To Cook
Rub chicken with salt and tamarind water. Let stand for 15 mins. Pan fry in half the cooking oil until golden brown or half done.
In a mortar, coarsely pound the last 6 ingredients.
Saute the last 6 ingredients. Add the cinnamon, curry leaves and stir through. Add desiccated coconut and ABC Sweet Soy Sauce and bring to boil.
Add fried chicken and simmer until the sauce is condensed and thickened. Remove from heat and serve.
Chicken
Country Style Barbecue Chicken (Gai Yang)
To Prep
Cut open whole chicken breast and spread out.
Crush lemongrass, garlic, salt, and pepper together, adding fish sauce, mix well. Marinade chicken with paste mixture for 2 hrs prior, or overnight in refrigerator.
For Mild Sweet Chilli Sauce
Pound red chilli and pickled garlic until become fine paste. Add sugar, salt, pickled garlic juice, vinegar, mix well until smooth. Place over low heat until slightly boils. Remove from heat and set aside.
For Spicy Chilli Sauce
Mix all ingredients together and set aside.
To Cook
Insert the skewer through the chicken crosswise to spread out the chicken and place over charcoal grill with low heat until well cooked and brown both sides.
Cut the barbecued chicken into large segments for serving with the 2 sauces with salads and/or steamed rice or sticky rice.
Note: can be served with Mae Ploy Sweet Chilli Sauce
Sweet and Spicy Satay
To Prep
Cut the meat into even-shaped cubes (2cm) and place in a bowl. Combine the garlic, sweet soy sauce, sambal oelek, lemon juice, salt, pepper and diced meat in a mixing bowl and allow to marinate for more than 1 hr in the fridge.
Soak the bamboo skewers in water. Mix all the ingredients to make the dipping sauce, set aside.
To Cook
Thread the diced meat onto the skewers and grill or barbeque, turning often and basting with leftover marinade for 15 mins or until cooked (to taste).
Tip: Beware! Sambal oelek is spicy. It is used by Indonesians for the sole reason of giving a dish some extra heat. Thus, it has no ingredients other than fresh chilli so as to avoide affecting the complex combination of existing flavours already used in the dish.
Salmon Sushi Cones (Temaki)
To Prep
Prepare sushi rice.
Cut nori sheets in half. Place sushi rice and desired fillings onto one side of nori.
Fold the nearest corner of the nori over the filling and start to shape.
The finished hand roll should be shaped conically to prevent any rice from falling out from the bottom.
Serve with wasabi dissolved in soy sauce.
Drunken Chicken Cold Dish
To Cook
Debone the chicken leg quarters, keep the skin on. Keep the bones to make the homemade stock.
Add chicken bones, water and ginger in a small pot. Bring to a boil and simmer over low heat for at least 1 hour.
Rinse the de-boned chicken and pat thoroughly dry with a paper towel.
Sprinkle the chicken with ¼ teaspoon salt. Roll up the chicken lengthwise, and then wrap with cling wrap, twisting both sides to form a candy-like bundle.
Steam the chicken in the wrap over high heat for 20 mins. Turn off the heat and let the chicken sit in the steamer for another 5 mins with the lid tightly closed.
Transfer the wrapped chicken into an ice bath and wait for 10-15 mins until the chicken is completely cool.
Meanwhile, in a non-reactive container, add the chicken broth, Shaoxing wine, sugar, salt and wolfberries to make the brine.
Unwrap the chicken and place in the brine. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.
Slice and serve cold or at room temperature.
Shortcut Singapore Noodles
To Make Egg Sheets
Heat oil in a pan and pour in ½ of the beaten eggs.
Pan-fry until done. Remove and set aside. Repeat.
Once cool, cut into long thin slices.
To Cook
Heat oil in a wok. Pan fry firm tofu until browned, set aside.
Heat some oil again in the wok and stir-fry chicken until cooked. Add roasted barbeque pork, carrot, capsicum and stir-fry for 2 mins. Add in the prawns and stir-fry for 1-2 mins. Add in fried tofu back into the wok.
Add rice noodles and the ready sauce for Singapore noodles. Stir well and heat through.
Sprinkle with shredded egg on top when ready to serve.
Ipoh Kuey Teow Soup (Kai Si Hor Fun)
To Cook
Heat up 4 L of water in a large pot and bring to a boil over a high heat before adding the prawns and cooking for 2 mins. Remove the prawns from the pot and set aside.
In the same pot, add in the carcasses, pork bones, drumsticks and the white peppercorns. Return to a boil before reducing to a simmer and cooking for 2 hrs.
While the broth simmers, remove the heads from the prawns and cook the prawn heads in a pan with vegetable oil over a medium-high heat.
Continue to cook until the shell has become crispy and the oil has taken the colour of the prawn before removing from the heat and filtering the oil to use. Set aside.
When the drumsticks have become tender, remove them from the pot and remove the meat from the bone and set aside.
In a pot of water, blanch the chives until the begin to wilt before settings aside. Add the noodles in to the pot to cook as per the instruction before also removing from the pot and setting aside.
Add the salt in to the broth and mix until dissolved. Add more if necessary before removing from the heat to plate.
To Serve
In a serving bowl, add the noodles, chives, chicken drumstick meat and prawns and ladle the soup stock over it.
Finish by garnishing with fried shallots, sliced coriander and drizzle with the prawn oil.
Serve with a small bowl of the dipping sauce by combining the dipping sauce ingredients together and mixing.
Nyonya Style Chicken
To Cook
Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 3-5 mins or until soft. Add 2 cloves garlic and ginger and cook for another minute. Add curry paste and cook for a further 5 mins, stirring. Add coconut milk, cook for 5 mins.
Meanwhile, season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in large frying pan over medium heat. Add the chicken, skin side down, and cook uncovered for 8 mins or until golden and crisp. Turnover and cook for a further 8 mins or until cooked through. Transfer to a plate, cover loosely with foil and set aside for 5 mins.
Cook the Brussels sprouts in a large saucepan of boiling water for 5 mins or until just tender. Drain well.
Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan and add 2 cloves crushed garlic and chilli flakes. Cook for 1 min, stirring until mixture is aromatic. Add the Brussels sprouts and stir to coat sprouts. Add lemon juice, stir to combine.
Serve chicken with sauce and Brussels sprouts.
Stir Fried Chicken with Cashew Nuts (Gai Pad Med Mamuang)
To Prep
In a bowl, mix chicken and soy sauce and set aside.
In a separate bowl, mix the sauce ingredients and set aside.
To Cook
In a wok, heat a little oil and sear the chicken on one side until golden brown. Remove and set aside. The chicken is only partly done at this stage.
Add 1-2 tbsp of oil to the wok and saute garlic and onion until the garlic starts to turn brown. Mix in the seared chicken, mushrooms and chillies and toss quickly.
Stir in the sauce and cook until the chicken is done. You may add a splash of water if the dish is too dry. Turn off the heat, add cashews and green onions and mix well. Serve hot.
Shortcut Chicken Curry Kapitan
To Cook
Heat oil in a wok over medium heat. Add in chicken, potatoes and curry kapitan paste. Stir fry for 10 mins.
Add water and simmer on low flame for 15 mins.
Add salt, fresh lemon juice and coconut milk. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for 10 mins.
Serve hot with steamed rice or roti canai. Garnish with red chillies if desired.
Korean Spicy Garlic Fried Chicken (Kkanpunggi)
To Prep
First, combine all the ingredients for the chicken marinade in a mixing bowl. Then add your chicken to the marinade and mix well. Cover and leave in the fridge to marinate for about 20 minutes.
In another bowl, mix all the ingredients for the garlic sauce and set aside for later.
When the chicken has marinated enough, get it from the fridge and combine with the batter ingredients. Using your hands or a spatula, mix the chicken and the batter well.
To Cook
Heat up enough oil for deep frying in a wok until it reads 175°C on a thermometer. Add the chicken to the hot oil one at a time. Remove them from the oil when they float and drain off the any excess oil.
Deep fry the chicken for another round to give them a nice crisp. Remove from the wok and drain off any excess oil. Place on paper towels to remove as much oil as possible and set aside for later.
In a hot pan, add the chilli oil, leek and dried chillies. Stir fry until fragrant over medium high heat.
Add the cubed vegetables to the pan and stir fry until the onions start to turn translucent.
Add the garlic sauce and mix well. Allow it to cook down into a thicker sauce.
Finally add the deep-fried chicken to the pan and toss it to coat the chicken with the sauce. Transfer to a serving dish and serve with steamed rice.
Soy Simmered Chicken (Tori No Shoyuni)
To Prep
Prepare your daikon by cutting it in half lengthwise, then cutting them into 3 cm slices.
Then add the daikon to a pot of water over medium heat and let the water simmer with the daikon for about 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.
To Cook
Start boiling some water in a pot, and when it is at a rolling boil, add the chicken to the pot. Parboil for 2-3 min or until skin and flesh turns pale. Drain the chicken and soak in cold water to stop the cooking. Drain again and pat dry with some kitchen towels.
Place your kelp at the bottom of a deep pan or saucepan. Then place the chicken, radish and chilli on top. Add 500ml of water, the mirin and soy sauce to the pan.
Bring the broth to a boil over medium heat, and then reduce the heat to low before adding the spring onions.
Allow the broth to gently simmer while skimming off any scum that rises to the top. Do this for 30 minutes.
Before the chicken is done, cook the broccoli by boiling or steaming until done.
Transfer the chicken, daikon and broccoli to a bowl. Strain the broth to remove the kelp and spring onions and pour the broth over the chicken, daikon and broccoli then serve.