Spicy Cravings

This coming weekend will be a long one.  Here, Easter is one of the major holidays.  The school kids had this whole week free, right till next Monday.  For us at SFI, we only have Friday and next Monday off.  Since I usually don't have classes on Thursdays, my holiday started after class yesterday.  The thought of the many days off from school had me thinking of food, what else?

The last couple of weeks, we haven't been well.  Pete had been terribly ill for more than a week and so I had to cook foods that are gentle on the stomach, like chicken soup and I even cooked bubur, or rice porridge in English.  Once I ate the porridge, I was transported back to my childhood.  I remember how my mum used to cook that for me when I was ill and couldn't eat much.

Anyway, after days and days of non-spicy foods, I now crave for the spicy flavours of the food from my home.  I did cook something very Malay last Sunday, Ayam Masak Lemak.  It's a chicken dish cooked in a spicy rich coconutty gravy.   We had it with plain rice and boy did that hit the spot!  Pete enjoyed it as well, so now I am thinking about more spicy dishes to cook.

Another reason why I seem to be craving spicy foods is that the food that is served during Easter here is almost exactly like Christmas.  There would be meatballs, potatoes, pickled herring and mini sausages.  We have been invited to his mum's place for an Easter lunch so we will be having our fill of those.  I don't mind the food but I was hoping to try something different. 

So I guess I will either cook something I know or try some new recipes.  Even though I cook a lot when I was back home, I never used to cook traditional Malay foods.  My mum is such a great cook that I just let her do all the cooking.  I would cook other dishes such as pasta, roast chicken, stews and other simple dishes.  I used to think that the traditional dishes are very complex, needing so many ingredients and rempahs, or spice mix.  And I have to admit the rempah making process scared me a little.  I never thought I could learn to cook them.  I didn't have to, back then, since my mum was there to cook for me.

Now that I am here, I regret not learning more from her.  When I first moved here, I did crave for a taste of home.  I used to rely on instant noodles that I brought with me, but they soon ran out.  I realised had to cook those dishes myself.  Luckily, I did manage to get her to teach me some of my favourite dishes.  But I didn't have much time to learn before I had to move here.  When I first tried out her recipes, they turned out reasonably well.  They did taste of home and so I cooked more and more dishes.  The more I cooked, the less intimidating the spices got.  What was important was that it gave me the confidence to try out other recipes.  So I search the internet for recipes, especially for the dishes that I miss.

By now, I have tried quite a number of dishes, including roti prata.  I even tried to do the flipping of the dough to get it as thin as possible to get crispy and flaky prata.  I don't think I would have tried making those if I hadn't moved away.  Just like many other dishes that I have cooked.  And there are many more that I do want to try now.  The only limit is the availability of the ingredients.  It took quite a while for me to find taucheo, or salted bean paste here to make mee siam.  So, I would keep my eyes peeled next time I go to the Asian groceries stores.  Maybe the ingredients are all here and I only need to have sharp eyes to spot them amongst the crowded shelves.

My pantry now is getting more and more well-stocked.  I have a growing collection of whole and ground spices.  Luckily Malmo is full of Chinese, Thais, Arabs and Indians.  Spices are easily available and not too expensive.  I can also find some very Southeast Asian ingredients such as the taucheo that I mentioned.  Slowly, as I try more and more dishes, I would have more and more sauces and ingredients on hand, which would only open up more possibilities in the kitchen.

Luckily Pete has reasonably adventurous taste buds.  He has enjoyed most of the food I cooked.  So far, he only doesn't like beehoon.  But that is fine.  I can try to substitute it for other noodles.  And it's not like he will refuse to eat it, it's just that he doesn't really fancy it.  Let's just say that means that there'll be more for me. Yay!

So, back to my current craving.  It's my day off today but I wanted to take it easy.  I cooked chicken briyani.  It's not as difficult as it sounds because I cooked a dumbed down version of it.  Also, I didn't have any briyani spice mix so I just used curry powder.  I chanced upon this recipe and so I made it one day and it turned out good.  So that was what I cooked today.  Easy, simple and spicy.  A great way to start my holiday.