Category: Recipe

This easy-bake dish is the perfect midweek dinner – quick and tasty to help you get you through to the weekend! Tangy, spicy aubergines like you’ve never had them before!

Serves 4 people

Ingredients

Veg

2 aubergines – quartered lengthways and scored

2 medium carrots – diced chunky

2 shallots

3 garlic cloves

Sauce

2 tbsp The Sambal (2 tablespoons makes a hot sauce, use 1 tbsp/less if you want a milder meal)

120ml tamarind concentrate

2 tsp tomato purée

1 tbsp dark soya sauce

2.5 tbsp sugar (gula melaka works best, but regular sugar works too)

200ml water

Garnish

Sesame seeds

Sliced spring onions

Method:

Preheat oven to: Fan 180°C | Electric 200°C | Gas Mark 6

• Slice the shallots and garlic and then chuck them into a large roasting dish with the aubergines and carrots
• Lightly coat in oil (we use sunflower oil but olive & vegetable etc work too)
• Season with salt and pepper
• Put in the oven for 10 minutes, flip the aubergines, then put back in the oven for a further 5 minutes

Whilst the veg is in the oven…

• Make up the sauce by mixing all of the sauce ingredients in a bowl or measuring jug

Once the aubergines are cooked

There’s probably no such thing as guilt-free chicken wings… but at least these ones aren’t fried?? Don’t worry, they’ve still got that sexy crispiness to satisfy your naughty wing desires. This is a tasty little snack to knock up with fairly minimal effort… (as with most of our recipes)

Ingredients

Chicken

900g chicken wings

1 tbsp baking powder (NOT bicarbonate of soda)

1 tsp garlic powder

Sauce

2 tbsp sambal

5 tbsp BBQ sauce

1 tsp salt

couple splashes of lime juice (fresh if you have it!)

Method

Preheat oven to Fan 180°C | Electric 200°C | Gas Mark 6

Chicken

• Pat the chicken wings dry with some kitchen roll
• Coat in baking powder and garlic powder and cover as much of the surface as possible
• Spread out on lined baking tray – no overlapping!
• Place on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 40 minutes

Sauce

• Mix up all the sauce ingredients in a bowl, have a taste and add more heat if you can handle it
• … that’s it

All together

• Once the wings are cooked and crispy, take out the oven and brush the sauce alllllll over them
• Serve up immediately!

One of the first dishes we cooked together (and still cook A LOT) is Nasi Goreng

NASI = rice and GORENG = fried.

There are so many wonderful things about Nasi Goreng … it can be simple, complicated, spicy, mild, veggie, meaty, eaten hot, eaten for breakfast, eaten as a main, or a side, for hungover days, for dinner parties, with a spoon, with a hand .. the list goes on! But one of the best things about it is that you can generally make it with any random leftovers in the kitchen. This was especially useful to us during university when we would just fry together some leftover rice with eggs, forgotten fridge vegetables and soy sauce – sometimes if we were lucky there was the odd frankfurter lying around too. It was simple but so comforting and just plain yummy.

As we grew our kitchen skills our Nasi Goreng became a little more sophisticated and it’s one of our favourite things to cook for friends. We’d always cook way too much but somehow managed to make it through the wokful of rice with everyone going back for third and fourth helpings (this did not lead to very productive evenings …) It’s just such a friendly dish for everyone to share and an easy accompaniment to stir-fries and curries. If you haven’t already tried making it, definitely give Nasi Goreng a go – get creative and get frying!

Whilst out here in Malaysia we’ve been sampling all sorts of fried rice from roadside stalls, markets and restaurants – all have been amazing! Unfortunately, they don’t usually last long enough for us to take a picture and we’ve only managed to capture 2 to share with you guys so far.. sorry! One of these was sticky fried rice served up at a dim sum restaurant and the other was special fried rice served with some char siew pork, acar and chilli sauce YUM. recipe nasi goreng makanmalaysia

Brown, white, jasmine, basmati… we love all the rice! It took us a while to learn how to cook the perfect rice (in big batches too) but after a lot of failed batches and rice tears we finally cracked it! Which is great because we eat rice all. day. long. Rice and egg, rice and curry, fried rice, rice with sambal.. mmmm we’re getting ourselves hungryy

Here’s our quick guide to making the perfect rice, without a rice cooker.

First and foremost rinse your rice. Either run it through a sieve until the water is clear or add water to your pan with the rice, swirl it around and pour out the water and then repeat a few times! This removes any impurities and excess starch to stop your rice getting stodgy

Jasmine Rice

This is a delicate little rice that should be handled with a little TLC to stop it turning to mush. If made right, this rice will be fluffy with a slightly sticky texture so the grains clump together a little – super helpful when eating with chopsticks!

Basmati Rice

The sturdiest of all rices. It’s dry, firm and holds its shape when cooked. Unlike Jasmine, this rice does not clump together. This makes it the perfect candidate for the likes of coconut rice and fried rice – at least we think so anyway!

The method for cooking Jasmine and Basmati rice is the same:

• Measure out 100ml of rice per person and then add to a saucepan with 130ml of water per person and a pinch of salt (So if you’re cooking for 2 people, it will be 200ml of rice with 260ml water).
• Bring to boil over a medium heat, then turn heat right down low and cover with a lid.
• Simmer for 15 minutes until the rice is cooked and there’s no liquid left in the pan – don’t stir or open lid whilst cooking!
• Use a fork to gently fluff up the Jasmine Rice       

Brown Rice

Obviously, the healthiest option here but don’t hold that against it! This rice is filling and has strong nutty flavour to it. Great for all occasions!

Method:

• Measure out 100ml of rice per person
• Cover and soak in water for half an hour
• Drain the water and then add to a saucepan with 130ml of water per person and a pinch of salt
• Bring to boil then turn the heat down and cover with a lid, simmer for 15 minutes until cooked 🙂

Coconut Rice

Our signature coconut rice! Super simple for you to make and enjoy at home 🙂

Method:

Ingredients (serves 4):

400ml Basmati Rice, rinsed

1 x 400ml tin coconut milk

120ml water

1 x Pandan Leaf, knotted

2 x sticks lemongrass, bruised

1 x pinch salt

Method:

• Put the rice, coco milk, water and salt in a saucepan and mix to combine
• Stick the lemongrass into the rice and place the pandan leaf in a knot on top
• Bring to boil over medium heat, then turn the heat right down low and cover with lid
• Simmer for 15 minutes until rice is cooked

Hopefully this has been helpful .. once you’ve nailed rice, your culinary opportunities are endless! … as long as you like rice… but who doesn’t??

RICE FOR LIFE.

June 3rd is National Egg Day! Say whaaaatttt?!? We’re giving you 3 super easy Malaysian egg recipes to celebrate – today and every day!

1. Sambal Telur – A true spicy Malaysian food classic

2. Telur dadar bawang – Salty, fluffy, greasy and limp (limp is good in this case).

3. Tea stained marble eggs – great one for the kids too!

All these can be enjoyed as a snack on toast or, our favourite, with freshly steamed rice 😀

First things first – a good quality egg makes all the difference. So spend those extra pennies and make sure you get yourselves some good ones 😉 We use Beechwood Farm Eggs, a local, independent business (yassss we’re all about community) Find out more about them here

Recipe 1. Sambal Telur

Basically eggs cooked in spicy sambal. Yum. Obviously we think it goes best with our ‘The Sambal’ available at our online shop 😉

Ingredients:

• 6 medium eggs
• 2 tablespoons of The Sambal
• 2 medium red onions, sliced fnely
• 1 table spoon of oil
• 1 teaspoon of sugar (optional)

 

Method:

• Place eggs in boiling water for 7 minutes. This will give a medium cooked yolk, leave for an extra couple of minutes if you prefer a hard boiled egg
• While that is cooking, slice onions
• When the egg is cooked, run under cold water to cool and peel eggs
• Fry the onions in a pan with a tablespoon of oil
• Once soft, add sambal and sugar (if using) and mix well
• Add eggs, stir for 2 minutes
• Makan!

Recipe 2. Telur dadar bawang

This recipe is definitely NOT a healthy one, but is oh so good for when you’re feeling a little naughty!

Ingredients:

• 1 egg – this recipe is best cooked one egg at a time as it needs the whole pan to fluff up
• 1 shallot, sliced finely
• Very generous pinch of salt
• White pepper
• 0.5 tsp Fish sauce (optional for extra salty flavour)
• Oil

Method:

• Fry shallots in pan with 3-4 tablespoons of oil. You want the onions to be swimming in oil.
• While that is cooking, scramble one egg in a mug with salt, white pepper and fish sauce if using
• Turn the heat up to get the oil very hot- this helps the egg puff right up
• Once the oil is hot, carefully add the egg
• Tilt the pan so that the egg moves and covers most of the base
• Flip when all the liquid is cooked
• Your omelette is done when the edges turn brown and crispy!

 

Recipe 3. Tea stained marble eggs

This one takes a little more time and planning but definitely worth the wait for a great eggy snack.

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 2 black tea bags – English breakfast or chinese tea works
• 120mL light soya sauce
• 30 mL dark soya sauce
• 200 mL water
• Teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 star anise
• 1 clove

Method

• Place eggs in boiling water for 7 minutes. This will give a medium cooked yolk, leave for an extra couple of minutes if you prefer a hard boiled egg.
• Once cooked, run under cold water to cool, and gently crack the shell of the egg. DO NOT PEEL THE EGGS
• While the eggs cooking, boil all the other ingredients for 10 minutes in a small pan – this is the marinade
• Remove tea bags and leave marinade to cool
• Once cool, place cracked eggs and marinade into a covered container and leave for at least 24 hours in the fridge! It’s best to find a small Tupperware so that the eggs can be fully submerged. If there is not enough marinade to cover the eggs completely, add more soya sauce and water.
• When the wait is over….
• Carefully peel eggs to eat! We like to eat them whole as a snack, or cut up into wedges on a salad or slice and put on buttered toast. YUM!

Hope you enjoy our eggy recipes! What are your favourite ways to eat eggs? Let us know on the comments below, or message us!

Malaysian words:

Telur = egg

Bawang = onion

Dadar = pancake

Telur Dadar = egg pancake = omelette !

Sambal = spicy Malaysian sauce, order some on our online shop!