Behind the scenes with chef Nuril
What did you learn while filming this episode?
Nuril: I have always been interested in the orang asli as my parents are both anthropologists, so I was glad to be able to meet the Semai community and see how they live. I learnt that the Semai people eat all parts of an edible plant, from the tuber to the shoots and even leaves. I also learnt that some of the produce we see sold in the markets, like petai and wild honey, are actually supplied by the orang asli people.
What was most interesting about the ingredients used in this dish? What I found most interesting about buah kulim is that it has medicinal properties. The Semai people believe drinking the water from the boiled fruit is a good way to detox the kidneys.
What was the inspiration behind this recipe?
I spent time talking to the villagers to find out what they eat – for example, they eat fish in the morning. That’s why I added fish into the jungle salad recipe. I also noticed that they cook with asam belacan that resembles the Malay asam pedas. That’s why I cooked asam pedas, but adapted it to include the vegetables they eat on a regular basis, like wild yams and eggplants.
What were the challenges you faced?
It was difficult to create a recipe that was both familiar to the Semai people but also new, especially with the limited amount of ingredients available to us during the shoot. But challenges aside, it was really fun because I got to play around with ingredients I’ve never used before, like buah kulim!
Any tips for those who want to cook this dish at home?
Instead of using bamboo to cook the fish, you can cook it in a Ziploc bag or wrapped in aluminium foil and then baked in the oven – similar to making Portuguese baked fish.
The buah kulim is quite rare – I’d never even heard of it prior to filming The Local Kitchen – but you can easily substitute it in the recipe with garlic. But do add freshly-grated garlic on top of the dish to recreate the buah kulim’s more intense flavour.
Yam shoots are easier to find – as far as I know, you can buy them from the Taman Tun market, or in shops in Chow Kit. But the kemomok leaf used in the salad is as rare as the buah kulim. If you can’t find kemomok, its gingery flavour can be recreated with bunga kantan or kunyit leaves.