The main ingredient to many South East Asian dishes is a spice paste called rempah or bumbu. We don't get ready-made rempah paste in Atlanta, but we are lucky to find the ingredients that make this flavor-packed paste. We generally make the paste from all fresh ingredients, but you can substitute it with dried powders too. All ingredients should be easily available in your local asian market. Galangal is a rhizome that looks like ginger but has a more distinct woody flavor to it. Traditionally rempah also contains shrimp paste, but its been avoided here for obvious reasons! : )
Ingredients:
Shallots -10
6 red chilis (3 fresh, 3 dried)
Lemon Grass powder (available in Asian store) - 1.5 tsp
Galangal - 1 inch piece
Turmeric - 1 tsp flat
Coriander powder - ¾ tsp
Candlenut* or macadamia - 5
Optional (2 tbsp shrimp paste)
* I've read somewhere that candlenuts should not be consumed raw and can upset the stomach. So make sure you add the candlenuts only after all testing/tasting of the paste is done!
Method:
Soak the dried red chilies in warm water for a few minutes and grind all the ingredients to a fine paste with some oil and store upto 6 months in the freezer.
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Rempah - building block of South East Asian Cooking
Labels: Asian, Singaporean
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5 Responses:
man all this food is makin me all hungryyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!! but um sure many will find it useful in simple recepies u hav here!
I can't find galangal where I live. Is ginger okay to substitute?
Yes, you may, but add some lemon juice as well.
I've read elsewhere that rempeh should be fried after grinding and mixing the spices. Obviously its cooked when used in dishes, but whats your opinion on frying it before storage?
You can most certainly fry the rempah because its only going to increase the shelf life of the paste when made in bulk. In this case you dont have to freeze it, only store it in the refrigerator. Hope this helps.
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