The Food Canon

Alpha Course is starting again and once again, we can expect some good home-cooking from the Cathedral community. More info on the Alpha Course at the Cathedral can be found here.

We made Nasi Lemak again for the 190+ -pax Alpha Intro dinner.

At the Cathedral kitchen, the facilities are more limited. For the rice, we had to cook it using the electric rice cookers instead of steamers, our usual preferred method. I am learning that you can also do some really nice Nasi Lemak Rice without going the "kukus" way.

So, how did it go?

With some care, I will say that it is possible to cook some good NL rice this way. We were pretty happy with the results and I will detail here our cooking notes of what we did.

The Rice
10 kg of Jasmine Rice
Fresh milk from 6 coconuts
Salt
Pandan Leaves

A ratio of rice:water 1:1.1 was used to cook the rice. A tablespoon of salt was used for every kilo of rice. After the rice has cooked (when the switch goes to “warm”), coconut milk and pandan leaves were added. We used freshly squeezed milk which we bought from Tekka Market. Using a spatula, we fluffed the rice. Then we kept the rice cooking on warm till it was served for dinner later.

For good Nasi Lemak rice, the rice should be fluffy, with whole unbroken grains. Too much coconut milk will make the rice greasy and keeping to this ratio is important. Salt - and enough of it - is essential.

You need to imagine how the rice will go with the rather oily sambal and the salty ikan bilis. 10 kilo was barely enough for 190 pax and we could have cooked a kilo more.

It is a joy to be able to get back to "community cooking" in this new church I am serving in. As I have said elsewhere, it is a familiar environment that I grew up with where I am very much at home.

We ran the Alpha Introductory Dinner recently and made a decision to offer "home-cooked" dinner. This article serves as cooking notes for  myself and the team and I am sure, you will find helpful as well.

As I have recently learned to prepare Nasi Ulam, I thought a Malay or Nonya themed dinner will be nice for the occasion.

Dear Food Team

I thought we cooked a splendid dinner tonight.

I will jot down some notes here for our future remembrance, which means, please do cook this again.

Planning a meal is about matching various dishes together. If you serve a meal in a buffet spread, our guests will be piling food on their plates. The sauces are going to mix. Think of how sambal belachan will mess up delicately steamed pork ribs. Or how the pickled salad sauce will affect how a "Chai poh nung." So when you plan an Alpha meal, think of what will actually go on the diner's plate, how it will all come together.

Tonight's meal is almost a perfect combi. Food traditions are seldom wrong.

Note: If you like to attend an Alpha Course, check out the details here .

With bits of a spoon-carved hard-boiled egg, rice, sambal and anchovies, the first bite of the Nasi Lemak last night was nothing short of astounding.

And I am still thinking about it.

I  think it was better than the version made by my mum (Auntie Ruby). That is saying a lot. From now, if possible, every lot Nasi Lemak I make has to be done this way. The rice was so good that the prawns, chicken all became secondary though they were delicious in their own right.

I will detail here the planning, preparations and some of the recipes which the Food Ministry team in my church whipped up for a recent Alpha Introduction dinner. This is our second time and I have documented our first experience in a guest blog here.

This will be helpful as reference as the team continue to plan and cook for future events. Those of you who cook for parties or large gatherings (birthdays, Alpha Course etc) could be inspired by some of our experiences here.  

So, how do you cook for 130+ pax? The meal has to be appropriate and special as we normally serve better food for the first Introductory or Celebration Alpha session. We initially thought of Hakka Yong Tau Foo but changed our minds as the number of guests kept increasing. The logistics involved to keep the YTF pieces crisp and hot will be challenging.