This is one of the things that remind me of growing up in Malaysia. With any heavy-going coconut-milk laden meal, a pickled salad is what you will want to have as accompaniment to cut the fat. It takes no time to prepare and is highly variable thus a no-brainer side dish.
The free and easy preparation for the pickling liquid is but a 4 : 3 : 3 ratio of rice vinegar, sugar, water, along with a generous pinch of salt. The salad can be made well in advance and if left uncontaminated, can keep up to two days in the refrigerator before colours from the vegetables start to bleed.
The free and easy preparation for the pickling liquid is but a 4 : 3 : 3 ratio of rice vinegar, sugar, water, along with a generous pinch of salt. The salad can be made well in advance and if left uncontaminated, can keep up to two days in the refrigerator before colours from the vegetables start to bleed.
We had this for Friday dinner as part of "Curry Night", a mental note made many months ago. Back when I asked our guests about their three decades' worth of experience as expatriates. Some of P and P's loveliest times were when they lived in Miri, Sarawak nearly thirty years ago. There was no internet, no cable television, no mobile phones. Staying in touch with family and friends was through postal mail and long-distance land-line calls.
P recalled a welcome party at a new colleague's house, seeing a frangipani tree for the first time in her life while holding a plate of rendang with rice in a garden looking out to the South China Sea. And how life was so much simpler back then.
I thought some old school Malaysian food would be good for our next gathering. After all, which British person would shy away from a plate of curry at the tail end of winter in New York?
We started with a Thai salad of shrimp and pomelo as a prelude to beef rendang tok, chicken curry, spicy haricots verts, pickled vegetables, pandan rice, all served family-style. Dessert was petits fours outsourced from a favourite patisserie.
Rather playfully, P asked if I intended to save any leftovers. I said no, although I was pretty sure there would be more than enough for four of us (three pounds of angus beef round plus another three of chicken thighs and drumsticks).
"Well that's good. Because there won't be any rendang left."
Don't you just love such classy compliments? I absolutely do.
P recalled a welcome party at a new colleague's house, seeing a frangipani tree for the first time in her life while holding a plate of rendang with rice in a garden looking out to the South China Sea. And how life was so much simpler back then.
I thought some old school Malaysian food would be good for our next gathering. After all, which British person would shy away from a plate of curry at the tail end of winter in New York?
We started with a Thai salad of shrimp and pomelo as a prelude to beef rendang tok, chicken curry, spicy haricots verts, pickled vegetables, pandan rice, all served family-style. Dessert was petits fours outsourced from a favourite patisserie.
Rather playfully, P asked if I intended to save any leftovers. I said no, although I was pretty sure there would be more than enough for four of us (three pounds of angus beef round plus another three of chicken thighs and drumsticks).
"Well that's good. Because there won't be any rendang left."
Don't you just love such classy compliments? I absolutely do.
