Agak Agak: Everyday Recipes from Singapore by Shu Han Lee

Singapore is widely recognised as one of the world’s best places for food lovers. I’ve never met a Singaporean yet who isn’t passionate about eating great food, and that’s reflected in the richness and diversity of the cuisine. Visitors are often amazed at the availability of delicious and very affordable  food from inexpensive hawker stalls on the streets, and of course locals also eat out at restaurants and cook at home.

In Shu Han Lee’s Agak Agak: Everyday Recipes from Singapore cookbook, Lee shares recipes to help us bring the flavours and textures of this delicious cuisine into our own homes. Born and raised in Singapore, Lee moved to London at the age of 18. She is now a successful food writer, food developer, and business woman: she founded and runs Rempapa, a popular brand selling high quality spice pastes and related products. Agak Agak is her second book, after Chicken and Rice: Fresh and Easy Southeast Asian Recipes from a London Kitchen. She also contributed recipes to and did all of the design work for PlusSixFive: A Singaporean Supper Club Cookbook.

In her Introduction, Lee explains the meaning of agak agak, a Malay expression that means “somewhat” and is used to indicate the art of estimating. Put simply, it’s a way of thinking when it comes to cooking, whereby you cook according to the ingredients in front of you. It’s hard to give an exact amount of chilli to use when chillies vary so much in heat! How much sugar you add may depend on how sweet the fresh pineapple in the dish happens to be! Agak agak about the willingness to adapt a recipe based on your intuition and your understanding of how ingredients interplay together.

This way of cooking is very familiar to me, as it’s also how my mother naturally cooks (she’s learned to write recipes for those who don’t yet have the instinctive knowledge of Indian cuisine through sharing recipes on her website these last 23 years), and that’s exactly what Lee has done here.

The year Lee moved to London was 2009 (also the year I started Kavey Eats), and it was an exciting time in London, food-wise. This was the era when supper clubs became a thing. Lee ran her Chopsticks Brunch Club, which ran on Sundays and featured dishes like congee and other Singaporean favourites, and she was also part of a small group who ran a popular Singaporean supper club called PlusSixFive. Having learned to adapt her cooking to use local ingredients (using sweet cherry tomatoes in place of tamarind, or runner beans in place of long beans, for example), at first she worried about lack of authenticity in her dishes, but quickly discovered that her approach was exactly what fellow Singaporeans in the UK had also come to do.

This is the universal story of immigrants around the world, who adapt their natal cuisine to suit the ingredients available in their new countries of residence. Lee explains how many dishes in Singapore were born of just this kind of adaptation – Singaporean Hainanese Chicken Rice serves the poached chicken with fiery chilli sauce, for example, instead of the spring onion sauce that is traditional in the original Chinese version – and that evolution of food continues to this day. Hence, Lee’s aim is not simply to pass along Singaporean recipes but to share “a way of cooking that’s creative, intuitive and fun“.

As with most of the cookbooks I’m drawn to, Agak Agak is far more than a collection of recipes. At the start you’ll find a guide to How Singaporeans Eat (and how to use the book), Essential Singaporean Vocabulary (to my surprise, there are only three that I wasn’t already familiar with!), and the Essential Singaporean pantry (which covers Sauces and Seasonings, Spices and Chillies, Herbs and Aromatics, and Tins and Packets.

Recipes are divided into Chapters for Rice to Go with Everything, Curries, Broths and Braises, Stir-fries and Simple Sides, Food for Feasting, One-dish Meals, Little Bites, Sweet Things, and Sauces and Sprinkles. Each chapter has its own introduction and a few photos provided by Lee that showcase the food culture of Singapore.

Recipes are clearly set out with English language title (I’d love to have the Singaporean one provided alongside), a helpful summary that shares information such as the origins of a dish, Lee’s twists where it’s a riff on a classic dish, and a bit about what to expect of it. Underneath the ingredients and instructions, there are often extra Notes and Tips such as substitutions, short cuts and ideas on what to serve alongside. Most recipes have photographs that are light, bright and appealing.

We have made several dishes from the book so far.

Cucumber, Pineapple and Peanut Rojak with Tamarind Dressing was an absolute stunner of a recipe! A salad loosely inspired by Singaporean rojak, this was such a revelatory combination of textures and flavours. And best of all, lasts very well in the fridge overnight whilst still retaining the crunch the next day.

Lime Leaf Chicken Curry was quick and easy, yet full of fragrance and flavour. This is a true comfort food kind of dish.

Fried Eggs Tempra with Onions and Kecap Manis was another real winner, the punchy flavours of the sloppy onion tempra making basic fried eggs into something altogether more special. (I imagine this recipe would also fit well into Ed Smith’s Good Eggs cookbook). We didn’t have fresh coriander on the day and skipped the fresh chilli, we will add both next time.

Roast Pumpkin Masak Lamak was a simple and tasty way to cook butternut squash (or usual sub for pumpkin as it’s easier to find), and is a recipe we can use for many different vegetables. Pete’s muscle memory had him peeling the squash and dicing it before he remembered that the recipe calls for leaving the skin on and roasting it in slices, so we’ll try it that way next time.

The BBQ Chicken Satay with Tamarind Peanut Sauce was vastly superior to the one-dimensional version we often find in UK restaurants. I found the cumin a little too strong for my palate, so we’ll agak agak it down a bit next time, but these really were a delight. Also made us realise it’s time for a new spice grinder as our ancient one didn’t quite break down the lemongrass fibres as well as it should!

Braised Egg Tofu with Mushrooms and Sugar Snaps delivered a punchier version of a long time favourite Chinese dish. Not sure why the Pork Mince isn’t included in the recipe title, though. The contrast between wibbly-wobbly egg tofu, richly savoury pork and mushrooms, and crunchy, sweet sugar snaps works superbly well.

All of these recipes have been straightforward to follow and delicious to eat! Lee’s knowledge of Singaporean cuisine combined with her experience of cooking it in the UK means she is very well placed to ensure that the recipes reflect the availability of ingredients in the UK, making them very achievable for home cooks here.

Recipes from Agak Agak

We have permission from Hardie Grant to share these three fantastic recipes with you from the book [coming soon]:

• • Cucumber, Pineapple and Peanut Rojak with Tamarind Dressing
  • BBQ Chicken Satay with Tamarind Peanut Sauce
  • Fried Egg Tempra with Onions and Kecap Manis

Find more Southeast Asian recipes, here.

Kavey Eats received a review copy of Shu Han Lee’s Agak Agak: Everyday Recipes from Singapore cookbook from publishers Hardie Grant.