The Food Canon

Assam Fish is a sourish, spicy and appetizing dish which my Mum made regularly.

I have been slower in putting up recipes since my life has gotten busier with a shift in my work place.

I have also been focusing on getting the cookbook out, which involves focused work and discipline. I have to dedicate my off days to do this and we are aiming to release the cookbook in October.

I want to talk about pickling today.

I am always amazed how the humble cucumber is transformed in flavour and texture through some simple pickling process.

Pickling typically involves immersion in vinegar. The adding of salt dehydrates the vegetables further, resulting in a more intense flavour. A popular local pickled recipe is Acar, a recipe which I hope to put up one day soon on this blog.

Photo credit: Goh Eck Kheng

This is a dish Mum made regularly.

I have explained in this post how to cook brinjal well. For the home, a two step method of first cooking it on high heat - roasting in oven, pan-searing or deep frying - before flavouring it works well. The skin of the brinjal is delicious and crisped up when roasted or seared coated in some oil.

Ayam Sioh is a simple Nonya staple.

As you should know by now, Nonya or Peranakan is a cuisine which evolved from the coming together of Chinese (mostly Hokkien) and Malay cuisine cultures. Sometimes, it reflects foreign cultural influences like Portuguese, Dutch and English as well, those being the colonial masters of earlier years. It is also called "Straits Cuisine" as most of the areas where Nonya culture evolved from were port cities like Melaka, Penang and Singapore.

In this recipe, using the tau-chu or soy bean paste is obviously from Chinese cuisine. But what other ingredient marks it out as Nonya? Tamarind paste and ketumbar.

Ketumbar is basically a Malay term for Coriander powder. Technically one should call it serbuk ketumbar, but typically the term alone speaks for itself.  Tau chu+ ketumbar + tamarind, and the coming together of this Chinese and Malay  paste and spice in this recipe reflects it's inter-cultural roots.