Notes about Recipes in this book

• Stir-fried green beans with pork and chilies (moo pad prik sai tua fak yao)

  • debwfrank on October 25, 2010

    Used ground turkey instead of pork. Serve with hot chili garlic sauce.

• Meatball soup (Wanja kuk)

  • wester on April 22, 2020

    She warned that the meatballs would be very wet, but they were not. In fact, they had a pretty perfect consistency. I am going to add tofu to other meatballs, I think. I did think the flavorings were quite subdued. Next time double ginger and sesame.

• Pork cooked in a pickling style (Adobong baboy)

  • wester on April 24, 2020

    Quite tasty but the children did not like it much.

• Ground chicken stir-fried with basil (Kai pad bai kaprow)

  • kmattingly on June 12, 2012

    The crispy fried basil leaves sprinkled over this dish to serve really make this dish

• Stuffed whole chicken in a parcel (Betutu ayam)

  • kmattingly on June 12, 2012

    Delightful substitute for roast chicken. The stuffing is taken out of the bird at the end, reduced slightly and poured over the chicken as a sauce. The chicken melts in the mouth, truly sumptuous dish.

• West Sumatran fish curry with coconut milk (Gulai ikan)

  • kmattingly on June 12, 2012

    Fabulous dish, I use snapper cutlets. The amount of chilli can be reduced to lessen the fire but the coconut milk does take some of the heat away. The burst of tomato from the cherry tomato halves in this dish is lovely. I recommend everyone try this at least once in their lifetime.

  • sharonbakar on April 30, 2022

    A lovely light, fresh-tasting dish but the recipe makes it sound more complicated than it actually is. For a more authentically malaysian curry omit the dried chillies, the paprika and red pepper and instead use ground fresh red chillies (I added three and it was medium hot - just use one or two if you don't want the heat.)

• Smoky eggplants in a lime sauce (Ca tim nuong)

  • JLDuck on August 05, 2016

    Minced chicken is a great substitute.

• Steamed fish with ginger and coconut milk (Ca loc hap)

  • JLDuck on November 21, 2019

    I used Barramundi fillets. It was excellent.

• Spicy chicken kebabs with a peanut sauce (Satay ayam)

  • JLDuck on November 10, 2020

    Easy to overcook - one glance away a sip of wine and whoops. Still rather nice and very easy.

• Stir-fried shrimps with tamarind and chilies (Sambal udang)

  • JLDuck on December 14, 2018

    I found that 4 - 5 dried chilies was enough. Prefer tamarind to citrus alternatives. If using citrus I would recommend reducing the amount to 3 teaspoons. Very tasty dish.

• Mushrooms in a scallion dressing (Kinoko no aemono)

  • tekobo on January 13, 2017

    I would slice, rather than quarter the mushrooms to get the marinade well in.

• Spinach with garlic and fish sauce (Pad pak bung)

  • tekobo on July 14, 2018

    Simple, tasty side dish.

• Easy beef curry (Kaeng phet nua)

  • tekobo on February 26, 2017

    This is an old, reliable recipe. I just slip the slices of beef skirt in at the end so that they are barely cooked. Heavenly.

• Beef curry with thick onion sauce (Daging nasi kandar)

  • Dolcetto23 on January 30, 2021

    This is gorgeous - recommended

• Chicken, shrimp and fruit salad (Yam polamai)

  • RosaofEdge on April 23, 2018

    This is one of my most favourite recipes of all time. Light and tangy. Not just tangy - an assault of sweet/sour/hot/savoury flavours on the taste buds. Been making this for 20 years and will never stop making it. New guest diners always amazed... as was I until this became a cannot-live-without recipe.

• Szechuan-style fried shredded beef with carrots and chilies (Gongbao niuliu)

  • ashallen on June 30, 2022

    This was a nice stir-fry, but I found it to be both more time-consuming and less tasty than Grace Young's version of this dish (Spicy Dry-Fried Beef in Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge). However, I'm not 100% certain this recipe turned out as it should have because I accidentally had only 1/3 of the oil called for to deep fry and some of the instructions were a bit vague, e.g. heating oil for deep frying until "hot" (I went with 375F), cutting certain ingredients into "fine" strips. This recipe deep fries beef in oil until cooked, but not browned, keeping it tender, but I actually prefer the browner, chewier beef in Young's recipe. Young's recipe doesn't deep-fry any of the ingredients, so it requires much less oil which is really nice. The bit of vinegar in this recipe's sauce was a nice brightener, though, especially since this is pretty oily! I substituted rice vinegar for the white vinegar called for.

• Chicken stir-fried with celery (Jiancai jiding)

  • ashallen on June 11, 2022

    I liked how the chicken was tender and the celery still had a bit of bite in this stir-fry. The flavor, however, was more sour than I prefer. I ended up stirring in a heaping teaspoonful of sugar and some extra salt and that softened the edges on the sauce. With those adjustments, this was a fine way to use up a bunch of celery, but I probably won't crave making it again.

• Hearty chicken curry with potatoes (Lauk ayam)

  • sharonbakar on April 30, 2022

    This is very good but if you want it to be authentically Malaysian, it needs to be hotter. I used 3 ground fresh red chillies and ommitted the paprika (which is not used in Malaysian cooking). The recipe also tells you to add a tablespoon of salt and I think this is a misprint. i added a teaspoonful and it was fine.

• Caramel custard Filipino-style (Leche flan)

  • sharonbakar on April 30, 2022

    Really good. I've made this several times. It is a more denser creme caramel than the kind we are used to in the UK with 5 egg yolks and 3 whites and evaporated milk. It's good warm from the oven but also lovely cold from the fridge. I always hope for left overs so i can eat it for breakfast.