Merdeka Special - Malaysian Recipe Long Forgotten

"Malaysia, a beautiful country that reflects the way of life for many ethnic groups living together in harmony on a small piece of land sandwiched between Thailand and Indonesia. We owe it all to God who has given us the ability to love one another, the way HE loves us. Without LOVE, I cannot imagine peace, tolerance, patience, kindness, respect and forgiveness.

GOD loves you Malaysia!"

I would like to thank fellow food blogger, babe in the city for hosting a little "down memory lane" food special for our Independence Day. As exciting as it seems, it is truly difficult to cook something like that! I had 2 lovely recipes in mind, alas- it was not meant to be! For the first dish, I couldn't find the main ingredient here in Kuala Lumpur. As for the second recipe, the fruit I was looking for was not in season. What are the odds, really? I finally settled for my third recipe which I find appropriate for this event. I now call it "Dry Muhibbah Curry", before, it was a nameless curry just whipped up whenever there is a craving for it .

The word 'Muhibbah' here is reflected in the style of cooking more than the ingredient itself. It consists of lots of pounding of fresh ingredients in a mortar just like the Malays and is later thickened with an egg just like in our Chinese ala "Sar Hor Fun" style.

Ingredients to be pounded : 5 large red chilis, 5 dried chilis, 3 chili padi (bird-eye), 5 shallots, 2 clove garlic, 1 Tbsp toasted belacan (prawn paste), 1 Tbsp dried shrimps.

1 kg peeled and deveined prawns (leaving tail on), 2 medium size aubergines, 8 lady fingers, 2 red juicy tomatoes. All vegetables cut into bite size pieces. 3 small pieces of salted fish head (pre-fried in oil), 1 dried cuttlefish (cut in small pieces).

Heat oil in a curry pot. As usual, put in all the pounded ingredients and fry till fragrant. Add a little sugar, cuttlefish and the salted fish head pieces, add a little hot water. Simmer for 10 minutes. Put in the prawns and stir, followed by the cut vegetables. Curry gravy should be thick. Lastly, crack an egg, slightly beaten and drizzled into the curry gravy quickly. Stir a bit and add salt to taste. There you have it, my family's Dry Muhibbah Curry!