FOOD & DRINK / Satisfying the Lavender Hill Mob: Sunday Lunch with Nancy Lam: At home with an Oriental restaurateur in south London, Michael Bateman savours satays galore - and faces up to the Arnold Schwarzenegger of sardines.

The Menu

Prawn, Beef and Chicken Satay Sticks with Peanut Sauce

Chicken Curry with Plain Rice

Mutton Curry

Peking Turkey

Barbecued Bluefish

Roast Sucking Pig

Gado-Gado Salad

Exotic Fruit Salads

WHEN Nancy Lam cooks Sunday lunch she doesn't mess about, asking four or six people. Once a year she invites 40 or so of her friends to a grand Sunday lunch. She fills the house and garden with tables and fold-up chairs and sits her guests down to roast sucking pig, beef and mutton and chicken curries with rice, grilled chicken and prawn and beef satay sticks, gado-gado salad with hot peanut dressing.

In Tooting, south London, where she lives, this interpretation of Sunday lunch is unusual to say the least. But then Lam is not a native of Tooting, but of Singapore, the daughter of an Indonesian mother and a Chinese father.

Lam owns a restaurant in Lavender Hill, Wandsworth, called Enak-enak, or, in English, Yum-yum. She is renowned both for her delicious and homely cooking and for her entertaining way of dealing with stuffy customers.

Plain-speaking chefs are not in themselves unusual; the more temperamental ones now engage in vendettas with food guide editors. But Lam must be the only cook to tell a restaurant critic to asterisk off and end up with a rave write-up. Reviewer Craig Brown was rumbled as he scribbled notes on his pad. 'You writing about us?' demanded Nancy. 'When a restaurateur suspects you are a reviewer,' Brown observes, 'they start to fawn all over you, offering you Drambuies on the house, dinner dates for two, free money and so on. Not so Nancy.' She simply glared at him. 'Well, you can eff off.' Brown says he instantly warmed to her and considered the restaurant good value for money.

Her customers heartily agree. Lam learnt to cook in Singapore, then came to London to train as a nurse. She married her husband Ben, a Ghanaian (they have three daughters). Ten years ago she determined to try her hand at running a restaurant. A sandwich bar in Putney called Crusts let her the premises at night, and this is where she started up. On moving to Lavender Hill, she skilfully took her customers with her, like a swarm of bees.

Most of the bubbling crowd of guests who descend on her home on Sunday are part of the Lavender Hill Mob, for her friends are her customers and vice versa. 'They are the people who have supported me from the start,' she declares. 'I wouldn't exist without them.' A deacon, two television producers, a travel tour operator, a timber merchant and the editor of a gardening magazine mix with the Lams and their friends the Lims, who have been helping out.

The large house with its ample conservatory seems to be decorated entirely with festive food, which is stacked on every available surface. But nothing is quite so symbolic of the generous spirit of Indonesian entertaining as the roast sucking pig, lying red-golden in state, centre stage. Beside it is a whole roast turkey, bronzed and cooked Peking style. On another table, brighter than a flower display, are melons, pineapple, papaya and exotic fruit salads.

Rain has held off and, outside, Ben is attending to a barbecue he constructed

a few hours earlier by loosely stacking about 60 bricks to support a tray of charcoal and a grid. Here he grills stacks and stacks of satay sticks, morsels of beef, chicken and prawns served with a peanut sauce dip. The Lam daughters, Augusta, 17, Yangtze, 14, and Yang Mei, 13, take the satay to the guests who have spilled out into the garden, tripping over the Lam family's two Tibetan temple dogs, Ziggy and Bruno.

The garden is something of an anthology of world gardening. Within the usual suburban rectangle Nancy Lam has contrived to include a lawn crowded with gaudy bedding plants, busy Lizzies, tobacco-plants, petunias and geraniums, economically mounted in large Victorian chimney pots recovered from skips; and a Japanese water garden with bridge, bamboo fringe, and waterfall feeding a lily pond brimming with koi carp (the biggest is called The King and I) and goldfish, including one called Pavarotti although it's not known to sing.

The garden is bordered with the beginning of an orchard, with apple, plum, pear, cherry, lemon and orange trees; and an international jungle of exotics such as Angel's Trumpet (datura) with its large, pendulous yellow tulip blooms, mixed with familiar fuchsia, ferns, clematis, lavender, broom. There doesn't seem to be a plant which hasn't found a home here. 'There are people who have a problem with drink,' says Nancy. 'I have a problem with plants. If I see one I haven't got, I have to have it. I run an orphanage for plants.'

Nancy is a born entertainer and the lunch wouldn't be complete without a virtuoso display of her skill. Today she has decided to tackle a 16lb bluefish - as if there wasn't enough to go round, with the sucking pig, the turkey, the

mutton and chicken curries, the satays and the salads.

She demonstrates the Indonesian method of cooking, wrapping it like a mummy in damp banana leaves (you can buy them in Soho's Chinatown), then several layers of heavy foil. She has already scaled and gutted the fish, and now slashes it and stuffs the slits with chopped garlic, ginger and chopped, fried mushrooms. Then she puts it on a very hot grill to cook for two hours - the thick wrapping provides insulation, allowing it to cook gently inside. The ritual of unwrapping this vast fish produces inevitable oohs and aahs. 'The Arnold Schwarzenegger of sardines,' says the television director.

So this is an Indonesian Sunday lunch, a seamless chain of dishes to help yourself to. By European standards, there is only one thing missing from the array: pudding. There are some cakes, made by her daughters, but no desserts. 'That's right. We only serve fruit,' says Nancy. 'Fruit refreshes the palate, it doesn't fill you up.'

Sunday lunch on this scale can't be recommended as a model to anyone

but a masochist. It's not quick (satay sticks cook in no time but take hours

to prepare); it's not easy (the delicious curries must be cooked with great care and attention); and it's not cheap (try buying a sucking pig, a turkey, a 16lb bluefish and 10 kilos of fresh prawns). But many of the dishes are easy to tackle in small quantities at home. Here are recipes for the simplest.

SATAY STICKS

Satay sticks are skewered morsels of marinated beef, chicken or prawn, grilled or barbecued for less than a minute each side. The cooking time is brief because the pieces are small and because marinating tenderises the meat and reduces the need for cooking. Wooden skewers can be bought in Oriental stores. The skewers can be threaded several hours in advance, prior to grilling. Satay sauce, a peanut sauce, is usually as thick as an English bread sauce, but can be thinned to taste.

CHICKEN SATAY

Serves 10

1kg /2lb skinned chicken breasts

2 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground pepper

1 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Slice chicken across the grain (or it will be stringy) into 1 1/4 cm/ 1/2 in wide strips. In a bowl mix with the sugar and spices, and marinate at least an hour, or overnight. Use garlic powder rather than fresh garlic which gives a bitter taste cooked on a barbecue, but it can be omitted. This advice applies to all the satay recipes below.

Thread on to wooden skewers. Grill under a very hot grill or over a barbecue for less than a minute each side. Serve with satay sauce (see below).

BEEF SATAY

Serves 10

1kg /2lb rump steak

2 1/4 tablespoons of dark brown sugar

3 tablespoons of soy sauce

2 teaspoons of ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground pepper

1 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Slice meat across the grain into thin strips, not more than 1 1/4 cm/ 1/2 in wide. Mix in a bowl with sugar and spices and leave at least one hour, but preferably overnight.

Thread on to wooden skewers. Grill briefly, a minute each side. Serve with satay sauce (see below).

SATAY SAUCE

Serves 10

450g /1lb roasted peanuts

200ml /8fl oz water

125g /4oz sugar

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon chilli powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

Put the roasted peanuts in a blender and reduce to a paste. In a non-stick saucepan carefully heat the peanuts, water, sugar and spices, stirring with a wooden spoon so it doesn't stick. Cook gently until it thickens to consistency of a bread sauce, about five minutes. Add more water to thin if required. Serve warm.

PRAWN SATAY

Serves 10

1kg /2lb fresh, uncooked prawns

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 tablespoon dry white wine

1 teaspoon oyster sauce

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

1/4 teaspoon sugar

dash of chilli oil

lemon for dressing

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Peel the prawns, removing the black vein in the back. Mix with the other ingredients (except lemon juice) to marinate. Leave at least one hour, or overnight.

Thread on skewers, two or three at a time depending on size. Grill or barbecue half a minute each side. Serve with a squeeze of lemon on each.

CHICKEN CURRY

Serves 10

1.8kg /4lb chicken breasts

4 large onions, chopped small

3 tablespoons curry powder

2 tablespoons chilli powder

(or to taste)

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon salt

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Remove skin and any fat from chicken breasts. Cut into cubes 2 1/2 cm/1in square. Mix all the ingredients together thoroughly, and heat slowly in a large casserole which has a close-fitting lid (a non-stick pan is best). Bring to boil stirring continuously, and then immediately lower heat and cover.

On lowest heat, using a heat diffuser if you have one, simmer for half an hour. The chicken cooks in the moisture generated by the onions. Serve with boiled rice.

SPICY INDONESIAN MUTTON

Mutton with its stronger flavour, not lamb, is used for this dish; for this reason the cubes of meat are slightly salted, then rinsed in boiling water to give a more delicate taste. You can use fresh ginger instead of galingale (Thai ginger root), and the juice of half a lemon instead of lemongrass.

Serves 10

1.8kg /4lb leg or shoulder of mutton

5 tablespoons salt

juice of 2 limes

2 large onions, chopped

4 cloves garlic, crushed

2in peeled galingale, chopped

2 stems lemongrass, sliced

2in cinnamon stick

2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

600ml /1 pint water

3 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Cut the meat from bone (reserving the bones) and trim away the fat. Wash the meat cubes, rinse and pat dry with paper towel. Marinate overnight in the lime juice with 2 tablespoons of salt. Rinse the meat in a colander with boiling water.

In a blender mix onions, garlic, galingale (or ginger), lemongrass and cinnamon. In a non-stick pan fry the spice mixture in the oil over a slow heat, stirring continuously till golden brown, making sure it doesn't burn.

Put the meat into a non- stick casserole with a lid, mix in the spice mixture, the sugar and the remaining tablespoon of salt, add the water, and bring to boiling point. Turn down heat to lowest, cover tightly with lid (you can put a layer of wrinkled kitchen foil under the lid to make a better seal) and simmer for two hours till meat is moist and tender.

Serve with boiled rice.

Gado-gado means 'quarrel-quarrel', because family quarrels dissolve as people help themselves to this shared dish. This is a salad of mostly cold cooked vegetables, and the peanut dressing can be served hot, cold or warm. It is more savoury than the one for a satay, containing sour tamarind pulp (you can use more vinegar) and blachan, a pungent shrimp paste, sold in small blocks and obtainable at Oriental stores.

Serves 10

225g / 1/2 lb cabbage

225g / 1/2 lb carrots

225g / 1/2 lb cauliflower

140g /5oz bean sprouts

110g /4oz french beans

1 large potato, boiled

1 cucumber

225g / 1/2 lb tofu (white bean curd)

3 hard-boiled eggs

peanut sauce (see below)

Wash the vegetables and cut into smallish pieces. Boil cabbage, carrot, cauliflower and beans separately for up to five minutes until soft but not overcooked; blanch the bean sprouts in boiling water for half a minute. Drain.

Arrange attractively on a large salad plate. Dribble the peanut sauce (see below) on top. Slice the cucumber, the potato and eggs and arrange as a garnish.

PEANUT SAUCE

Serves 10

675g /1 1/2 lb roasted peanuts

225g / 1/2 lb sugar

300ml / 1/2 pint water

150ml / 1/4 pint vinegar

2 tablespoons tamarind paste

1 teaspoon chilli

1 teaspoon shrimp paste (blachan)

1/2 teaspoon salt

Crush the peanuts to a paste in a blender with the water. In a non-stick pan, heat with the remaining ingredients for five minutes. If it seems too thick, thin with a little more water. Serve.-