Peranakan Cooking

I’m a fan of Peranakan cuisine, and I remember that at every occasion, our family gatherings would often be supplemented with several wonderfully spiced dishes made by my Peranakan aunt. I became especially hooked ever since our visit to Malacca in 2023. The cuisine draws me in: the earthy buah keluak gravy, the hearty lemak (coconut stew) and delectable kueh pie tie. 

I would love nothing more than to recreate these dishes at home. Stews are generally quite manageable to make, but my difficulty comes from the unfamiliarity with the ingredients. The buah keluah nut, for example, is poisonous and would require sourcing for treated nuts or doing some of the treatment steps at home. I’d really much rather first attend classes and have the instructors introduce me to these unfamiliar ingredients and guide me through the recipes. And most importantly, tell me where to find good quality ingredients.   

Having time to take lessons is truly luxurious. I took a wine appreciation course last year, and this year, learning about Peranakan cooking seemed right up my alley. It wasn’t that long ago for me when work entailed long hours and was all-consuming. Everybody in the industry that I knew of was working 6-7 days every week, and having an entire weekend off was so rare, we called those occurrences a Golden Weekend. (More often than not, we had to make up for a Golden Weekend by working a consecutive stretch of 14 or 21 days.) It was also the norm to stay overnight in the workplace once or twice every week and continue working throughout the night. And yes, when morning comes around the next day, we’ll be expected to continue working alongside the rest of our colleagues. A stretch of one week without being on call overnight was a true luxury - we got to sleep seven nights that week! The demands of work was intense, to say the least, and the schedule was murder on my sleep cycle. More than that, when I was going through those 6, 7 years in a constant sleep-deprived state, I had little bandwidth (and off-days!) to learn much about any other interests. Now that I’m in a better work situation, I’ve been making up for lost time, and attending some classes on topics which I wanted to learn more about. 

And here we did learn. Chef Susan guided us through the steps of the recipes, where to find good quality ingredients in our area, when it is not worth it to make prawn stock, and when we can use dried shrimps instead of using store-bought prawn stock. Another time saving tip, which would have saved me a bunch of grief when I was making these Thai-style pork ribs, was to use tamarind paste (this one labelled Adabi Asam Jawa Xtra, in particular) and not spend ages handling those packages of raw tamarind pulp and seeds. 

I’ve attended classes by different instructors over the last few months, and let me tell you: there’s a big difference when you’re being taught by an instructor who’s shopping for and cooking with these ingredients for all of their lives, versus another who’s just reading out the recipe steps and wasn’t really sure where to find these ingredients. Try to attend classes led by the former - there’s just no comparison. Chef Susan gave us heavily-edited versions of the textbook recipes, advised us on where she shops and where shortcuts should be taken. She also had her own rice grains brought in for the classes because she didn’t like the rice provided by the school. 

We went down to Tekka Centre's wet market one weekend to buy the ingredients. Either this market or the one in Geylang Serai would net you everything you need to whip up a Peranakan feast. Even if you, like us, are not a 100% sure what to get, just speak to the shopkeepers who'll point you in the right direction. In most cases, they're friendly and happy to answer any questions you may have. While picking up herbs for nasi ulam (herbed rice salad), we were introduced to the ulam raja plant, which wasn't in the recipe that we obtained from school but was recommended by the shopkeeper (Chia's Vegetables Supply, #01-93). At a nearby shop ran by two lovely ladies, we bought dried shrimps and chilli, and learned all about balachan (Southeast Asian fermented shrimp paste) from them. And yes, we bought buah keluak from the stall ran by Mr Seah at #01-210. He sells both whole nuts (which requires several days of soaking and processing in your home kitchen before they're safe to consume), and deshelled nuts (called buah keluak paste) which you can use straightaway. We went with the latter for posterity's sake.

I'll be posting simple Peranakan recipes over the next few weeks, including tips from the culinary school's instructors and clarifications that I made with my aunt. I hope you will have as much fun as I did learning about this wonderful cuisine.