Beef rendang is one of the most well known of Malaysian dishes. It is as synonymous to Malaysian cuisine as nasi lemak.

We, the Malaysian have adopted and embraced this dish from our neighbour Indonesia and made it our own.

Living in the UK we will never make as nice a beef rendang or nasi lemak as we could in Malaysia. This is because we cannot get nice fresh coconut milk. Some may say that the tin coconut milk is just as good but in my opinion, I beg to differ. However as a Malaysian living in the UK I do not really have a lot of choice. I have a coconut shredder chair (yes the old school one) please refer to pic) but I still cannot buy nice enough coconut to give me any worthwhile coconut milk.

To cook beef rendang it not difficult. The hardest job is frying the kerisik kelapa (shredded coconut strands) Please do not buy the ready fried ones. They taste of stale coconut oil – yikes. Buy the frozen coconut strands and fry it yourself on a dry non stick clean pan/wok.

I would have used more galangal but I did not have more. I really love the taste of galangal. You can find it normally at any Chinese supermarket. Galangal is not hard to find.

TIP – In all my curries and cooking I prefer to make my own paste and I always prefers to blitz some of the lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves etc with my paste. This not only gives any dishes more uuumph but thicken the sauce without the need of buah keras (candlenuts)

As for my DIY lemang there is a long story of trial and errors. When I first tried to make it in UK I made tons of mistakes and this is the closest I can get to the real thing now.

Basically it is just mix the drained soaked glutinous rice to a tin of coconut milk, mix in the salt, the pandan leaves, stir and steam for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and remove the pandan leaves.

Then scope some onto your ready banana leaves and more pandan leaves, wrapped and steam again for another 15 minutes. This will cause the banana leaf taste to seep in.

Remove and use a blow torch to torch the banana leaves (you can use gas stove or BBQ) for this to achieve the smoky taste. This give me the closest taste I can get to the real lemang minus the bamboo. When you served your lemang you will see light green on the sides. That’s the taste and look you want.

Again as I have stressed before use my recipe as a guide and create your own to your own taste.

I still recall most embarrassingly the first time I tried to make lemang I actually boiled the glutinous rice then roll them into tube using cling film and of course it tasted nothing like lemang!

TIP – Do not add your gula Malacca till the last hour to limit the chance of sticking.

TIP – Taste and season with salt if not salty enough or add more sugar if too spicy during the last 30 minutes.

TIP – Add some fresh cili padi (birdeye chilli) if not spicy enough

TIP – Cook rendang the day before and let it steep overnight. Then the next day you only need to steam and make the lemang.

This is a dish I have a craving for few times a year. Cincalok Pork belly. I was so blessed to be the recipient of a beautiful jar of this goodness from a friend. I almost want to put it by my pillow and sleep with it. kekekekeke

Cincalok this jar that I have is from Malacca so the pinkish shrimp used is called udang geragau. Cincalok are readily identifiable and the taste is salty. Therefore when cooking this dish do NOT add salt.

I am sharing what I used in cooking this dish but the proportions is entirely up to you.

Warning – This dish is very moreish. Boil more rice!

p/s I like mine with lots of onions. How do you like yours?

Asam Laksa can happen in Hertfordshire, England.

A couple of decades ago I I was missing Asam Laksa so much but it was near impossible to find all the ingredients here. I was ‘importing’ my stash every time I balik kampung

My stash included torch ginger (bunga kantan), polygonum odoratum (daun kesum) and calamansi lime (limau kesturi) but nowadays they are able to be gotten here but still not easy.

Today I have decided to use some of my stash from Malaysia to cook Asam Laksa as I am going to replenish my stash soon.

For my paste I like to add a small bit of turmeric and galangal (blue ginger) Both these ingredients are easy to find here in Chinatown.

TIP 1 – To get a clear fish broth sieve it once with a normal sieve then sieve it a second time by placing a sheet of kitchen roll on your sieve as an extra lining for a much clearer fish broth.

TIP 2 – Blend your spices till fine. I like to blend some of my lemon grass and torch ginger besides adding some to boil with the broth.

TIP 3 – Remove the big bits from your broth before adding in your fish meat.

Updated 8/08/2021

Actually Asam Laksa is very easy to cook. Years of working and cooking for a family you learn to organise yourself.

I like to boil and picked my fish the night before and the next day just blend and fry the paste. Mush easier and less stress.

Note – I have tried ordering asam laksa outside and I have yet to find one I am willing to part my ££ for! A famous restaurant in Chinatown which I once took a Japanese friend to try (after singing the virtue of how cool and different asam laksa is) was a HUGE let down.

When I queried, the waitress told me it just tin sardines + chilli + asam jawa water and the people working there don’t even eat it! Till this day I am still shocked!

When I read some good reviews recently I think I have to go and try again to see if they have ‘updated’ their asam laksa OR maybe I am just fussy? – kekekekekeke

A good asam laksa (my opinion)

1 – The broth should not be a murky dark brown or look like curry. It should be a clear fish broth with hint of red chilli oil.

2 – The mackerels if you have picked yourself should be in chunks not in bits.

3 – The taste should be sour, spicy, taste of lemongrass, galangal and most important of all the combo of torch ginger and laksa leaves!

Note – Remember the heh ko/prawn paste is sweet. Use as much or as little as you like.