Saturday February 9, 2013
Singapore
Hot with Occassional Torrential Downpours
After a bit of a late start due to work, I rushed to take a cab to the "suburbs" to take a cooking class with the famous Ruqxana. Ruqxana has her own cooking school called Cookery Magic and it takes place in her beautiful home filled with art and adorable cats. I knew I'd enjoy the class as soon as I stepped foot in her house.
There were 6 of us and we got along swimmingly. I really enjoyed the company and the class. Ruqxana is filled with hints on making a dish taste better. For example, a secret she learned from a Chinese cook: always cook the salt first for about a minute before adding oil and cooking a dish. I also learned the difference between coconut milk and cream, and also tasted the most delicious palm sugar. My partner was a lovely lady from India who works for L'Oreal in charge of Kerastasse. She moved to Singapore because of her husband's job. We were joined by a couple from Korea (husband works in Singapore - Korean construction, wife works with same company but lives in Korea, and 2 Japanese girls who are investment bankers (one for Nomura and the other for Barcleys).
Our menu was a traditional Malay menu. My first. My friend Naomi, when living in Japan, made me some very good curry using her family's secret curry spices from Kuala Lumpur. Ever since, I've been wanting to learn Malay cuisines. We made three dishes: Ayam Masak Lemak(every day chicken curry dish), Terung Sambal Udang Kering(stuffed eggplants with Sambal (spice paste), and Bubor Pulut Hitam(black glutinous rice pudding).
We first made the dessert because it was going to take awhile for the rice to cook. We also taste tested the many different types of palm sugar Ruqxana collects. Pretty interesting and I wish I could buy it in Tokyo as it really is a "healthy" sugar (low glycemic and not processed). She also showed me her awesome collection of mortar and pestles. Thank God its Chinese New Year so the markets will be closed tomorrow as I would have gone shopping for more. I digress. Back to the dessert we were making. We had to include two pandan leaves while cooking the rice. Its quite a nice herb but unfortunately is not available in Japan. And there is no substitute so if making in Japan, just eliminate it.
While the rice was cooking, we started making the chicken curry. And while easy, the pounding with mortar and pestle is WORK! Ruqxana said that in the old days, a girl under consideration as a wife, had to pass the mortar and pestle test with the to-be mother-in-law before completing the deal. Anyhow, we did well with the mortar and pestle. Once done, the rest was easy.
The next dish was the Eggplant stuffed with Dried Prawn Sambal. Sambal is chile paste that can be used for anything (stir fry, curry, etc). Its a great staple to keep in the kitchen. Ruqxana has several different kinds she makes and keeps in the fridge as a staple. We made some the tradional way (pan fry) and some the "new lo-cal way" grill. Both were delish! What made the paste very interesting is teh tamarind juice. I've got to find a place in Tokyo to buy these ingredients!
After about 2 hours of chopping, pounding and cooking, we were done and enjoyed our meal on the terrace of her house. A lovely day with lovely new friends. If I had known how enjoyable the class with Ruqxana was, I would have signed up for more!
Ruqxana's cats- LUV!
Some of the ingredients. So fresh and organic! One of the eggplants had worms!
Ruqxana's spices: She grinds them and toasts them before using.
Prepping the glutinous rice with pandam leaves.
Palm Sugar
Silver fish for the chicken curry paste. I wonder if I can use dried shirasu
It takes alot of work to make a curry paste. Note: blender won't do it.
Chicken curry cooking
Sambal: shrimp flavored chile paste to stuff the eggplants. When cooking the paste, beware, the spices are so strong that we were crying and coughing while cooking the paste.
Frying the eggplants
Finishing the dessert
Our Malay Lunch
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