Johor spread
Every year during Hari Raya, chef Mohd Farid Hafiz and his family cook up a bounty of authentic Malay Johor dishes.
CHEF Mohd Farid Hafiz may have grown up in Kuala Lumpur, but his heart clearly belongs in Johor, where both his parents are from. Now a sous chef at the salubrious Westin Kuala Lumpur, Farid says he cooks all kinds of food all the time in the hotel but when he goes back to his family’s hometown of Muar for Hari Raya, it’s his parents’ food that he longs for.
“My dad is from Muar and has Bugis lineage so he has in-depth knowledge of Johor food, especially Bugis specialties. My mother is from Endau-Mersing, which is also in Johor, but has strong Pahang influence. So my dad taught my mum how to make all kinds of delicious Johor food, and he still does quality control checks!” says Farid.
Growing up, Farid’s mother frequently cooked Johor staples like laksa Johor and mee bandung. But there were special dishes that were only reserved for Hari Raya. Even now, the entire clan returns to Muar for Hari Raya and on the third day of Raya, they serve their signature Johor dishes, which have become treasured family recipes.
“There are so many of us who come back for Hari Raya, so we divide the cooking duties because my dad’s siblings are great cooks too,” says Farid.
One of the mainstays of the family’s Hari Raya menu is the alluring Bugis-influenced dish of ayam masak lengkuas (galangal), a sensational meal composed of chicken slow-cooked in a spice paste, coconut milk and grated coconut.
This dry chicken dish is slightly spicy with rich coconut nuances that give it additional depth. It is an incredibly easy meal to fall in love with, so it’s not hard to see why the family has to have it every year.
In Farid’s family, ayam masak lengkuas is traditionally eaten with burasak, a Bugis dish which features rice wrapped in banana leaf and slow-cooked in coconut milk. The resultant rice parcels are creamy and satin-soft with the flavours of coconut bursting forth in each mouthful.
“Most Bugis people in Johor eat burasak, which is like a cross between lemang and ketupat. Burasak has coconut milk, ketupat doesn’t but it’s cooked the same way. Lemang has coconut milk, but uses glutinous rice, so it doesn’t taste exactly the same. Taste-wise, burasak has a unique ‘lemak’ taste because of the coconut milk,” says Farid.
Lontong sayur is also something that makes an annual appearance on the family’s Hari Raya table. “My mother makes this often and it’s like a side dish that we must have. It’s also very popular in Johor,” he says.
Then there is the fiery, powerfully addictive ikan asam pedas sayur jeruk, a dish that Farid says is a must for Hari Raya back home as it is deeply entrenched in his father’s village of Kampung Panchor in Muar.
“They make it with sawi jeruk (pickled mustard greens) in my dad’s kampung – it goes well, and
the taste is just right. I’m not sure how the recipe came about, but from the time I was young, I was taught to eat this – my grandmother and all my relatives made this dish,” he says.
Farid also adds that choosing the right fish is key to nailing all the flavour elements of the dish, especially as the sayur jeruk can overwhelm certain fish.
“You have to use a suitable fish – kembung and tenggiri are good for this dish but stingray is not. At home, we often use ikan terubok and cook it until the bones are really brittle, like the bones of tinned sardine,” he says.
Slow-cooking is at the heart of many of the Hari Raya dishes that Farid’s family makes, and although it may require a time investment, Farid says the food is worth the wait.
“It’s easy to make, it just takes a long time to cook because most of the recipes require slow-cooking over low heat.
“Like the burasak, you have to cook it on low heat because otherwise there is a possibility that the banana leaf will split,” he says.
As all his family’s recipes hold a strong pull on Farid to this day, he hopes they will prove as appealing to home cooks looking to prepare meals this Hari Raya.
“Johor food is something I think people can easily accept and love, so try it!” he says, laughing.