Pig Maw/Stomach in Chili & Pineapple

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.

Laksa Sarawak

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

Ayam Masak Kacang Ma

Chicken Kacang Ma (Ka Ciam Ma)

Prepared By : Sumuk
Photo By : Sumuk

This is not exactly a local exotic food, but it is believed to be of Hakka origin and very unique to Sarawak identity.

Kacang ma is a type of herb and normally consumed during confinement. Kacang ma is very aromatic, bitter and need an acquired taste. I used to hate it when I was little, as I couldn't appreciate the taste of alcohol and its bitterness. However, being absent from home for a long time means I start to miss my mom's cooking that I used to take for granted. Also, lately my cooking and 'tasting' skill has improved tremendously and I am able to modify some cooking based on my own preference.

Ingredient:
1. Chicken
2. Half packet (50mg) of Kacang ma (can be found at supermarket in Sarawak)
3. Young ginger
4. Garlic and shallot if you like
5. Salt
6. White wine (I prefer rice wine/tuak as it has sweet taste)
7. Cooking oil for frying
8. Water



Method:
1. Dry fry the kacang ma on moderate fire for 1/2 min or when it slightly yellowish.
2. Grind/pound the fried kacang ma finely.
3. Pound garlic, shallot and ginger together.
4. Saute the ginger mixture until fragrant on full fire.
5. Add chicken. Stir for a minute than add kacang ma.
6. Add water. Amount depending whether you want it slightly soupy or dry.
7. Add salt and a dash of white wine.
8. Reduce fire. Cover for two minutes. Open cover and stir once in a while.
9. Reduce fire to smallest and dash a liberal amount of white wine or as required.
10. Stir evenly.

And it's done. It's great eaten hot or cold on it's own or with rice, and I can assure you my version above is not bitter at all!