Malaysian Fiddleheads and Fava Beans in Spicy Coconut Milk

When you Google “Malaysian recipes” or “Malay recipes,” the search results tend to show dishes reserved for special occasions or eaten outside the home: nasi lemak, char kuey tiao, roti canai, satay, etc. Those are foods that restaurants and street vendors often offer, and thus what foreigners who only experience the cuisine at those places come to associate with it. What often gets excluded are the humble, home-style recipes that so many of us locals know and love. This creates a feedback loop in which a multitude of recipes rarely find their way to an English-speaking audience—not enough people in the United States know about them, the search volume is low, and so publications have little incentive to invest in the creation of them.

This makes me think of the staggering amount of not just everyday Malay home cooking, but home cooking from around the world that slips through international best-of lists on the internet, simply because the information isn’t available in English. There’s a lot to unpack there, and while I can’t turn the problem around overnight, I can tell you right now about a category of home-cooked dishes that is loved by Malaysians the world over: masak lemak.

“Masak lemak” is one of the most popular styles of cooking among the Malay communities of Peninsular Malaysia. It literally translates to “cooked in fat,” but specifically it means to cook in coconut milk. You can cook almost any ingredient in this style, from various proteins to a whole host of vegetables.

To bolster the flavors of the main protein or vegetables, aromatics are added; which ones, exactly, depend on the featured ingredient. Turmeric leaves, fresh turmeric, and lemongrass are commonly added to masak lemak that contain red meat, poultry, and wild vegetables that are foraged from the jungle, especially in the southern states. The interior of the peninsula tends towards freshwater fish and is often enhanced with fermented durian (known locally as tempoyak). Leafy vegetables like bok choy are often cooked masak lemak–style without any turmeric, leaving the soup a pale milky white, and served with another dish that has more heft, like chicken or squid cooked with sambal tumis. Clearly, masak lemak is very much a choose-your-own-adventure dish.

The following recipe features hearty fiddlehead ferns (known as pucuk paku) and fresh shelled fava beans. The fiddlehead ferns in Malaysia tend to be on the leafier side, but this recipe will work just the same with fiddlehead ferns available in the United States. As for the beans, here I'm calling for fresh shelled fava beans, which make for a good substitute for the bitter beans (also known as stink beans, or petai) that are common in Malaysia. Bitter beans are without a doubt an acquired taste, but most who try them love their slightly bitter juiciness, a fantastic foil for spicy chiles and gravies. (Be warned: The stink stays in your system for one to two days, so don’t eat this before a first date!) Favas won't have the same aroma, but they play the textural role of the bitter beans well.

If neither of these vegetables are available, any hearty, leafy vegetable should do. Masak lemak is usually served as part of a family-style meal with fried or grilled proteins, or seafood cooked in sambal tumis.