Spice Ranee, MasterChef Jasbir Kaur does not know when to stop. The grandmother continues to wow everyone with her culinary prowess and dedication by creating dishes that reflect her years of experience in the kitchen.
The Spice Ranee’s culinary adventure
The jovial and charismatic Jasbir Kaur, also known as the Spice Ranee for her capabilities in MasterChef Asia 2015, revealed to New Sarawak Tribune that her cooking career just started a fair few years ago.
Despite being in her 60s, there is no such term as retirement to her as she continues her passion in the kitchen.
The drive that ignites her passion stems from her curiosity to explore and experiment with different ingredients she gets hold of. To her, each taste and texture is a new adventure. Paired with her love for cooking, Jasbir can whip up a storm with the puzzle pieces of ingredients she merges.
Her strength? Jasbir acknowledged that she has a talent to put together different ingredients without directly following a recipe, “like, I didn’t need to buy everything on the list, but in my head, I can put things together and it would taste good!”
Though the skill is a gift from years of experience in the kitchen, Jasbir emphasised that cooking is a talent that can be inherited by anyone.
Jasbir admitted that as a little girl, she hated cooking.
“Because to me, cooking was painful! When I was eight years old, I would be making chapatis with my mother standing beside me, holding a rotan. She would give me a smack if my chapatis weren’t round. She would say that my chapatis were the shape of the world’s map. One could look like India, while another could look like Singapore.”
Growing up in a Punjabi household, Jasbir was expected to know how to cook.
Remembering a line her mother used to say, “When a girl goes to her in-laws’ house, she must know how to cook, especially chapatis. Otherwise, the mother-in-law would complain that the mother didn’t teach. Only one girl cannot cook. So stupid!”
Despite this, Jasbir was undeterred, especially throughout her secondary school years when she was exposed to Home Economics. She would learn to bake, cook, and even make coffee and tea.
Though her younger years were spent learning snippets of cooking, Jasbir said that most of her cooking skills developed after she got married and moved to Miri in 1986.
“I wasn’t used to the food here at the time, and I miss Singapore’s food so much. Furthermore, there was not much of a food scene in Miri back then. So, I picked up the skill and began reading numerous magazines with recipes. From then, I steadily worked my way up to where I am today,” she said.
Now an expert in cooking, the chef shared that her husband often received comments from her brothers.
“They would tell my husband that before I got married, the buns I baked could crack the walls. They’d also wonder how I could bake such beautiful cakes today when I used to toss out everything I prepared because it was inedible.”
Jasbir added that everyone can cook.
“But when it doesn’t work, people tend to give up. To me, we should never give up. Just try again and again. Repeat the process and experiment some more. This way, everyone can master cooking someday.”
An agak-agak cook
So, does the Spice Ranee measure out each pinch of salt, or does she agak-agak (guess) her seasonings?
“I’m an agak-agak cook. I’d use a little bit of this and a little bit of that. And when my daughters asked about what was in the food, I wouldn’t know.”
To her, being able to mix and match the ingredients widened her creative horizon.
“Having a recipe sometimes restricts me. I prefer to be agak-agak because it allows me to be creative. That’s why I found running a restaurant so restrictive back then. I have to be precise as I can’t have different consistency going out each time. My daughter would tell me that I needed to weigh everything because it works out as a cost.”
However, she attributed her experience as a “weigh-everything” chef to her upcoming recipe book, in which she would share some of her signature dishes.
Among the recipes is her chicken curry. She said that she loves her chicken curry because it reminded her of her childhood, when her father would spend half a day preparing it.
“My chicken curry brings back memories of my father, who used to make them from scratch. He even brought home live chicken to be slaughtered. He would then prepare the spices himself, cook them, and blend them to make curry paste. Back in the 70s, there was no such thing as a blender, so he had to pound everything himself.”
At present, Jasbir admits that she is quite good at making chicken curry because of her ability to blend her spice recipe to make a flavourful dish.
With her title Spice Ranee, she said that her knowledge of every spice came from hand-me-down advice from her parents, who showed her what she could do with the spices and how to properly blend them.
“One example is that we cannot use mustard seeds in chicken curry due to their pungent smell. However, they can be added to a fish or seafood curry,” she said.
In the same recipe book, Jasbir prepares quick meals for mothers to make in between their hectic schedules. Her inspiration for creating quick meal ideas came from her time as a mother when she was still running a kindergarten in Miri.
“As a mother with a full-time job, I would always try not to spend too much time in the kitchen. Hence, I created easy recipes such as marinating the meat and storing it in the fridge in the morning before work. When the mother arrives home, she can quickly prepare it with a side of vegetables and rice.”
Modern cooking versus traditional meals
As she has been a cook in the kitchen for many decades, she witnessed the evolution of cooking eras alongside modern culture.
Warm and complex meal preparation is no longer an option, as the new age innovates easy-to-cook meals. What used to take hours in the kitchen can now be done in minutes with packed ingredients.
Jasbir added that certain local produce, such as terung assam, are no longer enjoyed warmed with anchovies or sambal. Rather, in today’s culinary world, terung assam emerges as jam, cakes, and even ice cream.
The change, though overwhelming, has taught Jasbir that if you set your mind to it, there is a whole new world out there.
As a member of the Culinary Heritage and Arts Society Sarawak (CHASS), Jasbir believes that our local food is a heritage that must be preserved for its identity.
“If we fail to find a new way to use our local produce, the next generation will be uninterested in eating traditional foods since they prefer fast and modern-looking ones.
“Traditional recipes are dying with the older generations. Traditional food preparation takes too long, and the younger generation is always chasing time, trying to prepare food quickly. While we try to preserve the traditional method of doing things, we can also modernise them so that the younger generation does not forget,” she added.
As part of her quest to maintain traditional elements amidst modernity, Jasbir shared that the recipe book she is working on will include traditional dishes that incorporate the modern way of cooking.
And these are just a few of the plans in the works for Jasbir — the Spice Ranee.
Despite her age and recently upgraded status as a grandmother, she is determined to achieve her goals.
“I believe that when you have a dream that you are passionate about, you do not give up!
“Even if it doesn’t happen today, if you keep doing what you’re doing, it will happen eventually. When I entered MasterChef Asia in 2015, I was 56 years old, and my cooking career had just begun. So just because you’ve reached a certain age doesn’t mean you can’t do anything. Dreams do come true, and it is never too late to pursue them.”
Those who want to follow up with Jasbir, can do so via her Facebook page: Jasbir Kaur — Spice Ranee.
