Cooking at Lazat

As promised, a write up on Lazat.

The menu at my cooking lesson at Lazat was:

Cucur udang

Acar timun

Rendang daging

Kuih Cara

Price: RM180 for hands on class.

 

 

I arrived nice and early that morning, all excited with great anticipation on what I would experience. Nervous at the same time as I was apprehensive if I could actually catch up with the class. I am pretty useless with malay style cooking as my mum is Chinese and most of the stuff I cook at home is Chinese style. Its important to note that cooking’s styles are different and therefore would affect tastes and flavor.

While waiting for my other classmates to arrive, I had a chat with the owner, Ana. Or Kak Ana as I called her. She was a pleasant lady and explained how she came about opening a cooking school. She related that she used to live in Bangkok where there were plenty of cooking schools, while there were hardly any in Malaysia. As she loved to cook, she thought she open one in PJ as soon as she came home.

Lazat caters mainly for expats and tourists. I was surprised that tourists actually took time from their holiday to come and learn to cook malay food. They usually find Lazat on the internet and booked online.

In my class, I was the only Malaysian. There were 3 Australians and one from England. They were all on holiday in Malaysia.

We began with the cucur udang.

Kak Ana explained what should be done while Kak Saadiah demonstrates. 

We were given our ingredients in small little dishes like in cooking programmes! Everything measured to the required amount.

So we mixed the batter, heated the oil and deep fried the ingredients. And there you have it, very authentic cucur udang.

 

We took a break and ate our cucur udang before we began on the rendang. I was reliefed because I did not have breakfast and was very hungry!

In the picture: Kak Ana chatting with Shari, from Australia and Rachel from England. 

After out short break, we began on the rendang. The rendang takes a long time as it needs to get soft and tender. In the meantime, we worked on the acar timun.

This acar timun is the cooked typed. Timun (or cucumber) is sliced thinly, together with carrots, red and green chilli. A whole lot of onion and garlic and other condiments were fried in a wok together with the vegetables. The end results was surprisingly delicious! Its the stuff you get at kenduri kahwin (wedding dinners). Absolutely delicious!

Finally we began on the dessert. I’ve always bought kuih cara at the pasar malam and always wondered how it was made, and how they got the syrup into the center. Well now I know!

As you can see in the picture, they did not turn out too great! Its not as simple as it seems. First, the iron mould has to be oiled but not too much. Then you have to carefully pour the batter into the mould without spilling or dribbling any on the sides. Sugar is then spooned carefully into the center of the kuih without spilling on the sides or the sugar will be burnt resulting the kuih to get burnt too! Somehow I liked the burnt taste on the kuih. Tastes great with the sugary centre :)

The end results! My second batch of kuih cara turned out better. 

At the end of the class we all ate what we made together. Kak Ana gave us white rice to go with the rendang and acar. It tasted fantastic! And I am not blowing my own horn here, cos her recipe's got a lot to do with it! Apparently its her family's rendang recipe and she is happy sharing it with everyone.

Thanks Lazat for a very fun class!