My previous article referred to the freshman food catering company, Rempah, located in Toronto. Young foodies Lily Cheung and Daryl Chow have lovingly translated Chow's family recipes and brought them to a wider audience.
Their company offers everything from Beef & Chicken Satay to Spring Rolls to Gado Gado Salad and Pad Thai.
Cheung, a freelance graphic designer, and Chow, a linguistics masters student, were inspired to start their own catering company after hosting numerous events for Singporean and Malaysian students hungry for a taste of home while studying in Toronto.
Here are two fantastic Malaysian recipes, harkening to Chow's Nonya family lineage, that you might want to try.
Rempah Catering offers a gorgeous array of South East Asian food - in particular, dishes from Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
Makan Makan.
1) REMPAH
Serves: 10-12 dishes
Ingredients:
- 4 cup of peanuts (or candle nuts) – soaked
- 10 finger chilies
- 3 bundles of shallots
Method: In a food processor (or mortar and pestle) add lemon grass and nuts and process until fine. Then add shallots and chili. Process again into a fine paste. Tip: Wash processor asap so it won’t stain and odorize
Now that rempah is done, it’s used as an important ingredient in many dishes. A very popular dish is Laksa.
2) LAKSA
Serves: 10
Ingredients:
- 2 cups of rempah
- 1 cup dried baby prawn - soaked
- 2 tbsp turmeric
- 1 can of coconut milk
- 2 cups of water
- 2 dozen large prawns
- 1 cucumber shredded
- 1 baked cube of fish cake
Rempah mixture: Process rempah, prawn, and turmeric. Fry in a large pot, bring down temperature to simmer. Add prawn stock and then stir in 1 can of coconut milk. Let it boil and then simmer for 20 minutes. Do not add any salt!
Prawn Stock: Fry large prawns in a large pan, keeping shells and heads on. Once shrimp turns pink and curls, remove from heat and de-shell. Put the peeled shrimp aside.
Place shells and head back in the pan. Use water to clean the food processor and add the wash to the shells. (2 cups). Cover and simmer for about 30 mins.
Strain stock and add prawn stock to the pot of fried rempah mixture. Simmer together 20 minutes.
Tip: simmer shells and heads again if in need of more stock/
Preparation of side condiments
- shred cucumber
- boil and slice eggs
- bake and slice fish cake
- slice prawn in half from tip to tail
- wash and peel laksa leaves, then chop finely (aka polygonum, Vietnamese mint - rau nam, or long-stemmed mint)
(NOTE FROM JUNE CHUA: If you don't have access to laksa leaves, my mother's recipe uses fresh cilantro leaves, pluck and let your guests put in as much or as little as they want)
Noodles
Soak bee hoon (rice noodle) in a bowl of hot water
Presentation
In a separate bowl, boil together 1 serving of noodles with rempah soup stock and place in bowl. Add side condiments on top and serve while hot.
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