Spicy Prawn and Pineapple Curry

My family loves to eat pineapple in many ways - raw, make into jam and for cookies (pineapple tart), preserved, canned, or cooked. Pineapple as an exotic tropical fruit, is widely use in Nyonya cuisine, such as the ever popular Nyonya Acar. We like its natural sweet & sour taste, juicy when it is bite, and high in fibre.
Both prawn and pineapple provide natural sweetness of seafood and fruit respectively when its cooked. This is not very spicy & hot curry, though it looked so. The spices make it very fragranced yet the original taste of prawn and pineapple is retained.
Ingredient:

• 70g Dried Chillies (seed removed)/200g Fresh Chillies


• 250g Shallot (peeled)


• 2 Stalks Lemongrass


• 1 Tbsp Turmeric Powder


• 500g Large Prawn (shell trimmed)


• 1/2 Ripe Pineapple (cut into desired shape)


• 1 cup Oil


• 100g Tamarind Pulp


• 2 cups Water (for tamarind juice)


• Salt & Sugar (to taste)

Method:

1. Blend or pound chillies, shallot, and lemongrass together. Add turmeric powder.


2. Heat up oil, sauté curry paste at medium heat until lightly brown and fragrant.


3. Add prawn and stir until coasted well with curry paste.


4. Then pour in tamarind juice and cooked until boiled.


5. Lastly, add pineapple, salt and sugar to taste.


6. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Point to highlight: It tastes better to cook prawn with shell, it gives extra taste, especially the prawn head.

Spicy Onion Prawn / Sambal Udang

In my memory, this is one of the few spicy dishes that I start to take when I was young. I love the natural sweetness of the onion and juicy prawn. Whenever my mum prepared it, I would go for second helping of rice. Just add a few slices of freshly cut cucumber together with hot steamed rice make a perfect match of a complete meal for me!



Ingredients:
600g Prawn (medium, shell removed)
200g Onion (sliced)
½ cup Oil
70g Tamarind Pulp
1 cup Water (for tamarind juice)
1 tsp Salt (or taste)
1 tsp Sugar (or taste)

Curry Paste (Pounded)
50g Dried Chilies (seed removed)
200g Shallot (peeled)
3 cloves Garlic
2 stalks (large) Lemongrass
1 Tbsp Turmeric Powder

Methods:
1. Heat up oil, sauté curry paste at medium heat until lightly brown and fragrant.
2. Add sliced onion. Stir fry until soft.
3. Then add prawn, stir fry until well mixed with curry paste and aromatic.
3. Add tamarind juice and mix well with the prawn and curry paste.
4. Lastly add sugar and salt to taste and continue simmer to reduce curry to desired texture.
5. Serve well with hot steamed rice and slices of freshly cut cucumber.

Green Curry

Whenever I see the small and round eggplant/aubergine/brinjal in the market, and if time permits to cook, I would grasp it for Green Curry.

I describe Green Curry as a family curry, as it is not spicy though is called “curry” and children can enjoy this aromatic curry with steam rice or bread. I would normally add in the usual purple elongated-shape and my favorite small and round (green/white/purple) eggplant. In Nyonya food, we used this small and round eggplant for “perut ikan” (pickled fish stomach with finely cut vegetables cook with spicy gravy) as well.

Ingredient (Curry Paste):

2 Tbsp dried shrimp - optional (soaked in water till soft, pounded)

2 tsp cumin seeds, finely pounded
1 tsp black peppercorns, finely pounded

8 (large) fresh green chilies, removed seeds and cut to big pieces
200g shallots, cut to big pieces
6 cloves (large)garlic
~ 5cm fresh galangal, roughly pounded
~ 20g fresh coriander leaves and stems (Chinese parsley), coarsely chopped
6 leaves kaffir lime leaves, coarsely chopped
3 stems lemon grass
2 tsp grated lime rind (optional)

2 Tbsp coriander powder

Method (pounded):

1. Fry pounded dried shrimp till fragrance but not brown.
2. Process pounded spices and dried shrimp in food processor for ~5sec. Add the remaining ingredients and process until mixture forms a smooth paste. (add ~ 50ml water if too dry to process.)

3. Mixed well with coriander powder.

Ingredients (chicken curry):

3 Tbsp cooking oil
1 (medium) onion (sliced)
1.5kg chicken thigh, cut into bite-sized pieces
200-300g egg plant or long beans (cut into 1½ inch)
6 leaves kaffir lime leaves
2 stems lemon grass
250ml water
1 Tbsp Thai fish sauce (or to taste)
1 Tbsp lime juice (or to taste)
2 tsp brown sugar (or to taste)
250ml thick coconut milk
5g fresh coriander leaves

Method:

1. Heat up oil, sauté curry paste at medium heat until lightly brown and fragrant.
2. Add sliced onion. Stir fry until soft.
3. Then add chicken pieces and egg plant/long beans. Stir until coasted well with curry paste.
4. Add kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass and stir well with the mixture.
5. Add water and heat till boiled. Then reduced heat, simmer for ~ 20minutes or until chicken is tender.
6. Then add fish sauce, lime juice and brown sugar to taste.
7. Lastly, add coconut milk. May sprinkle with fresh coriander leaves before serving.
8. Serve well with white rice or bread.

Nyonya Acar - Spicy & Sour Pickled Mixed Vegetables

My sisters and I occasionally meet up at our mother’s house to prepare our favorite dishes together. This time, we decided to prepare Nyonya Acar. We have extra hands now, as my nieces are grown up and interested in cooking as well. As a typical Nyonya, my mum is very particular in how the vegetables are being cut, such as it must be same in length.

This is certainly a harmonious dish. It’s a colorful dish with variety of vegetables. And of course, while chit-chatting, we cut vegetables together and soon it was ready. The atmosphere was just like festive season where the adults were busy with the dish while the young ones running around.

Last Sunday we managed to get our “Nyonya Acar” ready for late lunch. No other dishes, the same colorful and very appetizing Acar was served during dinner. Everybody went home happily with some Acar too.

Ingredients:

Vegetables:
2 large Egg Plant (with skin, cut into 1½ inch length)
2 medium Cucumber (with skin and seed removed, cut into 1½ inch length)
3 medium Carrot (skin peeled, cut into 1½ inch length)
1 medium Pineapple (cut into 1½ inch length)
3 (large) Chilies (seed removed, cut into 1½ inch length) 1kg Long Beans (cut into 1½ inch length)
500g Water Chestnut (cut into 1 inch length)
500g Cauliflower (cut into big pieces)
1kg Cabbage (cut into big pieces)

To blanch the vegetables:
8 liters Water
300ml Vinegar

Spicy & Sour Paste (pounded/blended):
100g Dried Chilies (seed removed)

500g Shallot
3 stalks (large) Lemongrass
2 Tbsp Turmeric Powder

To sauté and flavored the paste:
500g Oil
4 Tbsp Vinegar (or to taste)
150g Sugar (or to taste)
1Tbsp Salt (or to taste)

Garnished:
200g Roasted Peanut (grounded)
50g Roasted White Sesame

Methods:
1. Blanch the vegetables to preserve the color and flavor. Add vinegar into water and bring to boil. Add vegetables (carrot, cucumber, cauliflower, cabbage, long bean) and boil for ~ 2 minutes. Then, blanch the egg plant separately, as it would colored the water (brown). Remove and immerse vegetables in cold water.
2. Turn off the heat, add pineapple into the hot water and drain off. Chilies and water chestnut not required to blanch.

3. Heat up oil, sauté spicy & sour paste at medium heat until lightly brown and fragrant.
4. Add vinegar, sugar and salt to taste. Turn off the heat.

5. Then, add all the vegetables. Mixed well in the wok.

6. Lastly, add the ground roasted peanut and sesame.
7. Serve well with hot steam rice. Store well in the refrigerator up to 1 week.

Dried Shrimp Sambal with Okra

This is another lunch dishes mentioned in "My Tiffin Lunch":

Ingredients:
400g Dried shrimp (soaked and lightly pounded)
1 cup Oil (for sauté curry paste)
100g Tamarind Pulp
2 cups Water (for tamarind juice)
2 Tbsp Sugar

Vegetable:
500g Okra
Lime (optional)

Curry Paste (Pounded)
30g Dried Chilies (seed removed)
150g Shallot (peeled)
1 Stalks Lemongrass
1 tsp Turmeric Powder

Methods (Dried Shrimp Sambal):
1. Heat up oil, sauté curry paste at medium heat until lightly brown and fragrant.
2. Add dried shrimp, stir fry until well mixed with curry paste and aromatic.
3. Add tamarind juice and mix well with the dried shrimp curry paste.
4. Lastly add sugar to taste and continue stir fry until dry or desired texture.
5. Leave to cool before store. Serve well with okra, cucumber, sandwich bread or hotsteamed rice.

Method (Steamed Okra):
1. Steam okra at high heat for 7-8 minutes.
2. Remove from steamer and serve hot or cold with Dried Shrimp Sambal.
3. If desire, may serve with freshly squeezes lime juice.

Spicy Curry Leaves and Onion Chicken Curry

This is the Spicy Curry Leaves and Onion Chicken Curry mentioned in "My Tiffin Lunch" experience.

Ingredients:
1.5kg Chicken (cut into serving pieces)
1 cup Oil (for sauté curry paste)
3 cups Oil (for deep-fry chicken)
500g Onion (red onion, slice)
120g White Vinegar or Lemon Juice
30 leaf Curry Leaves
2 Tbsp Sugar
2 tsp Salt (to taste)

Marinade:
1 Tbsp Turmeric Powder

Curry Paste (Pounded)
70g Dried Chilies (seed removed)
250g Shallot (peeled)
2 stalks Lemongrass
1 Tbsp Turmeric Powder

Methods:
1. Marinate chicken pieces with turmeric powder for at least 1 hour.
2. Heat up oil for deep frying. Deep-fry chicken pieces until golden brown and cooked. Dish and drain.
3. Heat up oil, sauté curry paste at medium heat until lightly brown and fragrant.
4. Add sliced onion. Stir fry until soft.
5. Then add deep fried chicken pieces. Stir until chicken coasted well with curry paste.
6. Add curry leaves and stir well with the mixture.
7. Lastly add vinegar, salt and sugar to taste.
8. Serve with white rice or nasi kunyit.

My Tiffin Lunch

I have the great pleasure to share one of my experiences of traditional nyonya cuisine that I enjoyed and delivered using tiffin carrier...

My maternal grandmother is Penang nyonya and mother followed her traditional nyonya cooking style and recipe. So do I. The nyonya cuisine is rich in tradition and culture which has become part of my family heritage.

In our culture, on the first day of wedding, mother will prepare lunch for the daughter in tiffin carrier. It is part of the symbolic rituals to enable the daughter to take some familiar food which she used to take at home, and not get starved while attending to the ceremonial wedding processes and adapting to the new environment. I remember vividly that my sister delivered over my favorite lunch dishes in my favorite tiffin to my parents-in-law's house after the traditional Chinese tea ceremony.

It was a touching moments when I saw the familiar green enamel tiffin carrying my favorite dishes. I could not eat much due to the overwhelming feeling and anxiety (wedding day) while keep thinking of my lovely mum...

The two dishes are the "Spicy Curry Leaves & Onion Chicken Curry" and "Dried Shrimp Sambal with Okra" together with steamed rice. Though I can prepare the dishes now, but my mother's cooking is still the best.

Fortunately, I inherited two sets of enamel tiffin carrier, including the greeen tiffin. These tiffin carriers have been added to our collection of old and new kitchen utensils.

Note: I was told the green enamel tiffin cost RM 2 and the blue and white flower motif design tiffin (shown in the photo) cost RM 1.60 when my grandmother bought it in the mid 60's.