Chef Tips

Some tips to ease your kitchen tasks while preparing delicious food

1. Go through and understand the steps in your recipe.

2. Identify the spices used in your recipe.

3. Prepare the spices that you have identified first.
Dried mixed spices (rempah) for example, fennel (jintan manis), cumin (jintan putih) and coriander (ketumbar) can be prepared earlier. Wash these spices and leave to dry. Afterwards toast and blend to fine pieces. Once they cool down, keep in a sealed container.

4. Dry chilies – slice into tiny pieces and boiled. Wash and then blend with a small amount of cooking oil. Keep in a sealed container and store in the refrigerator.

5. Coconut milk (santan) – Extra / left over coconut milk can be frozen in the form of ice cubes and can be used when required.

6. Kerisik (grated, toasted and grounded coconut paste) – the easy way to prepare kerisik, fry grated coconut with a small amount of cooking oil and then blend. Keep in a sealed container and store in the refrigerator. Can be used anytime required.

7. Spices for fish curry – ½ teaspoon of cumin, ½ teaspoon of black pepper, 2 teaspoons of fennel, ¼ teaspoon of fenugreek (biji halba), 4 tablespoons of coriander and 8 dried chilies. Toast these ingredients and then blend to fine pieces. To condense the curry, add 4 tablespoons of fried ground coconut.

8. To condense chicken curry, add ground cashew nuts.

9. To condense sambal (combination chili paste), add a little bit of candlenuts (buah keras) that have been blended to fine pieces.

10. To make your curry even tastier, you can prepare your own tomato puree. Mix 5 tomatoes with a bowl of water and cook till the skin of the tomatoes chapped. Afterwards blend with a teaspoon of vinegar.

11. To store and keep the fish fresh – wash the fish till clean enough, sprinkle a small amount of pepper powder on it, put in a clean plastic bag and then store in the refrigerator.

12. To produce a tasty curry, the spices should be fried well till the cooking oil crackled.

13. When cooking dishes with gravy or sauce, do not add salt at the early stage of cooking.