Peranakan Cooking, Part 1: Vivid Chili Paste (Rempah) INGREDIENTS:

• 700 grams shallots
• 50 grams garlic
• 70 grams buah keras or candlenut
• 50 grams lengkuas or blue ginger
• 50 grams ginger
• 20 grams of turmeric or yellow ginger
• 70 grams of dry chili
• 20 pieces of fresh red chili
• Water
• Oil
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1½ tablespoons sugar

Peranakan Cooking Savory Spicy Soya Fillet
INGREDIENTS:

• Soya fillet (or tofu)
• Cornstarch
• 1/3 pineapple, blended
• 3 tablespoons peanuts, crushed
• 3 tablespoons rempah (Peranakan chili paste)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons soya sauce
• 5 pieces fresh beancurd skin
• Spring onions
• Oil
• Ginger, chopped
• 4 tablespoons ketchup
• 4 teaspoons fruit seasoning (or mushroom or vegetable seasoning)
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Peranakan Cooking, Part 1: Vivid Chili Paste (Rempah)
to make the Rempah, I would need: 700 grams of shallots, 50 grams of garlic, 70 grams of buah keras or candlenut, 50 grams of lengkuas (galangals) or blue ginger, 50 grams of ginger, 20 grams of turmeric or yellow ginger, 70 grams of dry chili, and 20 pieces of fresh red chili.
there are so many spices used!

That is what makes Peranakan food very unique and tasty. Let's blend the ingredients! First of all, I will cut the onions (shallots) into small pieces so that it's easy to blend. I've cut some of them into smaller pieces early on. I put in some garlic. Put in more onions (shallots). We'll blend some first. Let’s add some water to make it easy to blend. We want to avoid adding too much water because before we can actually use the onions, we need to dry it.

You blend it as fine as possible, so that the texture will be very fine. It's about right now. Then, we put it into the wok. So, while drying the ground shallot you can help me with the blending of the candlenuts, the lengkuas (galangals), the ginger, and yellow ginger.

Let me start the wok. I have to dry the onions first before I put in the other ingredients.
Most of the Malay community here actually uses candlenut.
You can use macadamia nuts if you want. You can help me grind the blue ginger, together with the ginger. You can mix the three gingers together.
Let's take a look. Make sure that the ingredients are fine so that you will have a very smooth texture.
you pour them in.

If possible, Add as little water as possible so that we don't have to dry it so much before we add the oil in. So, you can blend the chili now. Can you help me blend the chili?

The aroma from the ginger is coming on now. It's very important that the chili is blended very finely so that the texture will be good. Looks like the chili is fine enough; so, can you add that in? It's very fine. It's very important that we keep the water content as low as possible so that this Rempah can be kept in the fridge and be used for subsequent Peranakan dishes for as long as five to six months. If it's not properly done, then it would be like all efforts wasted. So, as all of us are very busy, we normally make one big portion of it like that and put it in the fridge.

Look at the chili paste. It's quite dried already. So, now I can add in some oil. I would need some oil, about ½ a bottle. Add when it's required. For a start, I'll just add a bit. I'll only stop frying only when the aroma starts to come out. And you'll do it over a slow fire, if not it will get burnt.

Wow looks like the chili paste is almost ready! The color has changed into deep red! So I can add some salt and sugar to preserve it for subsequent use later on for other dishes.
You can see that it's turned to deep red. I'll add about 2 tablespoons of salt.
to preserve it. Add about 1½ tablespoons of sugar. I'll continue stirring until I've blended everything together, and then it's more or less done.

So Rempah, it's a Malay word?
Rempah is the Malay word for the chili paste, and this will be the basis of many dishes. We just alter the spices that we add in and we will have a different flavor altogether
it's done and the paste is ready. I'll turn off the fire and we scoop it out to let it cool first before we put it in a bottle.

Peranakan Cooking Savory Spicy Soya Fillet
Today, I will be showing you how to cook a dish called Spicy Soya Fillet using the Rempah which I have prepared in the previous show.

But before I go into that, let me show you what are the ingredients that I'll be using today. In this dish I'll be using the soya fillet, blended pineapple, grated (crushed/ground) peanut, Peranakan chili paste (Rempah), soya sauce, fresh beancurd skin, spring onions, oil, chopped ginger, tomato ketchup, some fruit seasoning, some sugar.

And then I will be using some corn starch, corn flour, to actually dowse it with the fillet so that when you deep fry it, it will not... it will stay in one whole piece. I have already pre-sliced the soya fillet, and I will be dowsing it with some corn flour. But before I do that, let me start the fire. I’ll put some oil inside there for deep-frying the soya fillet.

Let the oil get hot first before you can deep-fry it. Looks like the oil is ready, is ready for frying the soya fillet.
First of all, dowse it with some corn flour so that it will not break when you actually deep-fry the fillet. We can lower the flame a bit now because the oil is getting very hot; we don't want to overcook it.

Fry until the soya fillet is golden brown. For those who cannot find soya fillet in the home country, you can replace this with tofu and deep-fry it or some soya products and you deep-fry it. More important is the sauce that I'm showing you later that is, that will make the food taste good. Looks like most of the fillet is already turned to a golden brown; I will take them out. I will keep this fillet aside while I show you how to prepare the sauce.

I will now show you how to cut the bean curd, the fresh beancurd skin. Chop them finely into small pieces. I'll be using about 5 pieces of such beancurd skin. Chop them as fine as possible. I’ve pre-chopped some of them before the program start; there you are, 5 pieces of fresh beancurd skin, finely chopped. Okay, now I shall do the cooking. in proper, 1 tablespoon of oil, then I will put some chopped ginger.

Looks like the oil is not sufficient, I put some more, 1 more tablespoon. Fry it until it is fragrant, but not over-doing it until it turns brown, it is not necessary. Next, I will be using the Rempah which I have prepared in the last show. Rempa is actually chili paste in Malay. And for those who have missed the show, you can actually use any vegetarian chili paste, and for those who want to learn how to make the Rempah can always refer to the previous show. I'll add about 3 tablespoons of chili paste in there. For those who want something hot and spicy, you can add more, but I'm using only 3 tablespoons.

Fry until it is fragrant. Then, I’ll add in 3 tablespoons of peanuts, grated peanuts. Three. If you want more, you can put more, but I'll stop at 3. I'll continue frying them. It smells great now because all the ingredients are mixed together; with the ginger, with the Rempah, and the peanuts, it's very fragrant now. I'll be adding in the blended pineapple into the mixture.

I’ve used about 1/3 of a pineapple. Mmm, with the pineapple added in it really gives you a very fruity aroma, and I'm sure it will be a bit sweet and sour later. Now, looks like it is boiling, I will add in some more ketchup. I will add in about 4 tablespoons of ketchup. One, two, three and four. Now I add in the soya sauce. I use about 1½ to 2 tablespoons of soya sauce; I use 1½, not so salty. After which, I will add in 1 tablespoon of sugar. I put in some fruit seasonings to bring up the flavors; I use about 3 teaspoons of fruit seasonings. Since there are some more ground nuts, I will add in another tablespoon.

So, to make it tastier, so I have added 4 tablespoons. I will put in the spring onion, to add to the flavor as well as the color. Next, I will prepare the cornstarch to thicken the gravy; I used the corn flour that I have used just now and add in some water. Not too thick, but just enough to thicken the gravy. That should do. You can see that the gravy is thickening now with the addition of this corn starch. See, it's thickened now, so that should be just right.

Once the sauce is thickened, we can put the soya fillet into the gravy. Okay, looks like it's done. Yummy, looks tasty doesn't it? I shall do some garnishing before I serve the food. There you are, it's ready to be served. Thank you for watching the show, I hope you like it. We look forward in seeing you in our next episode. Thank you.