Turmeric Chicken

I made another dish based on a S.E. Asian's "turmeric chicken" dish that I remember. I think I had to wing it and adjust the ingredients a bit until it matches my memory. It turned out fine, even though I think I under-seasoned it a bit, and toned down the spicy heat to almost nothing.

In any case, the one interesting ingredient that it requires is fresh turmeric. While turmeric powder is commonly available here in the US, the fresh turmeric root is significantly less common. I'm lucky that there are two grocery stores within a 10-minute drive from where I live that carry these fresh turmeric root. This is what they look like unpeeled, and peeled. They are about 2 inches long.

They are quite fragrant with the aroma of turmeric, and you can use a lot more of these without "over-yellowing" your dish.

So in this turmeric chicken dish, I blended the turmeric roots with shallots, garlic, and ginger until they become a smooth paste. I saute the paste in oil until fragrant, and then add chicken pieces. I prefer bone-in chicken thighs and legs, because they will make the dish tastier.

I then add 2 cups of water to 2 tablespoons of tamarind pulp, and extract the juice/flavor from the pulp. I strain the mixture into the post with the chicken pieces. Then I added 4 smashed stalks of lemongrass. Salt and pepper to taste, and 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Let it simmer for about 15 minutes, and then add large chunks of carrots, and continue cooking for another 10-15 minutes. Adjust seasoning once more.

When done, best to let it stand for about 10 minutes with the lid off. The dish should not be soupy, but it also should not be completely dry.

This is what it looks like while cooking, before adding the carrots.

Serve over rice.

If only you can smell the fragrant aroma of it during cooking. Ah!

Zz.

Malaysian Satay

Satay is a rather common menu items at Thai restaurants here in the US. And unfortunately, it has been thought of as being a "Thai food" when in reality, satay is a common and popular item throughout South East Asia. Each country and each region has its own version of this food, and the variation can be significant.

Having sampled many different types of satay throughout the region, I'd say that my most favorite satay is the Malaysian/Indonesian satay. While the satay you find in most Thai restaurant are flavored with nothing more than just turmeric, Malaysian satay has a lot more species, herbs, and flavors. This includes the peanut satay sauce that accompanies the satay. The flavor is significantly more complex and interesting.

Having moaned to my friends about the satay that we often got at Thai restaurants, I decided to put my money where my mouth was and actually made Malaysian satay at home and invited many of my friends to sample it. I basically started with a basic recipe, and then I adjusted it until the flavor that I get matched what I remember how it should be. Making satay at home isn't easy, and it is tedious. Satay is often eaten at food stalls or restaurants because of this. This is very seldom done at home. So I certainly was aware of what I was undertaking.

First, let me give you the basic recipe that I used to make satay. The meat used in the recipe is chicken (boneless dark meat) or beef (flank steak). But in Malaysia/Indonesia, you may find tripe, chicken liver, beef liver, etc. skewered as the satay meat.

Satay Recipe

2 boneless chicken thighs and 2 boneless chicken legs, cut into half-inch pieces. If using flank steaks, cut into thin strips (no more than 1/4 inch) about 3/4 inch long

5 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon turmeric power

Satay Spice Paste

6 shallots
3 stalks lemongrass
1 inch galangal root
2 cloves garlic
2 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
2 tablespoons oil

Toast coriander and cumin seeds in a pan until fragrant. Combine all the ingredients for the Spice Paste into a blender or food processor and process until you get a fine paste. Add more oil if necessary to get a smooth paste.

Combine the Spice Paste with the chicken pieces, sugar, salt, and turmeric. Mix thoroughly. Let marinate in the refrigerator overnight.

Satay Sauce

2 cups dry roasted peanuts, skinned (may substitute with 2 cups of chunky peanut butter)
1/3 cup oil
1 heaping tablespoon tamarind paste, soaked in 1 cup warm water.
1 cup water
4 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon salt

Satay Sauce Spice Paste

1 dried ancho pepper, soaked in warm water until soft
6 cloves of garlic
3 shalots
4 stalks lemongrass
1 inch galangal root
3 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 tablespoons cumin seeds

Toast coriander and cumin seeds until fragrant. If using dry roasted peanuts, chopped in food processor coarsely and set aside.

Blend Satay Sauce Spice Paste ingredients in a food process until smooth. Add cooking oil if necessary to obtain a smooth paste.

Heat oil and fry spice paste. Once fragrant, add tamarind water, water, sugar, salt, and peanut/peanut butter. Slowly simmer for about 15 minutes. Set aside and serve at room temperature or slightly warm.

Back to the satay. The next day, thread 4-5 pieces of meat per skewer.

In preparation for grilling, pour a cup of cooking oil into a bowel. Use another stalk of lemongrass, and lightly bruise the stalk end. Dip this end into the oil and let it steep for 1/2 hour. This will be the basting brush.

Grill the satay skewers over coal or on a grill at high heat. Brush the meat with the oil-infused lemongrass. Flank steaks should take no more than one minute on each side, while chicken may take 1-2 minutes per side, depending on how thick the pieces are. There should be slight charring of the meat for flavor.

Serve with satay sauce, sliced cucumbers, and red onions.

So, want to see what I did and how my satay party turned out?

These are the coriander and cumin seeds being dry toasted in a pan.

Preparing the satay spice paste. I couldn't find galangal root, so I substitute ginger root instead.

Frying the spice paste for the peanut sauce. I was making a large amount.

The lemongrass basting brush soaking in oil.

Grilling the satay. I made both chicken and beef.

Malaysian satay is served. I also made "pressed rice" to serve with the satay and peanut sauce, along with the sliced cucumber and red onions. Traditionally, the rice is "ketupat", which is rice cooked in a weaved basket made of coconut leaves. But hey, I can only do so much!

It was yummy, if I may say so myself, and it was definitely a success. I managed to give an idea to my friends what "satay" is supposed to taste like, at least from what I remember.

I may have to do this again next summer if I can find people to help me skewer the meat.

Zz.

Sinigang

"Sinigang" is a popular Filipino dish but it also shares similarities with dishes found in southern Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.  It is a tamarind-based soup broth and one can almost put anything into it. Common ingredients in it can be green beans, daikon radish, okra, bitter melon, etc... The protein can be chicken, beef, fish, shrimp, etc.

The one that I often make is with those veggies and either with chicken or beef. I admit that I often take shortcuts. Instead of making the broth from scratch, I often make this on a weeknight using a pre-made package for the broth.

Of course, I just don't pour it in. I doctor it a bit. What I normally do is I have 4 or 5 thick pieces of ginger, and smash 3 cloves of garlic. I fry the smashed garlic (you don't even have to chop 'em) in a couple of tablespoon of oil in a large pot until you get the garlic aroma. Then I add the appropriate amount of water. Add the ginger and the sinigang package, stir, and let it come to a boil.

Once it is boiling, cover and let it simmer for 10 minutes so that the flavor develops, especially with the ginger.

Then add your protein (chicken or beef). Let it come to a boil and then simmer slowly until done.

Adjust seasoning. It should have a slightly sour taste from the tamarind. Optionally, you can add 3 tablespoons of fish sauce.

Then add the veggies. I always have bitter melon, daikon radish, and green beans. Cook until veggies are done. I often serve this alongside rice and kimchee.

If you like it hot, you can add whole Serrano peppers at the same time that you add the veggies. Then whoever wants it with a kick can serve it him/herself and break the pepper in the broth. It will add quite a kick to the soup.

Zz.

Malaysian Chicken Noodle Soup

I mentioned a few days ago of making a Malaysian Chicken soup. It turned out pretty well. I used the broth as the soup base for my noodle soup.

The noodles are thin rice noodles. The garnishes for the soup are the shredded chicken (actually, it is hen) meat, mung bean spouts, Vietnamese basil, caramelized shallots, and a squeeze of lime.

I served it at a small dinner party, and I thought it went quite well. Everyone loved it.

I still have some leftover broth, which I've been consuming for lunch with a bit of noodles and spouts. It is still good even after a few days.

Zz.

Malaysian Chicken Soup

OK, I'm having people over for dinner, and I'm going to serve Malaysian Chicken Noodle soup. I've started this morning to make the soup.

Unlike the standard, American chicken soup, the Malaysian version has a lot more spices to flavor the broth. I'm starting everything from scratch. I'm not using even any pre-made chicken broth.

I bought a whole hen (not chicken, so the name of the dish is misleading), and this is what I'm using not only to make the broth, but also later on serve the meat as part of the dish. The reason why I'm using a hen is because I want to simmer the broth for a long time. A typical supermarket chicken will simply fall apart and turn to mush if I simmer them for as long as I intend to. A hen is older, and frankly, has a lot more chicken flavor.

But what makes this different than the standard broth are all the whole spices that I added. The spices are: cinnamon sticks, whole cardamom, whole cloves, whole star anise, and pepper corns. I also put 3 sticks of lemon grass, 3 stalks of celery, one large onion, 5 cloves of garlic, and 5 thick slices of ginger root.

It is simmering slowly right now and the whole house smells wonderful! I'm going to simmer this for about a couple of hours, and then I'll fish out the chicken.. excuse me, the hen pieces and let them cool down. Then I'll shred the meat, and put the bones back into the pot and let then simmer for another hour.

When that is done, I'll strain the broth and I'll end up with the most flavorful soup base for my noodle soup. I'll post some more on how things progress, including the final dish.

Zz.

Chap Chye

OK, this is one of those unsung dishes where it is typically served only at home (if you lived in a South East Asian household), and it probably has a million different variations for each household. I don't even know if this is the correct name, where it originated, or if this was the result of people simply adding things together and then calling it a dish.

I found a similar dish online, where it is called a Nyonya vegetable stew or Chap Chye. "Nyonya" is a word used in SE Asia that indicates a Chinese woman or mother, and Nyonya dishes are typically Chinese dishes that may have undergone a few local additions.

The version that I'm familiar with is not exactly this, but it is close enough. Interestingly enough, I think I've only made it, at most, 4 or 5 times in my life. And each time I made it, I didn't go by any recipe. I simply put things together from memory, and then adjusted the flavors until I think it match what I remember, or at least, as close as I could remember. It isn't that it is difficult to make, since you simply dump everything into a pot. It is just that there are a lot of ingredients, and most of the ingredients are not what you would normally find in a typical American supermarket, to say the least.

I'm not going to list a recipe (you can look it up on that link). Rather, I'll show the ingredients that I used to make this dish this past weekend.

This is cellophane noodles. This might be easier to find since I've seen them in regular supermarkets. Here, it is soaking to soften it before I add it to the stew.

There are two ingredients in the picture below, both are soaking in water. The first one towards the left of the picture is dried tofu skins. The second one, the thinner strands, are dried lily flowers. Both need to be soaked for about an hour before adding them to the stew.

These are dried wood ear fungus or mushrooms. They also will be soaked for an hour before cutting them up into bite size pieces and adding them to the soup. Interestingly enough, the flavor of these mushrooms is quite subtle. What I like the most is the texture. They become soft but crunch. If you have had seaweed salad, you'll find the texture to be similar.

Fish balls. I happen to have this brand, but any fishballs will do. I was making a large pot of stew, so I used the entire bag.

These are dried Shiitake mushroom. Also need to be soaked for about an hour, and then sliced.

This is one of the flavor base. This is fermented, salted soy bean. I used about 2-3 tablespoons of this. I mash it lightly and then added to the broth. The broth is just water and light soy sauce, with salt and pepper to taste.

I first make the broth. Once I get a rolling boil and after adding all the seasonings, I first add the wood ear fungus. I let this boil for about 10 to 15 minutes, then I add all the rest of the ingredients at once. Cook this again for another 10 minutes and then add green onions. It is then ready to serve. The stew should be a bit more soupy than a regular stew.

This is what it looks like when it is done. 

I serve this with rice. In fact, I've often ladle this into a bowl of rice and turn it into a rice soup or stew. You can also break a raw egg into the boiling stew and poach it. Serve a poach egg with the rest of the stew for each guest.

It is a very satisfying soup or stew during the cold months, which is interesting because I grew up eating this in the tropics where the weather is always hot and humid.

Zz.

Dinner Last Night

Since I bought some bitter melons, I decided to use it for the veggie dish last night. I cooked some Malaysian chicken curry with whole spices, onion gravy, Chinese eggplant, and carrots. It is served with Jasmine rice.

For the veggie dish, I simply stir-fried the bitter melon with daikon radish and green beans. I first have 2 garlic cloves and a small piece of ginger that I smashed and minced, sauteed that quickly before adding the vegetables. Stirred it quickly over high heat, poured in about 1/4 cup of water, and covered for about 1-2 mins. I hate limp, mushy veggies and would rather have it raw than overcooked. So I don't cook it as much.

Then I seasoned it with salt and white pepper to taste, and served! This is how the whole thing looks on a plate.

And just like soups and stews, curries taste better the next day! So I made quite a bit to have for the next few days! :)

Zz.

Bitter Melons

For the average American, the range of food that he/she eats is actually quite limited when compared to many other nationalities. This is especially true when compared to Asians.

The sad part about this is that, in many large metropolitan areas of the US, there availability of many "exotic" ingredients is actually quite easy. Here, in the NW suburbs of Chicago, there are many stores and markets, both ethnic and non-ethnic, that carry a wide variety of food products that one can try or add to one's culinary repertoire.

I just got back from Valli Fresh Market near here, and just in the produce isle alone, I can find lots of amazing stuff. This post focuses on this one particular amazing vegetable called the bitter melon. Here, they carry two types of bitter melons.

The ones on the right are the type that are generically called the bitter melon, while the one of the left has a more specific name as the Goya melon.

When I was growing up, I was more familiar with the one on the right. And I hated it. It does have a slight bitter taste, and of course, as a kid, you hate anything bitter. But now, as an adult, I love vegetables with a bitterness to it, and so, this bitter melon is one of my favorite. I cook with it often, usually in a quick stir fry.

The Goya melon, on the other hand, is quite popular in Japan, especially in Okinawa. It has been credited as one factor on why Okinawan has the highest percentage of citizens older than 100. It is often served stir fried in a dish called Chanpuru.

Both melons are popular in other parts of Asia. The generic bitter melon is a common ingredient in the Filipino dish Sinigang, while the goya melon is popular in many parts of India (it is sometime called Indian bitter melon).

I bought some today, and will be having it for dinner tomorrow evening. :)

Zz.