Abby Lee, instantly recognisable by her tangerine and violet hair, is standing at her kitchen island in Hackney, east London, chopping some long red chillis. “Don’t bother deseeding them,” she says, chucking the slices in a big silver bowl. “They are quite mild, but we have dried chillis to provide the heat.” The Malaysian chef and founder of the open-kitchen concept Mambow in Peckham, south-east London, is demonstrating how to cook the sambal for her steamed okra and prawn floss dish (you can find the recipe below). “It’s comforting,” she says, recalling how her auntie would have it ready and waiting for her after school. “It reminds me of home.”

Today, home for Abby is a top-floor Victorian flat, which she shares with her partner, but growing up she divided her time between Malaysia and Singapore. When she was younger, Abby would spend much of her spare time icing cakes at her family’s bakery in Singapore, but it wasn’t until later in life – when she returned to South-East Asia after a stint in the UK where she trained at Le Cordon Bleu – that Abby learned to really appreciate the food of her heritage. In fact, the pandemic proved to be a particularly fruitful period, after her aunt passed down Abby’s grandmother’s recipes to her. Abby now credits both women as her greatest culinary inspirations.

It’s inheriting her family recipes that inspired Abby to open Mambow, which she runs from a permanent street-food-style set-up in a corner of Market Peckham. As its Instagram bio reads, Mambow specialises in “Maylasian heat and juicy wines”, with a menu featuring mussels tossed in a “lip-smacking sauce” of curry leaf, curd-bean paste and birds-eye chilli, which come dusted in dried-prawn floss, and fish-of-the-day ceviche bathed in a garlic and chilli paste with crispy coconut flakes and crunchy green mango. The venture has a planet-friendly point of view too: Abby works with local suppliers to source her ingredients and uses any leftovers to make dishes such as soup or cake, while the space itself has been built using responsibly sourced materials.

When it comes to her own kitchen at home in Hackney, Abby has employed a similar ethos. With the help of her friend, the interior designer Leticia Houston, Abby transformed the formerly “beaten up” room into a pleasing pink-and-blue haven for cooking and hosting alike – all while being “as sustainable as we are at the restaurant”. She did this with materials such as old wood chips and recycled resin, using ex-display and second-hand objects to create a characterful scheme that packs a punch. (As does, we can attest, her collection of spices and hot sauces). Watch our film now for a peek at her vibrant scheme and for her top cooking tips – and read on to discover her recipe for steamed okra with sambal and prawn floss.

Abby’s recipe for steamed okra with sambal and prawn floss

“This tastes so good alongside other home-style dishes and piping hot rice.”

Serves 4

For the rempah paste
1 small red onion
85g lemongrass, green tops removed halfway (reserve for flavouring rice or tea)
100g long red chilli
6g belacan (shrimp paste)
½tsp ground turmeric

For the sambal
100ml vegetable oil, or any other neutral oil
8g fine sea salt
12g granulated sugar
45g tamarind concentrate, the light brown South-East Asian version

For the prawn floss
20g dried shrimp, soaked in warm water for 10 minutes
10g vegetable oil
Crispy shallots/onion
½ lime

350g okra

Roughly chop the onion, lemongrass and chilli for the rempah. Blend in a food processor with the belacan. Mix in the turmeric well.

Now make the sambal. In a saucepan, heat up the oil to medium heat. Add the rempah, stirring regularly, until the oil separates. This process requires a bit of patience, as it could take up to 25-30 minutes. If the rempah is caramelising too fast, turn the heat down. Once the oil has separated, add the salt, sugar and tamarind. Taste and season accordingly, depending if you prefer things more sweet, salty or sour. Balancing those flavours is key.

While waiting for the sambal to cook, make the prawn floss. Drain the dried shrimp well and blend till crumbly in texture. Put a frying pan over a low heat, add oil and blended shrimp and stir until lightly caramelised and dry.

Steam the okra for 5-8 minutes and check for tenderness with a fork. Serve with sambal, prawn floss and crispy shallots on top. Squeeze over the juice of half a lime for an extra zing!