Acar Awak

Nyonya vegetable pickle dressed in a shallot-heavy spice paste with peanuts and sesame

Origin: Malacca & Penang, Malaysia

From the journey of Shallot.

This is a pickle built on a curry paste, which is not something either of its parent cuisines would have arrived at alone. The Peranakan or Nyonya kitchen of Malacca, Penang, and Singapore grew out of the intermarriage of Chinese traders with Malay women from the fifteenth century onward, and acar awak shows the hybrid clearly. The Malay contribution is the rempah: shallots, dried chilli, turmeric, galangal, lemongrass, and candlenut pounded together and fried in oil until the mixture darkens and the oil separates. The Chinese contribution is the treatment of the vegetables, blanched briefly and then dried before dressing, and the balance of vinegar and sugar. Shallots are the bulk of the paste, as they are in every rempah, and they do something specific here: they give the dressing enough body to cling to the vegetables rather than pooling at the bottom of the jar. A paste made with bulb onion is wetter and slides off. The step that separates a good acar from a poor one is the drying. Blanched vegetables are spread on trays and left in the sun, or in a very low oven, until the surface moisture is gone. Skip it and the pickle turns watery within a day and never develops the concentrated, slightly leathery bite it should have. It is made in quantity for Chinese New Year and for weddings, improves for three or four days, and is eaten alongside rich dishes as a sharp counterweight rather than as a starter in its own right.

Ingredients

Vegetables

400 g cucumbers, seeded and cut into batons
300 g carrots, cut into batons
300 g long beans or green beans, cut into 5 cm lengths
300 g cabbage, cut into squares
2 whole red chillies, deseeded and cut into strips

Blanching

400 ml white vinegar, for blanching
400 ml water, for blanching
1 tbsp salt, for blanching

Rempah

250 g shallots, peeled
15 whole dried red chillies, soaked and deseeded
6 cloves garlic
40 g fresh turmeric, or 2 tbsp ground
30 g galangal, peeled
2 stalks lemongrass, tough layers removed
8 whole candlenuts, or macadamia nuts
1 tbsp belacan (shrimp paste), toasted

Cooking

200 ml neutral oil

Dressing

200 ml white vinegar
120 g caster sugar
2 tsp salt, or to taste

To Finish

120 g roasted peanuts, coarsely crushed
3 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Method

Bring the blanching vinegar, water, and salt to the boil. Blanch each vegetable separately for 30 to 45 seconds, then lift out into a colander.
Spread the blanched vegetables on trays lined with cloth and leave in the sun for two to three hours, or in an oven at 60°C with the door ajar for an hour, until the surface is dry to the touch.
Meanwhile, blend or pound the shallots, soaked chillies, garlic, turmeric, galangal, lemongrass, candlenuts, and toasted belacan into a fine paste.
Heat the oil in a wide pan and fry the paste over a medium-low heat for 20 to 25 minutes, stirring often.
Keep going until the paste has darkened noticeably and the oil separates and pools clear at the edges.
Add the vinegar, sugar, and salt and simmer for five minutes until the sugar has dissolved and the dressing is glossy. Taste: it should be sharply sour, then sweet, then salty.
Take off the heat and cool the dressing to room temperature.
Fold the dried vegetables through the cooled dressing with two-thirds of the peanuts and sesame seeds.
Pack into clean jars and refrigerate for at least three days before eating. Scatter with the remaining peanuts and sesame on serving.

Notes

Candlenuts are sold by Southeast Asian grocers and are mildly toxic raw, so they must be cooked, which they are here in the paste. Macadamias substitute well; cashews are a distant third. A quarter of a kilogram of shallots in the paste is what gives the dressing its body. Do not reduce it. It keeps for a month refrigerated and is at its best between days three and ten. The peanuts go in at the last moment and again on serving, because they soften in the jar. Keep some back. Serve alongside rich Nyonya dishes such as ayam pongteh or babi pongteh, with rice, or as part of a festive spread. It is a counterweight, not a starter.

The Gastrographer

Name: Acar Awak
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 30 min
Yield: 12
Cuisine: Malaysia
Ingredients: 400 g cucumbers, seeded and cut into batons; 300 g carrots, cut into batons; 300 g long beans or green beans, cut into 5 cm lengths; 300 g cabbage, cut into squares; 2 whole red chillies, deseeded and cut into strips; 400 ml white vinegar, for blanching; 400 ml water, for blanching; 1 tbsp salt, for blanching; 250 g shallots, peeled; 15 whole dried red chillies, soaked and deseeded; 6 cloves garlic; 40 g fresh turmeric, or 2 tbsp ground; 30 g galangal, peeled; 2 stalks lemongrass, tough layers removed; 8 whole candlenuts, or macadamia nuts; 1 tbsp belacan (shrimp paste), toasted; 200 ml neutral oil; 200 ml white vinegar; 120 g caster sugar; 2 tsp salt, or to taste; 120 g roasted peanuts, coarsely crushed; 3 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control