Now the next thing I want to put in, you can – actually. This is pepper. Pepper I will just use black
pepper that will be one teaspoon black pepper. Lightly cracked and in it goes into the pot. Add in a
beautiful can of coconut. Cut this tempeh into little strips. Into little cubes and throw it in. You see the
cleaver is very versatile. It’s got a nice blade and you can just throw it in. Bring that to a boil. This
coconut, because I turned the can upside down, what I’ve got is the milk and later you skim in the cream
to cook in the soup. That’s a better way because if you put in the cream first, what happens if it’s all
cooked, it will curdle. Then I am throwing in my chilies. If you want the soup to be nice and hot, throw
it in earlier. If not later. This tomatoes will give it a slight soury taste, throw it in as well. Cabbage can
be a bit later. The cabbage cooks faster than all the other vegetables. Everything is boiling very nicely.
I’m going to show you how I have cut up the eggplant. Eggplant has been washed clean. It can go in the
soup, the moment the soup comes up to a boil.
So I want to show you how I’ve done that. Get it, how did I cut this up, where is the other one. I’ve got
a cook’s knife here, what you do is I’ve slit the eggplant that way and remove the top. Remove that
bottom. We don’t want these two ends. Then the two methods of cutting the eggplant, one method is
you can either cut this way at the stump and slit through. That’s for the soup. In this cooking you can
cut it that way but- or what I’ve done here is I have cut it crisscross. That way. This way, as you cook, it
will soften faster. That has come to a boil and I’m going to throw it in. This has been rinsed well of all
the salt. It removes all the toxins in the eggplant. The water turns blackish brown and now it’s clear. I
will throw that in. Cook until it’s nice and tender and your dish will be ready the moment the eggplant is
ready. So everything is boiling in beautifully. Cabbage can go in a little bit later. We don’t want the
cabbage to be too mushy. Don’t cook cabbage too much, they don’t have a nice flavor. What I’ve done
here in that cooking is I’ve crisscrossed my eggplant and then I can cut it shorter like that.
Soak it in salt water till the water comes out blackish and throw it away. This is how the Malaysians
would do it but a lot of Italians or continentals, Lebanese, they just sprinkle salt direct on it until it sort
of perspires. You see bits of water on the surface of the eggplant. That means it’s ready to be rinsed
and to be used. So it’s up to you. This is like fashion you know. Cooking is like fashion. – so I leave it to
you how you want to remove the toxins from the eggplant. Now I come to the cabbage now. Let’s see
when the eggplant is halfway cooked, you can throw in your cabbage, so it’s not ready yet, you can see
it. I’m not closing up the pot as you noticed because it can overboil and then you have a very messy
kitchen. Now what I am going to show you next is I’m not going to forget this coconut cream. I’m not
going to forget my tofu of course. I’m adding the tofu and get rid of the chopping board. The chopping
plastic. I have a bowl of plastic today. This is the cabbage and you can add salt in this dish or you can
use soy sauce or enough stock cube, you don’t have to add salt.
So you can put the taste on your food if you like. This is cooking very well. The flavor from the lemon
grass gives it a beautiful fragrance and also some flavor. This is white curry. We call it lam in Malaysia.
This is from coconut milk. White curry, you can turn it to a yellow curry by adding some turmeric
powder or fresh turmeric. Now candle nuts, how do I get candle nuts, you can buy it from all Asian
shops. It’s optional but it gives you a nice flavor. I can see my eggplant almost halfway cooked. I throw
in all my cabbage. This is the – cabbage, the one with the big fat, round one where I have used two
leaves from the cabbage and I’ve cut them to little triangles. Big sized. Throw it all in. You don’t want
to cook that. Cabbage goes in and tofu goes in last because tofu is already very quick cooking. If you
throw in the tofu now, it will all break up because the tofu I used is almost softened.
It’s not the hard tofu. But you can use the hard tofu as I go along, I will teach you hard tofu, soft tofu,
whichever, depends on the recipe I’m cooking. So now, everything is looking good. If I want to cover
this, I will keep watch. You have to be near your stove to speed up but that’s fine, this is really good.
Clear everything away. You don’t need this anymore. How to cut tofu. Most of you buy tofu and you
don’t know how to cut tofu. Let me show you. Cut tofu, don’t cut it on the table or chopping board, cut
from the packet. Remove the covering and then you have to wash the tofu. Let it simmer because it’s
boiling hot now, you simmer and bring it to a simmer and this tofu here, I’m going to wash it. Wash and
rinse the tofu. Right now all the water--