Instead of using rice for nasi lemak, Laveda Charles suggests preparing the dish with pasta instead
IT has been said that pasta is a healthier alternative to white and brown rice. It seems pasta has more zinc and vitamin B as well as a low glycemic index.
Don’t you just love pasta dishes like the carbonara, aglio e olio, bolognese and lasagne? Malaysians enjoy a variety of western and Asian fare but somehow always gravitate back to rice-centred dishes, accompanied flavourful ingredients and spices.
But what if you substituted rice with pasta and added an Asian twist? In conjunction with World Pasta Day (Oct 25) and San Remo’s (Malaysia’s leading pasta brand) 80th anniversary, its brand ambassador, Chef Datuk Fazley Yaakob demonstrates an easy way to cook San Remo Spaghetti Lemak Bungkus or spaghetti wrapped in banana leaves). When you indulge in this dish, you will realise that it stays true to its Malaysian flavour, as it has the spicy edge that most western dishes lack.
Fazley, the former MasterChef Celebrity winner, has written a San Remo Celebrity Cookbook (complimentary with any two San Remo products at selected hypermarkets or supermarkets) featuring 10 Asian-inspired pasta dishes that only take 45 minutes to prepare. These are Macaroni Chicken Rendang, Vermicelli With Chicken Pongteh, Angel Hair Mi Suah and more. Fazley is hoping to inspire Malaysians to try out these recipes and be creative in their own way.
The chef, who is also a singer, motivator and a Le Cordon Blue Paris alumnus, stopped eating rice for the past three years and lost 30kg. He says he is leading a much more healthier lifestyle now. He will also be serving Spaghetti Lemak Bungkus in his Suka Sucre Bistro, one of his two cafes, for November.
SAN REMO SPAGHETTI LEMAK BUNGKUS
Serves 3-4
Ingredients
250g San Remo Spaghetti
Water as needed
1 can light coconut milk
2 pandan leaves, knotted
Salt to taste
Handful ikan bilis, cleaned and deepfried
Groundnuts, fried crisp
Egg Sambal
¼ cups oil,
3 hard boil eggs, shelled
7 shallots, blended
1 onion, blended
2 cm roasted dried shrimp paste, blended
250g chilli paste
½ cups tamarind juice
1 onion, sliced
1 cup ikan bilis
1½ cups of water
Salt, sugar to taste
Method
1. Boil water with coconut milk, pandan leaves and salt. You can substitute the coconut milk with fresh milk or soya milk.
2. When the mixture comes to a boil, add the spaghetti. When the spaghetti is al dente (13 minutes), drain and set aside.
3. Take a pan and heat oil. Fry hard-boiled eggs until golden brown. Remove from the pan. Tip: Hard boiled eggs must be pierced several times with a cocktail stick to prevent them “exploding” when frying. You can also use quail eggs or salted duck eggs.
4. Saute blended shallots, onion and dried shrimp paste in hot oil. When the aroma rises, add the chilli paste, ikan bilis and some water.
5. Stir until the mixture boils. Then add tamarind
juice and sliced onions (for a crunchy texture).
6. When the mixture boils again, add eggs, salt and sugar to taste. Stir well and remove from the heat.
7. If plating on a banana leaf, wrap spaghetti with egg sambal, fried ikan bilis, groundnuts and sliced cucumber.