Nasik Aruk (Nasi Goreng)

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Sarawak Fried Rice




This shall be the first Malay cooking that will be included in Sarawak Ethnic Food. Nasik Aruk or simply nasi goreng (fried rice) of Sarawak version is very basic and simple. However, as it is the version of fried rice that we have known since we were very young, we are very fond of this fried rice as it always reminds us of moms who prepared it for us to bring to school. This fried rice is also can be commonly found at Malay coffee shop and food stalls.


Basic Ingredient:

1. Leftover Rice
2. Dried anchovies
3. Garlic
4. Salt
5. 2 tbsp cooking oil

Additional ingredient:
6. 1 Bird eye's chili
7. 1 Egg
8. Half Onion
9. A dash of white pepper

Optional:
MSG

Method:
1. Heat up cooking oil. Fried anchovies until crispy. Set aside
2. Saute garlic until fragrant. Mix the egg and stir until cooked.
3. On high fire, add-in the rice. Stir. Add in salt, then onion.
4. Keep stirring and let rest alternately until you achieve a slightly smokey burnt smell.
5. Add the bird-eye chili and white pepper last, then gave a final stir.
6. Serve.

Pig Maw/Stomach in Chili & Pineapple

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Perut Babi Masak Cili & Nenas



This dish is one of the more elaborate cooking for the Dayak, normally can be found during Gawai festival. The ingredient is simple and easily available, but the cooking time can take about 3 hours including of pre-boiling the chewy parts. It's very tasty, that is, if you can stomach it. Not everyone have the penchant for eating the internal organs of the animal/poultry. But once you get to taste this, you'll never look at eating organs other than the meat, ever the same anymore.

Ingredient:
1/2 whole garlic
5 shallots
1 cm ginger
2 cm cube shrimp paste (belacan) - optional
1 table spoon tamarind paste
3 table spoon Maggi Chili sauce
2 table spoon Maggi Tomato sauce
Dried chillies, de-seeded and soaked - 10 for paste, 3 for garnish
500gm Sarawak pineapple, almost ripe
500gm pig maw/stomach (clean with lime, then boil until soft enough to chew)
Salt & Sugar to taste
1/4 cup cooking oil

Method:
1. Garlic and shallot to be pound separately.
2. Chillies to be pounded/blended until smooth paste.
3. Heat up cooking oil. Saute garlic and shallot until fragrant.
4. Stir in chili paste. Reduce fire, then add in chili and tomato sauce and shrimp paste.
5. When the sauces start to boil up, increase fire and add in the pig maw/stomach. Stir evenly. Add a cup of water if necessary. Cover for 15minutes.
6. When the water dried up, add in the pineapple. Stir evenly, then cover. Reduce fire to medium, and stir once in a while within 15 minutes. It's cooked when the pineapple is soften and the juice came out. Add in the chili garnish.
7. Season with salt and sugar. Suit to required dryness.

Best serve with hot white rice.

Note : Pig intestine can be used for this dish.

Sup Ponas Bidayuh

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Sup Ponas

Looks can be deceiving. Never under estimate how potent this simple plain-looking soup can be.

The first time I heard about this soup, I was wondering so much how it tasted like. I have no idea at all what was the ingredient and how it looks like, but this soup kept coming up in conversations among my Bidayuh friends whenever we talked about Bidayuh traditional foods.

So I asked for the recipe from a good friend, Anya, and she gladly shared it with me. One look at the recipe, I thought it looks pretty familiar, and I can literally tasted and smell it already just by reading it.

And true enough, when all the ingredient came together in the pot, one memory struck in my mind. It brought me back to the time when I was about 7 years old, I had joined a group of much older ladies who happened to have 'man bijo' (which means cookout in Bidayuh), and it was the first time I had this dish. It was spicy, and the aroma from the lemongrass was heavenly. It was so delicious!! I never forget that wonderful memory..

It was pretty similar to the soup I used for my Sup Sago (Linut/Ambuyat), with the exception that I used additional tempoyak (fermented durian) in that dish.

Ingredient:
2 cloves of garlic
2 stalk of lemongrass
Sambal belacan
(The chillies to put as much as you can tolerate)
Salt to taste
1 cup of grated tapioca/cassava

Optional Ingredient:
Fermented Durian (Tempoyak)
MSG

Tapioca Root

Grated Tapioca

Method:
1. Saute garlic until fragrant.
2. Add in water. Don't forget to lower down your temperature since the pot is very hot, before pouring in the water. Then raise the gas to high to boil the water.
3. Add in lemongrass and sambal belacan. Add in salt.
4. Then add in the grated tapioca bit by bit until the tapioca turn transparent and to required consistency.
5. Serve hot. Enjoy!

Laksa Sarawak

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Laksa Sarawak

I have been refraining myself from putting up this dishes, as I felt that it does not really can be categorized into traditional food. But what is a Sarawak Food website without it's Laksa Sarawak?

Laksa Sarawak I should say, is the most famous dish which is easily identifiable with Sarawak, thanks to internet and blogging world. I love laksa and curries a lot, and while I cannot say which one is the best, to me Laksa Sarawak is... home. Those who compares Laksa Sarawak with the other laksa in Malaysia, does not understand what Laksa Sarawak is about.

I would not go into detail about the history of Laksa Sarawak, but suffice to say that this Sarawakian Chinese dish has become so dear to almost every Sarawakian wherever they are.

To make Laksa Sarawak is actually quite easy and does not require precise cooking skill, provided you can obtain the laksa paste which is available only in Sarawak. You can buy it online, you can also obtained the Halal-produced laksa paste. Not that the non-Halal-produced contained any non-halal ingredient anyway. The only reason why Laksa Sarawak making is such a fuss is that the preparation of the laksa base and its garnishing can be pretty time consuming. I will add few tips on how to 'repair' the laksa if it is not up to your expectation at the end, which I have learned myself and you might not normally encounter in other Laksa Sarawak recipe.

Ingredient:
For laksa gravy~
1 packet of Laksa Sarawak paste
2 litres of water (or chicken stock)
500gm of chicken parts (skinless)
1 cup of thick coconut milk
Salt to taste

For garnishing~
Rice vercimelli (blanced in slightly warm water and drained)
Bean Sprout (blanced in hot water for abt 10 second and dump in cold water)
Coriander
Lime
Omellete (slice thinly)
Chicken shreds (used back from the laksa stock making)
Prawn (skin peeled-off and deveined. Put the shell and the head back into the gravy base)

For side dip~
Shrimp paste (belacan)-grill lightly
Dry chillies
1 tbsp water
Cooking
(Pound dry chillies, saute then add in belacan. Add in a bit of water for desired consistency).


Method:
1. Boil chicken parts in water. Once cooked, take it out and cooled it down. Once cool, shred the chicken meat off the bones. Put back the bones to the gravy base.
2. The prawn's shell and it's head, put it to be boil together with the gravy base.
3. To prepare prawn, boil some water in separate pan. Cook for a minute, then take out and dump the prawn in icy water to stop it from further cooking. Drain and keep it in the fridge until ready to use.
4. Add laksa paste into the gravy base. Stir it often.
5. Add in the coconut milk. Set the fire to medium low and let it simmer until the oil separate.
6. Add salt to taste.
7. Garnish with the following order:
-Rice vercimelli
-Gravy
-Bean Sprout and Chicken shreds
-Omellette
-Coriander
-Prawn
8. During serving, squeeze lime over the Laksa Sarawak for extra zing

Various preparation steps for Laksa Sarawak





Tips:
1. Add some of the shrimp paste side dip if you need more umph when you are cooking your gravy
2. Try torch ginger to elevate your laksa gravy further. It's not the traditional ingredient, but it's lovely nevertheless
3. I understand that lots of other non-Sarawakian likes to put additional garnishing into their Laksa Sarawak, but we Sarawakian knows that this is a sin! :D

Umai Udang

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Prawn Umai

Umai Udang

This is another version of the famous Fish Umai, which is the Prawn Umai. The ingredient shall still be the same, except that I have noted that I need to use more lime juice compare to the Fish Umai in order for it to be cooked thoroughly and safe for consumption. As usual, use the freshest seafood that you can find.

For this Prawn Umai, I used the most basic ingredient for umai.

Ingredient:
250gm prawn (de-shelled and de-veined)
1 cup of lime juice
1 Onion (sliced finely)
1 Shallot (pounded)
3cm Ginger (sliced finely)
1/2 Red Chillies(sliced finely)
1 Bird Eye's chillies or to suit(sliced finely)
Salt and sugar to taste

Method:
1. Clean the prawn thoroughly. Towel dry.
2. Pour the lime juice over the prawn and mixed thoroughly. Keep in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
3. Check whether the prawn is cooked. Add more lime juice and return back to refrigerator if necessary.
4. Add the rest of the ingredient and season to taste. Put back in refrigerator for at least half an hour for the flavour of the seasoning and ginger to be infused in the umai.
5. Serve cold.