Malaysian and Indonesian

Malay and Indonesian food offers a great alternative to the more well-known foods of India and Thailand and it’s easy to prepare at home once you have an understanding of the spices and ingredients and how to use them. There is a fine balance of spicy, sweet, salty, sour and bitter with lots of fresh crunchy vegetables.

The food of Malaysia and Indonesia is rich and varied; a mix of local cooking traditions and outside influences from China, India, Thailand and Europe.

The cuisines are full of strong flavours and spices, rich coconut curries, fiery chillies and mouth-watering street food. Both countries were important trade centres for the spice trade and their food reflects this with a generous use of spices such as cinnamon, turmeric, cumin, cloves and coriander.

Flavours commonly used are lemongrass, galangal, fresh ginger, chilli, tamarind and lime leaves to make vibrantly flavoured and coloured rice and noodle dishes, curries and soups. Other distinctive ingredients are peanuts, tofu, tempeh and limes.

On this course you will learn:

• How to prepare, store and cook with Malaysian and Indonesian spices blends and pastes
• Where to source ingredients
• Knife skills that will let you prepare an array of fresh herbs and vegetables

We’ll use our spice blends to make a range of delicious dishes, for example:

• Laksa Lemak
• Sulawesi Sweetcorn and Tempeh Curry
• Sambal Kecap
• Gado Gado
• Mee Goreng
• Roti Canai

This full day course will involve lots of hands on work as well as demonstrations and lots of tasting. It does involve chillies so this is a great course if you like things spicy!

The course ends with a sit down meal around our dining table to enjoy the food made. Please bring a plastic container if you wish to take some of your food home with you. You will leave with a full recipe pack so you can recreate the dishes at home.