Turmeric Chicken with Ginger

This delish chicken recipe will make your taste buds hungry for more. It is not the usual fried turmeric (masak kunyit) that we Malaysians are used to. See the recipe and you'll know what I mean as it involves more ingredients.

This is one of the first dish I learned to cook a long long time ago, and kept the recipe because it's worth it. It is adapted from an Australian food magazine, "Super Food Ideas" quite some time ago. Are they still around? I wonder. Send me a couple of the new mags! :-P

What's nice about this dish is the lemony-gingery taste complimenting the tender, turmeric chicken pieces. And I love it with red hot chilis... MMmm... I've been using a lot of green chilis, so this time around, red is IN! Not that green chilis won't work for this recipe...

The recipe I stated below is a modified version of the original recipe from the magazine I mentioned. Nevertheless, it's a success, food tasting approved by husband who is an absolute chicken lover :-)

:: Turmeric Chicken with Ginger Recipe ::
Serves 4

2 tablespoon oil
1 yellow onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
8 small mixed chicken pieces
1 tablespoon ground turmeric
1/2 cup chicken stock (or 1/2 cup water plus 1 tablespoon chicken stock granules)
1 tablespoon lemon juice (or more)
2cm piece fresh ginger, grated
1 large red chili, sliced
1 tablespoon brown sugar
pinch of salt

Heat oil in a large frying pan. Saute the onions and garlic until onion is tender. Transfer to a plate.

Dust the chicken pieces in turmeric powder and cook in the same pan until golden both sides, adding a little more oil of required.

Pour stock over chicken with remaining ingredients and onions. Simmer, covered, for 25 minutes or until chicken is tender.

Garnish with coriander leaves or chives. Serve warm with rice and pappadums and cucumber salad.

Sambal Telur (Egg Sambal)

This is likely the most common recipe found all over the net. Anyone can cook it. But maybe not me, I am not so good at sambals, but once you get the hang of it, it is something fun to cook. There are various versions of sambal, depending on the type of meat or vegetables to cook. For eggs, it is usually plain chili with onions sambal. My mum loves adding serai (lemongrass) to her sambal when she makes Prawn Sambal. And a whole lot more recipes.

And you must know that this is one of Malaysia's most adored food anytime of the day, especially with Nasi Lemak (Coconut Rice). Just a spoonful of the sambal can make your meal very appetizing, it is deliciously sweet and spicy, and the colour itself is beautiful - red. Some of you may not be able to take the heat, but when you use some fresh red chilis (the non-spicy ones ofcourse), it tastes less spicy but still yummy.

:: Egg Sambal Recipe ::
3 hard boiled eggs, cut into 2

For making sambal
2 fresh red chili
5 dried red chili
2 shallots
1 garlic
pich of salt
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon assam paste
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 yellow onion, sliced

Blend the chilis, shallots and garlic with 1/2 cup of water until fine.
Heat up a small pan with 1 tablespoon oil and fry the sliced onions. Add the blended chili paste and fry on low-medium heat until it starts to thicken. Reduce heat and add assam, sugar and salt according to taste. Fry until it thickens like in the picture above, or as you like the consistency of the sambal to be.

On a small plate, lay some lettuce (optional), arrange the hard boiled eggs whilst leaving ample space to pour the cooked sambal in the middle. Lastly, pour the sweet and spicy cooked sambal in the middle of the dish. Serve immediately with rice.

Note:
- Tastes good with plain rice, fried rice and ofcourse, coconut rice.
- Use fried eggs instead of hard-boiled eggs if you prefer.
- The use of fresh chilis is to moderate the hotness of the dried chilis (sambal would be more spicy if just using dried chilis).

Turmeric Beef with Long Beans

One of my favourite after work dish is this stir fried marinated beef strips with turmeric, and added with some crunchy greens. It is easy to prepare, so making home cooking after work more approachable..

I normally cook this with chicken, rarely beef. Well, sometimes going out of the norm is good... For stir fry beef, it is best to buy those thinly sliced beef strips, if not made at home. I normally buy mine in Tesco or Cold Storage, and just put it in the freezer until I need them.

As for greens, I choose long beans (kacang panjang) this time. It looked too fresh, too good not to grab some at the fresh market last Sunday... Some stories about this long bean.. hmm, I heard from a bunch (make that a big bunch of ladies) that long beans are beragin ('windy') and they do not eat them, even when some of them loves it. I can never understand that 'theory' of theirs, because my mum always cook long beans at home, and even when I do eat them in restaurants, I never find my body to mbe 'windy' or even bloated. Not even the next day or the next week. Not after a year still.. Anyways.

Long beans are green, crunchy and delicious. Perfect for stir-frys. It really goes well with turmeric and onions... yummy!

:: Turmeric Beef with Long Beans ::
300gm beef strips
1 cup long beans, cut into 1 inch lengths
2 sprigs fresh spring onions cut to 1 inch lengths
2-3 bird's eye chili (or any other chili as you like)
1/2 yellow onion, sliced
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon Mae Pranom Thai chili paste
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon oyster sauce

Marinate the beef with turmeric powder, fish sauce, oyster sauce and thai chili paste. Put aside.

Fry onion and garlic until soften. Throw in the marinated beed, and fry until cooked or the water dries out. Add long beans, chili and fry until green beans slightly soften, and add the spring onions. Dish out and serve with plain or fried rice.

Baked Pomfret with Lemongrass

It's a mess when I goreng (fry) fish in the kitchen, and it annoys me more when the oil jumps all over the kitchen! Fried fish is the last thing I would cook, no matter how much I miss my mum's various ways of fried fish. I told my sister, I am just too lazy to fry fish. And asking mum to just fry a couple of fish for me? Hmm, I do have to 'grow up' and do things meself...

Sue (my sis) told me about baked fish, and how delicious they can be enjoyed just like fried fish as well. The key to making baked fish tasty lies in what herbs and spices being used to marinate the fish. And the type of fish you use, of course.

Indian mackerel, pomfrets and salmon are my top 3 favourite fish for baking. Salmon - because we do normally either grill or bake it. Mackerel and pomfret - simply because they're soo tasty for frying and baking is almost the same, in my opinion. It's one of my new year resolution to actually get rid of that particular silver pomfret from my freezer compartment that I've had for quite some time (but fresh still), plus I wanted to find out how baking this little pomfret would be.
It tasted wonderful, almost the same like ikan bakar (grilled fish) except for that natural banana leaf flavour is not there as I used aluminium foil instead. I used lemongrass as my main ingredient, it gives a nice aroma ans taste to the fish while maintaining the natural fish flavour.

With this successful baked fish method rather than messy fried fish, I can happily say that I won't mind eating fish more frequently! Am sure those of you who finds frying messy, will find this recipe workable and pleasant. An alternatif to frying..

:: Baked Pomfret with Lemongrass Recipe ::

1 medium silver (or white) pomfret (Bawal Putih) or Indian Mackerel (Ikan Kembung)
1 small lemongras, thinly sliced
2-4 thinly sliced lemon pieces
About 2-3 Kaffir Lime Leaves
1/3 of a red onion or 1 shallot, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
Aluminium foil


Preheat your oven (medium heat). Wash and trim fish (if not done yet). Rub oil, turmeric powder and fish sauce all over the fish, including the inside parts.

On the aluminium foil, place the rest of the ingredients, starting with the onions, lemongrass on both sides of the fish. Arrange the kaffir lime leaves and lemon slices on top of both sides of the fish, and seal he aluminium foil. You may want to leave a small hole on top to let off some stream.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, then unseal the foil. Bake for another 10-15 minutes of until the fish is cooked. Serve with dark soy sauce with chopped bird's eye chili & shallots.

Note:
Try it with your favourite fish.
You can add a small cut of banana leaf on the aluminium foil to give it more taste.
You can use torch ginger (Bunga kantan) to give a different flavour.

Prata with Chicken Sausage & Cheese

Roti prata, or prata, or more popularly known as roti canai in Malaysia is one of our favourite or must-have) Malaysian breakfast. Despite its oily or unhealthy rumour, next to nasi lemak, having roti canai once in a while whilst maintaining a healthy lifestyle is like chicken soup for the soul. I'm serious. You can't ever ban yourself (or your husband or friends or family) from eating roti canai once in a while. Not even when you're on the strictest diet!

Roti canai is originally an Indian food for breakfast, it's basically a pancake made from flour, eggs, water and ghee or oil. Due to its delicious crispy but soft texture, eaten with a small bowl of dhal, fish/beef/chicken curry, it is commonly found everywhere, even at the frozen food section. Very convenient.

Honestly, the frozen ones is slightly different as compared to the fresh roti canai that you get in the mamak stalls. And why bother to even buy frozen roti cnai when you can get fresh ones? But I found the frozen ones nice enough to make some simple breakfast or snacks... I got the idea from Hot & Roll - it's a chain that sells hot rolls made from pancakes and roti prata, and they have a couple of different flavour to choose from. You can read about it here.

Since it is fairly simply to make, hubby LOVES it so much, I happen to actually have a pack of unused Kawan roti prata, my breakfast was on its way without much thinking.... and it is so much more delicious having it homemade - more sausages, more flavour, and more love...
:: Prata with Chicken Sausage & Cheese Recipe ::
Serves 2

2 frozen roti pratas (I used the brand "Kawan")
2 chicken sausages, thinly sliced
1/2 of a yellow onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Before heating up the prata on a non-stick pan, prepare and cook the filly first, ie the sausage.

Fry the onions and thinly sliced sausages in 1 tablespoon of olive oil, for about 3 minutes. Add Worcestershire sauce and fry for another minute, and put aside.

Heat up a large non-stick frying pan on a low-medium heat. Lightly spray the pan with canola oil spray or simpy grease it with olive oil. With a piece of the roti prata, fry each side for about 3-4 minutes or until light brown in colour.

On one side of the prata, sprinkle some mozzarella chesse all over. Place half of the fried sausage with onions over half side of the prata and fold the prata in to two. Repeat with the other ingredients.

Cut the folded prata into two and serve immediately.

Note:
1. Use beef bacon/ham slices to substitute sausages.
2. Try the spicy prata instead of a plain one for a change.