Satay Chicken

It was the middle of summer and it was the barbecue season. I thought it would be a great time to try making satay, Malaysian style, for the first time. However, I was feeling a bit lazy and did not feel like cutting the chicken into little pieces. Hence, I decide to marinate the chicken in quarter portions. Nothing wrong with that ... after all, they often sell it this way in the streets of Bangkok.

So I concocted a mixture of ground coriander, fennel, cumin, ginger, garlic, coconut milk, and some salt and sugar to taste. It all looked and smelt fine and I marinated the chicken for about 4 hours.

Then the rain came down. We have had quite a wet second half to this summer and our hopes for a bbq in the garden was thwarted. So, I decided to pop the chicken into the oven.

After turning them over about 4 times, it is ready. I basted it with its own juice / oil throughout the cooking process.



I served it with shop - bought peanut sauce and rice. Tasted fine, but could have been a lot better with the charcoal bbq taste to it!

Mee Goreng Udang ( Prawn Fried Noodles )

A quick, and simple dish, where the ingredients play a huge part in how good (or bad) it taste.

I had not bought anything to make dinner that night and decided to look around to see what was in the cupboard and freezer. What I found were the essential ingredients for this slight variation of a popular Malaysian mamak (indian-muslim) dish.

The noodles and prawns were fried separately, as the latter were quite big and I wanted to make sure they were cooked properly rather than frying them together with the noodles, and risk over or undercooking them.



Noodles:
I had some instant "straight to wok" noodles for emergencies, but its best to use fresh egg noodles. Not the thin variety.
I also had some sambal belachan frozen in individual portions. These were made by grinding belachan (pungent prawn paste), chillies, garlic and dried shrimps together.

Method:
Fry the paste in oil with sliced onions till fragrant - when the fumes start to make you cough and splutter, then that it the right time to add the noodles!
Sprinkle water so that noodles becomes soft and succulent. Then add tomato sauce, chilli sauce and sweet soy sauce. Add salt to taste.
When nearly done, crack an egg over it. Continue frying till egg becomes brown.
Then its done!




Prawns:
I used peeled and deveined raw tiger prawns (frozen). Fresh is better if you can get them.
Heat 50% butter, 50% oil, then add diced capsicum, curry leaves and garlic. Fry till brown (only takes seconds), then add 1 tsp curry powder paste.
Again, fry till fumes make you cough and splutter, then add the prawns and fry quickly. Add salt to taste. Remove when you start seeing moisture seep out of the prawns. You dont want to lose too much water from the prawns or they will not be succulent and juicy when you bite into them.

Serve noodles, topped with the prawns.

Malaysian Curry Chicken

This is probably the most common Malaysian curry dish. Not only is it deliciously rich and satisfying in taste, but also simple to cook. Sometimes, when you buy if from the nasi kandar or nasi lemak seller, the sauce can be a bit watery, but when you do it at home, you don't have to scrimp on the coconut milk and can make it nice and thick. The chicken has to be on-the-bone or you would lose 50% of the taste. Even better if you can chop it to bite size pieces, then the marrow is exposed and adds a wonderful flavour to the sauce.

The curry power was shop bought, made into a paste. Other ingredients include onions, curry leaves, and a blade of pandan (screwpine) leaf.



Then I fry the curry leaves, onions, and curry paste, in this order.


Then add chicken to brown before adding coconut milk, water and pandan leaf and left to stew for awhile.


And that is it!

Curry Sotong / Squid / Cuttlefish

One of my favourite Malaysian dishes is the curried squid. The ones you get from the mamak stalls or nasi lemak seller. I would have this several times a week whenever I visited, but I always have a preference for small whole squids rather than the brown reconstituted cuttlefish.

My version is made from what I think is a cuttlefish. It looks exactly like the small squids, except that its rather huge .. about 6 times the size. Also its cleaned and frozen from fresh, so there are no tentacles and innards. Just the body itself. It makes the preparation really easy.

Ingredients:
Squid
Curry powder, mixed into a paste
Curry leaves
Onions
Tamarind juice
Coconut milk
Tomato paste
Salt

Method
I always blanch the squid first as it can be too fishy if cooked from raw.
Then I brown the curry leaves, onions and the curry paste together.
Then add the tomato paste, tamarind juice and coconut milk
Then add the squid and simmer for 10 mins - depending on the thickness of the squid.
And that's it!

Quick Beef Rendang

When in a hurry and want some authentic Malaysian grub, Brahim sauces are a godsend! This classic dish is made so simple with this sauce. This particular version has even been specially packed for the UK, as you can see from the picture. It may say "Indonesian", but it is exactly the same as the ones you get at Giant in the Blue / Orange pack. It is available at some of the bigger conventional supermarkets, like Sainsburys.

Typically, I like to embellish cooking sauces to give it a more unique taste, in this case, the addition of curry leaves, capsicums and fresh tomatoes.

Hainan Chicken Rice

Here is a dish I cook about twice a month. There is not that much work involved, but does consume a fair bit of time because of the lengthy cooking process of the chicken, hence there is a lot of waiting around. It is certainly not a dish you can do after a long day at work and you want to cook a quick dinner. Even here, I have taken some short cuts because of time constraints.





To start with, the raw ingredients here are simple.. chicken, ginger, garlic and spring onions.



Bring them all to boil, then I add the chicken. If I had more time, I'd fry the ginger and garlic first and include the oil in the pot.



After 1 minute, including time to turn the chicken over as I did not have enough water so submerge the whole chicken (why? .. I'll explain later), the chicken has now gone white and I quickly put it under cold water to tighten up the skin.



Then I boil it again in the same pot.



After 15 mins, I turn off heat and leave it for another 30 mins. Then I give it another cold water bath!



Now, I lay it aside to dry. I ensure I keep it suspended in the air so that the whole surface dries. Some people may prefer to use a hook and hang it up.



Now, I boil down the stock. Earlier, I said I did not have enough water to submerge the whole chicken. That is because, the more water I use, the longer it takes to boil the stock down and I did not have the time. I also add a bit of Knorr's chicken stock here for additional flavour. Of course, I add salt, sugar and pepper to taste as well.



With the stock ready, I add it to my rice, with a blade of screwpine (pandan) leaf.



When the chicken is dry, I rub it with sesame oil, then chop it the Chinese way. The sauce is a mixture of sugar, stock, soy sauce, sesame oil, pepper and spring onions





The first pic of this blog showed the dry version of the dish. I prefer mine soaked with sauce like this!!

Char Siu, revisited (Chinese Barbeque Pork)

Here is a dish I have blogged about before. However, I felt I had to do it again because, like all amateur cooks, my dishes do not come out identical evertime I prepare them. On this occassion, it turned out really well, in taste as well as appearance. The reason is because I bought belly pork (the kind used in crispy roast pork - siu yoke) instead of tenderloin or shoulder/neck steak. The big difference is the amount of fat in belly pork and I also made too much marinade for this lot. As a result, it had a stronger taste and the fatty bits made some parts crispy and charred with that "melt in your mouth" texture as you bite into it. I dont usually use belly as its rather unhealthy, but find that it's the best cut if you want your char siu "pun fei sow" (half fat, half lean).



I am still a complete novice when it comes to food photography and presentation, but I am learning a lot by looking other people's food blogs. Can anyone tell me how to capture a photo where the object in front is clear, but all behind is blurred? I'm afraid I have only used the auto feature of my camera. When I select manual, everything is blurred!

Chow Kuey Teow

With most raw ingredients widely available locally, I make this dish quite frequently. However, it of course cannot compare with what you get in Malaysia, even the very worst ones :-(( . However, I believe I have theoretically worked out exactly how it can be done perfectly, but unfortunatley, circumstances does not permit it in the UK.

The things I lack:
- a cooker hot enough to achieve "wok hei"

- the right kind of ho fun noodles. Quality CKT requires thin, yet firm, fresh ho fun. The two fresh varieties available in Manchester are quite thick.- blood clams or "see hum"

- chinese chives. You can buy this in Manchester, but seems a waste to buy a 100g bunch just for a small dish of CKT.

The things that I can do, but don't:
- use lard. I usually have none available and making crispy pork fat bits are unhealthy.

- use chilli - because my family does not like it spicy.

- I don't use a wok, but a non-stick flat pan so as to not use too much oil. The raw ho fun itself is already very oily.

- Use of chopped preserved veg in the browning process. I'm afraid I don't know what veg it is they use, although I am sure it is available in Chinatown!

Here is the ho fun. It is bought folded up in a pack, like the cheong fun below, made by the same manufacturer. I immerse it in hot water to loosen and soften it.


The ingredients are garlic, squid, chinese sausage, prawns, fish cake and beansprouts (not pictured).


The sauces are sweet soy (blended with a little bit of the sauces pictured below .. only a LITTLE BIT!) and light soy.


And in the pan, only a tiny bit of vegetable oil to brown the garlic before putting in the noodles.

And the final product!