Curry powder is now commonly sold in premixed packets, but in the past, people brought their spices to spice mills to have them ground, before mixing them at home. Well-known chef, cookbook author and culinary consultant Devagi Sanmugam talks about what life was like back then. She also whips up a quick beef rendang using a recipe from 1920, cooked with curry powder and eaten with spaghetti!
This video is part of “From Book to Cook”, a brand new cooking show on Singapore’s old recipes found in the National Library collection. In every episode, our librarian-host Paddy Ong and a guest cook will make a dish or two from a vintage recipe. What happens when you put a librarian in the kitchen, armed with traditional kitchen tools and recipes from the past? Catch the series to find out!
Like this video? Watch out for more in the Singapore Storyteller series, where we tell stories of Singapore, about the people who lived, the food we love, and the way things were. From our collections come your stories. #NLBSGStorytellers
Timestamps:
00:00 – Teaser
00:07 – Opening titles
00:15 – Episode introduction
01:06 – Guest introduction
01:32 – How curry powder is used in the past
02:00 – How households used to get their curry power
04:08 – How off-the-shelf and homemade curry powders differ
04:54 – About Mrs Kinsey’s rendang recipe from 1920
06:27 – Recipe and ingredients
08:27 – Let’s cook: Extracting oil from beef fat
10:40 – Using a grinding stone
14:07 – Different types of curry powders
15:54 – Let’s eat
16:44 – How using the grinding stone affects the taste of the food
17:42 – Comparing Chef Devagi’s and Mrs Kinsey’s rendang dishes
18:35 – Closing
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