Here In My Home - Malaysian Artistes For Unity

Tuesday 15 April 2008

Preserving Regional Malay Cuisine Recipes - Terengganu

This will be my second and last posting on this subject in English as the other sites are in Malay and I have no resources to translate them into English. Well the two states of Terengganu and Pahang Cuisines are representative enough of Malay cuisine as they feature some of most favoured recipes amongst the Malay ourselves. The cuisine of Terengganu, an east coast state of Peninsular Malaysia, is distinctively memorable for its fresh ingredients, inimitable spices and unique flavours.


A favourite with locals and visitors alike, this dish is actually barbecued chicken marinated with spicy coconut gravy.

Ingredients:
1 chicken, chopped into serving pieces1 bowl coconut milk1 lemon grass (serai)
Ingredients A
1 Cmlemon grass (serai)3 cloves garlic1 cm ginger
Ingredients B
1 cm ginger3 dried chilli1 shallots
Method:

Blend ingredients A and mix it with the chicken. Mulch it for a while. At the mean time, blend ingredients B. preheat the pot with santan inside and put ingredients B together. Roast the mulch chicken into the oven. Sprinkle a little of ingredient B if the chicken turn into slightly brown. Apply the remaining of ingredient B onto the roasted chicken.

Bubur Lambuk is a type of Malay rice porridge that is cooked and distributed free to the public during the fasting month of Ramadan in many places. Some bubur lambuk in other states have different style of preparation.Bubur lambuk or herbs rice porridge is a Terengganu traditional porridge cook with differ kinds of herbs, sweet potatoes, fish crackers, dry prawn etc. Young herb leaves like daun kesum, pucuk manis, pucuk paku, etc. that are found growing on peat swamp forest is some of bubur lambuk ingredients.

Ingredients:
1 pot rice3 cup water1 cup coconut milk(fern) pucuk pakupolygonum (daun kesom)turmeric leaves (slice fine)pucuk manis2 cup fried coconutsalt to taste
Blended:
4 shallot 3 clove garlicblack paper to taste1 inch ginger
Method:
1. Boil rice until become porridge (thick).2. Put grind material and fried coconut and salt, some sugar then stir it flat.3. Put fern (pucuk paku), polygonum leaf (daun kesum), turmeric leaf and kayu manis.4. Include coconut milk and lets it simmer until the vegetables turn soft and the porridge thick enough.
Option:
Serve porridge while it is still hot and for those who like spring onion and fried onions, you may spread out little. White pepper can also be added as additional flavour.
Additional:For those who like chicken porridge kindly put some chicken cube into porridge.
Nasi Dagang

Nasi Dagang is a rice speciality of Terengganu. The Dish is made by cooking rice and glutinous rice together, to which is then added coconut cream once it is cooked. It is eaten with it's own specially made side dishes of tuna curry and a light vegetable pickle. Simplicity is its essence.

Ingredients
300g nasi dagang rice or substitute with 200g good grade Siamese rice mixed with 100g glutinous rice
1 grated coconut to extract 3/4 cup thick coconut milk 3/4 cup thin coconut milk1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds ( halba )2 cloves garlic, sliced finely3 shallots, sliced finely2cm young ginger, sliced finely1/2 tsp salt

Method

Wash rice well and soak for five to six hours. Drain well, then steam rice for 20 to 25 minutes or until half-cooked. Stir in thin coconut milk and continue steaming for 15 minutes until rice is nearly cooked.Combine thick coconut milk, shallots, garlic, ginger, fenugreek and salt. Stir into the cooked rice then steam once more for 10 to 15 minutes or until rice is properly cooked.Serve rice with kari ikan tongkol.
Note
Nasi dagang is a special type of reddish brown glutinous rice. If it is not available, substitute with Siamese rice and glutinous rice mixture as per recipe.

This dish consists of white rice noodle eaten with delicious fish gravy to which coconut milk, tamarind, onions, pounded chilies, shrimp pastes, bean sprout, long beans and cucumbers are added. The locals normally eat laksa using their hands.

Ingredients:
1kg mackerel 1 tsp salt 1 grated coconut with enough water added and squeezed for 1.5 litres coconut milk 1.5kg dried laksa noodles, boiled until just right to the texture or al dente (or use fresh thick rice noodles, scalded in boiling water and well drained)

Ground ingredients (A) 20g (22 pieces) dried chillies, soaked 175g shallots 2cm galangal 1cm fresh turmeric root 20g ground black pepper 3 stalks lemon grass, use the white part only 1cm knob ginger

Ingredients (B) 3–4 pieces dried tamarind skin, if not available substitute with 30g lime juice 8 stalks polygonum leaves (daun kesum) Seasoning 1–2 tsp salt or to taste 1 tsp sugar or to taste tsp monosodium glutamate Garnish 1 cucumber, halved and soft centres discarded and shredded 200g bean sprouts, tailed and scalded briefly 1 wild ginger bud (bunga kantan), sliced finely Some mint leaves Some basil leaves 5 small limes, halved

Method

Season fish with salt. Boil 1 litre water in a pot and drop in the fish. Remove the fish when eyes pop out. Flake the fish and leave aside. Strain the fish stock clean from bones and add ground ingredients (A). Bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer the gravy for 10 minutes. Add ingredients (B) and pour in the coconut milk. Simmer for another 15–20 minutes, stirring frequently. Adjust seasoning to taste. To serve, put some thick rice noodles in individual serving dishes and garnish with a little of each garnishing ingredient, then pour the hot fish stock or gravy over.


A delightful yet simple dish, laksam is prepared using both wheat and rice flours. The gravy is made from fish meat which is boiled, pureed, and later mixed with coconut milk.

Ingredients:
300g fish flesh150ml coconut milk4 shallot (grind)4 clove garlic (grind)1 lemon grass (grind)Little ginger (grind)2 chicken cubesome long bean, bean sprout, cabbage, selasih lead, yam bean(sengkuang), bayleaf (daun salam) and cucumber (grind)Cooking oil, salt & white pepper 1 cup rice flour1 cup cassava

Method
1. Blend rice flour, cassava, salt and water. 2. Take 1 scoop of the mixture and pour it into aluminium tray. Make sure the dough not to thick. Boil until cooked.3. Take the aluminium tray out and left it out for a while4. Roll the dough5. Repeat step 2 until step 4.
For gravy:1. Fried the ginger, garlic, and shallot. 2. Then put fish flesh, chicken cube, coconut milk, pepper and salt.3. Lift and serve.3. Grind the long bean,cabbage, selasih lead, yam bean(sengkuang), bayleaf (daun salam) and cucumber

Meal Suggestion:Cut the dough about 1 cm thick. Put it into a bowl with some grinded vegetables. Then, pour the hot gravy and some shrimp paste spicy dish ("sambal belacan")

This popular tea-time dish features squids stuffed with glutinous rice bathed in a sea of cooked thick coconut milk. The stuffing is first soaked in coconut milk before it is stuffed into the squids.

Ingredients:
1 tin glutinous rice milk 12 wet squid1 coconut1.2 cm ginger2 shallot1 teaspoon fenugreek (halba)some sugar12 stick about 3.7cm.


Method:
1. Wash cleans the squid.2. Take out the coconut milk.3. Waste clean the glutinous rice and cook with the coconut milk until cooked4. Take small amount from the rice and put into the squid then attach it.5. Put all the attached squid into the pot fill with coconut milk, ginger, shallot and fenugreek.6. Insert coconut milk, salt, and sugar when it boils. At the same time, stir it so that the coconut milk not cloddy. 7. When the squid cooked, it is ready to be served.

This is a traditional Malay salad served with fresh vegetables, lime juice, onion slices and grated coconut.


Ingredients:

fern leaves3 big tablespoon cockle flesh4 shallot sliced1 big tablespoon dried prawns1/2 sliced ginger2 sliced lemon grass1 sliced turmeric leaf1 big tablespoon 'kerisik'1/2 cup coconut milkextracted juice from 2 lime2 red chillishrimp paste (belacan)
Method:
1. toss the blenced cockle n fern2. mix together all the ingredients3. Server accoding to your taste.
Option:
Delicious when served cold.
Additional:If you like it spicy, add some chillies.

Otak-otak is a fish cake found throughout Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. This is one of the speciality of Terengganu besides satar, another fish-based food. Since Terengganu is famous as a fishing state, the fish-based foods that are produced by the people of terengganu are made of fresh fishes to maintain its original taste.It can be eaten as a snack or with bread or rice as part of a meal. Otak-otak is made by mixing fish paste (usually mackerel) with a mixture of spices including chillies, garlic, shallots, turmeric, lemon grass and coconut milk. The mixture is then wrapped in a banana leaf that has been softened by steaming, then grilled or steamed.While fish otak-otak is most common, otak-otak is also commonly made with prawns, often resulting in a more textured variety.

Ingredients:
400g ikan merah (red snapper)

(A): 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp Maggi Ikan Bilis granules A dash of pepper(B) Spice, pound together: 3 fresh red chillies, seeded 3 cm lengkuas 2 cm fresh turmeric root or replace with 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 5 buah keras (candlenuts) 2 stalks serai (lemon grass), sliced thinly 10 shallots 4 cloves garlic(C): 1 tbsp chilli boh 1 tsp Maggi belacan powder 1/2 tbsp rice f1our 1 tbsp cornflourSeasoning: 1/2 tsp salt 1 1/2 tsp sugar Pepper to taste(D): 1/2 cup pati santan 3 eggs, well beaten 5 limau purut leaves, finely sliced Daun Kadok leaves (aromatic creepers) Banana leaves, cut into 20 x 18 cm pieces, softened by steaming or scalding in hot water

Method:

Cut fish fillets into thin slices and season with (A) for 15 minutes.Grind ingredients (B) into a paste. Mix well the ground ingredients with (C). Blend in (D) and seasoning. Add fish slices into the mixture.Take 1 piece of banana leaf, place three to four daun kadok in the centre. Put three slices of fish and 2 tbsp gravy over it. Form a bundle by folding up both the sides to meet in the centre. Fold up both the ends and staple the middle portion to secure. Make as many bundles of otak-otak as possible.Steam the bundles for 10 minutes over rapid boiling water. Serve hot with rice or white bread.

This dish is cooked-wrapped in a banana leaf over a low-fire barbecue. Fish meat, shallots and ginger are pounded to a paste and wrapped in banana leaf before it is cooked. Satar is an interesting blend of succulent boneless fish marinated in spices, wrapped in banana leaves and grilled over a flaming charcoal fire. Its sweet taste is tinged with delicate smell of the wrapping, making it a great appetizer and a healthy snack.

Ingredients

1/2 coconut 3 ikan kembung 3 shallot 1 red chilli1.2cm gingerbanana leaf

1. Clean the fish thoroughly, discard the bones, roll with coconut,pound, chop or mince the meat finely, 2. Put shallot, red chilli and ginger while roll it again until they mix well.3. Fill the cone with the mixture and cover the top.4. Repeat until all done filling the cone.5. Put the cone on the skewers with bamboo and roast until cook.


This sweet and cold dessert consists of two main parts, both of which are left to cool to become jelly. This first, a solution of rice flour, is stirred till it is cooked. The second, a mixture of coconut milk and rice flour, is heated until it thickens. A generous helping of coconut syrup is poured on top of the jellies to complete the dessert. It can be prepared for daily dish or served during special occasion. This tasty food is not only attracted the locals but as well as the outsiders.

Ingredients:
3 small rice flour bag5 cup water3 cup coconut milk3 gula melaka1 cup sugar3 pandan leaf1 spoon salt1 spoon of edible chalk (kapur makan)
Additional:
3 cup glutious rice1 tablespoon red colouring1 cup coconut milk
Method:
Put rice flour, water, pandan leaf and chalk together into wok and knead until integrated.Cook the mixture on small flames and stir til cooked.Dish out and leave to cold.Put coconut milk, rice flour and water in another bowl and leave to cold.Toss and cook the immersed glutious rice until cooked.

option
Put glutinous rice in your preferred container and pour some sweets on it.


Bronok is a sweetmeat made out of sugar and read colouring and coated with shredded coconut. coconut milk.

Ingredients:
1/2 sago seed3 glass water1 large ladle sugar1/4 coconut milksalt and red colouringMethod: wash the sago, and dry it. mix the grated coconut with salt. Boil the water with sugar and then put the sago with red colouring and stir until the sagu expand. When the sago has expand, wait until it cool down. After that, slice and mix it with grated coconut which has been mixed with salt before.
Again I have only featured recipes of the rarer dishes. You can get more from Tourism Terengganu's culinary page.

1 comment:

Helmi said...

It's not called edible chalk, silly :-p
it's called slaked lime or pickling lime.