Ah! Curry
Every South East Asian home has its very unique dish.
But the ingredients are almost the same.
And that's what I tried to do this round, to learn my mom's secret recipe to the family curry base, while she's still around to teach me.
This base is the "magical base" to many dishes:
- Rendang (Dried Curry)
- Sambal (for the Malaysian National Dish: Nasi Lemak)
- Normal Curry, Thai Red Curry and many even as a condiment for noodles for that spicy kick (aka Sambal)
But this time, my mom taught me a hack...
I am not sponsored, but I'd love it if one day the company sees this post haha
Instead of doing everything from the very base scratch like any Nonya would, for amateur like me, there is a "fast-track" version and this is the secret that every person who wants to make good base but doesn't have enough time, space or the open air to do so.
The ingredients for the base
From the top:
- 1 Bunga Kantan (aka Torch Ginger - do not be mistaken with lotus flower!)
- Kesum Leaves (lat liu in Cantonese or Vietnamese Coriander)
- Galangal ("Blue" Ginger root)
- Serai (aka Lemon Grass)
- Curry Leaves
- Shallots / red onion (depending how mildly fragrant / tense strong you want)
- Fresh big red chili
The distributed portion is around this size. I didn't add these 2 additional ingredients because it was already readily available at home. They are:
- Garlic (diced)
- Candle Nuts (pound and grind)
The red chili gives the fresh kick the rendang doesn't have, and because my parents can't really take extreme spiciness, I have carefully removed 99% of the seeds from it and diced for easy blending.
Now this is the tricky one. The Galangal blue ginger. It looked innocent and hard, but it is EXTREMELY stinging to your fingers, and DON'T get into your eyes. You will cry for help!
Always use gloves for this one, because I didn't do so and I suffered tremendously for 30 mins when I accidentally used the tip of my pinky finger that was slightly exposed during skinning dicing to scratch the tip of my eye. It was 30 mins of hell
Once the onion, chili, ginger, garlic, galangal, candle nut, and some lemon grass head (one small head) is nicely chopped, in they go into the blender with a bit of water.
This is the consistency we need to get for the SPICY PASTE.
After that, prepare 1 pack of ready mixed Rendang with a bit of garlic, ready to be cooked.
Half a bowl (approximately 1 1/3 cup) of vegetable oil / coconut oil is needed for this. Coconut oil is very expensive (though it brings a totally different level of aroma), so I opted for the normal vegetable oil.
Pour the oil, the fresh blended spicy paste and the rendang paste together on a readily heated wok (yes wok is easier) and keep stirring until they are well incorporated, then send it into a simmer until the oil is parted from the now nicely cooked paste.
By then, your entire house would smell like chili paste. Make sure your home is well aired and ventilated. Otherwise you will need a smoke extractor.
Add on Vietnamese Coriander and another stalk of lemon grass.
If you want additional spike of flavour, a small stick of cinnamon of half a pinky finger will elevate.
And this is the base of the every curry my family use for decades. Hopefully I will do this properly again with my mom's minimal supervision.
The portion that we just make could make about 1 big container (400ml approximately) for curry base in the future, and 2 smaller containers (100ml approximately) for other kinds of cooking.
How about you?
Do you have a special family passed down base recipe for all the different dishes for your home?
I'd love to view them! Do tag me!
Until Then
Stay healthy, stay curious and learn new things, and stay happy!
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