Pucuk Paku in a Spicy Coconut Milk Gravy

I have lived all my life in Malaysia and yet the first time I tasted this dish was a year ago at an Indonesian restaurant near where I live. It was love at first taste. The thick coconut gravy was ever so delicious with just the right amount of heat in it and the ferns were tasty too: they are said to taste somewhat like asparagus — well, maybe a little.

I was determined to recreated this dish at home. I think it had quickly become one of my most favourite vegetable dishes ever (yes I am dramatic in that way). So for months after, I searched for the ferns — called pucuk paku in Malay or fiddlehead fern in English — in several wet markets and supermarkets but to no avail.

Then last Saturday, I told my friend Sree about my craving and like an angel, she told me they sold it at the wet market in her neighbourhood. I was thrilled. THRILLED. (Really, you have no idea how thrilled I was. Over a fern!) Anyway a day later, Sree called me: she was at the market and asked if I wanted her to buy me some pucuk paku. There I was -- thrilled again. I asked her to buy me two bunches and I collected it from her that very afternoon.

I didn't expect pucuk paku to have such long, woody stems (top, left). The thicker parts of the stems (almost three-quarters of the fern) are not to be eaten. The tops of the fern are what you want to eat: here is where most of the fronds are — the young fronds are tightly coiled like a paku (nail/screw) while the older ones (also edible) are unfurled. The stems at the top are thinner and can snap quite easily and are therefore edible also.

Sorting through the stalks can be a pain. First, you discard the thick, woody stalks (only use the thin stems that can be snapped easily). Next separate the stem from the fronds; cut the stems in half (this is optional but it makes eating a lot more pleasant: no one likes chewy stems). Next rinse the stems and fronds thoroughly to remove any trace of sand/soil.

Once this is done, the rest is a breeze. And, like most curries, this tastes better the day after!



Pucuk Paku in Spicy Coconut Gravy
600g (or thereabouts) cleaned fiddleheads
1 cup vegetable stock/water
1 cup milk
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 red onion
2 cloves garlic
2 cm piece fresh ginger
1 stalk lemongrass, bruised
2 cm piece fresh turmeric (or 1/2 tsp turmeric powder)
3 birds eye chillies, chopped
salt

First step is to blanch the ferns. Bring a pot of water to boil. And the ferns in and let them sit in the water for a coupe of minutes. Drain.

Pound the onions, garlic, ginger, lemongrass and fresh turmeric. If using turmeric powder, keep it till later.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan. When hot, add the pounded ingredients and fry till fragrant. Add the chillies and then the water/stock and salt and bring to boil. Add the ferns and cook for a few minutes and lastly add the coconut milk and milk. Season. Remove from heat.

Not Fish Fish Curry

Yesterday was truly the best Sunday I've had in a while. I woke up early, put in a couple of hours at the gym and then returned home to my adoring dog (the way Mojo welcomes me home really makes me feel special) and sleeping husband. It was 1030am!

"Come on," I said, "let's get up, go out and relax."

Yeah, I can be quite a pain in the you-don't-want-to-know-where!

So, it was close to noon when we left the house for some lunch and a walk-about. Lunch was pretty simple fare: rice and Asam Fish Curry for the man and rojak for me. The fish curry received rave reviews that inspired me to make a vegetarian version of the dish for myself for dinner.  It isn't unusual for me, you know, thinking about dinner during lunch, thinking about tomorrow's breakfast at dinner. Actually, I think it's a pretty universal habit of food lovers. Right?

So anyway, I got home at 3pm and started mentally planning my curry. There are so many varieties of fish curry (and not-fish curries too): Thai Fish Curry, Indian Fish Curries (for there are many, many varieties types of Indian fish curries, just you go online and see for yourself!), Malaysian fish curries (there are many different types too) ...

The best thing, I concluded, was to look at what I had in my fridge/pantry and only then decide on what type of curry I'd make.

I like my fish curry a little sour. Tamarind would be ideal but I didn't have any in my fridge. I had some lime though so that was fine.

I also love to ladies finger and brinjal in my curry but I had neither. Oh bummer. I made do with long beans and tomatoes. I DON'T like potatoes in fish curry so I didn't add any.

What else? Oh yes! Lemongrass would do quite nicely. I add lemongrass in almost any curry I make, even the dry curries. Other ingredients? Onions, chilli powder, salt, curry leaves, garlic and coconut milk/milk/yoghurt.

Last but the most essential is, of course,  the fish or in my case, the fish substitute. If you're familiar with Chinese vegetarian food, you will be familiar with this soy-based fish that comes in a block about two feet long. The soy "fish" is even wrapped in seaweed, which plays the part of the skin.

The curry was delicious and definitely satisfied my cravings. The best part? I have some leftover so my dinner tonight is set!

Vegetarian Not Fish Curry

200g vegetarian fish, sliced

2 tbsp fish curry powder

1/2 cup long beans, cut into 3-4cm pieces

1 tomato, quartered

1 medium onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, sliced thin

1 cinnamon stick

4-5 star anise

2 stalks lemongrass (bottom white part only, smashed)

1/2 tbsp lime juice

3 cups water/vegetable stock

1/4 cup milk/coconut milk/yoghurt

salt to taste

a handful of curry leaves

First, dissolve the chilli powder in about 1/3 cup water to make a thick paste. Set aside.

Fry the sliced "fish" till they are just golden. Remove and drain. 

Head 3 tbsp oil in a pan. Add the onions and fry till they soften. Add the garlic , cinnamon and star anise and fry till fragrant. Add the tomatoes and long beans and then the fish. After a couple of minutes, pour in the curry paste and stir so that everything is coated well with the curry.

When the mixture starts bubbling, lower the heat and add the water. If you want to, mix 2 cups stock, with 2 cups water.

Let the curry cook. When it starts to simmer, add the lemongrass,  coconut milk and the salt. Squeeze in the lime juice and taste again to see if you need more seasoning. I added a pinch of sugar to temper the heat.

Tear up the curry leaves (it releases more flavour) and add into the curry. Stir and remove from heat.

Yes, I Can

This month's Don't Call Me Chef challenge put me in a real tizzy: cooking with canned food. I  admit that I always have some canned food stocked in my pantry. Usually it's a can or two of green peas (my all-time favourite can food which I featured in the column),  a can of Campbell's soup (a quick sauce/casserole solution), a can of chickpeas (when cravings leave you no time to soak dry beans overnight) and a few cans of pureed tomatoes - Italian variety tomatoes, cut and sometimes herbed are such a wonderful shortcut.

My, it does seem like I use canned food quite a bit. Anyhow, looking at my stock, I realised that nothing I had was quite exciting enough to be featured. Except the green pea because nothing compared to canned green peas. Yes, I will stand by this.

I usually feature recipes that I am inspired by but this time I decided to use this space to report on my first encounter with a canned food I am unfamiliar with. For that, I had to go grocery shopping. Oh Joy. I decided to scout around: visiting small sundry shops as well as big-chain grocery shops -- just so that I could suss out the selection.

Like a kid in a candy store (or a dude in a tool shop) I spent hours looking at canned food. The kind of food Michael Pollan would balk at. Canned beets, spinach, sliced potatoes, refried beans, sauerkraut, canned raspberries, pineapple, mandarin oranges ... the choices were endless and, mind you, that's only the vegetarian options. For meat eaters, there's more to play with: anchovies, corned beef, luncheon meat and spam.

I really wanted to buy the canned chestnuts and artichoke hearts but at RM15 a can (a small one at that) I was hesitant. Well, actually I turned around and walked the other way, down the next aisle.



I found what I wanted in my neighbourhood shop: Kedai Runcit Peng Soon. My choice was a can of fake meat or "mock chicken". Made wholly out of gluten, this was a challenge indeed. Firstly, the texture of the canned gluten is rubbery. Next, the taste is salty because of the brine in which it sits.  The canned gluten is  actually pre-cooked but you will not want to eat it as is. Salty with a tinge of chemical is not really appetizing. On the plus side,  the canned meat was visually interesting because the fake meat actually had fake chicken skin.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I decided to make a curry with the mock chicken. While I couldn't alter the rubbery texture of the gluten, I discovered that sugar and spice can make anything nice. Cinnamon, star anise, curry powder, ginger, garlic, shallots and lemon grass and a little coconut milk made this gluten curry a tasty side dish which I ate with plain white bread.

The verdict: Would I used canned gluten again? Probably not but it isn't because the dish wasn't tasty; rather, why used a canned alternative when using fresh ingredients are not only tastier but easier?

Red hot curry

I had a hankering for something spicy tonight. Nothing other than curry can satisfy this craving and I decided on Thai curry. Wonderful Thai red curry made from scratch.  Making the curry paste is a cinch.

You will need

9-10 dried red chillies, blanched and cut small

2 thin slices  galangal (blue ginger), chopped

3 stalks serai (lemongrass), outer layer removed, roughly chopped

2 tbsp onions, chopped

1 tbsp veg prawn paste

4 cloves  garlic, chopped

3 lime leaves, roughly chopped

1 tsp black peppercorn

2tbsp coriander powder and 2 tsp  cumin powder

Toast the cumin and coriander powders on low heat till fragrant (about 5-6 mins). Set aside.

Pound the rest of the ingredients, bit by bit so as not to crowd the mortar.  Pound it till you get a smooth paste.

Heat 2 tbsp oil and when hot, add the paste. Remove when the oil seperates from the mixture, about 6-8 mins. Season with salt before removing (about 1/2 tsp). Set aside to cool.

Red Curry Chicken

1 cup veg chicken, cubed

1 potato, cubed

3 tbsp red curry paste

1/4 cup yoghurt/coconut cream

salt and pepper to taste

curry leaves

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a saucepan/wok. Fry chicken and potato cubes till slightly golden. Remove, keep the heat on.

Add curry paste and after a couple of minutes add the yoghurt/cream. When it starts to boil, lower heat and add the chicken and potato and cook till the curry dries up. Season. Top with chopped roasted peanuts.

The paste can be used for wet and dry curries: I opted for the latter and made a dry vegetarian chicken curry.

Curry-ing Flavour

[caption id="attachment_482" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="You can Curry Mee anytime."][/caption]

My good friend Sumi who now resides in Perth, Australia  recently urged me to post more Asian recipes on my blog. Her ulterior motive -- if I perfected some popular Malaysian dishes, I could present them to her when she came visiting next March. I guess when you're away, you crave local food. Even in Asian-filled Perth?? Hmmm..

I laughed. And then I realised she was right. Which is strange because I generally prefer spicy Asian cuisine to Western food.

I decided to deliberately put away my oven mitts for a while and try some of my favourite Asian dishes. My first: curry mee/k.teow/bihun. I haven't ever tried it before and so I looked up some recipes and modified them to suit my vegetarian sensibilities -- namely, omitting the prawn paste, chicken stock and meat, etc.



It wasn't that difficult. I cooked for two: one vegetarian and one non-vegetarian. Instead of using chicken stock, I used purely vegetarian stock. Instead of cooking the chicken meat in the curry, I cooked it seperately (steamed) and shredded it and used it as a garnish, almost. In the end, the vegetarian version was more popular and I had to share my portion with the strict non vegetarian.

Victory? Nahhhh.... *wink*

♣ Curry Mee

Your choice of noodles: Yellow mee/k.teow/bihun (or mix)

2 big handfuls of taugeh, blanched

2 large sheets bean curd -- soaked for a couple of mins in water

Fried onions (for garnish).

For the curry

1 cup coconut milk (or milk/yoghurt if you prefer)

1 cm tumeric, cut

1 cm ginger, cut

2 pcs serai (the white part only), sliced

3 candlenuts

4 cloves garlic

1 medium onion or 7 shallots, sliced

4 or 5 dried chillies, blanched and cut

4 cups vege stock

4 taufu puffs, quartered

8 vegetarian fish balls, optional

vegetable oil

salt

Blanch noodles and taugeh, set aside.

(for non veg, shred the cteamed chicken and set aside)

Fry an omelette, cut into thin slices

Blend or pound turmeric, ginger, lemon grass, candlenuts, dried chilies, onions and garlic into a fine paste. Heat the oil and fry the paste until fragrant. Add in the stock and bring to boil. Add the veg fish balls and then 5 mins later,  the coconut milk and salt and cook on low heat. When it simmers, add the taufu puffs and bean curd. Bring to boil.

To assemble: Add the noodle (and chicken) in bowl. Pour as much curry as you wish. garnish with taugeh, egg and chicken and fried onions