She likes it…

Yesterday morning, I stopped by the Bandong Malay kuih (cake) stall and I saw that they were selling freshly-plucked paku (wild fern) at RM2.50 a bag. There was a lot in the bag so I thought it was very cheap and bought one. At the native jungle produce market in the town, they will sell you these tied in bundles at RM2.00 each and when you untie it, you will find some old, withered ones inside and much of it would have to be thrown away…and at some Chinese stalls, they will sell it to you by the kilo.

I took it to my parents’ house as I had my usual morning duty of babysitting my bedridden mum…and I decided to cook it for lunch…

For one thing, to prepare the ferns, you need to slit the stalk into two so that it will be easier to chew. This can be quite a chore so that is why usually, I would prefer to cook midin instead. I could not find the lesung batu (mortar and pestle) so I just sliced the shallot and chopped the clove of garlic. There was a bit of chili and I sliced a bit of that too…and I did manage to locate some belacan but I used only a little bit as actually, it would make my mum itch but she loves it…a lot – anything with belacan or cincaluk or budu (salted fish) would help whet her appetite and she would enjoy the meal a whole lot more. I also spotted some salted fish, already fried, in a bottle so I thought it would be nice to add a bit of that too.

Heating up the wok, I added a little bit of oil in it and once it was hot, I threw in the shallots and the garlic and once they had turned brown, I added the belacan and made sure it dissolved completely in the oil before adding the salted fish and then the chili. Finally, I put in the paku and stirred it, mixing it thoroughly with all the ingredients. There wasn’t any need to add any salt as the belacan plus the salted fish would make it salty enough. I could not find any msg in the house but I saw a bottle of chicken stock granules in the pantry so I just threw in a pinch of that, adding a little bit of water and let it simmer to cook the ferns.

Once it was ready, I dished it all out onto a plate…

Hmmm…it was really nice! But frankly speaking, I would prefer to do any cooking in my own house where I would know exactly where everything is kept and what ingredients are available…