The dish that I am sharing with all of you is a rustic
northern malay curry or what we call ‘gulai’. This being my first ever attempt to
post something original, I thought a dish with a bunch of spices, coconut,
tropical fruit, and ginormous prawns would truly represent the Malaysian
palate. At the same time its quick, foolproof and simple enough to avoid any
sort of embarrassment in the kitchen or in front of camera.
Now before I get into the finer details of the recipe, which
is quite straight forward, really... allow me to bore you further with a short
history lesson on how this style of food actually came about.
For over 200 years, the Straits of Melacca had always been a
hub for international trade and particularly in the north, now the state of
Penang, attracted traders from Fukien with other parts of China, India,
Pakistan, Indonesia and the Middle East. After wealthy merchants and the
British Empire plundered our natural resources, we were left with a strong and
competitive economy ready to handle the hurdles of a developing nation.
Another result is George Town evolved to be a cosmopolitan
island of different communities from mixed heritage where everyone takes their
food a bit too seriously. Peranakans are a mix of a local Malay and a Straits
settler, but when they are of muslim origin they would be called Jawi
Peranakan. Similar to the Nyonya and Baba of Melaka who have Straits Chinese
and Malay lineage, Jawi Peranakan food, which is very unique to Penang and is
built upon the foundations of Malay food and South East Asian cooking, but with
a strong influence of spices and herbs from Indian and Arab traders.
All these points are very noticeable in this dish. It starts
with beautifully grown local produce, orange sweet potatoes and ripe pineapple,
which adds sweetness and body, followed with a light yellow spice mix of
turmeric, fennel seeds, pepper, fenugreek and cardamom or what we call ‘Rempah’.
In this dish, we use ‘rempah’ specific for cooking seafood and not
the fish or meat spice mix which tends to have more chili, coriander seeds and
cumin. The spices are further mellowed down with the use of coconut milk and
lemongrass intensifies the citrus fragrance. The flavouring ingredients like
onions, garlic, ginger are pounded into a paste and simmered, very different
from most curries which usually start with oil and browning onions with spices,
and not the other way around. Then, after cleaning some healthy looking prawns,
gently place them in the simmering liquid.
What really brings this dish to a different level of
deliciousness is the art of ‘tumis bujang’. In ‘chefy’
terms its called tempering, and to temper hot oil separately and brown the
aromatic ingredients which include onions, curry leaves and dried chili and
pouring in on top of the ready curry as a finale is a very common practice in
Malaysia and a known technique of Indian cooking. Palm oil is great for
tempering as it is able to tolerate higher temperatures before it starts
smoking unlike olive oil which would also add a peculiar taste to the
dish.
I hope that for those of you who are getting into cooking,
this would be a dish worth trying, a sure crowd winner and preparation time is
less than an hour. For the readers who are familiar with gulais, I am very sure
this would bring back some nostalgia and urge you further to balik kampung up
North.
*Tip No 1 -This
dish goes very well with Crab, shellfish and my favourite, Salted Queenfish.
*Tip No 2 -Pineapple gives out sweetness but absorbs
salt so make sure you season accordingly.
