Recipes for Raya

Malaysian Delicacies would like to wish all Muslim friends and Malaysians ,Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri and Happy National Day.To celebrate this festival ,I am submitting 3 dishes to try out during the holidays.

Gulai Ayam Pegaga/Chicken with Indian pennywort

I like to cook with pegaga whenever I could.Its easily available in the wet market and quite common among Malaysians.Locally, known as pegaga among the Malays, ching chow sui by Chinese , and gotu kola or valarai by Indians or Indian pennywort in many parts of the world ,it has a lot of anti ageing properties.You can read more about pegaga http://malaysiandelicacies.blogspot.com/2008/09/tips-of-month-aug-2008.html.I have always use the leaves as kerabu ,until I came across a recipe that cooks curry with it in the Rasa Magazine.

It doesn’t use oil , as all the ingredients are mixed together in a pot and cooked until thick. The leaves are added finally and served.

1 chicken (cut into 8 or 12 pieces)

Grated coconut from 1 coconut

100gm of pegaga

3 lemongrass(bruised)

2 pcs of assam keping/dried tamarind

Salt to taste

Pounded into a paste

8 cili padi/bird eye chillies

4cm fresh turmeric

Take about 3-4 cups of coconut milk from the coconut.Leave aside.

In a pot, place chicken pieces,pounded ingredients and 2 cups water.Simmer until the water evaporates.Reduce heat and add in lemon grass, assam keeping and coconut milk  and simmer gently for about 2 mins ,then add in the pegaga leaves.Cook for further 1 -2 mins and close fire.Make sure the coconut milk does not break when simmering.

Prawns masala with Thai basil/Udang masala daun selasih

Two varieties of this fragrant herb are found in Indonesia. They are generally added to dishes at the last minute for maximum flavour. Daun kemangi has a lemony scent, while daun selasih (identical to Thai horopa) is more similar to sweet

European basil.

½ kilo prawns

1 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp cornflour

1 tbsp rice flour

1 tbsp coriander powder

1 tbsp chilli powder

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp black pepper powder

1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste

A bunch of daun selasih/thai basil

1 tsp lime juice

Salt to taste

Clean prawns, discard head and remove black vein.You can cook with the shells or without it,according to personal preference.

In a large bowl mix in all the ingredients except daun selasih.

Add in the prawns (wipe dry in paper towel) and mix it into the spices and powders.Sprinkle some water and combine the prawns with the ingredients and leave to marinate for 15-20mins

This dish tastes well if you cook in a claypot/periuk belanga /mannchathi.

Add a bit of oil, about 4 tbsp , leave to heat then add in the marinated prawns.Slow cook until the prawns are well coated with the masala.

Wash the herb/basil and pluck the leaves, you can use the stems as well, but do not add alot.

When the dish is fully cooked add in the bunch of herbs and combine it with the prawns.Close fire immediately as we do not want the herbs to cook too much.Serve as a side dish with rice.

 Blue Lemonade 

1 jug of ice water

10 lemons (squeeze the juice)

1/2 cup of sugar syrup

ice cubes

blue colouring

Decoration

Assam Powder

Method

In the jug mix lemon juice, sugar syrup and ice water.Add a few drops of blue colouring.

Coat the top part of the serving glass  with cut lemon and dip in assam powder.Make sure the assam powder is well coated in a round circle.Add in ice cubes, and slowly pour in the lemonade.Serve immediately.