Journey into Spice Menus

at Fawsley Hall, Daventry

Dinner - Friday 7th November 2003

Indian, Malaysian, Indonesian, Singaporean and Bangladeshi Six Course Banquet

First Course

Popadoms served with The Sambal Daba (Home made chutneys)
Date and Chilli Chutney
Minced fresh dates, green chilli, onion and jaggery (palm sugar).
Podina
Fresh coriander leaves, mint, chilli, onion and coconut are ground together. Kacang
Peanut sambal made from roasted peanut, tamarind purée, lemon juice, cummin, coriander, chilli, lemon grass, and five spice powder. Nothing from a manufacturer’s jar compares..
Imli Gajar
Tamarind and shredded carrot, sweetened with palm sugar, spiced with garam masala.
Coconut Chutney
Grated coconut fried with mustard seed, fresh curry leaves and coconut milk.
Achar Kuning
(Indonesian) Vegetables pickled with garlic and ginger in rice vinegar and saté..
Sambal Manis
Chillies in a sweet sauce. It’s the dark red one..
Sambal Oelek
Hot chilli ground in vinegar. It’s the bright red one..

Second Course

Laksa Penang
(Malaysian national dish) Noodle Curry
A fusion of Chinese and Indian cooking, and virtually a curry, in that it uses a spice paste. The result is fragrant and aromatic, but not like an Indian curry. Noodles are a mandatory ingredient in Laksa, indeed Laksa = noodles. In this version of Laksa, from southern Malaysia, rice noodles are mixed with curried fish, prawns and tamarind.

Third Course

Beef Satay (Malaysia)
Satay is a generic term referring to a fashion of cooking, barbequing or grilled on skewers,
rather than a specific dish or food.
Two strips of best beef fillet, marinated in the spicy peanut sauce, skewered on a bamboo stick and lightly grilled. Served with Kacang: Peanut sambal made this morning. Nothing from a manufacturer’s jar compares.

Fourth Course ~ Main Course

Malaccan Diable Kari
(Indonesian) Pork Curry
Pork was brought to the area by 16th century Portuguese, in the form of their traditional home dish Vino d’Alho,s where pork is marinated in vinegar, tomato and garlic. The Goans added chilli, toddy vinegar and Indian spices, creating a unique curry ~ Goan Vindaloo. By the time it reached Indonesia, the vinegar was omitted, and it lost its sour taste. Indonesian Christians used that traditional Portuguese ingredient, port instead Result a tasty but not too hot curry.
Oonbariu
(Chetinad India) ~ an unusual vegetable dish ~ Spicy roast vegetables.
A selection from items such as plantain, carrot, sweet potato, parsnip, baby aubergine, courgette, squash, shallots etc are stir-fried in a base sauce of lovage seeds, cummin seeds, asafoetida and turmeric, then oven-roasted, just like your do the Sunday roast potatoes.

Nasi Goreng
(Indonesian) Stir-fried Rice.
Nasi = ‘rice’ Go =s ‘fried’ and reng = ethnic. This national rice dish contains anything to hand. Here we use beef strips, prawns, peas, fresh coriander and basil, in a paste of ghee, garlic, ginger, turmeric, onions, lemon grass, tamarind, shrimp paste, ketjap manis, palm sugar and sambal manis (chilli).

Fifth Course

Patishapta Pitha
(Bangladesh)
A pancake filled with cream cheese and soured cream. Served with Palm Syrup

Sixth Course

Freshly ground coffee beans or tea served with something sweet.

Plus: Available on request for those who like it hot.
Fresh Green Chilli Chutney ~ Home-made, ground fresh green chilli, in vinegar, medium hot.
Naga Chilli Pickle ~ A lethally hot pickle made from incendiary Naga chillies.
Hot gravy ~ Can be supplied if you advise Pat in advance

Lunch - Saturday 8th November 2003

Specialities from Thailand, Vietnam, Korea,
Szechuan area of China, and Japan

Beef Salad with Black and White Grapes (Thailand)
fillet steak, stir-fry cut, briskly cooked in magic paste, cooled and layered on herby salad leaves, tossed with halved black and white seedless grapes, decorated with chopped mint leaves.

Cha Glo (Vietnam)
Spring rolls as demonstrated earlier, filled with minced pork, vermicelli noodles, beansprouts, lemon grass, herbs including mint served with Sweet Chilli Sauce.

Mee Krob (Thailand)
wiry rice noodles instantly deep-fried and drained, drizzled with a sweet sticky sauce made from rice vinegar and palm sugar. Sushi (Japan)
Roasted Nori Laver (seaweed) wrapped around sushi rice fragranced with rice vinegar, strips of smoked fish and thick juliennes of cucumber, cut, then sprinkled with Japanese seven spice, served with Wasabi (horseradish) and Soy.

Black and White Rice (Thailand)
fragrant Thai white rice intermingled with nutty black (actually dark red) rice.

Served with Rice, Mixed Salad, Chutneys and Pickles

Kroepruk and Prawn Crackers
deep-fried, crispy and light served with seven sambols
Cucumber Sambol
cucumber de-seeded and finely sliced embalmed in light soy sauce.
Sweet Chilli Sauce
red chillies, minced and combined in a sweet syrup.
Sweet Soy Sauce
dark and thick
Plum Sauce
Hoi Sin Sauce
Kim Chee
Korean pickled Vegetables a selection of raw vegetables including cauliflower, carrot, shallots, baby corn and white cabbage pickled in rice wine and rice vinegar.
Plus: Nam Prig
very hot – finely chopped fresh baby red and green chillies suspended in fish sauce