KennethT
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Posts posted by KennethT
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ha! I think it took almost as long to write down the recipe (albeit interrupted a few times) as it did to make! Yes, sourcing some ingredients like fresh curry leaves or fresh turmeric can be challenging for some, depending on location. However, I would say that this is actually one of the easier-to-source curries that I make. The one that uses fresh lemongrass (while not hard to find, it's hard to find good quality ones around here) and fresh galangal is the worst!
If you have trouble sourcing the dried chiles, I think you can make a few substitutions... the dried thai chiles should not be that hard to find... the puyas can be replaced by any red, mildly spicy, thick fleshed chili - just look for somethign that's 4-5" long and maybe 1 to 1.5" wide and a deep red/maroon color...
I could be pretty sure that they're not using puya chiles in Singapore - but that's what I can get locally to replace what they are using.
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I had a chicken curry for breakfast several days in a row at the original Killiney's Kopitiam - it was one of the tastiest things I had on that trip, which is saying something. When I got home, I tried to recreate it many times but could never get it right. But I think I did it last time.... even if it's not an exact recreation (I haven't had the real thing in 2 or 3 years), it was really tasty.
While I've never written a recipe in RecipeGullet before, I have written recipes down for myself - mostly notes of quantities of ingredients.... this one is difficult for me because I didn't really measure anything while making it - so the quantities are going to be REALLY imprecise - to tell the truth though, I don't think exact quantities matter all that much in this case.
Makes 4 meals for 2 people each - I cook the rempah and make the curry itself in one large batch since it's a bit of work, then portion and freeze. While it's not typical, it makes fast and convenient meals for us during the week when we don't have that much time. Because I don't like to freeze and reheat meat, I'll make the curry with everything except the chicken in advance and freeze, then I'll defrost one batch in a pot - once simmering, I'll add the chicken.
Rempah:
about 10 shallots, peeled, chopped very roughly
about 10 cloves of garlic (a little less than a head), peeled, chopped roughly
about a 6" piece (or bunch of pieces adding to it) fresh turmeric, peeled, chopped roughly
about 5T belacan (dried fermented shrimp paste)
6-8 dried puya chiles, destemmed and seeded, chopped roughly (or snipped with scissors), then rehydrated and drained
4-5 dried thai chiles, destemmed and seeded, chopped roughly (or snipped with scissors), then rehydrated and drained
a large handful (how do you like THAT for a measurement!?!) ground coriander
a small handful ground cumin
a small handful ground fennel
3/4C grapeseed oil (or other neutral oil)
2 stems curry leaves, stemmed
1 3" stick of true cinnamon (not cassia)
2 star anise
3 cloves
2-3T coconut cream
Curry:
8 yukon gold potatoes, peeled, quartered and par boiled
4C coconut milk
about 1T salt
about 1T sugar
Chicken (for one meal for 2):
4 chicken thighs (we usually only get the thighs as my wife is not too fond of the legs, and it's a lot juicier than white meat)
salt
1/2C water (optional depending on thickness of coconut milk used - the curry shouldn't be thick, but more viscous than water)
Method:
1) Traditionally, you would pound the first set of rempah ingredients (without the oil) in a mortar/pestle until a smooth paste - but I don't have the time for that... so I use a blender - the results may not be as good, but it works pretty well. To do this, add all the top section rempah ingredients to a blender jar in order. Blend until smooth.
2) In a deep pot over medium heat, add the rempah paste plus the second set of rempah ingredients and fry until the oil separates out and the paste moves around in a more or less solid mass. You need to constantly stir and scrape to make sure it doesn't burn on the bottom. If you made the paste with mortar/pestle, add oil to the pot first, then add paste when hot. When it's done, it should look like this:
3) Add the potatoes, coconut milk, salt and sugar, and simmer for a few minutes
4) Chill, dividing evenly into 4 portions; refrigerate overnight, and then freeze for later.
5) To make the complete meal, add one frozen portion to a 4 qt saucepan and add 1/2C water (if needed to adjust consistency) - cover and cook over medium heat until simmering.
6) Meanwhile, salt the chicken and let sit until curry is simmering
7) Add chicken to curry and make sure the meat is submerged. Cover, and simmer for about 8 minutes. At this point the chicken should be mostly cooked through - if so, turn off the heat and leave covered for another 5 min. or so while prepping vegetables etc.
8) Eat with french bread to dip into the curry, or Singapore style roti prata.
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I used to read the CI blog religiously, but I don't really have the patience to listen to a whole podcast where many of the topics are of no interest to me... I always liked Dave's sense of humor in the blog and listened to a couple of podcasts early on, but haven't had the time or inclination since then. Is there an index or something? If I could read the index and then skip to the parts that I wanted to, that would interest me...
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20 minutes ago, Anna N said:
I am really, really hoping you wrote down the recipe and would be willing to share it. It does look so good.
Unfortunately I didn't write things down, nor did I really measure anything! But I do remember what I did, generally speaking. I guess I should put it in RecipEgullet, right?
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8 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:
Having baby bok choi in the refrigerator that needs eating up, how do you do your stir fry? (I am woefully new to stir frying.)
Everything there looks wonderful!
After washing, I spin it dry in a salad spinner. Then I take a few cloves of garlic and give them a rough chop. In a wide pan (if I had a wok, I'd use it but I don't), I fry the garlic in a little bit of grapeseed oil on high heat - just for a few seconds until you can smell it. I add a few grinds of Vietnamese peppercorns (that's what I've been using lately) and then dump in the bok choi. I flip it around until they're all coated with the oil - maybe about 30 seconds or so. Then, if I'm lazy, I'll add about 1/4C water with maybe 1/4t salt mixed in... if I'm not lazy or want something a little better, I'll use about 1/4C chicken stock that I've simmered garlic and ginger in and then froze. In addition to the 1/4t salt, I might add about 1/8t MSG. Anyway, once the liquid is added, I'll stir it around for about 30 seconds and it's done.
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Here is the Nyonya chicken curry meal that I showed in the "one of" topic - I've been trying to imitate a specific curry we had in Singapore (we actually had it for breakfast several days in a row - see the week in Singapore foodblog....) anyway, I've tried like 5 times to get it, and while all the other trials were tasty in their own right, none of them were what I was going for.... until this one. It's just about perfect.... and the best thing is that since I made a large batch, we have 3 more meals of it ready to go in the freezer!
Chicken curry
Homemade roti prata (Singapore style) and stir fried baby bok choi.
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We are definitely both. On the weekends, we'll make a large batch of sauces/curry which we'll distribute into several portions and freeze. Makes a fast dinner during the week... plus a lot of these curries are a lot of work between grinding spices and spice pastes, frying, simmering ,etc...
Here's today's example: nyonya chicken curry (to eat with my roti prata)
This is the rempah (spice paste) frying... almost done... then added potatoes and coconut milk:
Once chilled, I'll distribute this into 4 parcels. Then, during the week, I'll get home from work, take out a package of sauce, get it simmering, then add the chicken for about 12 minutes and dinner is done!
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Rob, what a great review... I'm so happy for you! I wish I lived closer so that I could stop by and try everything!
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At first glance, I thought it was a chicken also, sitting in soup - but as @liuzhou said, that would be really odd.
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1 hour ago, Okanagancook said:
Did you just steam the greens?
Nope. Stir fried with garlic, chicken stock, salt and a touch of msg.
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Ga xao xa ot - viet chicken with lemongrass
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Just now, mm84321 said:
You are not to blame. The 5 piece chicken tender meal with an apple pie is solely culpable; we are just now learning how to make our relationship work.
I've never had the chicken tenders... do they use the same breading as the standard popeye's (spicy version)? Also, if you have access to dark meat chicken fried in lard, why would anyone choose the tenders? Are they still juicy? Just saying... not much better than Popeye's spicy thighs....
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Someone forwarded this link to me...
http://www.worldofbuzz.com/fatty-pork-announced-top-10-nutritious-food-world/
Basically it says that a BBC study has found that pork fat is healthy as it contains 60% monounsaturated fat and oleic acid.
I had always heard that pork fat from jamon iberico de bellota was healthy since the pigs eat so many acorns, their fat is high in Omega 3 fatty acids (like salmon) - and I can definitely say from experience that the fat has a low melting point - it melts in your mouth and on your hand...
But I wonder if this applies to commodity pork as well... I haven't read the study yet...
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I was finally able to make a decent Singapore style roti prata...
Granted it's not nice and round like it should be, but it was crispy on the outside, a little flaky inside and nice and tender. Not as flaky as I'd like, but that is for future experiments. Also, this is a "healthy" prata, which means that is made with copious amounts of olive oil, rather than margarine as would be typical. I used a different recipe for these than what I linked to a few pages back. I tried that recipe, but they came out like bricks. The new recipe is a similar 50% hydration, but uses a lot more oil in the dough, which makes it really slack... but it stretches easily to a thinness that is basically transparent.
I made the dough and stretched them last week, then shaped into the coil shape, bagged and froze. Yesterday, they were removed from the freezer around noon, and then I made them around 7. I couldn't tell a difference between these and the one that I made fresh, never frozen.
We had these last night with a nyonya chicken in black nut curry (but without the black nuts!) which is a curry that has no coconut milk, but is a spice paste with lots of fermented shrimp paste and tamarind.
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@mm84321 wow, I hope I am not to blame for your chicken addiction... Not that I blame you - that's why I take great pains to avoid that place at all costs!
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Even the most sophisticated of palettes can be taken in by the seduction that is Popeye's.... I, for one, do not fault him one bit!
Edit: @Tropicalsenior ha! you beat me to it!
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Thanks so much for posting this... I loved it!
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11 minutes ago, dcarch said:
What's the matter with you guys?
When it's too hot in the kitchen, go naked!
Or a small electric fan will take care the heat effectively.
dcarch
1 word... SPLATTER!!!
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I second @Kim Shook - when it's hot, I do a lot of stovetop stuff, or really, anything that doesn't require the oven. Plus, when it's hot, I like to make spicy food that makes you sweat and tastes good and a warm room temp.... so that's pretty much anything SE Asian. Also, I don't know if you have the capability, but sous vide is a great way to keep the kitchen cool, and I'll do that as well.
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The best satay I've had were in Singapore - and the sauce was sort of like a coconut curry with chopped peanuts added. I've never made it before, but It is slightly sweet from palm sugar and could possibly contain tamarind. I would probably start with a search for something like that... I imagine the curry paste would include lemongrass, galangal, chilis, turmeric and garlic. I wouldn't be surprised if there were spices as well, but I don't know what they would be.
Sorry I can't be of more help... good luck - and keep us posted!
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What type of satay are you looking to make? Satay is common in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, China, etc, and none of them are the same - some may have similarities, and some would be wildly different. So having an idea in mind of what you are trying to make would be helpful.
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Our weekly salmon... This week with cucumber som tam.
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I like the Viet variety which is purple on one side and green on the other... slightly different flavor from shiso...
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What about a very small amount of xanthan gum? It is commonly used to stabilize salad dressings...
Dinner 2018
in Cooking
Posted
Looks great, but yes, they wilt down to nothing. Usually, for a side dish, I will make 2-3 heads for the two of us, depending on sides. If it was a main course, I'd double it easily.