I have been asked many times to post my chicken curry recipe. This is especially so since I posted my roti canai with chicken curry recipe few years ago. Link Here

I have actually posted before in my old blog that was lost. This second blog won’t be lost so easily as hubby now runs a few HD back up – kekekekeke – Here, I aim to share and explain to the best of my ability how I cook my chicken curry. If you have any questions I will try to answer but I am sometimes very lazy and don’t check my blog for yonks. Apologies. Explanation is based on cooking a big nearly 2kg cornfed chicken and about the same weight in potatoes as my hubby being white British have a thing for potatoes like myself having a thing for rice.

Curry recipes are a dime a plenty on the internet but I daresay each and every household will have their own style. I am not a big fan of packet paste as I have spent monies on buying expensive kitchen gadgets I prefer to make my own paste. This is what I call my ‘Chinese’ style curry because there are no other spices except star anise, chilli and turmeric powder. My rule if thumb is I do not add too much spices with chicken, especially if cooked the ‘Chinese’ way.

Other spices like cumin, coriander, fennel, mustard seeds, cardamom, cloves, cassia bark etc etc I would only use if cooking red meat or Indian curries. This is of course entirely up to the individual cook. I would blog another red meat curry one fine day. Meanwhile if you like to try my rendang. the recipe is here – Beef Rendang or Serunding Daging you might enjoy. Those are the ones that used a ton of other spices.

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First thing to do is blend the red fresh chillies (seeds removed and topped), onions, garlic, lemon grass (white parts only), a small chunk of belacan (Yes I like belacan in my curries) and the dried chilli I have previously boiled and blended with some of the boiled water. (very spicy) You can do a batch of these and just freeze in small pots. I blended everything together to make the base for my curry.

Fry the blended base and star anise in oil (medium flame) slowly and steadily. Here I am using leftover oil from when I fried my prawns beancurd wraps yesterday for the extra taste. You can always plan your cooking as not to waste flavoured oils. After about 10 minutes or so add in chilli and turmeric powder. I used a heap teaspoon each as my family can take quite spicy food. Adjust to your taste. Meanwhile gently fry and fry (tumis) You want to fry till you can see the oil separate from the paste. Set aside a tablespoon for frying chicken.

When the oil and paste are both distinguishable, (I would say took me the better part of half an hour in total) Only then do I season with salt and a pinch of sugar. As you fry (tumis) the paste will turn darker. Now is the time to add in curry leaves. More tumis and I gave it a taste test. If it taste like there is a need to call the fire brigade spicy then you can add in another pinch of sugar. (kekekekek)

I have 2 tins of coconut milk ready. The last time I went back to Malaysia, I was sadden to see people using coconut in packets and tins. In UK unless I buy coconut and take out my grating stool I have to use tins. No choice. So I nagged (I shall not name) please go to market buy fresh coconut!

Next add in the kepala kelapa first (coconut head). You may laugh but that’s how the oldies I knew used to called it. Even in Cantonese it is called Coconut head or “yeah Cheong tow” or even first squeeze of the shredded coconut juice. Then you let your curry sauce come to a boil before adding the rest of the coconut juice from tin and rinse your blender with half cup water. I do not add any more water to my curry. If I want to make a big pot for a gathering, I have been known to use 6 tins of coconut milk and a carton of coconut water. Feeding myself, family and friends I do not add water as I am not doing business.

While the curry sauce is simmering, it is time to fry the potatoes. It takes me 2 rounds of frying.

When the potatoes are done, it is time to fry the chicken. I have marinated my chicken with soy sauce only. Add a big tablespoon of the fried chilli paste which had been set aside earlier. Mix well and fry the chicken. I used a blow torch to torch the chicken skin to remove some of the oil. After frying use a slotted spoon to scope the chicken into the curry sauce. Add as much or as little of the fried chicken oil as you wish. Top with the potatoes. Bring to a roaring boil and turn off the heat. The chicken curry is now done.

I removed the star anise and as much of the curry leaves as I could before serving.

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It has been a very long time since I last made spring rolls. I had a gathering the other day and a friend made some and brought over. Ever since then I had spring rolls in my brain. No choice then, I had to make my own today. Luckily I have got a packet of spring rolls wrapper in my freezer. This is also one of the recipe that was lost with my old blog so I might as well make them and blog it, least I forget with old age. As today is hubby’s office day, he will be so surprised when he come home for his hour lunch break.

Decades ago I had an idea to wrap my spring rolls like so. The family and my close friends are always making fun and laughing WITH me about my ideas. Some ideas of course needs a lot of experimenting and not all are good but for my spring rolls I give myself a ‘pat on my shoulder’ – job well done and thought of.

The filling of course all depends on yourself but I will give you a few of my TIPs (personal opinions)

TIP 1 – When you are frying your fillings, do not use ‘dark’ stuff, like soy sauce, oyster sauce etc. It’s make the spring rolls unattractively black.

TIP 2 – Do not put hoisin sauce, honey or any sweet stuff. A pinch of sugar is fine for balance or you will find your spring rolls with dark unsightly spots

TIP 3 – Use vermicelli or glass noodles as they soak up the sauce and your spring rolls stays crispy for longer time.

TIP 4 – If you are intending to freeze your spring rolls, DO NOT use vegetables, especially beansprouts unless you completely have no teeth! Nothing taste as bloody awful as mushy spring rolls fillings! If you want to freeze and fry them up for a party, use Carrots and daikon (mooli) or yam bean if you are lucky enough to find some in my part of the world, UK. (No I do not like the Thailand ones, sorry but yes I am that fussy)

TIP 5 – By all means use beansprouts and vegetables if you are eating straight away. However be aware NOT to overcook your vegetables are you are going to fry your rolls after.

Hope my TIPs are helpful. I am a Virgo, so my food has to be pretty, symmetrical and spring rolls in my opinion MUST be round, not flat! Else they would be called FLAT wraps right?

These pics below will be self explanatory. You can use any protein you like. Today I used chicken, mushrooms, dried shrimps …..

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I normally like to use bread flour but I don’t have any on hand so I used 250g plain flour, 1 egg and 2 egg yolks, pinch of salt, a scant half cup of water and a tbsp garlic oil. I also prefer to roll out my dough then pull them thinner before boiling them. I do not like thick dough. It is entirely up to you. You can adjust using 2 whole eggs and less water etc. Just need to be a soft dough and not stick to your hand. p/s you can use plain oil or any flavoured oil. There is not hard and fast rule. I have tried using lard too! Really nice.

Note – If you have read till here you deserve a big TIP! I just realised this too after making this for so many years!

Do not use rolling boil hot water! Don’t use rolling boil because you don’t have a big tank like a hawker stall! This is because when your dough hit the very hot water, it will shrink very fast and hence the dough will be thicker. Use a gentler boil and you will have nice thin dough. It’s a little learning curve but practise makes perfect! Actually if you stand and look at the hawker, you will notice they often add cold water to stop the rolling boil.

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Stir-fried Glutinous Rice (生炒糯米飯)

Ingredients

Basic must have

• Glutinous rice
• Dried shrimps
• shallots
• garlic
• Eggs omelette cut into strips
• Spring onions
• red chilli

Add on (optional)

• Chinese sausages
• Dried scallops (soaked and separated)
• Mushrooms (soaked and sliced)

Seasoning

• Chicken stock – Chicken powder + water
• salt & pepper
• Dark soy sauce
• Light soy sauce
• Pinch of sugar

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Asam Kari Ikan – Tamarind Spicy Fish

Ingredients

My Asam Paste

• Ginger
• Galangal
• Onions (shallots)
• Garlic
• Dry chilli + fresh chillies paste
• Lemon grass
• Dried shrimps

Seasonings

• Asam Jawa – tamarind juice
• Salt & Pepper
• Sugar
• Asam keping

Extras

• Laksa leaves
• Curry leaves
• Red chilli slices
• Okras aka ladies' fingers
• Aubergines
• Fresh tomatoes
• Tapioca flour

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