Mama's Sisters and Mother

            Mama loved her sisters and her mother. Her mother had passed away a year before I was born, but she continued to be close to her sisters. Whenever she could, she would spend time with them, even though she had by that time been married to Ah Kong for more than forty years already.

 

            Once, her sisters moved to a rented house near our home, as their own house was being rebuilt. As my cousin happened to be at our house, she took both of us girls for a walk to visit her sisters.

            At the time, her youngest sister was dying of cancer. I remember going into her bedroom, where the air-conditioner was probably perpetually on. The room didn't smell of medicine or anything, but I was rather depressed by the situation. We said hi to her and Mama must have chatted with her other sisters before we walked home.

 

            Mama, being a traditional Peranakan bride, had learnt to cook all manner of Nyonya food before she was married off to my grandfather, who had been the scion of a rich family (he was a descendant of Cheang Hong Lim).

 

            On special occasions and when guests came, the famous Peranakan dish "ayam masak buah keluak" would be trotted out. It was a rare dish, firstly because it is not easy to get access to buah keluak and secondly because it entails a lot of work.

 

            We need extra small teaspoons to scoop out the dark flesh of the buah keluak. I would the spoon the delicious gravy over my rice as well.

            My grandmother's buah keluak is special, because the flesh is mixed with minced pork and seasoned before being stuffed back into its shell.

 

Recipe for Buah Keluak

 

How to prepare the buah keluak :

1.Soak buah keluak nuts overnight.

2.Make an opening in the shells.

3.Remove the buah keluak filling.

4.Pound the filling, adding sugar, salt and minced meat.

5.Then stuff back into the shells.

 

Ingredients :

5cm of lengkuas

4 buah keras

fresh saffron

2 big fresh chillies

6 red onions

5cm x 1cm piece of belachan

assam (half the size of a golf ball)

salt to taste

 

Method :

1.Pound lengkuas, buah keras and saffron finely.

2.Add fresh chillies and red onions, pounding lightly.

3.Then add belachan.

4.Fry the paste.

5.Then add water and chicken.

6.When cooked, add buah keluak.

7.Finally, add the assam water.

 

             This is one reason why I never bring my family to eat at a Peranakan restaurant. It is akin to bringing coal to Newcastle. My mum and her sisters invariably turn up their noses at all offerings and start pooh-poohing all the dishes they taste, swearing that their cooking would have been better.