Heavenly Fragrance. Carol Selva Selva Rajah
salad with tomato and coriander 189
Semolina halva with almonds and cardamom 191
Spiced mangoes in yogurt and honey 191
Kulfi ice cream with cardamom and pistachios 192
Cardamom cake with rum and passionfruit 192
Plump apricots with rum cream and clove syrup 194
Green mango and saffron lassi 194
Issac’s baby banana cinnamon pancakes 195
COOKING WITH AROMATIC ASIAN SEASONINGS 196
Chinese Black Vinegar * Fermented Soybean Pastes * Fish Sauces * Hoisin Sauce * Mirin * Oyster Sauce and Abalone Sauce * Rice Wines * Plum Sauce and Lemon Sauce * Sesame Oil * Shrimp Pastes * Soy Sauces
Watermelon rind salad with sweet thai dressing 211
Grilled fresh scallops with ginger mirin dressing 212
Grilled shrimp on a stick with sweet chili dip 213
Fresh seafood salad with sesame lime dressing 214
Beancurd skin sausage rolls with sweet soy dip 217
Crisp dried shrimp with lime, ginger and chilies 218
Sweet and spicy ikan bilis nibbles with peanuts 219
Nonya pickled vegetables with dried shrimp 220
Rice noodles with pork and sweet chili dressing 221
Crab soup with lemongrass, tamarind and mint 223
Fish soup with lemongrass, coriander and lime 224
Crisp barbecued pork marinated in sweet soy 227
Aromatic ginger soy chicken with rice wine 229
Sweet soy and sambal fried chicken 230
Quick eurasian curry captain 231
Beef and black mushrooms with chinese broccoli 233
Eggplant and tofu with sweet spicy bean paste 235
Parsnips and carrots sautéed with rice wine 236
Asian greens with shrimp and cashews 236
Chinese greens with mushrooms and oyster sauce 239
Basic Recipes 240
Index 252
Dedication 254
Acknowledgments 254
TAPPING INTO
DELICIOUS MEMORIES
I have been fortunate enough to have eaten Carol’s food many times, sometimes with Carol sitting next to me telling me the most marvelous tales of her family, her Amah and her childhood in Malaysia. I sat mesmerized as she wound her stories around her food—until I was not sure which was the more alluring. But I was always left wanting more, and I was not alone in this as I know many who have been held in the same thrall of her charm and her cooking.
“We cooked for pleasure,” she told me. “We forgot which community we belonged to and we cooked to feed and to please our friends—whether they were Malays, Chinese, Tamils, or later Australians.” And such hospitable charm fills this book.
Heavenly Fragrance is an account of these stories and their dishes—a dance through her childhood, tapping into delicious memories with the steady, rhythmic clunk of the granite pestle pounding the spices and filling our senses with the pungent aromas that still hold such a powerful sway over her and her cooking. The garden of her youth was filled with lemongrass, galangal, roseapples and durians. Her Amah’s Chicken Curry skips straight out of her rich, happy past. I can imagine it served with Fragrant Pandanus Coconut Rice (nasi lemak), or on special occasions with Roti Jala, the lacy pancakes of Malaysia. Flaked Fish Salad with Spices and Coconut was a dish which her husband, Selva, insisted on preparing himself to ensure the proper seasoning, while her “lethal weapon” of Babi Tayu (Tau Yew Bak)—Sweet Soy Pork with Mushrooms and Star Anise—packs an Amah’s love!
This book is not just based in the vivid but somewhat distant past. It is a collection of the author’s memories throughout her life—and it contains many recipes that are not just Asian. They are her own authentic recipes reflecting her life’s journey. Carol’s Leek and Potato Vichyssoise with Lemongrass captures the change in food that occurred around the time she arrived in Australia, when cooks began to dabble with spices to color their otherwise dull cuisine. Carol’s version adds lemongrass and she even suggests a dash of chili pepper too! Her Barbecued Beef Steaks with Sweet Onion Jam tells of her experiences in Australia with her family. Settled and firmly planted now in Sydney, I can see her—and hear her—preparing a spicy Shrimp with Tropical Coconut Laksa Gravy and a Mint Vodka Collins with Watermelon Fingers with Lyndey Milan making a screamingly good tipple in the background.
Heavenly Fragrance evokes more than just memories—it excites the imagination and fills the senses with the possibilities of pungent fragrances and tastes that create new memories. It articulates the past and present of a talented cook in the very best way—with wonderfully delicious recipes!
FRAGRANT MEMORIES FROM MY YOUTH
by Carol Selva Rajah
Fragrance evokes memories. If you have ever entered a bread shop while cinnamon buns are baking or passed someone’s kitchen at Christmas and whiffed the spicy aromas of a Christmas cake or breathed deeply as you walked through a pine forest after a spring rain, then you will share some of my passion for fragrance in food and its ability to stir up memories of the past. This phenomenon has been most famously described by French author Marcel Proust, as he sipped a cup of tea and ate a soggy madeline biscuit. This simple and almost mundane act of eating and drinking set off a chain reaction of fragrance, awakening long-lost memories and indeed becoming the inspiration for one of the greatest of all literary works—his classic novel, Remembrance of Things Past (A la recherche du temps perdu). Simple, humble tastes and smells have the power to project us back to our childhood and remind us of a forgotten event or moment faster and more effectively than almost anything else; and always remind me of Proust’s madeline.
My own childhood, spent in Malaysia and Singapore, abounds with fragrant memories which have inspired the recipes in this book and built up my appreciation for fragrant home-cooking. Walking through the tropical spice gardens of Bali, Penang or Sri Lanka, your senses are overwhelmed by a combination of distinctive aromas as you stop and mentally attempt to separate them into what is culinary and what is purely floral. For me it is like a dance through my childhood and a mental game of guessing the origins of each aroma. I have found that in Asia the ingredients from gardens, kitchens and floral markets overlap as they are all used in cooking, conjuring memories of a mouth-watering curry from a street stall in Chiang Mai or Singapore’s Newton Circus. With this book I hope to inspire you to create new “food memories” with simple, deliciously fragrant recipes drawing upon the vast rainbow of aromatic produce one finds in traditional Asian kitchens.
When