Above: a beautifully displayed nasi lemak that I helped make, consisting of all the standard parts, plus chili shrimp and fried chicken

This week, I learned how to make two delicious dishes.

The first, nasi lemak, is a staple of Malay cuisine.  Every breakfast place in the city seems to have a version of this dish, which generally consists of coconut milk rice, peanuts, a hard boiled egg, fried anchovies, sliced cucumbers and sambal (chili sauce).  The components of the nasi lemak are wrapped up in a neat little banana leaf packet, then in brown paper, and I see people scurrying off to work in the mornings carrying these little bundles.   I like to think of it as the Malay equivalent of that Pop Tart you wrapped in a Bounty paper towel on your way out the door this morning.  (You know who you are.)

Chef Rash explains the essence of tamarind paste, which we used for our chili shrimp recipe

The beauty of nasi lemak is that each of its components seem simple, but, eaten together, they all make sense.  I always assumed that nasi lemak was an easy little thing to throw together in the mornings, like the way I used to peel a banana on my way to the S4 bus running down 16th Street on my commute.  Boy, was I ever wrong.  The peanuts have to be fried, just so, as do the anchovies, which must be rinsed but never soaked (or they lose their nutrients and flavor).  The coconut milk for the rice has to be fresh, and it has to be pureed with water and pandan (screwpine) leaves.  The fried chicken with our nasi lemak — oy.  There’s a dizzying number of ingredients — garlic, fresh turmeric, galangal, old ginger, bay leaves, dried tamarind, fennel and cumin seeds — that go into making a paste that boils with the chicken, then later is separated from the chicken and fried to create a topping.  That topping, by the way, is addictive.  I stopped talking to my classmates to eat it.  Plain.  Judge me if you want.

Almost five hours after we started our journey into nasi lemak-ing, we finished and were ready to eat.  It gave me a whole new appreciation for the complexities of Malaysian cuisine, especially because I rarely stop to ponder that aspect of the new food I’m enjoying (usually my process with a street vendor goes something like this: stop, demand, and inhale).

Homemade palak paneer with shredded ginger and chili oil 

Then, today, I went to another cooking class and learned how to make one of my favorite Indian dishes, palak paneer, or pureed spinach with homemade cheese.  In my experience here in KL, palak paneer seems to vary the most between eating establishments; in some places, the spinach has been pureed to the point of a soupy consistency, and in other places, it’s a little chunkier, which is my preferred style.  The version we made today falls in the latter category, and our chef instructor also added diced tomatoes, which just made it all the better.  Topped with fresh ginger, I could’ve taken a bath in that palak paneer.

Our teacher had a tin filled with her regularly used Indian spices — turmeric, coriander, cumin, chili powder, salt, fennel, and cinnamon

Of all the cuisines that I enjoy eating, Indian food is the one I know the least about, and so I was surprised this morning to learn that paneer (Indian cheese) is basically homemade ricotta cheese.  It’s simple to make and serves as the base for a plethora of Indian dishes, from appetizers to dessert.  In addition, the spices used in Indian cooking are beautiful to look at, and so aromatic.   I found myself fidgeting in my seat as our instructor sauteed up a batch of paneer bhurji, a dish made of paneer, tomatoes, cilantro, and an array of Indian spices.  I really wanted to run up to her pan, stick my finger in it, and try a bit.  It took a Herculean willpower to keep my wits and better social graces about me.

Luckily, we were able to sit down and have lunch together after the lesson was over.  Crisis averted.

Zwilling Kitchen Studio by Chef Rash | 6 Southeast Asian menus during February | Pavilion KL

Cooking with Manju | Contact thespiceconnection@hotmail.com for a schedule of classes | Bangsar | Kuala Lumpur