CHICKEN FRIED IN DRY COCONUT SAMBAL ~ AYAM MASAK KALASAN BERSERI

On the occasions when I accompanied my dad to do a take away from the Malay food shops in Section 17 after school I always wondered whether this dish was a rendang that had been cooked until it was bone dry or was it simply a dish of fried chicken with lots of scraps from the bottom of the wok put and piled on top thus making it an accidental but delicious dish. 

I have wondered for more than 4 decades and have never encountered anyone who cooks this at home. I don' t think many know what its called. I could not do a google search because of that. But if  you were to go to a Malay food shop you will surely see it. So I sometimes wonder if all this is just me ? Or is this all just me ?

Then I found a photograph and the elusive recipe of this I-didn't-know-the-name dish on Jom Masak Jom Makan who got it from Ummi of Home Sweet Home. Finally.

The name of this dish is Ayam Masak Kalasan Berseri. It's no wonder I was unable to locate this recipe. It's named after a place I have never heard of and I would never have guessed that this dish was named after a place. That I've never heard of. Phew. I'm feeling rather Nancy Drew-ish.

It originates from an area called Kalasan in Yogjakarta in Indonesia. Apparently Kalasan is famous for its fried chicken fried in this special way. Thus it's name. The original recipe is here. It has a lot more ingredients, uses onions, garlic , chillies, coconut milk...etc.. ..very similar to a rendang recipe. But this shorter version adapted by Ummi is most delicious  inspite of the omission of onions and other ingredients. This is the second time I am making this within a week. Yes it's good. 


The recipe ~

Chicken Fried in Dry Coconut Sambal ~ adapted from Jom Masak Jom Makan


I made a large amount using 6 whole chicken legs, bone in. You may halve the recipe.


6 whole chicken legs, bone in, each leg cut into two pieces
3 cups grated coconut, you could sub with dessicated coconut
1 cup water
1/2 cup oil
salt


Dry spices :


4 T coriander seeds
2-3 T black or white pepper

Wet paste :

6-7 stalks lemon grass, white part only, sliced
1 1/2" fresh ginger, peeled
1 1/2" fresh tumeric, peeled
a little water


Dry roast the coriander seeds and pepper in a small pan until fragrant. Then grind in a processor or pound in a pestle and mortar until medium fine. Keep aside.


Process the lemon grass, ginger and tumeric in a food processor until fine. Add some water if necessary to loosen it up. Then mix with the dry ground spices.


Place the gound spices and wet paste into a  large wok or pot. Add the grated coconut and water and mix top combine the mixture evenly. Add the chicken pieces and about a tablespoon of salt and a teaspoon of sugar.


Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, covered until the chicken is cooked through or 3/4 way done. Turn off heat for a moment. It will be still be a wet pasty mixture. Take the chicken pieces out from the pot or wok shaking of excess moisture and the coconut/spice paste.


This is where you are supposed to deep fry the chicken in oil. I did not. Instead, I placed the chicken pieces on a baking tray, brushed each piece with oil and then placed them under a broiler until they turned a golden brown.


While the chicken is broiling in the oven continue to cook the coconut-spice mixture on the stove top until most of the moisture has evaporated then pour in the 1/2 cup of oil and continue to fry until the mixture becomes drier and golden brown. 

Note : Originally this coconut-spice mixture is also deep fried in the oil used to deep fry the chicken pieces. I thought that was too much deep frying for one's health. So I opted to simply add a 1/2 cup of oil and then dry-fry the mix until a golden brown.

By which time the browned chicken pieces should be ready  and thrown back into the coconut-spice mix in the wok. Stir the chicken pieces in with a spatula to coat the chicken pieces evenly and continue to dry fry a couple of minutes more until everything is evenly mixed and golden brown and dry. 


This is simply good served warm or at room temperature with steaming hot white rice eaten with the coconut sambal mixed into the hot rice and accompanied perhaps with a hot vegetable soup or curry.

Wishing you a lovely day ~

THAI PAPAYA SALAD

Papaya trees grow from a seed to a fruit-bearing 20 foot tree in about eighteen months. And they fruit the way rabbits breed. In a bunch. They are not one of my favourite fruit because they have a slight bitter undertone. But young green papaya when made into a Thai salad transforms into something quite, quite wonderful. Utterly refreshing. 

My first encounter of a Thai papaya salad was at the Thai ambassador's cocktail party many years ago. In an effort to promote their cuisine they had booths set up to demonstrate the makings of various scrumptious Thai dishes. Surprisingly amoung all other mouth-watering dishes the one dish that I fell in love with was the Thai papaya salad. 

I think it was the combination and perfect balance of fresh fruit, toasted dried shrimps, hot chillies, salty fish sauce, tart lime juice and crunchy peanuts that won me over.

With the Thai papaya salad comes the above, right, which, I  believe, is a Thai invention. The papaya/fruit shredder. It looks like an ordinary fruit or vegetable peeler the only difference being that the blade is grooved intermittently across. 

I saw this device on Luke Nguyen's show and have been scavenging the shops ever since. I had asked the Thai girl at the organic shop which I frequent where to get one. She looked at me incredulously and said ...anywhere. Obviously I had not been anywhere. Well finally it wasn't anywhere that I found this pretty device but at Vivahome along Jalan Loke Yew....a large spanking new mall that has shops selling nothing else but kitchen things and home furnishings. From end to end and top to bottom. Finally mother and I had landed in heaven.

 

The recipe ~


I bought a very firm, dark green, young papaya, the inside a light orange and firm, the shredding of which was bliss.

Thai Papaya Salad ~


2 - 2 1/2 cups of shredded young papaya
Juice of 2 limes
1/4 cup palm sugar , grated
1 T water
salt
1 red chilli, chopped finely or 2 bird chillies crushed
1 T fish sauce
2 T dried shrimps, toasted or lightly fried in a little oil
a few sprigs of coriander leaves with stems, chopped finely


Put the shredded papaya into a large bowl. throw in the chopped chilli and coriander.

Mix the palm sugar and water in a small pot and heat until sugar dissolves. Keep aside and allow to cool. 


Meanwhile pound dried shrimps in a pestle and mortar and then add peanuts and pound gently to just crush peanuts. Do not pound to a paste.The mixture should be crumbly and the nuts in small chunks.


Mix the cooled syrup with the lime juice and fish sauce in another bowl and pour this dressing over the shredded papaya mixture. Add the pounded shrimps and peanuts and mix with your fingers or two spoons gently to coat the fruit evenly with the dressing. Add fish sauce or extra lime juice to balance the flavours.

Sprinkle more crushed peanuts over the top.


Serve cold or at room temperature as a side dish.

Note : A combination of shredded cucumber and papaya is good too.

FLOWER BUNS ~ SNAIL BUNS

I thought I could s'nail' this since arts and crafts has always been my forte but these flower or snail buns were quite a challenge. And chignons I have never made. Unlike Terri. So perhaps that explains why I was struggling. I almost didn't post these. Some of them looked ridiculously laughable. These were the best of the worst. N looked at me with a question mark on her face.

But I think they taste good. I'll know by sunset. I will have to re-heat them though. These are best eaten warm.

I have always loved Chinese steamed buns but especially buns with a spicy curry meat filling. Yes.... you cannot take the Malay out of me but there's always room for Chinese. And chocolate. And ice cream.

These would be good soaking up a curry I made last night. Oh. My. Yum. 

Terri was spot on with the recipe. I used exactly 200 ml of water and  I didn't need to add a drop more. I kneaded the pau dough in the machine until it didn't stick. I had no sticky problems. The dough was as good as a good dough could get. I too chose to use ordinary plain flour and not the fine, white special Hongkong pau flour. I find that buns made from plain four have more substance and flavour with a  lovely cream-ish hue. The white ones seem bland in comparison.

This is a recipe I'll have written out and blu-tacked onto the kitchen wall in front of my work table. Yes I will.

The recipe ~ from Terri of A Daily Obsession 


350 gm  plain flour or special Pau flour
1 tsp yeast
1 tsp baking powder
50 gm sugar
200-250 ml water
1 T vegetable oil or shortening


Sift flour and put into a bowl. Add all other dry ingredients including the yeast. Stir to mix. Add wet ingredients and knead on the machine until the dough is no linger sticky and can be pulled away easily from the dough hook.


If kneading by hand knead until smooth and not sticky. Place dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth.


Let rest for about 30 minutes (my dough needed about an hour).


Take dough out from bowl and divide into 50 gm balls or smaller, the size of golf balls). I made 40 gm balls of dough.


Take each ball and roll out into a small longish oval. Terri says about the length of your hand and 3-4 cm in width. Using a pastry scraper cut the dough lengthwise into thin strips about 1/2 cm thick or slightly thinner all the way. Brush the surface with vegetable oil lightly.


Pick up the strips of dough with both your hands (don't worry they won't fall apart unless you deliberately seperate them).


Twirl one end around your left thumb (if you are right handed) while pressing the end of the dough with your thumb and forefinger to anchor it. Continue twirling and covering the tips of your two first fingers and back around to your thumb again all the while gently stretching the dough with your other hand as you twirl. By now the dough would be twirled around most of your thumb and the top half of your first two fingers and looking like a cone or snail shell........hopefully.


Please do go over to Terri's blog to see her wonderful photographs. I had no one to ask to take photos while I was at it :(


When you reach the end of the strip tuck it in and under the base of the 'snail'. 


Place on 5 cm squares of baking paper straight into a steamer rack but do not place the rack on the steamer bottom yet. Let rest for 10 minutes while you bring the pot of steamer water to a rolling boil. Then place the steamer rack of buns onto to the steamer pot of boiling water and steam for about 4-5 minutes.

I used a bamboo steamer. So indispensable. Why? Go here.


Serve hot.

KUNG PAO CHICKEN

God forbid..... (that I would ever need to be executed). 

I would be an executioner's worst nightmare. I would never be able to choose my death dish. It would have to be a toss between so many dishes. My ethnic Malay Sambal Belacan and Fried Salted Fish with white rice, a Western Chocolate Anything and now a Chinese Kung Pao Chicken dish. 

And this is all Terri's fault. Her Kung Pao Chicken was just too mouth watering to ignore. I couldn't shake it off no matter how hard I hit my head on the kitchen sink........ Or was it the stove? Anyway.....

This. Was. So. Good. 

I followed Terri's detailed instructions to a T. I did everything she demanded that one should do. On my own initiative I had read Kung Pao Chicken recipe five times....then.... all the whys and the hows and the why nots. It was pure prep, chemistry and finally execution (pun not intended). Terri and A Daily Obsession remains my repository for Chinese cooking. Period.

N took one bite of the Kung Pao Chicken, looked at me and begun to nod.....slowly but surely. I stared back into two pools of dark eyes and saw drool.

The recipe ~

The only thing I would do to improve my Kung Pao Chicken would be to add little more stock or water or increase the ingredients for the sauce. So that I would have more Kung Pao sauce. 

This Kung Pao Chicken wasn't fiery because I had gotten rid of the seeds in the dried chillies. That reduced the heat by quite a bit and by my insane standards the sichuan pepper wasn't that hot either. I had also replaced rice wine with 1 1/2 tsp of sugar instead. And I added some squares of yellow sweet peppers. Hence the spice meter of this dish was just right for some of my family members who cannot tolerate spicy food.

Kung Pao Chicken ~ by Terri of A Daily Obsession

250 gm skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1 1/2 - 2cm squares

3/4 cup dried chillies, cut into 3 cm lengths

1 tsp sichuan peppercorns

3/4 cup leek, cut diagonally into 2 cm lengths

1/2 cup yellow pepper, cut into chunks

1 large handful of roasted peanuts

2 tsp finely chopped garlic

2 tsp of finely chopped ginger

Chicken marinade :

2 tsp cornflour

1 small egg white

a dash of pepper

]2 T rice wine (I used 1 1/2 tsp sugar instead)

1/4 tsp salt

Sauce ingredients :

1/2 T rice vinegar (I used apple cider)

1 1/2 - 2 T dark soy sauce

1 1/2 T sugar

1 1/2 T stock or water

1/2 tsp cornflour

Cut chicken breasts into chunks, 1.5 - 2 cm squares. Massage chicken marinade into the chicken pieces with your hands and leave in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Heat 1 cup of vegetable oil in a hot pan and fry chicken pieces in one layer at high heat. When chicken turns white at the sides, turn over and stir. Do not overcook (1 minute only) Remove chicken.

Pour away oil into a ceramic dish for later use. But leave 3 tablespoons of oil in the wok. 

Fry chillies on very low heat in the oil until crispy. Make sure it doesn't burn by making sure the heat is very low. Scoop up and keep aside.

Pour away oil because this oil would be too hot(spicy) to re-use. 

Add 1 tablespoon of the reserved oil from frying the chicken to the same wok. Throw in the leeks until they turn a bright green. Take out immediately and keep aside.

Add minced garlic and ginger, sichuan pepper to wok and stir a few seconds and fragrant. Pour the sauce mixture in , stirring all the time until the sauce gets dark thick and the sugar in it caramelizes. Add the chicken, leeks and stir quickly and lastly add peanuts. 

Serve  hot with white rice.

Spice up your life and I wish you a lovely day ~