Rempah
Also known as rempah paste, Malaysian spice paste, rempah ratus
Paste
Quick answer
The pounded wet spice paste that begins almost every savoury Malaysian dish: shallot, garlic, chilli, lemongrass, galangal and turmeric, often with candlenut and belacan, fried slowly in oil until the oil separates. A family of pastes, one per dish, rather than one recipe.
In essentially every version: Shallot, Garlic, Chilli, fresh or dried and soaked, Lemongrass, Galangal, Fresh turmeric.
3 distinct versions are set out below. None of them is presented as the correct one, because there isn’t one.
What goes into it
What essentially every version is made from, with what each ingredient is there to do.
| Ingredient | Role | How essential |
|---|---|---|
| Onion (fresh) | base | defining |
| Garlic (fresh) | savoury depth | defining |
| Bird's eye chilli | heat | defining |
| Lemongrass (fresh) | primary aromatic | usual |
| Galangal (fresh) | primary aromatic | usual |
| Turmeric (fresh) | colour | usual |
| Shrimp pastePresent in most Malay and Nyonya rempah and absent from some, including many rendang pastes. | savoury depth | optional |
| CandlenutThickens and enriches the paste; usual in Nyonya cooking. Always cooked. | binder | optional |
| Ginger (fresh) | supporting aromatic | optional |
High, by dish above all. The rempah for rendang leads on ginger, galangal, lemongrass and turmeric with dried chilli and usually no belacan; the rempah for asam pedas is chilli, shallot and belacan with turmeric, soured in the pot with tamarind; Nyonya rempah is richer in candlenut and belacan and fried long and slowly. Households and regions shift the balance, and the grinding itself — pounded in a batu lesung or blended — changes the texture. What does not change is the method: pounded wet, fried in oil until it darkens and the oil breaks away.
The versions
Each attributed to whoever describes it. The sources say what goes in and how it is made and give no amounts, so none are shown.
Rempah for rendang
Regional traditionMalay household practice, sharing its roots with Minangkabau rendang · no amounts given · medium confidence
Shallot, garlic, ginger, galangal, lemongrass, fresh turmeric and soaked dried chillies pounded together, fried, then cooked down for hours with coconut milk and kerisik (toasted coconut) until nearly dry. Turmeric leaf and makrut lime leaf go in whole.
Made with: Shallot, Garlic, Ginger, Galangal, Lemongrass, Fresh turmeric, Dried red chillies, soaked, Makrut lime leaf, added whole, Kerisik (toasted grated coconut), added in the pot. The source gives no amounts, so none are shown.
Rempah for asam pedas
Regional traditionMalay household practice, especially Melaka and Johor · no amounts given · medium confidence
Dried chilli, shallot, garlic, belacan and turmeric pounded and fried, for the sour-hot fish stew soured with tamarind in the pot and scented with torch ginger bud and daun kesum.
Made with: Dried red chillies, soaked, Shallot, Garlic, Belacan, Fresh turmeric, Lemongrass, Torch ginger bud, added in the pot, Daun kesum, added in the pot. The source gives no amounts, so none are shown.
Tamarind goes into the stew rather than the paste, and is what makes the dish asam.
Nyonya rempah
Household traditionPeranakan (Nyonya) household practice, Penang, Melaka and Singapore · no amounts given · medium confidence
Shallot-heavy, rich with candlenut and belacan, with lemongrass, galangal, turmeric and chilli, pounded fine and fried long and slowly — tumis — until the oil separates and the paste smells sweet. The base of curry kapitan, ayam buah keluak and many other Nyonya dishes.
Made with: Shallot, Buah keras, Belacan, Lemongrass, Galangal, Fresh turmeric, Dried and fresh red chillies, Garlic. The source gives no amounts, so none are shown.
Using it
Fry the paste in a generous amount of oil over moderate heat, stirring, until it darkens, smells sweet rather than raw and the oil separates out around it — pecah minyak. Only then add the meat, fish or liquid. Undercooked rempah tastes harsh and raw however long the dish then simmers.
Raw, sharp and pungent with shallot, garlic and belacan; fried properly, sweet, deep and fragrant, with lemongrass and galangal on top and a rounded savoury base underneath.
Moderate to hot, set by the chillies.
- Rendang and other slow-cooked meat
- Asam pedas and fish curries
- Nyonya curries
- Sambal and fried rice bases
Scaling: Scales freely by weight; the frying time does not scale linearly, and a double batch needs a wider pan rather than a longer time.
What to use it on
Beef
ClassicBeef rendang is the dish rempah is best known for: the ginger-, galangal- and lemongrass-led paste is cooked with beef and coconut milk for hours until the liquid is gone and the paste has fried again in the rendered fat.
How: Rendang
Mackerel
ClassicAsam pedas — sour-hot fish stew of Melaka and Johor — is chilli, shallot and belacan rempah with tamarind, cooked with oily fish such as mackerel, whose richness the sourness cuts.
How: Asam pedas
Add alongside: Torch ginger, Vietnamese coriander, Tamarind
If you have none
Bumbu
Good matchThe Indonesian family of the same idea, often from the same roots — rendang is Minangkabau before it is Malaysian. A red or yellow bumbu dasar stands in for most rempah; what changes is the balance, since Malaysian and Nyonya rempah lean harder on belacan and candlenut.
| Flavour | Aroma | Colour | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| close | close | close | similar |
Works for
- Rendang
- Everyday curries and stir-fries
Does not work for
- Nyonya dishes where the candlenut-and-belacan richness is the point
Rempah compared
Direct comparisons with the blends and spices it is most often taken for.
Storage
Good for: not established
Raw paste in the fridge for a few days; fried paste for about a week.
A perishable preparation: raw paste left at room temperature is a safety matter, not a quality one.
Allergens and safety
- Crustaceans (crustacean shellfish) — a declarable allergen in the EU and US
Crustaceans (crustacean shellfish) must be declared in both the EU and the United States. This is a statement about labelling law rather than about whether allergy occurs — allergic reactions to spices are documented and are not a labelling category — and it is the part of the answer that differs by where the food is sold.
Culture and origin
Malaysia and Singapore, across Malay, Nyonya (Peranakan) and Malaysian Indian kitchens, with close relatives in the bumbu of Indonesia.
Malay households
Among the Malay.
The daily work of the Malay kitchen: pounding rempah in the batu lesung, the stone mortar, before any cooking begins. Blenders have largely replaced the mortar, and cooks who still pound argue that the texture and the flavour are better for it.
Nyonya (Peranakan) cooking
In Peranakan tradition the quality of a household’s rempah — pounded fine, fried slowly and patiently — was a measure of a cook’s skill, and the rich candlenut-and-belacan pastes are among the markers of the cuisine.