Monday, July 5, 2010

Nasi Lemak (Rice with Coconut Milk) and Curry Chicken

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OK, back to cooking posts now.

It is July 4th weekend, we have 3 days off. There is no more reason for me to be lazy and find all kind of excuses not to cook.. :-p

It is not fair to Tom too, he has been eating too much of my lazy meals recently, fried rice, noodle soup, koey teow soup, beehoon soup, mee suah soup, fried noodle, pizza...etc. I feel a bit guilty...lol

We have a small pot luck party on this weekend, they ordered curry chicken from me, I decided to cook some additional ingredients for nasi lemak (coconut rice)just for ourselves and some of my friends I recently met here - they are from Singapore and Malaysia.

Recipe for Curry Chicken

Please keep in mind that this recipe is for 5lbs of chicken, adjust the amount of the ingredients if you cook for smaller portion.
It is impossible for me to find the fresh ground spices over here in Arizona. Hence I have invented my own version of curry chicken, I don't really like the typical Chinese curry chicken that with a lot of coconut milk gravy. I like curry Kapitan but it is too dry for me, so, I mix with a pack of curry rendang paste in order to produce more gravy to mix with the rice. Here's my version of curry chicken.


1. 1.5 pack (110g) of Hup Long curry Kapitan powder (see picture at the end of the post), it is available at local oriental supermarket (Lee Lee), I normally buy it from Penang (Carrefour or Tesco).

2. 1 pack (200G) of Mak Nyonya Rendang paste (see picture at the end of the post)
I brought this from Penang too, you can substitute it with any brand that is available at your local oriental supermarket)

3. 5lbs chicken, marinade with 0.5pack(35g) of curry Kapitan powder with 1/2tsp of salt for 1 hour.

4. 500g purple shallot - ground or blended
5. 4 stalks lemon grass - crushed
6. 8~10 curry leaf
7. 1000~1200ml water
8. 3~4 tbsp thick coconut milk
9. 2~3 tsp lime juice
10. 2pcs of lime peel (about 2" size) - optional
11. Salt to taste
12. 2~3 potato, cook until soft, peel and cut to chunks.

Note :
*** If I cook 1 whole chicken - approx. 3.5lbs, I will just reduce the Kapitan curry powder to 1 pack usage, reduce the water and coconut milk, I will keep the same amount of ground shallot.***

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Steps :

1. Heat the pot, add in sufficient oil.
2. Quick fry marinated chicken
- Not to well cooked. About 2 minutes for a whole drum stick, less than 1 minute for the rest of cuts. I know this step may not sound healthy, but it prevents the meat from becoming mushy. And it makes the meat coat better with the curry gravy too. Split to few fries if you want to save the oil.

3. After quick frying the chicken, discharge excessive oil. Leave about 3tbsp of oil in the pot.
4. Fragrance ground shallot for about 5 minutes (adjust the heat if necessary), add in lemon grass, curry Kapitan powder (pre-mixed with some water), rendang paste and curry leaf.
5. Stir and fragrance for another 5~8 minutes.
6. Add some water water (I added 800ml first, then followed by small portion until it reached my desired texture, if you like thicker gravy, reduce the amount of water)
7. Bring to boil, add in pre-fried chicken, pre-cooked potato chunks. Simmer about about 10~15 minutes or until the chicken is tender.
8. Add in coconut milk, lime juice, salt to taste.
9. Bring to boil again then remove from heat immediately.
10. Add in lime peel - optional (I like it this way as it brings some tangy aroma to my curry chicken, the lime peel shouldn't be cooked, or it will bring bitter flavor to your curry gravy ).
11. Skim excessive oil if necessary.


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Sambal chili- I made this 1 day ahead and forgot to record the volume of my ingredients. I believe a lot of Malaysians have their own homemade recipe. I made it simple just a combination of fresh ground chili, roasted prawn paste (belacan) and key lime juice.


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Sambal Ikan Bilis (Sambal Anchovies and Peanut)- only mix the sauce with anchovies and peanut when serving to avoid soggy texture.

I make this for small portion only just for ourselves and my friends from Malaysia and Singapore)

1. 100g anchovies - rinsed then dried with paper towel, bake in the oven for 25~30 minutes at 300f. Juggling the baking sheet every 10 minutes to prevent burning. I avoid to deep fry it for health reasons (try to avoid too much frying now..lol)

2. 150 peanuts - saute without oil until golden brown (again, avoid frying it)

Sauce for ikan bilis

1. 1tbsp oil
2. 100g onion slices
3. 2tbsp homemade sambal chili
4. 2 tbsp sweet chili sauce
5. 1 tsp oyster sauce
6. 70ml water
7. 1~2 tbsp tamarind juice
8. 1/2~1 tsp dark soy sauce
9. 1/2 tsp sugar
10. Some corn starch liquid for thickening
****no need to season with salt because anchovies are salty enough****

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Steps:
1. Fragrance onion slices with oil.
2. Add in sambal chili, stir and switch to medium heat.
3. Add sweet chili sauce, oyster sauce and dark soy sauce.
4. Stir for few second then add in water, tamarind juice and sugar.
5. Bring to boil then thicken the sauce with corn starch liquid.
6. Remove from heat immediately.

Lastly...coconut rice, just grab all the ingredients below into a rice cooker then press start. :-)

1. 3 cup jasmine rice - washed and rinsed.
2. 2.75~3 cup water (depends on which brand of the rice you use)
3. 5~6 tbsp thick coconut milk
4. 1/4 tsp salt
5. 1 inch of fresh ginger chunk
6. 6~8 pandan leaf (screw pine leaf) - I like it more-- :-)

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Curry Kapitan powder - it is also available at oriental supermarket here - Lee Lee Supermarket.











Brought it back from Penang, I found it tastes better. The one sold at Lee Lee is the brand from Singapore.

19 comments:

  1. 哎呀,这可是我一直以来很喜欢的食物,哪天有机会品尝你的手艺呢?

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  2. oh my! you are making me drool here. More than 5 years in Singapore but never made nasi lemak until today. I had eaten it twice from outside. Urs recipe is more healthy that the once I usually see. Will try this Sunday. Thanks for sharing the recipe Wendy and the photos are drool worthy.The chicken curry is well coated with all the spices. Yumm..

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  3. Nasi Lemak lover come to eat your yummy Nasi Lemak, i feel so hungry seeing your delicious NL, can I have a plate pls..

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  4. potato...哈哈哈..有机会的, 有机会的!

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  5. Hi Sonia...sure!!! You can.. :-)

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  6. hahaha...yr 3rd paragraph abt Tom eating all that soup stuff is so funny! you're lucky he eats them! aiyoh this nasi lemak is making me 'lau nuah'. i haven't eaten nasi lemak for like 2 mths!! this curry with mixed spices can really turn out delicious and i'm sure it is. even more 'lau nuah' now! ok, now i have time to go see yr wedding pics!

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  7. Suhaina...i think my comment moderation is acting weird..your comment finally pop up!!hahaha...Let me know how yours try turn out, ok?

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  8. nyonya.. yea..you are right, it is really lucky if you hubby not so picky and eat whatever you cook for him...let me tell you..my dad and brother are really harder to please, my mom always headache about what to cook for them hahahaa....!

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  9. Hi,第一次来你家坐坐。你的NL太美味了,我的肚子好饿哦。。。流口水!!:)

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  10. huikhee and yoonlai..欢迎..欢迎!!有空来坐坐..

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  11. hi Wendy, i am drooling over your NL. i am a malayisian (SP) living in Arizona too! i wish i could make more malaysian food as you do. :)

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  12. Hi kikiree..nice to hear from you..which part are you in AZ? May be you can join us when we have Malaysian food pot luck party! :-)

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  13. I am living in N. Scottsdale with my husband. I will be extremely happy if i can join your Malaysian pot luck party! which part of town you are in? i have a simple food blog too (you can access by clicking on my image). nice to know you from your blog!

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  14. Kikiree...I live in Chandler! That's why I got most of my ingredients from Lee Lee. I will definitely keep you posted our next pot luck party! :-) Take care!

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  15. by the way...kikiree, please drop me an email at wendyong@dexm.com so we can keep in touch, one of my friends here want to get to know you, she is from SP too.. :-)

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  16. I have added Khoo over at fb. small world. :-)

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  17. Shane...yep small world....hope I can see more eating member here...hahahaa..

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  18. yupss, sure did make me 'lau nuah'! Like Suhaina, i'm in Singapore for 5years since knowing my husband, but i've never had any nasi lemak that is worthy for more! One's sold outside looks 'okay' only.

    Its my birthday this Sat, and hubby has invited some close friends for pot luck as well....Curry Chicken is the family favorite, his mom makes her own paste, but i know i can never make it the same way. Hers is the Chinese coconut one extra spicy. But i miss 'Rendang' style. So this 'Nasi Lemak' recipe has really gotten me into the mood to prepare and have some fun!

    Thank you Wendy!

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  19. Hi Gracel, thank you for dropped by, I hope you and your friends enjoy it!

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