Liam Ghani in Partnership With
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Photo Credits: Liam Ghani In Partnership With: NOVEMBER 2020 MOMC eMAGAZINE #5 © malaysianchefs CONTENTS 2 Editorial - Jackie M. Jackie M. explains the changes happening behind the scenes at MOMC 3 Schedule A complete schedule of Series 5 cooking demonstrations covered in this issue 4 Introducing Liam Ghani Prolific writer and cook Liam Ghani joins our team as article contributor and a member of MOMC At Heart 7 Kampung Stay in Perak Part 2 Travel through the eyes of Jackie M and her special needs child Noah, as they continue their stay in a rural Malaysian village 17-25 Recipes 26-27 Special Media Release Find out about MOMC Series 7 and Her Majesty Queen Azizah’s cookbooks Home Cooking, Far From Home 1 NOVEMBER 2020 MOMC eMAGAZINE #5 © malaysianchefs Editorial Oodles of...Changes okbooks AND is Tourism Malaysia Liam is a Penang boy who’s Ambassador for Nyonya Cuisine. now based in South Africa, We are so excited to welcome and you might have seen him her, but you’ll have to wait for our in Wednesday Cook-Alongs formal announcement :) with our MOMC co-founder and his fellow South African, Don’t forget it’s not too late Paul Gray. We’ve invited Liam to catch our special Queen’s ell, that took a while! as a contributor to our eMag Series that’s happening right W Our apologies for this starting with this issue, and now through the month of much-delayed MOMC eMag - as you you can expect to see more of December - our chefs have would know, all our chefs contribute Liam in our live demos as well all been tasked with cooking their time to bring you this project as through his articles. dishes from the cookbooks of while running businesses in real life, Her Majesty Queen so sometimes other tasks need to Pearly Kee has decided to Azizah of Malaysia and we take priority. focus on her own projects, and are beyond humbled at this we thank her for the short time Which brings me to Chef opportunity. You can find out she was with MOMC. We, of Norman Musa who’s notably absent more from the media release course, have the fantastic Chef in this series AND in this eMag - he in this issue. Bob who is no longer “guest really wanted to work on the maga- Until next time, chef” in case you’re wondering, zine but after many weeks, he finally Jackie M. but a staunch member of our conceded he couldn’t fit it into his group. schedule. Norman was also initially meant to cook Mee Kicap for his ses- Also, we have a new Nyonya chef sion, but in the end we had to bring join Masters of Malaysian Cuisine, in Liam Ghani - blogger at who has published SEVEN (!!!) co- TheMuddledPantry.com - to tackle Norman’s recipe. NOVEMBER 2020 MOMC eMAGAZINE #5 © malaysianchefs 2 SCHEDULES In this series, our chefs bring their unique styles to 8 Malaysian noodle SCHEDULES recipes, which you can find on pages 17-25 SERIES #5 Jackie - Sang Har Meen (Crispy Noodles with Shellfish) Zaleha - Mee Calong (Egg Noodle Soup with Fishballs) OCT 2020 Nora - Mee Soto Bergedel (Noodle Soup with Turkey Meatballs) Rene - Mee Udang (Noodles in Gravy with Prawns) Bob - Mee Rebus Gearbox (Noodles in Gravy with Bone Marrow) Liam - Mee Kicap (Seafood Noodles in Soy Sauce) Dave - Mee Rojak (Vegan Noodles with Fritters) Papa Jo - Mee Murtabak (Noodles in Parcel) Enjoy! 3 NOVEMBER 2020 MOMC eMAGAZINE #5 © malaysianchefs SCHEDULES INTRO Introducing Liam Ghani focuses on overcoming this perennial problem by reconstructing authentic dishes, albeit using substitutes and adapted recipes. Now in its fifth year, The Muddled Pantry has expanded its scope beyond Malaysian food and features a wide variety of cuisines from around the world. Largely based on his travels, Liam has recreated and curated a large collection of classic Liam Ghani dishes using the ingredients he has available A Contemporary Arts photographer and food without them being at the expense of flavour or blogger based just outside of Cape Town in South flair. Combining authentic techniques, tantali- Africa, this born and bred Penangite has never lost sing photographs, and an array of easy to follow his appetite and passion for Malaysian food, nor the cooking tips, The Muddled Pantry is testament heritage it embodies. that your geographical location should never dictate what you are having for dinner! Written out of a desire to recreate the dishes he grew up eating in Penang, Liam began his food In more recent times, Liam has joined the Ma- blog, The Muddled Pantry, in 2014 as a way of sati- sters of Malaysian Cuisine family as a regular sfying and sharing his Malaysian food cravings. Like contributor on MOMC@HEART, as well as being many other Malaysians based overseas, a limited a featured guest on several live cooking demon- supply of authentic Asian ingredients proved to be strations for MOMC itself. an ongoing challenge. Nevertheless, rather than be hampered by such limitations, The Muddled Pantry “The Muddled Pantry is testament that your geographical location should never dictate what you are having for dinner!” NOVEMBER 2020 MOMC eMAGAZINE #5 © malaysianchefs 4 ARTICLE HOME COOKING, FAR FROM HOME. By Liam Ghani As a Malaysian, food has always mattered to me, home, no matter how far away they may be. perhaps more than it should. Unfortunately for many of us, recreating our favourite dishes in foreign climes is often fraught Hailing from the culinary paradise that is Penang, with disappointment and pitfalls. Indeed, whilst it my life’s journey has brought me far: far away from can be said that food is only as good as its ingre- my culinary roots of South East Asia, that is. 30 dients, unlike many of the world’s other great years after I left my roti canai breakfasts and late gastronomies Malaysian cuisine is still relatively night rojak suppers behind me for a life lived over- niche, making the sourcing of genuine ingredients seas, my love for Malaysia and its food has never a perennial hurdle for many of us. diminished. Indeed, though I am blessed to have called Cape Town home for the last two decades, A lack of access to key ingredients, combined with my heart and stomach have always been rooted in a notoriously fastidious view on what constitutes the rich culinary heritage I left behind. authentic Malaysian flavours, makes replicating our favourite dishes overseas both difficult and Like most diasporas, Malaysians cherish their cui- intimidating. Nevertheless, it can be done! sine and are forever trying to bring those flavours The first step in making Malaysian food aboard is to life, in whichever far flung corner of the world not to get hung up on the finer details:Tak boleh we find themselves in. From Nasi Lemak in Reykja- cari belacan? vik to Char Kway Teow in Minnesota, Malaysians will always go to great lengths to enjoy a taste of Use the Thai version instead. Buah Keras proving 5 NOVEMBER 2020 MOMC eMAGAZINE #5 © malaysianchefs ARTICLE “My love for Malaysia and its food has never diminished” to be impossible to find? Substitute them with blan- you’ve made it using a regular onion or Asian shal- ched almonds or macadamia nuts. A lack of lengkuas lots. All cooks adapt recipes; it is their knowledge getting you down? Just use some ginger instead. and technique that allows them to continue making great food. Of course, substitutions are never ideal; but in a robust dish lik e rendang daging or kari kapitan, The key thing to remember when making even the keenest of palates is unlikely to notice the Malaysian food abroad is this: you are making difference. Naturally, there are ingredients that defy it for yourself, not for those we left behind. substitutions – petai, pandan and torch ginger are Authenticity is an aspiration, not a necessity – among the most elusive, and their scarcity is an un- never let a nostalgia for how something used fortunate reality for those of us they elude. to taste get in the way of cooking the dishes Sometimes you must accept you can’t have you love. Though our ingredients may be everything – this is the price of being a muddled, the true taste of home is manifest Malaysian living abroad. not in its perfection, but in the hearts of those making it. Thankfully, as unorthodox as it may seem, when it comes to many Malaysian dishes, technique often trumps authentic ingredients. More often than not, knowing how to fry your rempah is infinitely more crucial to the success of the dish than whether NOVEMBER 2020 MOMC eMAGAZINE #5 © malaysianchefs 6 ARTICLE KAMPUNG STAY IN PERAK PART 2 SUKASUKA LAKE RETREAT By Jackie M. Most of you would know that I too, used to be an IT consultant; back in my day my IT colleagues almost to a person had dreams about one day giving it all up and running their own B&B or cafe (which pro- bably says something about the soul-destroying nature of troubleshooting IT problems in high-stress merchant banking environments). I’m the only one I know who did take the plunge by quitting IT to sell Malaysian food; now I’ve finally met a couple who not only did so, but made an even more radical seachange through what Pak Aziz himself describes to have been a Robinson Crusoe existence. It’s one thing to quit your career and move out of KL, it’s another to move to an uninhabited island with no electricity in the middle of a lake in a rural village.