Busygran's Stewed Chicken in Soya Sauce

Came across this simple and easy recipe from Busygran's blog. I knew I just had to try it. I added some oyster mushrooms and sneaked in another tablespoon of chinese cooking wine. Besides that, I was true to her recipe. Really simple and yummy.

Fusion Curry

Chicken curry is one of the dishes that I now can cook without looking at the recipe *ehem*. I joked with hubby that now I can cook it with my eyes closed! Although I am quite satisfied with my chicken curry (dry or with gravy), I think it can still be improved. But fish curry is a different story altogether. I was never really satisfied with my fish curry. I can never get that same taste as my MIL's no matter how I followed her recipe. Probably I haven't cook enough and I think I need to sit through a cooking session with her!

Last week I tried cooking a fusion chicken curry. Fusion because I had in mind to add in some lychees! I could almost hear hubby shrieking there! And I did. I first had this lychee in a curry experience at a nearby Thai restaurant in the form of a bowl of yummy Thai green curry. What a pleasant surprise I had, to find the lychee sweetness amidst the richness of the curry. Then I stumbled upon a blogger Rita's grilled chicken red curry with lychee recipe, and thought to myself that it should be alright to add in lychees in any chicken curry recipes (with gravy). And so I did.

My fusion chicken curry with gravy. A combination of recipes from MIL, mom and my own.

How to:

1. Marinate chicken with garlic-ginger paste, curry powder and light soya sauce overnight.

2. Heat oil. Throw in cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, star anise and cloves. Stir a little and add in chopped/ground shallots. Stir till fragrant.

3. Then put in the marinated chicken and mix well. Add in the curry paste and enough water to cover the chicken. More gravy = more water (add in ground almonds or cashews for thicker gravy - a tip I got from mom). Throw in some potatoes. Let the mixture simmer. Add milk / coconut milk / yoghurt and continue simmering.

4. When the curry is almost done, add in the tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs, lime juice, lychees (with a little syrup), and salt to taste. Simmer a little bit more and your curry is ready!

I like it! And it could certainly do with more lychees and syrup (I was a bit careful with how much lychees I put in as I'm not sure if it'll turn out alright). But hubby doesn't seem to quite fancy this dish. He said it's as if the lychees accidentally dropped into the pot of curry!! Yup he's a stickler to traditions esp when it comes to the food he's used to!

Spicy Fried Chicken, Alesia's Way

I drooled over the pics of Alesia the home cook's ayam goreng berempah and so therefore decided to try the recipe. This I would say was the best batch of fried chicken that I've ever cooked (I still haven't mastered the art of deep frying). But it can still be improved. I didn't have cumin and coriander seeds so I only made do with powdered ones.

The egg and flour gave the chicken a crispy skin-like texture. Nice.

Juicy.

I Hereby Officiate 'The Indian Kitchen'

'The Indian Kitchen' is filled with delicious mouth-watering treats that I wish I could just poof up instead of cooking from scratch. Why, you ask? Good Indian dishes are always prepared with loads of spices and at times hard-to-get ingredients, not to mention that extra cooking step to make it its own. I decided to whip up one carrot-flavoured rice and spicy goan chicken curry - they seemed simple enough and most importantly I have them ingredients.

Gajar Ka Pulao

Heat oil in a pan. When it is hot, add the cassia stick (I replaced it with cinnamon bark), cloves and black peppercorns, and fry for a minute. Add the rice (I used two cups) and fry until translucent. Throw in the grated carrots (I used one big carrot) and 4Tbsp cashew nuts. Fry for a couple of minutes before transferring the rice into a rice cooker. Add the salt and hot water and stir the mixture well. Leave it to cook!

All ready - my carrot-flavoured rice!

The second dish for the day was one Komdi Vindaloo

Ingredients:

Cooking oil, potatoes, large onions, 4 chicken drumsticks, cloves, black peppercorns, cardamom, 4 green chilies (slit lengthways to expose the seeds but the chili is not broken in two - this description immediately made my mouth water ~spicy!), 1tsp sugar, salt. 4Tbsp malt vinegar (I replaced it with calamansi juice).

Grind to a paste: 1tsp cumin seeds, 1tsp coriander seeds, 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, 1tsp chopped garlic, 1tsp chopped ginger, 4 dried red chilies, and a large pinch of cinnamon powder (I didn't have cumin seeds and coriander seeds, so I replaced with powdered ones).

How to:

1. Heat oil in a pan and fry the potatoes until golden. Set aside.

2. Fry the onions till translucent. Add the chicken, cloves, peppercorns, cardamom and green chilies.

3. Fry until the chicken is well browned. Add sugar and salt and stir-fry for about five minutes.

4. Add potatoes and the ground spice paste. Cook till the chicken is done.

5. Stir in the vinegar and simmer for five more minutes. Enjoy!

*I added a little water during the cooking process as the ingredients began to stick to the pan.

Presenting my spicy Goan chicken curry

Chicken Varuval

I love chicken varuval. Especially PJ Gasing's Sri Pandi's. So when I stumbled upon this varuval recipe by Babeinthecitykl, I knew I have to try it! I've tried a varuval recipe before but that one didn't involve frying the chicken first and it tasted more like dry curry. No surprise! So I was excited when I finally uncover the missing link.

Our dinner later. Can hardly wait.

And it looks like how a varuval should look like!

Just love it! Thanks Babeinthecitykl!!

Chicken Keema

Got the inspiration to cook this from Busygran. As usual I didn't totally follow the exact recipe so here is my version.

Ingredients:

Minced meat (from two palm sized chicken fillet). Marinate with curry powder (or turmeric and chili powder), mixed spice powder, corn flour, light soy sauce and a bit of cooking oil.

(A) Cinnamon stick, cloves, star anise, cardamon, crushed black peppercorns, fennel seeds, curry leaves.

(B) 5 medium shallots, 3 cloves garlic, 1" ginger (chopped)

Curry paste with some mix spice powder

Carrots, potatoes (cubed)

Tomatoes, green chili

2 Tbsp santan

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat oil and stir fry (A). Add (B) and continue to stir fry till fragrant.

2. Throw in the minced meat and fry fry fry. Add in the curry paste.

3. Throw in the pototoes, carrots and bell peppers, with sufficient water and simmer. Stir occasionally.

4. When amost ready, throw in the tomatoes, santan and salt.

5. Simmer some more and it is ready to serve.

Notes:

* Boil the potatoes first so that it'll be soft and nice.

* Bell peppers make good replacement for green chili.

* You may also add in green peas or chick peas.

* I used whole cherry tomatoes - the sweet-sour tomato taste wasn't really infused in the dish so I added a tablespoon of tomato sauce.

Turmeric Chicken

This is the first recipe I followed from Busygran. It got me excited at the first glance as it looked rather simple. The second glance had me wondering if it'll be yummy with such limited ingredients. I guess hers was a healthier version. Some improvisation is needed then. Here's how I cooked it.

Ingredients:

4 chicken drumsticks

Grind - 8 shallots, 3 pcs turmeric, 2 stalks lemongrass (thinly sliced), belacan, candlenuts, chili padi

1 stalk lemongrass (bruised)

Kaffir lime leaves

About 80ml santan (packet), some water

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat oil and fry the blended ingredients till fragrant.

2. Throw in the chicken, bruised lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves. Stir stir stir and fry fry fry.

3. Add about 1 cup water and bring to a boil. Pour in the santan.

4. Stir to a mix and simmer.

Notes:

* Even after some changes, I still find this dish very mild. You may consider adding pounded anchovies and dried prawns, ginger, galangal, more chilies (if you love spicy). But then again if there are too much additions, it might turned out like sayur lodeh or masak lemak etc.

Oily Rice

My first effort of a complete set of nasi minyak (literally translated as 'oily rice'), which is often served in malay weddings. Of course the condiments and dishes may vary. The recipes for the nasi minyak and spicy honey chicken were taken from the internet (except for the cucumber salad) but I've forgotten the sites. Sorry yea. But here are my versions (I usually 'agak-agak' and modify them recipes).

NASI MINYAK
1. Heat up a pan. Add ghee and margarine.
2. When hot, add pounded paste (shallots, garlic, ginger), star anise, cloves, cinnamon stick and cardamon. You may also add in screwpine leaves (knotted) and lemongrass (knocked flat). Fry till fragrant.
3. Add cashewnuts and raisins (you may also add in the raisins when the rice is almost cooked). Stir, stir, stir.
4. Then add in rice and mix well.
5. Transfer everything into a rice cooker. Add tomato juice/ketchup and a pinch of salt (some recipes also call for milk. Then add water.
6. Put the rice to cook and do remember to stir the rice as it is being cooked.

SPICY HONEY CHICKEN
1. Marinate chicken with turmeric powder, salt and pepper for half an hour before frying the chicken.
2. Heat up a wok. Add oil and stir fry cinnamon stick, cloves, star anise and curry leaves till fragrant. Add in pounded ginger and garlic and continue stir frying till lightly browned.
3. Add in tomato paste, chili paste, honey and stir well for ten seconds. Add in some water and bring to a boil. Toss in the fried chicken and onion rings.
4. Stir fry and bring the heat to a low simmer, cover and cook until the sauce thickens and the chicken is done. Check on the sweetness and saltiness.
5. Ready to serve.

CUCUMBER, ONION AND CHILI SALAD
1. Toss in sliced cucumber, chilies, shallots and pineapple, together with lime juice, sugar and salt. Adjust the sweet-sour-salty taste according to your preference.

Curried sambal chicken

Decided to 'concoct' my own recipe, hence this curried sambal chicken dish (or is it curried chicken sambal?). Decided to document the recipe here in case my memory fails me later. So here it goes.

~ 5 chicken drumsticks (chop into half) - marinate overnight with light soy sauce and curry powder
~ 2 heaped Tbsp sambal paste
~ 1 Tbsp coriander powder (mix with 1/2-1 glass of water)
~ 1/2-1 big onion
~ 2 tamarind slices
~ kaffir lime leaves
~ sugar and salt to taste

1. Heat oil in pan. Put in the paste and kaffir lime leaves. Fry fry fry till fragrant.

2. Add in the marinated chicken. Continue frying and stirring till chicken are well-coated with the paste.
3. Pour in the coriander powder mix. Add in the tamarind slices. Simmer till the chicken is cooked.
4. Throw in the onions when it's almost done. Add sugar and salt according to taste.
5. Enjoy!