Home | List of Articles | Submit an Article | Contact Us

Madam Ha's Kitchen - A Taste of Sarawak

With a multicultural background that consists of Chinese, Malay, Indian and minority ethnic groups from both East and West Malaysia, borrowing and adapting from each other's cooking techniques and ingredients that spice up the kitchen, it is hardly surprisingly that Malaysian cuisine is often considered as one of the most well known in the region and has increasingly became popular throughout the world.

Many of the dishes are moderately spicy and rich in flavors from a mixture of ingredients including coconut, coriander, cumin, ginger, mint, nutmeg, pepper, tamarind, turmeric and many others.

Amongst the various spices mentioned, we’ll be looking at one particular ingredient that has been widely used by the locals and one that has earned international recognition over the years and is now synonymous with quality in the spice trade – “The Sarawak Pepper”.

Pepper, the “King of Spices”, originated from the south-western part of India and was first introduced to Sarawak by Spencer St John in 1856.

The tropical climate of Sarawak is ideal for pepper cultivation, and is often available in white and black, ground or whole.

Over the past 100 years, Sarawak pepper has been exported throughout the world and has earned numerous awards and recognition and often featured in their culinary creations by top gourmet chefs all over the world due to its distinctive aroma and flavour.

This absolutely delicious dish is very easy to prepare and your family, friends and guests will, without a doubt, find it most palatable.

Ingredients:
500 g of fish fillet ( eg. cod )
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Dressing:
2 tablespoons of crushed black peppercorns
1 teaspoon of sugar
4 tablespoons of good quality oyster sauce
3 tablespoons of sweet cooking wine (or sherry)

Preparation:

Pour the tablespoonful of olive oil into the frying pan and gently heat up the oil.

Now place the fish fillet into the frying pan and fry the fillet on both sides until cooked.

Remove the cooked fillet onto the serving dish, leaving the excess oil in the frying pan.

Add the crushed black peppercorns into the remaining oil in the frying pan and turn up the heat slightly and stir fry until you smell the distinctively and spicy aroma rise from the pan.

Add the oyster sauce into the frying pan and continue to stir. Add a little water if the sauce appears too thick. It should be slightly runny.

Add the sugar to give it that little taste of sweetness to tame the pepper.

Lastly, add the cooking wine / sherry to give it the final sweet peppery flavour.

You are now ready to pour the hot mixture over the cooked fillet and serve.

Enjoy !

Copyright © 2004, MillionEbooks.com. All rights reserved. http://www.MillionEbooks.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Permission is hereby granted for this article to be freely published and distributed in e-zines, included in ebook compilations, sold or given away as a bonus provided the article is not modified in any way and the copyright and web links are included as it appears.

About the Author

Renowned cooking instructor / presenter of ASEAN cuisine

Related Articles:

How to Get a New Kitchen - Do you want to improve the look of your home? Have you thought of adding value to your home with a brand new kitchen? The thought of home improvements, like a new kitchen, can be lingering thoughts. Projects like these can be expensive endeavors when most of us do not have the additional funds sitting in a bank account screaming for you to spend ...

How to get your business from the kitchen table to the boardroom - Challenging Tips for Explosive Growth in Any Business or How to Get Your Business From The Kitchen Table to The Boardroom. Fact: This article will not of benefit to everyone. This article is ‘Highly targeted’. It is directed specifically to those business people who: 1. Are not satisfied with their current earnings or business ...

How to Make Cleaning a Kitchen Easy - Kitchens are the centers of our lives. We cook, converse, and even eat in our kitchens. Perhaps that is why getting motivated to clean a kitchen is 99.9% of the battle...and elbow grease is the other 0.1%. The reason for this is mostly because of all the rooms in a house, the kitchen alone has the position of having the most traffic, use, and just ...

Inexpensive Kitchen Wall Decorating Ideas - Add splash to your kitchen walls without breaking your budget with these inexpensive and unique ideas. Your walls cover a lot of space in the kitchen and you can give it a little redo on a tight budget by being a little bit creative. Whether you have a special theme in mind or just updating your look, these ideas below might be able to get you star ...

Kitchen and Bathroom Blinds - There are some important considerations when treating kitchen and bathroom windows. With the unique conditions that exist in these rooms it is important to choose blinds that suit. This article looks at some of the things to ponder when choosing bathroom and kitchen blinds. When decorating a bathroom or kitchen, most people make the error of reg ...

Kitchen Cabinets are The Soul of Your Kitchen - Kitchen cabinets reflect the heart and soul of the homeowner. The cabinets you have in your kitchen have the greatest impact on a kitchen's look. They come in many shapes and sizes as well as in a rainbow of colors. Only your imagination and your bank account limit the color and design of your cabinets. You can buy cabinets pre-made at your loca ...

For a Complete list of Articles with summaries Click Here