Malaysia recipes
Recipes from Malaysia: home cooking with cultural background, ingredient substitutes and step-by-step instructions.
How to Make Assam Laksa: Penang's Sour Fish Noodle Soup
A recipe for Penang's assam laksa from Malaysia, built on fish flavor, the sourness of tamarind, and the aroma of chili and herbs. How it is eaten at the local stalls, how laksa changes by region, swapping in Japanese fish, rice noodles, and herbs, not scorching the spice paste, how to recover when things go wrong, storage, and choosing ingredients.
Ayam Pansuh: Sarawak Bamboo Chicken, Made in a Pot
Ayam pansuh, Sarawak's bamboo-tube chicken, made in a home pot with lemongrass, galangal and greens. Covers the heat that traps aroma without bamboo, chicken core temperature, substitutes for local ingredients, the background of cooking in bamboo, storage, fixes for failures and how to eat it, all from the kitchen's point of view.
How to Make Char Kway Teow: Malaysian and Singaporean Street Stir-Fried Noodles
Char kway teow in the style of Malaysian and Singaporean street stalls: flat rice noodles, dark soy sauce, sambal, how to add shrimp and egg, driving off moisture on a home stove, differences from the Penang style, substitutes, storage, what goes wrong, and reheating the next day.
How to Make Lemang: Malaysian Bamboo-Tube Sticky Rice in a Home Steamer
A home recipe for lemang, Malaysia's festive dish, made without bamboo. Glutinous rice steamed with coconut milk, scented with banana leaf, and set into a log. Substitute ingredients, how to tell when it is cooked through, storage, serving with rendang, and which ingredients are worth buying, plus how to handle bamboo and whether to buy a steamer.
Roti Jala: Malaysian Lace Crepes with Chicken Curry
How to make roti jala, the Malaysian lace crepe, in a home kitchen: what to do without the special cup, batter thickness, the bottle's hole size, pan temperature, folding, serving with chicken curry, substitutions, storage, common failures, and how it is eaten in Malaysia, with step photos.
Ayam Masak Merah: Malaysian Red Chili-Tomato Braised Chicken
Ayam masak merah is Malaysian chicken fried until golden, then simmered in a red sauce of chilies, tomato and tamarind. A home-kitchen guide to the spice paste you must not skimp on, heat control, adjusting the spice, storage and serving with nasi lemak.
Ayam Percik: Kelantan Grilled Chicken in Coconut Sauce
Ayam percik, a specialty of Kelantan in northeastern Malaysia, is made with turmeric-marinated chicken thighs and a sweet-spicy sauce of chili and onion paste, coconut cream, lemongrass, tamarind and palm sugar. Covers the heat of the Ramadan bazaar, what the name means, the white and red styles, and an oven method that bastes again and again.
Kuih Lapis: Malaysian Steamed Layer Cake
Kuih lapis is a Malaysian layer cake made by steaming a rice flour and tapioca starch batter one thin layer at a time. Learn how to get pandan and coconut aroma, steaming times that keep 8 layers intact, flour substitutes, regional variations and storage, with pink and white layers that show you exactly when to pour the next one.
Laksa: Malaysian Spiced Coconut Curry Noodle Soup
Recreate Malaysian and Singaporean curry laksa with a homemade paste made in a food processor. The coconut-milk soup, how curry laksa differs from assam laksa, regional styles, make-ahead paste and substitutes for hard-to-find ingredients.
Nasi Kerabu: Malaysia's Blue Herb Rice from the East Coast
Nasi kerabu from Malaysia's east coast: blue rice with chopped herbs, grilled fish and coconut sambal. Layers the sour, spicy and salty notes of the Kelantan table, made with a rice cooker and fish sauce. Covers how it differs from budu, ingredient substitutes and storage, and how to keep the flavor intact even without butterfly pea flowers.
Nasi Lemak: Malaysia's National Dish, Made in a Rice Cooker
Nasi lemak, Malaysia's coconut rice with sambal, crispy anchovies, peanuts, cucumber and egg, made in a home rice cooker. Includes a homemade sambal, a whitebait stand-in for ikan bilis, and the dish's backstory.
Roti Canai: Malaysia's Flaky Flatbread with Dal Curry
How to make Malaysian roti canai at home: a stretchy dough rested in oil, folded with ghee into dozens of crisp layers, cooked on a hot skillet and served with a lentil dal curry.
Sambal Udang: Malaysian Prawns in Tamarind Sambal
A home version of Malaysia's sambal udang that shows how to cook the prawns and the sweet-sour of tamarind. Covers dried shrimp versus belacan, the link to Peranakan cooking, regional differences, substitutes, adjusting heat, fixing a failed sauce, storage, and what to check when shopping.
Bak Kut Teh: Malaysian Pork Rib and Herbal Spice Soup
A Klang-style bak kut teh for the home kitchen: blanching bone-in ribs, using star anise and white peppercorns, a gentle low simmer, how it differs from the Singapore style, serving with youtiao and rice, and storing leftovers.
Sarawak Laksa: Borneo's Breakfast Noodle Soup with Shrimp Stock and Rempah
How to make Sarawak laksa, the breakfast noodle soup of Kuching in Malaysian Borneo, at home: a stock from shrimp shells, how to fry the rempah spice paste, the right heat for the coconut milk, how it differs from Penang laksa, what substitutes change, and storage.