food in malaysia /recipes nyonya food

Nyonya food Salted Fish Pineapple Curry Recipe
Ingredients :
300 g 1/2 2 2 500 ml Ground 8 4 cloves 2 2 cm 10 1 tablespoon 2 stalks	Salted fish, soak in water for 1 hour Pineapple, cubed Green chilies Red chilies Coconut milk Salt and sugar to taste Shallots Garlic Candlenuts Turmeric Red chilies Dried shrimp paste (belacan) Lemon grass (white part)
Method : Heat 5 tablespoons oil. Stir fry the grounded ingredients until fragrant. Add 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil. Add in salted fish, pineapple, green chilies, red chilies and bring to a boil. Switch to low heat and cook for 15 minutes. Stir in the coconut milk, salt and sugar. Cook until it boils. Serve hot with steamed rice. Note : To reduce the saltiness, soak salted fish in salt water and then rinse. Salt water will remove saltiness from fish. Pong Teh Chicken Recipe Ingredients : 1.2 kg 200 g 5 5 1 cup 1 tablespoon 1 tablespoon 1 tablespoon 5 cm 2 tablespoons 1 tablespoon 3 cups Whole chicken, cut into bite size Bamboo shoots Dried chilies Green chilies Shallots, sliced Garlic Sugar Soy bean paste Cinnamon stick Soy sauce Thick soy sauce Water Cornflour solution Method : Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a pot. Stir fry shallots, garlic, sugar and soy bean paste till fragrant. Add chicken, bamboo shoots, dried chilies and green chilies and stir fry evenly. Pour in cinnamon stick, soy sauce, thick soy sauce and water. Cover to simmer till done. Pour in cornflour solution slowly with constant stirring. Serve hot. Note : The most preferred Nyonya dish amongst the elderly. You can also replacethe chicken with other meat.

food in malaysia /about little nyonya

About Little Nyonya

        

     Echnique of cooking does not differ much from Malay cuisine, a lot of steaming and simmering are involved and also cold preparation is also one of the typical ways of cooking, especially of their kerabu (raw salad).

  A typical Nyonya home had a large kitchen. Extended family lived under the same roof, in one long shop house. In this kitchen, the stove used wood and later charcoal as fuel.
     Spices were grounded manually, large granite stone mills were indispensable in a typical Nyonya household. During celebration or religious ceremony, the "tok panjang", a long dinner table that could  seat at least 16 people would be full of dishes painstakingly prepared for that special occasion

  Young girls were trained in the kitchen so that they would catch a rich husband. The way to the men's heart were supposedly through their stomachs. The young ladies were also taught other crafts like how to make beaded slippers or embroider intricate patterns on silk table clothes or bedspreads


 Nyonya food also places a lot of emphasis on how the food looks when served. Local kuihs are individually crafted, piece by piece. Each morsel is supposed to taste as good as it looks.

     Desserts can also include sweet broth (bubur). Almost anything can be added into this "bubur". Basic ingredients are palm sugar, coconut milk, sago and pandanus leaves. Then, it is up to you to put in any tubers or fruits for that tasty tea treat. Some of evergreen Nyonya dishes for lunch or dinner which are still served now include otak-otak, perut ikan, asam pedas, kari kapitan, kerabu bihun and a lot   

story about baba nyonya and nyonya food

 

Story About Baba Nyonya And Nyonya Food

 About Baba and Nyonya could be traced all the way back to the Chinese Ming Dynasty which is about more than 4 centuries ago. It was the Princess Hang li po(Hang Li-Bao) that left China to get married with the Sultan (King) of Malacca. The marriage established a kinship and diplomatic relationship between the two nations.                                                                                                                  

   At the same time many Chinese people started trading with or working in Malacca, Penang and Singapore. Some of them even settled down in these coastal cities and as most of these migrants were male, they started marrying the local Malay women which produced a unique culture. Their sons were then called "Baba" and their daughters were called "Nyonya".

    Baba and Nyonya( Peranakan), their olso can keep their Chinese names, but also got accustomed to worshipping their ancestors and eating pork like every Chinese do. In addition, they also inherited the Chinese conventional idea of "men leaving the house to work and women staying at home to cook the delicious nyonya food for the men".

   Nyonya food is also known as the Straits Chinese food which is an interesting amalgamation of Chinese and Malay dishes thought to have originated from the Peranakan of Malacca. Besides Malacca, Nyonya food is also native to Penang and Singapore. However, over the years, distinct differences have evolved in the Nyonya recipesfound in Penang than that in Malacca and Singapore due to the proximity of Malacca and Singapore to Indonesia and Penang to          Thailand.

    Nyonya recipes are complicated affairs, often requiring many hours of preparation and is about the blending of spices, using pungent roots like galangal, turmeric and ginger; aromatic leaves like pandan leaf and fragrant lime leaf together with other ingredients like candlenuts, shallots, shrimps paste and chilies. Lemon, tamarind, carambola and green mangoes are used to add a tangy taste to many dishes. For dessert, fruits are seldom served but instead colorful cakes are served. Nyonya cakes are rich and varied, often made from ingredients like sweet potato, glutinous rice, palm sugar and coconut milk.