The Food Canon

To ensure that the sambal is not just all chilli spicy, I add a lot of shallots and onions and I use fresh chilli paste to balance the spicier dried chilli paste. It is important to sweat or caramelised the shallot paste in the oil before you add in the rest. 

Here was my recipe and method.

Ingredients
500gm of peeled shllots

500 gm of large onion slices.

50 pieces of dried chilli or equivalent paste

50 pieces of fresh chillies or equivalent paste

200 gm of ikan bilis

5 tbsp of sugar

5 tbsp of gula melaka (optional - add more sugar if you are omitting this)

1 tsp of salt 

3 tbsp of assam paste (tamarind)

500 ml of cooking oil

"More can be less" and this is especially true for Nasi lemak sambal. Avoid adding other ingredients or herbs. It is meant to be enjoyed as a part of a plate of Nasi Lemak with many other flavours. Just focus on making very good sambal. 

This sambal keeps well in the fridge. Enjoy. 

Lead photo: credit: Joyce Ho, sambal taken with fried nuts and ikan bilis.

2 tbsp of oil

limes

Preparation

1. Peel the prawns. Add 1 tsp sugar and corn flour to the meat and fridge it for 30 minutes
2. Sliced the shallots into thin slices. 
3. Sliced the winged beans vertically into small slices. 

I was in Hokkaido recently. This is our first visit to Japan to celebrate our 25th Wedding Anniversary.

There is much I can say about lovely Hokkaido but this being a cooking/food blog, I will reflect from this angle.

There is an abundance of Japanese restaurants in Singapore today. We should be familiar with the factors that make Japanese cuisine unique: obsession with details, emphasis on "eating with your eyes", technical discipline in food preparation etc.

But a chief factor that makes their cuisine unique is specialization. Small eateries sells one thing and do it really well. It is akin to our hawker stalls. Individuals have dedicated their entire lives to grilling yakitori sticks, preparing their ramen broths, cooking and fanning their vinegared rice and perfecting their tamago. One should add that this can also be found in other cuisines. But in Japan, it is widespread.

The concept of shokunin, involving artisanal microdisciplines with a singular devotion to perfectionism is pervasive not just in their cuisine, but every area of life. Like me, you would have watched the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, featuring Japan's most famous shokinin, Jiro Ono.

Tashio Odate explained in his book on wood craftsmanship:

"The shokunin has a social obligation to work his/her best for the general welfare of the people. This obligation is both spiritual and material, in that no matter what it is, the shokunin's responsibility is to fulfil this requirement."

White Corn and Green pepper from Hokkaido

Yakitori is best when cooked in a charcoal grill and you will find many joints which do this very well. It is a late night dinner thing and expect a lot of smoke: both from the charcoal grill and the chatty diners. It is not the kind of place for a quiet and smoke-free evening meal. While yakitori means "grilled chicken", a lot more is offered at this joints.

For convenience, my Mum used curry powder. Curry powder is basically powder of spices like coriander, aniseed, cloves etc along with chilli powder and turmeric powder. If the powder is fresh, by all means use it. Then she blends the shallots, yellow ginger and dried chilis. She also added curry leaves.

There is the usual chicken meat. But she always added prawn meat for the sweetness and some variety to the texture.

All this is done in the wok. Done right (don't over cook the potato), the filling is very very good. We used to love eating it with white bread whenever she had leftover filling.

The Pastry

Using two types of dough (watery and oily) will introduce flakiness in the crust. As air is trapped between the layers, there will be multiple layers of pastry making for a crunchier and lighter bite. There are different ways to roll out and prepare the dough. It can be hard to show you exactly how my Mum did it but once you understand what is being achieved here, you will get confident and find different ways to roll it out.  I will do my best to explain it here. 

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Auntie Ruby's Curry Puff's Recipe
Makes 30 curry puffs
Filling
1 kg (2.2 lbs) yellow potatoes
5 eggs, hard boiled and each wedged into 8 pieces
300 g (10.5 oz) chicken meat
200 g (7 oz) prawn meat, diced
500 ml (2 cups) vegetable oil for frying potatoes
25 g (1 cup) curry leaves

Curry paste
15 dried chillies, rehydrated in hot water
5 lemongrass bulbs
20 shallots, peeled and diced
5 candlenuts (buah keras)
2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tbsps curry powder
2 tsps salt

Outer pastry 1 kg (2.2 lbs) plain flour
200 g (7 oz) margarine
1 tsp salt
400 ml (1.5 cups) cold water

Inner pastry 500 g (1.1 lbs) plain flour
300 g (10.5 oz) margarine

Making the filling
My Mum will cut – not mash – the peeled yellow potatoes. They are cut into ½ cm (0.2 in) cubes.
Then the potato cubes are fried in oil for about 10 minutes. This ensures that the potato cubes will not clump up together. Don’t overcook the potatoes. Set the potatoes aside.

Next, make the curry paste or rempah. Blend or pound the chillies, lemongrass, shallots, and candlenuts into a paste. Heat the oil in a wok, add the paste, salt, curry powder and turmeric powder. Slowly cook it over a low flame for about 10 minutes.

Then add the cubed chicken meat, diced prawn meat and curry leaves. Simmer for 5 minutes before mixing in the fried potatoes.


Making the pastry
Using the two types of pastry dough and following the rolling method will result in a light, thin and flaky pastry.

To make the outer pastry, mix the flour, salt and margarine and knead. Add the water in stages in as you knead it into a dough. Separate into five portions and roll each into a ball.

To make the inner pastry, mix the flour and margarine and knead into a dough. Separate into five portions and roll each into a ball.

Flatten a ball of the outer pastry into a circle with a rolling pin. Put a ball of the inner pastry on it and wrap it with the outer pastry. Repeat with the remaining balls of pastry.

Leave the balls of pastry to rest for about 1 hour in the fridge. This will make for easier shaping of the pastry later.

Note that this pastry can be prepared beforehand and keep in the fridge or freezer till needed.

Making the curry puffs
Remove the pastry from the fridge. Take a ball and flatten it into a long, oval shape. Roll it up tightly by the width and flatten to a long oval shape again. Roll it up once more and flatten for a third time. Then roll it up again. Repeat for remaining balls of dough.
Cut each roll into discs of 3 mm (0.1 in) thickness.
Flatten each disc of pastry to retain a round shape.
Spoon about one heaping teaspoon of the filling in the center of the pastry. Add a wedge of hard boiled egg. Fold the pastry over to make a semicircle.

Seal the curved edge of the curry puff. Start at one end of the semicircle, using your thumb and finger to twist the edge to make a crinkle. Continue twisting along the edge till you reach the other end of the semicircle. You should have sealed the curry puff with a rope-like series of crinkles.

Repeat for the remaining pastry and filling. The curry puffs are now ready for deep frying.

You may freeze the curry puffs at this stage if you are preparing ahead. Place the curry puffs on plastic sheets or cling film with a space between each piece. Place in the freezer.

Deep fry immediately after removing the curry puffs from the freezer. Don’t thaw. Fry them in batches over low heat. The oil must be gently bubbling. Remove them when they are light brown.

Let the curry puffs cool down but they are best eaten when they are warm. If you are serving them later, keep them in a warmer.

For grinding into paste:

20 Shallots
1 inch turmeric (kunyit)
1 inch of galangal (blue ginger or lengkuas), sliced
2 inches of ginger – sliced
2 stalks of lemon grass (white part only), sliced

3 Tbsp of chilli paste

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To be added to paste:
1 bowl of oil (250 ml)
100 gm Gula Melaka (Palm Sugar) or sugar