Travelling man finds new food

While the TV chef, known for his culinary colonisation of the Cornish town of Padstow hasn't officially moved to Australia, where his fiance Sarah lives – he does spend a lot of time travelling between the two places.

But the 63-year-old reveals that if he hadn't fallen in love with the land of Neighbours 15 years ago, he would never have discovered Malaysian cooking.

He is supporting a year-long PR campaign aimed at raising the profile of Malay cuisine, which Stein says he first had a taste of their food during regular journeys down under.

"I've been going to Australia really regularly for years, and quite often using Malaysian airlines – actually because it was cheap," he says, laughing at his admission.

"On the way, I started to enjoy the food on the airline. They did things like satay chicken and nasi goreng. It was good food... for aeroplanes."

Stein, of course, is not suggesting that Malay food is best served at high altitudes; rather that he found himself looking forward to his aeroplane meals – a phenomenon he'd never encountered before.

"They also did this hot sweet tea in the mornings," he reminisces. "It's sweetened with condensed milk."

It was clearly love at first bite, and since then, Stein's travelled more widely through Malaysia and South East Asia, and published a book on Eastern cuisine (Rick Stein's Far Eastern Odyssey, 25, BBC Books).

This year, he's hoping that the campaign, Malaysia Kitchen, will get more people cooking this food, than ever before.

Grilled prawn and green mango salad

Serves 4

16 large, raw, peeled prawns

Flat, wooden skewers

Salt and pepper

Lime wedges, to serve

For the salad:

3 green mangoes

125g (1 large) carrot

75g roasted peanuts, coarsely chopped

1tbsp roughly chopped mint

1tbsp roughly chopped coriander

For the dressing:

1 fat garlic clove, finely chopped

1 red bird's eye chilli, very thinly sliced

4tbsp fresh lime juice

4tbsp Thai fish sauce

4tsp palm sugar or light muscovado sugar

Preheat the grill to high. Thread the prawns on to the wooden skewers and season lightly. Peel the green mangoes and shred them on a mandolin, working your way around each fruit until you reach the stone, which you then discard. Peel the carrot and finely shred this as well. Toss them together in a large bowl.

For the dressing, put the garlic and chilli into a mortar and bruise lightly with the pestle, then stir in the lime juice, fish sauce and sugar, until the sugar has dissolved.

Grill the prawns for about two minutes on each side. Meanwhile, pour the dressing over the salad and toss together well.

Add the chopped peanuts and herbs and toss together once more.

Divide the salad between each plate and slide the prawns off the skewers on to the top. Garnish with the lime wedges and serve.

Chicken curry kapitan

Serves 6

1kg boneless, skinned chicken thighs

2tbsp vegetable oil

2 fat lemongrass stalks

400ml coconut milk

6 kaffir lime leaves

2tsp palm or light muscovado sugar

Juice lime

A handful of coriander leaves, roughly chopped, to garnish

Salt

For the kapitan curry paste:

6 dried red kashmiri chillies

4 heaped tbsps desiccated coconut

250g shallots or onions, roughly chopped

6 fat garlic cloves

50g peeled fresh galangal or ginger

2tsp turmeric powder

4 fat lemongrass stalks, outer leaves removed and core roughly chopped

tsp shrimp paste

2tbsp vegetable oil

Steamed rice, to serve

For the kapitan curry paste, cover the dried chillies with boiling hot water and leave them to soak for 30 minutes.

Heat a heavy-based frying pan over a medium heat, add the desiccated coconut, and stir it around for a few minutes until lightly golden. Tip on to a plate and leave to cool, then tip into a mini food processor and grind quite finely.

Drain the red chillies, put them into a mini food processor with the remaining ingredients and the toasted coconut and grind everything into a smooth paste.

Cut the chicken thigh fillets into small chunks. Heat the oil in a flameproof casserole or large, deep frying pan over a low heat. Add the chicken pieces and stir-fry for two minutes until lightly golden.

Lower the heat slightly, add the spice paste and fry gently for five minutes, stirring now and then. Cut away and discard the top two-thirds of each remaining lemongrass stalk. Bruise the bases with the end of a rolling pin. Add coconut milk, lemongrass stalks, kaffir lime leaves, sugar and one teaspoon of salt and simmer for 30 minutes until the chicken is tender and the sauce has reduced and thickened slightly. Add the lime juice and simmer for one more minute. Scatter over the chopped coriander and serve with some steamed rice.