Agak Agak: Everyday Recipes from Singapore
Hardie Grant, 2024, RRP $59.99
By Shu Han Lee
Shu Han Lee might not be a household name down here, but she’s known in the UK for her spice company Remapapa, stocked in leading supermarkets like Selfridges. A Singapore native, she’s also authored another book called Chicken and Rice, a collection of more broadly SouthEast Asian recipes. Her latest concentrates on what she describes as “everyday recipes from Singapore”.
If you’ve ever visited the Lion City, you’ll know how incredible the cuisine is. Singaporeans are truely hard core about food and the culinary repertoire, drawing from Chinese, Malay, Nonya and Indian influences, is vast. To flick through Agak Agak (a slangy Singlish word that translates to ‘estimate’ or ‘somewhat, describing here the way people cook using ‘intuition), is to constantly stop and exclaim “YUM!”. Lovely propping and food styling can carry the day and make even average fare look amazing but here, you can just tell there’s flavour in these dishes. Every one sings with vibrant colour and the aromatic, punchy ingredients that truly make you sit up and pay attention.
What we really love about Agak Agak is the way Lee makes everything so accessible; cooking Southeast Asian food from scratch can be daunting and it’s easy to get lost amongst encyclopaedic ingredient lists and laborious processes. But Lee’s recipes, such as Mum’s Soy-Braised Pork Belly and Shiitake Mushrooms, Tamil Egg Curry, or Steamed Aubergines with Cherry Tomato Sambal, are largely uncomplicated. Yes, you need to buy the right pantry items and produce, make simple pastes, and chop things by hand; these aren’t recipes to make in 15 minutes. But they read clearly and simply, with methods that are easy to follow and really make you want to get cooking ASAP. What we also like is that Lee mashes up some English faves, like the whole roast chicken in her Nonya Lemongrass Roast Chicken, with Singaporean flavours and the results never feel fusion-y or try-hard. Other examples are Rainbow Chard Belacan, a spin on the traditional kangkong belacan where Morning Glory is stir fried with pungent shrimp paste and chilli. Asparagus steamed in a garlicky black bean sauce celebrates a very European vegetable in a particularly Asian way, while Kam Heong Fried Cauliflower, based on a dish from the Chinese family-style restaurants called Tze Char, tosses a classic winter vegetable with a Canto-inspired Singaporean sauce. Over in the dessert section, peaches adorn the coconut sago, and poached rhubarb compliments black sticky rice pudding. If you’re wanting recipes for Singapore standards like Nasi Goreng, Hainan Chicken Rice, Katong Curry Laksa, Steamed Egg Custard or Keuh Dada (pandan pancakes stuffed with coconut and palm sugar), they’re all here too.
The chapters kick off with Rice To Go With Everything, which contains recipes for everything from Pandan Jasmine Rice, Coconut Rice, Yellow Sticky Rice, Congee, Everyday Rice and more. From there the books moves into Curries, then Broths and Braises, Stir-Fries and Simple Sides, Food For Feasting, One-Dish Meals, Little Bites, Sweet Things, then ends with Sauces and Sprinkle. We’ve earmarked things we can’t wait to make… Soto Adam with Spring Greens looks so good, as does Uncle’s ‘Dry’ Laksa and the Prawn and Pineapple Curry. Between the gorgeous food, the lovely illustrations on the chapter openers and glossary pages, and the stunning photography, we plan to use this book a lot.
