Malaysian Cooking Class

I took a delightful and tasty Malaysian cooking class before we left George Town. I wrote to Khalid at Mypintu Plate and he responded with an offer to join a class. Unknown to me until I arrived, I was his only student that day so I got all his attention! As he wrote in his description "The dishes taught are of Malay, Chinese, Indian and others influence reflecting Penang's diverse ethnicity and multi-cultural tradition."

It turned out we were making (and eating) three dishes!

Khalid is the wonderful cooking instructor at Mypintu Plate!

First up, under Khalid's great instructions, we made Malaysia's national dish -  Nasi Lemak. This is a coconut flavored-rice with sambal, a chili-based sauce/paste originating in maritime SE Asia. There are a variety of complimentary foods that go with the rice to create an easy and well-balanced meal. It is frequently wrapped in banana leaves so it can be sold as a quick and healthy street food.

Khalid's brilliant organization and preparation for cooking!

I am an indifferent (and sometimes hostile) cook. I love to eat and I enjoy baking - but I have never felt competent at making meals. With Khalid's tutelage I really enjoyed making these foods! He taught me and then quizzed me on the ingredients so I'd know what I was using at each step - though you can see he had prepared a lot of the foods in advance.

Mortar and pestle to grind the ingredients for the Sambal

While we could have used a blender, I decided to try the mortar and pestle to grind the ingredients for the sambal - there are a lot of ingredients and some didn't like smashing easily. Sigh. Khalid was patient with my decision to do it the hard way and we eventually got a wonderful sambal after some patient cooking to meld the flavors together.

We made the coconut flavored rice in a rice cooker - which I had never used before. It was such delicious rice! We made the sambal and the accoutrements for the meal while the rice cooked.

Then we put it all together. So yummy!

Nasi Lemak and accoutrements!

Second, using some of the sambal we made for the Nasi Lemak, we made an award-winning dish called Rendang. This dish won the CNN Readers Choice Best Food in the World Award in 2011! I believe it! I hope I have the patience (and can find the ingredients) to make it again...

The ingredients for Rendang except for the chilled chicken pieces

Rendang, the World's Most Delicious Food!

Rendang required a lot of ingredients, especially when you added in the ingredients for the sambal included in the recipe. But it really was an exceptional blending of wonderful flavors.

Our last dish was a quick stir fry Char Kway Teow (locally called CKT) which is a fried flat rice noodle cooked in soy sauce and seafood at high heat.

Ready to make some CKT!

One of Khalid's friends came over as we were making the CKT and waited while we finished the quick recipe and ate the yummy result.

Char Kway Teow

Khalid was generous to let me take some of each meal home to Darrell in our trusty leftover container.

Darrell's lucky dinner!

Then Khalid's friend took a photo of us at his front door - Mypintu means door in Malaysian!

Khalid and I handcuffed to the door

I'm sure Khalid would welcome you to his door for his wonderful cooking classes! You get wonderful conversation along with cooking lessons and eating the unique food! He took almost all the photos I included in this post, and sent them to me, along with his Malaysian Recipe book, after the class. I highly recommend a class and conversation with Khalid!