Making gorgeous Malay and Asian food for those you love

Spices can be either dry or wet (fresh). They can also come in powdered, paste or whole form. Four main dry spices used in Malay cooking are: star aniseed, clove, cinnamon stick and cardamom. Together with dried chilies or coriander, these are grounded and blended into curry or masala powder.

Here is a thorough description about these spices.

Wet spices could be made by grinding fresh chilies (for example) or adding water to powdered spices so that they become a paste. It is good to know that processed spices hardly need additives to make it last. Simply by adding salt and cooking oil is enough to store wet spices for several months in your fridge.

Check out these tips on how to store your spices.

Malay cooking uses a lot of fresh herbs, most of the time raw. For example, ginger roots and lemon grass are cut from the garden just a few minutes before serving! These roots are sliced thinly or crushed to flavor salads. How more healthy can it be?

No worries if you do not have a garden. Even an apartment balcony can be used to plant Malay herbs. See how I do it here.

We use plenty of coconut too, the coconut can either be shred or roasted. Its milk is used in curries and desserts. The variety is endless! Here is a good tip on how to toast coconut and make kerisik. Kerisik, by the way is the main ingredients to make preserved beef curry (beef rendang).

Malay traditional food also employs a lot of interesting methods to pack the food. We use leaves such as bananas or coconut leaves. Beside being economical and environment friendly, these leaves also give a nice smell and extra flavor to the food.

Satay Skewered meat (beef, chicken, pork or rabbit), grilled over open charcoal fire and served with thick spicy peanut sauce and an assortment of raw sliced onion and cucumber. Ah yes, a plate of pressed rice cakes on the side too. More info about satay here.

Roti Canai Flattened crispy pancakes dipped with dhal or other curries. This is number 1 Malaysian breakfast.

Nasi Lemak Rice with coconut milk and served with sambal (spicy sauce flavoured with shrimp paste, among others), fried ikan bilis (anchovies) and boiled eggs. This dish is eaten all day round. Usually packed in banana leaves and costs a mere RM1.00 each (USD0.35) for a simple version.

Laksa Rice or wheat noodles with spicy soup, garnished with raw herbs and an assortment of seafood or meat. Don't even start with this one, we have a 1001 versions of laksa in this country! Laksa comes from the old Sanskrit "lakh", meaning 100 thousand -- go figure!

Ketupat Plain rice cakes or glutinous rice cakes, half cooked, wrap in leaves and then boiled for hours to achieve that unforgettable texture (see the picture for ketupat daun palas - this is a glutinuous rice version).

All these food can be found at almost every street corner and night market. Even at upmarket resturants too. We, Malaysians do love to eat, and every conversation inadvertantly will revolve around food, and of course where to find the best food.

I have the list of recipes here. Don't be afraid to experiment. You may be pleasantly surprised, once you know how.

However, below is one of my favorite recipes. It uses sea crabs, we love crabs!

The picture featured here is the spice ingredients for making seafood curry, using crab and pineapple. Read on to find out how to cook it yourself.

Ingredients:

* 3 medium sized crabs (cleaned, remove the top hard shell and cut into half)
* 25 g (1 small packet) curry powder/masala blend for making seafood. It is usually stated on the packet that it is meant for making seafood curry.
* 2 tbs kerisik - (grated, toasted, grounded coconut) I used frozen kerisik that I made myself)
* 2 tbs fresh curry leaves - you may omit this if it is not available.
* 1 tbs mixed whole spices: mustard seed, fenugreek, aniseed, cumin etc
* 1 small onion, sliced
* 1/2 inch ginger, pounded finely
* 4 cloves of garlic. pounded finely with the ginger above
* 1 cup thick fresh coconut milk
* 1 cup pineapple pieces (canned).
* 1 cup pineapple syrup (from the canned pineapple).
* Salt to taste

Methods:

1. Heat cooking oil
2. Saute mustard seed mix
3. Add in onion and curry leaves
4. Add in pounded garlic and ginger
5. When fragrant, pour in the curry powder mixed with pineapple syrup
6. Once that the oil separates, put in crab pieces and the pineapple
7. Sprinkle kerisik
8. Pour in coconut milk, season with salt to taste
9. Simmer for about 10 minutes until the gravy thickens
10. Serve hot with bread or rice