KennethT

Haven't made this in a while but is a favorite of ours, Nyonya chicken in black nut curry, ayam buah keluak:

I've never been really happy with my prata/roti canai (they're basically the same thing but different shapes) recipe. I've been trying to keep it as healthy as possible, but I think that's not really possible, so here is my new recipe. It's much more reminiscent of what I've had in Singapore and Malaysia. Texturally, it's crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside with lots of thin layers. It's slightly sweet but wouldn't be noticeable when eaten with the curry. I've now been making it in batches of 1000g of flour - while it doesn't work out exactly with the curry, it's never a bad thing to have extra prata in the freezer... I keep the same ratio of King Arthur AP flour (11.7% protein) to Swans Down cake flour (6-8% protein, let's call it 7%) as above as even when making it at home, people buy flour made for the purpose of roti prata/canai - a few brands have this and they list their protein content at 10.8%. 803g (call it 800) King Arthur AP flour 197g (call it 200) Swans Down cake flour 3T sweetened condensed milk 3T table sugar 1T fine salt warm water - amount varies - start with about 1.5C Put about 1.5C warm water at the bottom of a large mixing bowl, add the SCM, sugar and salt and mix until evenly dissolved. Dump the flour on top and with your hand, mix around until you have a shaggy dough, adding more warm water a bit at a time as necessary. Let sit 15 min. Knead by hand for about 5-10 minutes 3 times with 15 minutes rest in between. By the end, the dough should be nice and smooth. Let rest another 15 minutes, then divide into balls about the size of a billiard ball - to do this, take a big handful of dough in one hand, make a circle between thumb and fingers and push some of the dough through the circle with the other hand and then twist off once at the right size. Once all the balls are made (don't let them touch one another or they'll stick), theoretically they should be covered with a thin layer of softened margarine, covered and then let sit overnight (or at least 3 hours) at room temp. I've rolled them around in a little bit of rice bran oil but it doesn't do a great job of keeping them separated overnight. Stretch as instructed above, then layer on a baking sheet with layers of heavy plastic or parchment paper in between and freeze. Once frozen, they can be stacked and stored in a large zip lock bag. Take them out of the freezer about 8-12 hours before use and put on an oiled plate/sheet/etc, keeping them separated by oiled plastic or parchment. To cook, preheat a pan - my induction hob is set to 320F, and it works great but I don't know how accurate it is. Grease the pan with a thin layer of rice bran oil using a paper towel, stretch the defrosted roti until original size - it probably shrunk a bit after the original stretch - and put in the pan immediately. Cook until that side is browned then flip and continue - about 4 minutes in total. Remove from the heat and "clap" to fluff the layers.

While working on a new batch of roti canai dough (during rest times - both for the dough and my shoulders) I had time to make bison burgers with guacamole and chipotle puree.

Do your delivery services put the rice and curry together in the same container? Every restaurant here in NYC always puts teh rice in a separate container.

Do you have a Jaccard? It's a great tool, not only for tenderizing the meat, but quickly adding tons of skin punctures to help render the fat.

I haven't posted in this thread for a while... don't worry, we've stil been eating! I was all set to make our beloved Singapore Old Lai Huat style sambal grouper. The fish was completely defrosted when I found that I couldn't find any more sambal in the freezer! A freezer without that sambal is like a freezer without love... Anyway, I started panicking since I had no idea what to do with this fish that's now defrosted, and then I thought about an internet acquaintance of mine who was in Bali for the last few days. I realized that my pantry had everything I needed to make a Balinese style grilled fish (like we had on Jimbaran beach HERE)... so, without further ado... Jimbaran beach style grilled (air fryer) grouper Typical Balinese sambal matah made with home grown lemongrass, lime leaves and chillies.

Yeah, that looks like quinoa to me also...

I once saw a stir fried lettuce side dish in Singapore at our favorite chicken rice restaurant. We ordered it out of curiosity, along with a stir fried baby gailan (chinese broccoli) which is common in Singapore - although I've never seen it anywhere else. The stir fried lettuce was ok, but we much preferred the baby gailan.

Thank you, everyone! Exactly the answers I was looking for! Another +1 for EGullet!

Thanks @rotuts but I don't think I was clear. I'm not looking to make salt fish - like a bacalao or anything - just wondering whether presalting (maybe overnight like you would with chicken) is a good idea with meaty fish. I'm not trying to preserve it or anything - just looking for optimal texture.

Is it analogous to presalting a chicken or steak? I'm thinking about meaty chunks of grouper, tuna, swordfish, etc....

That place is awesome! I've had some great conversations with the owner. She wants me to sell her some of my kencur and home grown Indonesian chillies. As far as I know, they don't carry the beef skin crackers (I've looked for them before) but they do have pre-fried shrimp crackers and some other krupuk (they look like shrinky-dinks).

ooof, that's a shlep!

Interestingly, I think the kulit in krupuk kulit means leather also...In many parts of Java, a shadow puppet show called wayang kulit is very traditional. The puppets are made from leather and the shows typically depict a portion of, or sometimes the whole, Ramayana (which is really long) and is accompanied by a full gamelan orchestra.

Thanks everybody. I didn't think of Ottomanelli - I used to go there all the time but haven't in years. When I clicked on the Mercato link, it looked like it was coming from Ideal foods in Brooklyn... I think my first stop should be at a couple meat markets in Chinatown. I've never bought from Ends Meat but they probably would be a good resource since they deal with whole animals.

I've been thinking about making krupuk kulit - the unbelievably delicious and addictive puffed beef skin cracker common in Java (Indonesia) but have no idea where to get the fresh beef skin. Ideally, it's made from the softer, "inner skin" but I'm not even sure what that means.... I've looked at the Weee online grocer with no luck. I'd think Chinatown may have it, but I'd assume they have more pork products than beef ones... curious for any suggestions... Thanks!

I think the biggest problem with a fast release while braising would be the homogenization of the liquid fat (that has rendered out of the beef and would normally be floating on top) into the braising liquid.

What region is your tabbouli from? It has a lot more bulghur in it than I usually see. The Iraqi version my friend's mom used to make as well as the Jewish Moroccan version I've had have almost no bulghur by comparison - they're mostly green.

Now, see the new and improved version !!!!

This is the new and improved version of sambal kacang - Indonesian peanut sauce. It could also be called sambal pecel - pecel is a vegetable dish consisting of bland, boiled leafy vegetables served with this type of peanut sauce, similar to the more famous gado gado, but without the tempeh, tofu, etc. This is a traditional version, meaning that it's quite labor intensive and is made from all whole ingredients. Makes.... a LOT - multiple portions! This recipe is for the base, which you would thin with boiling water to the consistency you want. The reason for this is that the base is very dry and will last a long time - a couple of weeks at room temp or several months in the refrigerator. When you want some, just take a few spoonfuls and thin with boiling water until you have the quantity and consistency you're looking for. Ingredients: 200g raw peanuts (deskinned) 60g red chillies - mostly keriting (medium spicy) and a few rawit (very spicy) 125g shallots (about 8 small shallots or 3-4 Western shallots) - skin and ends removed 20g garlic (peeled, end removed, halved and germ removed if exists) 4-8 kaffir lime leaves, destemmed (size dependent) 11.4g roasted shrimp paste - 3 sachets ABC brand (3.8g each) 1C (approx.) peanut oil 60g palm sugar, grated or chopped finely 1T salt (plus more to taste) 1t MSG 1t seedless tamarind paste Instructions: 1) cook the whole chillies in a pan of boiling water until soft - about 5 minutes, drain 2) heat the oil in a wok over medium/low heat and fry the shallots until softened and slightly brown 3) remove/drain the shallots, repeat with the garlic 4) remove/drain the garlic and fry the lime leaves for a minute or so, then remove/drain 5) fry the peanuts in the oil, stirring constantly, until just less than golden brown, then remove/drain 6) In a food processor, roughly chop the chillies/shallots/garlic/lime leaves/shrimp paste, remove and set aside 7) Roughly chop the fried peanuts 8 ) Move the chilli/shallot, etc mixture to an Indonesian mortar (cobek), add the tamarind, salt, MSG and palm sugar then grind until smooth as possible 9) Add the peanuts to the mixture and continue to grind - the paste will become very stiff and dry as it cools To check seasoning, add a little bit of boiling water to a teaspoon or so of ground mixture and mix until you have the desired consistency

Another entry in the Most-Labor-Intensive dish contest, also from the Padang food canon... This one is ayam balado - chicken in balado sauce. You can balado-ify practically anything - chicken, eggs, potatoes, beef, fish, you name it. What qualifies it for a contender in the MLI contest? First, the chicken is braised in a ground spice paste liquid containing garlic, turmeric, candlenuts, ginger, kaffir lime leaves, etc... The chicken is removed and some of the braising liquid retained. The chicken is then shallow fried in oil, and then removed and drained, and then, in the same oil, a ground mixture of chillies and shallots (preferably ground by hand) and sliced tomatoes are fried with some lime juice, the reserved braising liquid and more kaffir lime leaves added. The result is super savory but refreshing at the same time... one of my favorites!!!

I've never heard of pressure cooking the curry base so I'm very curious about it. How do you think it compares with being simmered traditionally? Most videos I watch making Indian curries (from India) don't cook the curry base very long - probably around the same time as your pressure cooking it. Do you think the result is superior? If so, in what way?

I made this again today and I think it came out even better - the only change was that instead of using all 250g of keriting chillies, I used 3 big red chillies, 3 of my home grown cabe rawit (kind of like Thai chillies but more plump) and the balance of the 250g being the keriting.

Red Boat 40degN - it's a brand of Vietnamese fish sauce. The 40 degrees indicates the degrees of Nitrogen.

What's the purpose of the half and half?