During this morning’s Cookalong, Jackie expertly multitasked — preparing Nasi Kerabu along with all the complementary dishes. She fried Tilapia, made Serunding and cooked lamb mince. Cathy made Soya Milk from scratch using soya bean she had soaked overnight. I tried my hand at Pajeri Nenas, the dish Jackie demonstrated last week. Using canned pineapple instead of fresh, I was delighted to find it turned out beautifully. It was my first time both cooking and tasting Panera Nenas, and it was absolutely lovely.

In this morning’s Cookalong Jackie tested out a different type of fish for the paste to stuff her Yong Tau Fu. While she was frying and tasting the Yue Bang paste, I tried making Nasi Minyak — which she cooked during last week’s Cookalong. I like to try the dishes she teaches as soon as I can, while the tutorials are still fresh in my head. We ate the Nasi Minyak with the vegetable curry I made a couple of days ago. The rice paired well with the curry, but the rice itself wasn’t as flavoursome as I had hoped despite even with all the spices. I can almost hear Jackie whispering in my ear to add more chicken powder 🤭. And yes, I definitely will next time I make this rice.

In this week's Open Kitchen Hour sessions, I made Nasi Minyak (literally, "oily rice"), with some dishes to go with it - Ayam Masak Merah (red-cooked chicken), Daging Masak Hitam (black-cooked beef), Eggplant Sambal, Pajeri Nenas (pineapple curry), and a simple cucumber & carrot pickle. Will share the recipes over the course of the next week.

Jackie was incredible this morning, cooking up 4 dishes in 2 hours! Since I finally got hold of some banana leaves I decided to try making Lemang. Jeackie’s version from last week’s Cookalong gave me the push I needed. Just like what Jackie says, “no bamboo, no worries.” So rolled up my Lemang, wrapped it, tied in banana leaves and put to grill….ie gently shallow fried in a pan with little oil.

Hey all, this is the cendol from this morning's session, based on my own recipe (from my restaurant days) - and cooked on the stove top because cooking in a Thermomix didn't give me the control I needed in terms of cooking it until it was just done and not overly so. The initial failed batch in the Thermomix was overcooked after 15 mins at Speed 3/100C so that it turned into a dough rather than batter, and I couldn't push it through the mould. (15 mins is actually only half what was suggested online in Thermomix communities, where they said to cook for 30 mins.) Here's the recipe (inc. how we used to serve it at my restaurant) - https://jackiem.com.au/2014/03/18/how-to-make-cendol/