08

Wah, which one [are] you doing? I asked my maid.

Slight delay before her answer : This one, she said, with a smile on a face.

I saw lengkuas and dried chilli (cili kering) among the other ingredients.

Wah, can or not? I help you pound-lah. Pound on Monday-lah, Dee.

This morning you already pounded for us the other [spice] paste, I reminded my maid.

On Sunday, while looking through other recipes on the Internet, I heard some pounding in the kitchen. Little did I know that my domestic helper or maid was helping us pound the spice paste/rempah for the acar nyonya. Mind you, earlier that day, she had helped us pound the rempah for our version of Mee Siam. I’m guessing she must have fallen in love with the pounding and spicy food, since it took quite some time for us to convince her that pounding was way nicer than using a food processor/blender. Previously, my mum and I would have to initiate the pounding, especially when we felt like having something spicy. Of course, as employer(s), we acknowledge that she is a bit older than most of our previous ones.

But that day, using her own judgment to agak-agak (since she had the recipe in hand), she happily pounded/included in the spice paste:

• quite a lot of candlenuts/buah keras
• shallots/bawang merah kecil (peeled)
• turmeric/kunyit (peeled)
• galangal/lengkuas (peeled)
•  dried shrimp paste/belacan (toasted)
• 5 dried chillies/cili kering (soaked beforehand)
• 1 stalk lemongrass/serai

For the vegetables, we instructed her to use:

• 3 cucumbers/timun
• 1 carrot/lobak merah
• not enough cabbage/kubis
• long beans/kacang panjang

Later that night (I’m assuming she got excited), she prepared the vegetables. First step is to quarter the cucumbers lengthwise (with seeds removed). Next step is to peel the carrots. Then, to cut the cucumbers, carrots, cabbage and long beans into 3cm lengths. Marinate the cucumbers and carrots with a teaspoon of salt each and leave aside for half an hour. Using a bowl, add about 60ml of rice vinegar and up to 2 tbsp of sugar to the cucumbers and leave to pickle overnight.

Repeat the same for the carrots. Blanch the cabbage and long beans in a pot of boiling water for one minute. Drain and then marinate the cabbage and long beans with two teaspoons of salt and set aside for 1/2 an hour. Add around 120ml of rice vinegar and up to 4 tbsp of sugar to the long beans and cabbage and leave to pickle overnight.

Once your spice paste is ready, you can go ahead and prepare your acar. Heat some oil in wok and fry the rempah until fragrant. Add in all the pickled vegetables together with the marinade into the wok. Turn off the heat. Stir in about 250ml of rice vinegar, add salt and sugar to taste. Keep acar in the fridge overnight to allow the flavour of the spice paste to develop.

For garnishing (which was done on Monday):-

• Peanuts (toasted without oil and pounded)
• Black and white sesame seeds  (I bought online :P)

Your acar should look something like this (the orangey dish next to the prawns).

Note: Acar is usually kept in the fridge up to a few months, resulting in a better taste.