(Originally published on 9/4/2006. Updated with new pictures.)

Malaysian Satay—those little skewers of meat with satay peanut sauce and ketupat (Malay rice cake) is a very popular dish in Malaysia. Walk down any street in the country and the mouthwatering aroma of satay exudes from practically every corner you pass: roadside satay stalls, hawker centers, pasar malam (night markets), kopitiam (Chinese coffee shops), and even high-end restaurants…

Of course satay is universally loved across Southeast Asia. (It’s commonly believed that satay is the region’s distant cousin to the Middle-Eastern kebabs, thanks to the spice route and the culinary influence of the early Arab traders.) However each country has their own interpretation for satay, influenced by their own unique food culture and distinct palate. For instance, Indonesian satay tend to be sweeter because of kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) while the Thai satay is slightly less sweet since coconut milk is used instead…

No surprise then that Malaysian Satay is made with ingredients and spices commonly found in Malaysian cooking; shallots, lemongrass, turmeric powder (kunyit), and coriander powder. The basic Recipe calls for the cook’s meat of choice—be it chicken, beef, lamb, or pork—to marinate for many hours or even overnight so as to lock in the flavor. In addition to the peanut dipping sauce, Malaysian satay is served with ketupat, onions, and cucumber. Trust me, the taste of these side dishes complement each other exquisitely.

When I make chicken satay at home I often save time by using off-the-shelf satay marinate powder such as Ayam brand satay seasoning (aka “cheated“), but the existence of Rasa Malaysia has motivated me to try making everything from scratch, if possible. So I will admit to modifying the traditional and authentic Malaysian chicken satay recipe with a tint of kecap manis and Chinese oyster sauce substituting for salt and sugar. But as you can infer from these pictures, the end results were delicious. You can almost smell the enticing aroma of the chicken satay from your computer screen, can’t you?

(Click Page 2 for Chicken Satay Recipe)

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Gyoza Recipe (Japanese Pan-fried Dumplings)

Ingredients:

Oil, for pan-frying
Water, for steaming

Filling:

8 oz ground pork
2 oz cabbage, shredded and cut into small pieces
1 thumb-sized ginger, peeled and grated
1 clove garlic, peeled and grated
1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
1 1/2 tablespoons Mizkan (Bonito Flavored) Soup Base
1/2 tablespoon sake
3 dashes white pepper
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
Ł tablespoon chopped scallion, green part only
Pinch of salt

Ponzu Dipping Sauce:

4 tablespoons Mizkan AJIPON® Ponzu
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

Method:

1. In a bowl, combine all the ingredients in the Filling and blend well. The Filling should be sticky and cohesive.
2. In a dipping bowl, combine the Mizkan AJIPON® Ponzu with the sesame oil. Stir to blend well.
3. To assemble the gyoza, place a piece of the gyoza wrapper on your palm or a flat surface. Spoon about 1 teaspoon of the Filling onto the center of the wrapper. Dip your index finger into some water and moisten the outer edges of the dumpling wrapper.
4. Fold the gyoza over, press and seal the left end.
5. Use your thumb and index finger to make a pleat. Pinch to secure tightly.
6. Repeat the same to make the pleats. (Start with 3-4 pleats if you are a beginner). A nicely wrapped gyoza should have a crescent shape.
7. Heat up the oil in a skillet or stir-fry pan over medium heat. Arrange the gyoza  and cover with the lid. Pan-fry the gyoza until the bottoms turn golden brown and become crispy.
8. Add about 1/4-inch water into the skillet or stir-fry pan and cover the lid immediately. The water should evaporate after a few minutes. Continue to cook the gyoza for a couple of minutes to crisp up the bottoms.
9. Remove the gyoza from the skillet or stir-fry pan and serve immediately with the Ponzu dipping sauce.

Cooking Tips for Gyoza:

1. To grate the ginger and garlic, you can use a Japanese grater (oroshigane) or Microplane.
2. Get a good gyoza wrapper. Gyoza wrapper is generally thicker compared to other dumpling wrapper. Most of them are round in shape, but some are oval-shaped. For easier assembling, I suggest the round-shaped gyoza wrapper. If you can’t find gyoza wrapper, you can always use pot sticker wrapper, or Chinese jiaozi wrapper.
3. Traditionally, Japanese home cooks use their hands to mix the gyoza filling for the best texture.
4. You can adapt this recipe and make vegetarian gyoza.

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For the pastry:

1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour (if you are familiar with Indian wheat flour or durum aata you can use that as well)
2 tbsp semolina (cream of wheat)
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt
½ ajwain seeds (optional)
A little over 2/3 cups of water

For the filling:

2 medium sized potatoes (I use Yukon gold)
½ cup sweet green peas
1 cup thinly sliced onions
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp minced green chili
1 ½ tsp coriander powder (optional)

Method: (for the pastry)

Trick to kneading perfect dough – always add water in small portions. Dough for samosa pastry should be a little tougher. As a test, when you press your finger into it, you must have to apply a little pressure.

Mix all the dry ingredients together.

Add oil into the flour and mix it all very well together. To mix the oil well into the flour, take flour in small portions in your hand and rub it between your palms. To make sure that the oil is mixed well, hold the flour in your fist, press tightly and open the fist, the flour should still hold itself.

Now add water in small portions and try to make dough out of it. I easily used 2/3 cup of water and then a little extra to wet my hands for kneading.

Once the dough comes together, work it for another 5 minutes. Then wrap with a plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.

For the filling:

Boil potatoes. Cool and then mash them. Set aside.

Heat oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds. Once they start to pop add chili and onion. Cook until onion becomes translucent. Then add peas and turmeric. Once the peas are cooked, add coriander powder, salt and mashed potatoes. Mix everything well together and set it aside for the mixture to cool before using them for filling.

Making Samosas:

The trick all samosa shop vendors use to make crisp samosas is that they use warm oil to fry their samosas. They drop them in oil which is a little over room temperature and slowly increase the temperature of oil. This cooks the outer pastry slowly, making them crisp. Frying them in hot oil makes the pastry soft and you don’t want that.

Start by rolling a lemon size ball of dough into a circle using a rolling pin. The flat circle should be around 11-12 inches in diameter.

Cut the big circle into two semicircles. Take about two spoons of potato mixture, make a ball off of it and place it in the center of the semicircle. Now dip your finger in water and rub it at the straight edge of the semicircle to make it wet so that it can stick.

Pick it from one side and place it over the potato ball covering it half way. Then pick the other side and place it over to the previous one, covering the potato to make a triangle shape. The two flaps should stick to each other right at the center of the samosa. The third side of the triangle should be still open. Use a little water, make it wet and stick the two flaps together with your finger. Repeat the process with the rest of the dough.

Use a wok or deep fryer to fry the samosas till they turn golden brown in color. Serve with your choice of sauce or chutney. Shop vendors in India sell them with green cilantro and tomato chutney along with some yogurt and tamarind chutney.

Hand Roll (Temaki Recipe)
Makes 6 �€“ň hand rolls
Sponsored by: Mizkan

Sushi rice, recipe here
Roasted seaweed (nori sheets), cut into 5-in x 8-in pieces
1 box radish sprouts, ends trimmed (2.5 oz box)
Masago, for topping

Creamy Spicy Seafood Filling

Ingredients:

4 oz shelled baby shrimps
4 oz bay scallops
6 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon lime juice
1/2 teaspoon Sriracha sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
Ł tablespoon masago

Method:

The Filling

Preheat the oven to 400 degree F.

Using a teaspoon, mix the mayonnaise, lime juice, Sriracha sauce, sugar, and masago. Set aside.

Pat dry the baby shrimps and bay scallops with paper towels. Add half of the creamy spicy sauce to the seafood, stir to coat well. Transfer the seafood into an oven-safe dish or container. Top the seafood with the remaining creamy spicy sauce. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top turns slightly brown. Remove from the oven and let cool.

The Hand Roll

Prepare the sushi rice per the recipe here. Let cool to room temperature.

Bake the filling per the recipe above. Once the filling is cooled to room temperature, assemble the hand roll per the step-by-step picture guide below.

Place a sheet of nori (roasted seaweed) on a flat surface. Wet your hand with some water and scoop out about 3 tablespoons of sushi rice and spread the rice evenly on the nori sheet. Leave about 1/2-inch on the sides.If you like more sushi rice in your hand roll, use 4 tablespoons of sushi rice.

Add some radish sprouts on top of the rice, follow by the Filling. Arrange them at an angle for easy rolling.

Roll up the hand roll, starting at the lower left hand corner of the nori sheet. Keep rolling to form a cone shape. Make sure you roll tightly to secure the sushi rice and fillings. Add some masago on top of the hand roll. Dip the hand roll with some soy sauce and wasabi, if you like.

Sushi Rice Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup rice (measured with the rice cup that comes with the rice cooker, about 80% of a regular measuring cup)
1 1/2 tablespoons Mizkan Rice Vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt or to taste

OR

1 cup rice
1 1/2 – 2 tablespoons Mizkan Sushi Seasoning

Method:

Cook the rice in the rice cooker. Once cooked, transfer the rice out in a bowl and add the Mizkan Rice Vinegar, sugar and salt (OR the Mizkan Sushi Seasoning) into the rice and mix well with a spoon. Let the sushi rice cool to room temperature. Use the sushi rice to make the sushi of your choice.

2 oz baby shrimp, shelled
2 oz bay scallop
2 oz crab meat
2 oz shelled clam meat
4 canned button mushrooms or fresh mushrooms, sliced into thin pieces
Cheese powder, optional

Dynamite Sauce:

6 tablespoons mayonnaise, Japanese Kewpie mayonnaise preferred
1/2 teaspoon lime juice
1/2 teaspoon Sriracha sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
Ł tablespoon masago

Method:

Heat up the oven to 400 degree F.

Using a teaspoon, mix all the ingredients in the Dynamite Sauce and set aside.

Pat dry the baby shrimp, bay scallop, crab meat, clam, and sliced button mushroom with paper towels. Add half of the Dynamite Sauce to the seafood, stir to coat well.

Transfer the seafood into an oven-safe dish or container (you can also use aluminum foil or a big clam shell). Top the seafood with the remaining Dynamite Sauce. Drizzle some cheese powder on top (optional). Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the Seafood Dynamite turns slightly brown. Dish out and serve hot.

September 7th, 2010 | Filipino Recipes | 8 Comments

I haven’t had guest bloggers on Rasa Malaysia for a while, and am very happy to have Trissa of Trissalicious as a guest writer today. Trissa is one of my recipe testers and certainly one of the most trusted ones (thanks so much for your help!).  Her passion in food can be seen on her gorgeous food blog Trissalicious.  In this post, Trissa shares a classic Filipino recipe—Shrimp Sinigang. I have always wanted to learn more about Filipino cuisine, and Shrimp Sinigang is very high on my list. Imagine big, fresh, succulent shrimp swimming in a savory, sweet, and sour brothâ€�the thought of it instantly sets my mouth watering. Please give your warmest welcome to Trissalicious.

Pucker up with Shrimp Sinigang…

Sour, salty, with a hint of sweet and bitter, Sinigang is one of the Philippine’s most loved dishes. In fact, the late Doreen Fernandez, who was one of the most respected food writers in the Philippines once argued that sinigang, rather than adobo should be considered the national dish of the Philippines, after all, Filipinos are the champion lovers of sourness…

Sinigang is a soup whose flavor is soured with fruits abundant in the Philippines like tamarind, guava, green mangoes or bilimbi (kamias). The dish is easily adaptable depending on what protein is on hand, but most frequently made with pork, beef, or prawns. The soup is also rich in vegetables that are easily available in the Philippines like daikon, eggplants, snake beans and water spinach.

Despite sinigang being one of my favorite comfort foods, I���m embarrassed to admit that I’ve always used a mix to make it. Every time my parents visit from the Philippines they bring me a care package which includes packets of “instant sinigang mix”. So it was definitely with a mix of excitement and apprehension that I attempted this dish from scratch. To create that signature sourness I chose tamarind. As a fruit it is quite difficult to come by overseas but tamarind pulp is readily available in Asian groceries. To make the base of the soup, tamarind pulp is soaked in hot water for a few minutes and then mashed, strained and added to the pot.

Sinigang is never complete without a bowl of steaming white rice and what we refer to as sawsawan, a dipping sauce made with fish sauce, calamansi and a bit of chili. Together, with the rice, you have a complete dish.

I am grateful to Bee for giving me this opportunity to share with you a dish that is distinct to the Filipino palate and yet appeals to everyone else. What started out as a quest to create sinigang from scratch has made me more proud than ever of my wonderful cuisine.

Sour, salty, with a hint of sweet and bitter… this dish takes me back to the Philippines every single time.

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