautéing blended chilli or just consumed fresh by pounding it to a paste in a mortar. It is a local condiment that is usually an appetiser which is native to Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and even Sri Lanka. In each country the sambal is never a like. Tumbuk means to pound.

Here in Malaysia the most common sambal tumbuk you can find will be sambal belacan, which is fresh chillis pounded into paste with fermented dried shrimp powder. The paste is usually a mix of red chilli, small green chilli, dried shrimp powder and sometimes the use of fresh lime juice or tomatoes. For that salty and rounded flavour in the sambal, it is common to add dried shrimp powder or freshly grounded, into the paste.

“Masak Lemak” Recipe: Sweet Leaf and Sweet Potato in Coconut Milk

By: Erna Dyanty

“Masak Lemak” is one of the many common dishes served with rice. You can find this everywhere in Malaysia, only difference is that the each state has a different way of cooking this dish and there are many variations of ingredients. This recipe that I’m about to share with you is a very light version. It has the sweet leaf and potatoes which is a great side dish to accompany fried or grilled fish. This is a dish that you can easily have it on its own. This vegetable dish does not require any frying or sautéing, it is an easy chop, slice and dump recipe that takes very little time to prepare and cook.