“People eat all the time in Malaysia.” I heard that phrase said to me many times during my two-week-long trip across the country. Restaurants are constantly buzzing with activity even in less likely places like food courts in malls and that made me think that Malaysians don’t seem to turn their nose up even for mall food. That is also because the food is unassumingly simple, inexpensive and street food is a major draw.
Night markets, called Pasar Malam in Malay, feature Malaysian cuisine from across the country, while hawker streets in various cities feature subsets of Chinese, Thai, Taiwanese and other cuisines. The commingling of flavours of the different ethnic groups of the country — Malay, Chinese, Indian, Thai — has produced a vast variety in the food Malaysians eat, so that it never gets boring. For a food lover, it is impossible to not get enamoured; needless to say, I fell hook, line and sinker for it.
So when I left the country, I bought extra bags to accommodate my groceries of dried mushrooms, soba noodles, canned prawn sambal, glutinous rice, rice noodles and so on and so forth. I also wasted no time in trying out this recipe as soon as I arrived home. Actually, this was the first meal I cooked as soon as I dusted and washed my kitchen utensils, ending weeks of cooking hiatus.
Rendang is a delicious semi-dry curry, best eaten with rice. It is usually made with beef or lamb but chicken is quite common as well. Common in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, it is extremely simple to make. There are ingredients in this curry that might be hard for you to find in your regular supermarket. But if you live in a city, it is easy to find things like Kaffir lime, lemongrass and galangal. There is also an ingredient – candlenut – that I skipped. The curry tasted just fine though.
Chicken Rendang
The ingredients:
1/2 kilo chicken, cut into chunks
Oil for frying
5 kaffir lime leaves
1 stalk lemongrass
1/2 cup coconut milk
3 tbsp of desiccated coconut (kopra)
1 spoon of salt and sugar
For the spice paste:
5 bird's eye chillies, soaked in warm water
5 fresh red chillies (remove the seeds if you want it less spicy)
1 stalk of lemongrass
7 shallots
1 clove garlic
1/2-inch peeled galangal
1 teaspoon each of coriander seeds / turmeric powder / salt / sugar
How to make:
1 Grind coarsely the spice paste in your food processor.
2 Toast the grated desiccated coconut (kopra) with a little oil in a heavy-bottomed pan until brown and set aside.
3 In the same wok, heat another spoon of oil and fry the kaffir lime leaves for 10 seconds.
4 Now add the spice paste and fry on a slightly high flame until the colour changes.
5 Add the chicken and mix well, letting the meat coat and soak in the spice mix. Add salt and sugar.
6 After the chicken is cooked on low heat, add the coconut milk and the toasted coconut. Let it boil for a few seconds and turn the flame off immediately.
7 Serve with hot rice.
