Learn Hardcore Malay: Minyak di kuali itu cukup panas untuk memasak telur dan ayam. - The oil in that pan is hot enough to cook the eggs and chicken.

Minyak … cukup panas
Literally: Oil … enough hot → The oil is hot enough.
You normally do not add adalah or ialah here. Those are used in more formal contexts, often before nouns, not adjectives.

So:

Minyak di kuali itu cukup panas… = The oil in that pan is hot enough…
without needing a separate word for “is”.

What does “cukup panas” express exactly? Is it “very hot” or “too hot”?

Cukup panas means “hot enough / sufficiently hot”, not “very hot” or “too hot”.

cukup = enough, sufficient
sangat panas = very hot
terlalu panas = too hot (excessively hot)

So the idea is:
The oil has reached the minimum level of heat needed to cook eggs and chicken, not that it’s extremely or excessively hot.

Why do we use “di kuali itu” instead of “dalam kuali itu” for “in the pan”?

Both di kuali itu and dalam kuali itu are possible, but there’s a nuance:

di = at / in / on (very general location marker)
dalam = inside (emphasises being inside something)

For everyday speech:

Minyak di kuali itu… is perfectly natural and common.
Minyak dalam kuali itu… is also correct, and slightly emphasises “inside the pan”.

In practice, for a pan with oil, di kuali itu is widely used and understood as “in that pan”.

What is the function of “itu” in “kuali itu”? Can we say “kuali ini” instead?

Itu is a demonstrative meaning “that” (farther from the speaker, or previously mentioned).
Ini means “this” (near the speaker).

kuali itu = that pan (over there / already talked about)
kuali ini = this pan (near me)

You can say:

Minyak di kuali ini cukup panas… = The oil in this pan is hot enough…
if you are referring to a pan near you. The grammar is the same; only the distance/deixis changes.

Why is it “minyak di kuali itu” and not “minyak itu di kuali”?

Both are grammatical, but the focus and style change:

Minyak di kuali itu cukup panas…
- Literally: Oil in that pan is hot enough…
- Focuses on the oil that is in that specific pan. It sounds like one noun phrase: the oil in that pan.
Minyak itu di kuali cukup panas… (or Minyak itu yang di kuali…)
- Sounds more like: That oil, (the one) in the pan, is hot enough…
- Feels slightly less natural in this simple cooking context unless you’re contrasting different oils.

So the given sentence uses the most natural, compact noun phrase: “the oil in that pan”.

Why do we use “untuk memasak” here? Could we just say “cukup panas memasak telur dan ayam”?

In this structure, “untuk” is needed to express purpose:

untuk + verb ≈ in order to / for (the purpose of) doing [verb]
untuk memasak = to cook / for cooking

So:

cukup panas untuk memasak telur dan ayam
= hot enough to cook eggs and chicken.

Without untuk, “cukup panas memasak telur dan ayam” is not natural Malay in this meaning. You would normally:

Either keep untuk:
Minyak … cukup panas untuk memasak telur dan ayam.
Or change structure entirely:
Minyak … cukup panas, jadi kita boleh memasak telur dan ayam.
(The oil is hot enough, so we can cook eggs and chicken.)

Why is it “memasak” and not just “masak”? What’s the difference?

Masak and memasak are related, but:

masak
- Base word.
- Can be an adjective: cooked / ripe (nasi ini sudah masak = this rice is cooked).
- In casual speech, people do use masak as a verb too: Saya nak masak. (I want to cook.)
memasak
- Verb with the prefix meN-.
- Standard / formal “to cook (something)”.
- Takes a direct object: memasak telur dan ayam (to cook eggs and chicken).

In this sentence, because we clearly have objects (telur dan ayam), memasak is the standard, grammatically complete choice.
In informal conversation, some speakers might say untuk masak telur dan ayam, but untuk memasak is safer and more standard.

Why don’t we repeat “memasak” before “ayam”? Why not say “memasak telur dan memasak ayam”?

Malay allows one verb to govern multiple objects joined by dan (“and”):

memasak telur dan ayam
= to cook eggs and chicken.

You only need to say memasak once, before the first noun. Repeating it is usually unnecessary unless you want to emphasise each action separately, which is not needed here.

So:

Correct & natural: memasak telur dan ayam
Also grammatical but wordy: memasak telur dan memasak ayam

If the English meaning is “The oil is already hot enough…”, where is “already” in Malay? Should we add “sudah”?

The sentence as given:

Minyak di kuali itu cukup panas untuk memasak telur dan ayam.

does not explicitly include “already”. It simply states the current state: The oil in that pan is hot enough…

If you want to emphasise “already”, you can add sudah:

Minyak di kuali itu sudah cukup panas untuk memasak telur dan ayam.
= The oil in that pan is already hot enough to cook eggs and chicken.

Sudah highlights that the condition has now been reached.

Could we say “menggoreng telur dan ayam” instead of “memasak telur dan ayam”?

Yes, and it changes the meaning slightly:

memasak = to cook (general, any cooking method)
menggoreng = to fry (specifically frying in oil)

Because we’re talking about oil in a pan, menggoreng is often more precise:

Minyak di kuali itu cukup panas untuk menggoreng telur dan ayam.
= The oil in that pan is hot enough to fry eggs and chicken.

The original with memasak is still correct and natural; it’s just more general.