Squid Curry

Bought a nice thick squid from the night market and I love squid.

I went through my kitchen to see what I have and cooked this. I'm not sure what to call it, taste is a bit like Thai Red Curry, but I didn't put in coriander root, nor did I use any kaffir lime rind, but just the leaf. There are no spices in it like an Indian curry.

Hokkaido Soup Curry (video)

*All pictures and video taken with my Iphone 7 because my camera was in repair*

Last year, I went to Hokkaido for a road trip. I had a wonderful time driving 1200km around the island together with my husband. We ate a lot of local delicacies and one of it is Soup Curry.

Frankly, when I read about this dish, I was skeptical about it. I thought it's a sweet spiced broth with no punch. I was wrong, so wrong!!

We went to Samurai Soup Curry, it was one of the nearer ones to our hotel in Sapporo. Out of 10 levels of heat, I ordered heat level 7 and my husband ordered one at level 4. I thought... oh what... it's just Japanese standards, how hot can it be for a Malaysian?

Curry Chicken Chop - Chicken Trio # 1

Dish prepared in May 2011

Sick of the usual curry? Sick of the usual Chicken chop with mushroom sauce or brown sauce or even the traditional ketchup? Try this for a change.

Tomato Curry Chicken

A dish that my mom told me verbally how to cook.

When I was in my teens, someone told my mom about a curry that is without coconut milk but uses tomatoes. She told me to come up with what she told me. Being the obedient child that I am (hahaha!!), I gladly obliged. And the outcome was a wonderful dish to go with rice.


Tomato Curry Chicken
Recipe Source : Verbal instructions from Wendyywy's mom

1.5kg chicken (1 bird)
250gm tomato (2 large ones)
1 tsp salt
250gm carrots
150gm onions
3 cloves garlic
2 red chillies
2 Tbsp meat curry powder
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt to taste
1 tsp cornstarch mix with ¼ cup water

1. Chop chicken into small pieces and marinate with 1 tsp salt for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, peel and cut carrots into longish chunks, quarter tomatoes, cut onions into wedges and loosen the onions, slice chillies thickly, and peel and smash the garlic.
3. Heat wok until very hot, put in onions. Toss until the onions are fragrant, then put in 1 tsp oil and toss until it looks browned and very slightly charred. Dish up and set aside
4. Put in 1 Tbsp oil and put in carrots and let them brown for a while then the tomatoes. When everything is slightly browned and fragrant, toss up and set aside.
5. In the same wok, put in 2 Tbsp cooking oil and put in smashed garlic and chilli. Fry until garlic is fragrant, then put in chicken and cook until it starts to brown and get dry. Put in curry powder and fry until fragrant and you can start to see more oil seeping out from the skin.
6. Put in the Worcestershire sauce, carrots and tomatoes, put in enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, cover and let it simmer for 15 minutes or until chicken is more tender.
7. Remove lid and put in onions. Reduce gravy to preferred amount.
8. Taste and season with salt if not salty enough. Sugar will not be necessary.
9. Thicken gravy with cornstarch mixture to preferred consistency. Bring back to a boil and dish up.

Curry Fish Head

Brother in law is coming over for dinner tonight(as on the day I made this) and he always brings back some rice for FIL as well. And Mike reminded me to cook something that FIL will eat.

Hah! What my FIL eats is not always something MIL will approve of. She may be in the States, but she's always reading my blog, kekekeke.

But anyway, I cooked his favourite this time, fish head curry, as I have a fish head and a fish tail in the freezer, an aubergine, some leftover beans from the Nasi Goreng Kampung and some big juicy organic tomatoes 

But,I forgot to weigh my fish!!!!
Anyway, I  just made an estimation of size using the palms of your hands.

1 fish head plus some of the belly about the size of my palm, separate the belly from the head into serving sizes
1 fish tail about the length of my palm (and that does not include the tail fin), cut into 1 inch thick pieces
1 aubergine (big if you like more, small if you like it less), cut into 2 inch lengths and quatered
5 pcs of long beans (cut into 3 inch lengths)
1 large red onion (cut into 8)
5 okra, cut into 2 or 3 pieces each
1 large tomato, cut into 8
2 lemon grass (4 inches from the base, smashed)
25gm fish curry powder (I used 1 small pack of Adabi fish curry powder)
200ml thick coconut milk
½ Tbsp salt to taste
3 pieces of turmeric leaves, sliced thinly for sprinkling (I added this for fun as I have them in the fridge)

To be ground into a paste
50gm shallots (3 if large, 5 if small)
2 cloves garlic
6 dried chillies, deseeded, soaked til soft
Thumbsized peeled ginger

1. Heat a wok on high heat. Put in 3 Tbsp oil. Put in aubergines and toss it few times, spread it around on the wok and let it fry for a while, tossing it every 20 seconds. Cook the aubergine for about 1 minute. Next put in the onions(the aubergines are still in there, just mix them together). Toss and spread around the wok again, tossing it every 20 seconds for 1 minute. Finally the long beans. Toss and spread around the wok again, tossing it every 20 seconds for 1 minute. Your aubergines, onions and long beans will be very fragrant this way. Dish up and set aside.
2. Heat wok on medium heat, put in 3 Tbsp oil. Put in the ground paste and fry until fragrant and slightly dry. Then put in curry powder. Fry for a while until fragrant. Turn to low heat.
3. Put in 2 Tbsp of coconut cream (skimmed from the top of the coconut milk). Cook until the whiteness disappears. Then put in the lemon grass and fry for a while. Turn back to high heat.
4. Put in 3 cups of water, dissolve the fragrant paste. Put in fish pieces and tomato.
5. Bring to a boil and then put in the precooked vege. Simmer for 10 minutes. (try not to stir the curry too much, else you will break up the fish)
6. Put in coconut milk and salt to taste. Put in okra. Simmer for another 5 minutes.
7. Dish up, sprinkle with shredded turmeric leaves and serve.

So, do you like it head or tails???

Flip a coin and see which part you 'll get on you plate of rice.

In the end, FIL got the tail, BIL got the most fleshy part, Mike got the fish bellies, and I took the another fleshy part and 2 heads!!!!

The whole dish was difficult to finish up!!!! There was so much to eat!!!!!

Green Curry Chicken, again

I didn’t plan to do this, but then I saw Thai basil in Jusco!!!! OMG, I just got to make something with that, and on yeah, green curry. It’s been dog years since I’ve done that. And this time, I’m gonna use cumin with it as well, it’s supposed to have cumin, just that I didn’t have that last time, so now, I’m gonna use that too.

(A)
750gm chicken pieces, chopped into smaller pieces and marinate with 1 tsp salt for 30 minutes
1 russet potato or any other floury potatoes, peeled and cubed

(B)
8 green chillies (seeds partially removed, I keep some for the heat)

2 lemon grass (4 inches from the base)
3-4 shallots
2 cloves garlic
Thumb sized ginger
Pinkie sized belacan/shrimp paste
1 Tbsp oil


(C )
1 tbsp coriander seeds
½ Tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp black pepper

(D)
200ml thick coconut milk
Salt to taste
Oil for cooking
Handful of Thai basil

1. Blend (B) plus 3 Tbsp coconut cream (skim the top of the 200ml coconut milk) until it becomes a smooth paste
2. Mill (C ) until fine
3. Heat wok and put in 1 tbsp oil and fry (c ) until fragrant, put in (B) and cook until it is very fragrant.
4. Put in chicken and potatoes. Cook for 2 minutes
5. Put in water to cover chicken and cook until potato turns tender.
6. Reduce gravy to desired amount and put in coconut milk. Season with salt.
7. When curry has come to a boil, put in basil leaves and give it a toss and dish up. Serve hot with rice.

Note: If you do not own a food processor like me, but own a blender than comes with a mill, you can do this. To make a smoother paste, divide ingredients B into 3 parts, except the oil. Mill each part until they all get mushed up. Put all mushed up (B) into the blender, then 1 Tbsp oil and 3 tbsp coconut cream, then puree until fine. This way, your green curry paste will be very fine.

Liquidizers or Blenders are not the same stuff back in 20 years ago. I remember the first blender at home was so sharp, that we can just blitz anything, and they will turn superfine in just seconds. Even pandan leaves, and the mill that came with it could make a fine sambal paste or fine garlic paste for my garlic bread. Nowadays, it’s no longer the same story. My so called “Microcutter blender” doesn’t even blend as fine as my regular National blender. Pandan leaves are a chore to it, and I had to snip them real fine to relieve the motor of hard work. And I never get the same smooth fine chili paste that I could get with my old mill. Don’t even talk about milling 2 cloves of garlic that my old one could do a fine job with. They may have come from the same brand (old was National, new was Panasonic, they were practically the same company renamed). Where is the old quality??? Gone with the name, I guess.

Easy Creamy Curry Chicken

Before that, a simple announcement:
Happy Eid Mubarak to all my Muslim friends and I'll be away for the weekend, so no postings and I can't reply any urgent questions regarding my posts, if you're planning to try them during this holiday. Will be back in action on Monday



Here in Malaysia, within the Chinese community, there is a tradition of having a supper buffet the night before the wedding, be it the groom's side or the bride's side. Something like a bridal shower that involves a heck lot of people. People will be busy looking at pre wedding shots, looking at the wedding room(groom's house), looking at the gown (bride's house), chat chat chat, drink drink drink... all night long. It's real entertaining!!!

Unlike the wedding reception where only those invited are supposed to attend, like if the card names Mr X only , you're not supposed to bring your kids, and your aunts along. But you may do so for the supper buffet. Why? Because in Malaysia, there is a culture of giving monetary gifts for the wedding reception, and it depends on how many are attending. And the seats are limited. Some of our friends from the other ethnic groups jest by saying the Chinese buy tickets to attend wedding dinners. But for the supper buffet, No gifts are accepted so, no worries, just come.. anyone, any amount.

I was the cook for my brother's supper buffet. I did it all under RM500/300 pax. That was his budget that included paper cups and plates, and disposable cutlery.

The menu was :

Pasta
4 types:
spaghetti
farfelle
spirals
liguine

with 3 types of sauces
pork bolognese,
meat and mushroom gravy
curry chicken

Dessert
Red bean and black glutinous rice sweet soup,
Bubur Chacha,

Drinks
Orange Cordial, Chinese tea.


Mom's friend made some taro mantous for the night as well.
I just wanted to do something out of the norm that usually consist of fried noodles, curry chicken, fried chicken or fishballs, and sweet soups, and maybe some other kuih and snacks, and I spent only RM300/++

The guests came unexpected of the menu. They told my mom that they shouldn't have taken dinner beforehand (Because usually it's the expected stuff, it's a bit boring, you know, so better eat dinner before you come) . Everybody was eating their heart out, especially the curry chicken.

When it came to my pre- wedding supper buffet........ I became my own cook.

The menu was:
Pandan Coconut Rice (green nasi lemak, using basmathi rice)
Japanese Shortgrain Coconut Rice (yeah, this one sticks while the basmathi is fluffy, choose one :P)
Chili Squid Sambal, hard boiled eggs
Acar Rampai (Malay style pickled veggies)
Curry Chicken (This one cannot be missed out from the menu, as I got so many rave reviews during my brother's wedding)
Fried Hutou Vermicelli
Fragrant Glutinous Rice (with mushrooms, chinese sausages and dried shrimp)
Marbled Pudding
Water Chestnut Dessert (changed to Soy Barley in the end, because the chestnuts smell bad)
Taro Sago Dessert
Orange Cordial and Chinese Tea

You may say I'm crazy, to do my own pre-wedding supper buffet. I even got so many discouragements to do it. Argued with my mom on that day, and I shed a lot of tears because "somebody" kept saying I was looking for trouble instead of lending a hand, on that supper day itself, you know.. and I was so busy in the kitchen and that somebody was just mumbling away.
Well, I can't stand the regular menus that caterers can provide me. I'm sick of them. How can I serve them to the guests??? Call me picky, yes I am.

At the end of the day... I'm just glad that everybody loved the food, and I didn't have much leftovers.
You know how my guests eat the curry chicken this time???? I made a larger pot of it, and luckily we didn't bring all the curry out at once, they ate the curry by the platefuls. My mom looked in shock, it's like as if they were slurping curry. But it was humourous.

I was so tired out when everything was cleared up that I fainted in bed. Good thing, so that I don't need to anticipate the arrival of "day" looking at the ceiling. :)

Even after the wedding, at some other house parties, some do come up to me and said, hey, this curry is not as good as yours. Your curry chicken is my favourite.

Actually this curry is not difficult to make at all. It was a recreation of what I've tasted my my friend Yen Cher's house. My friends and I went to Kuantan for a short holiday and stayed at her house. Her mom cooked us a simple creamy curry chicken. I slowly savoured the curry, trying to think, how did she make it so nice.

Now, you don't need to slowly savour mine and dicipher the recipe, I'll give it to you, read on.

600gm (+/-50) chicken (I used 2 whole legs about this weight)
1 tsp salt
60gm shallots (about 4 rather large ones)
10gm garlic (2 large cloves)
1/4 cup oil, or sufficient oil to fry the aromatics, make sure it's not too dry, or else it won't be nice.
2 lemon grass (4 inch from base, lightly smashed) and some curry leaves (both are optional)
50gm chicken curry powder (1 small pack)
200ml Thick Coconut milk or milk extracted from 1 fruit
Water
400gm Russet Potatoes, about 2 medium sized ones. Or any other floury potatoes.
Extra salt for seasoning

1. Chop the chicken into smaller pieces. Marinate with 1 tsp salt. Leave for 30 minutes.
2. Finely chop shallots and garlic, or you may use a food processor, but I don’t find that necessary.
3. Heat wok with oil. Put in chopped garlic and shallots, fry until slightly golden and fragrant.
4. Put in curry powder and fry for a few seconds until fragrant. Add in lemon grass and curry leaves now ( if using) and toss for a while.
5. Put in chicken and cook until the skin looks cooked. Put in2 or 3 tablespoons of the coconut cream (upper layer of the coconut milk) and cook until the milky colour disappears (the milk has turned to oil) Put in water to cover the chicken.
6. While the water is coming to a boil, peel and cut potatoes into chunks. Put them into the wok to cook with the chicken. Cover the wok. (Remember to stir them once a while as the spices tend to settle at the bottom and can get burnt)
7. Cook the curry until the potatoes soften and then reduce the gravy to desired amount.
8. Lastly pour in the remaining coconut milk. Bring to a boil and taste season with salt.
9. Remove from heat and dish up.

*Do not season anything with potatoes way too early. If not you will end up with a bland curry and extra salty potatoes.

This Curry Chicken is not spicy at all.  If you want to add some  heat to it, just add chilli powder or some ground  dried chillies into step (3)

This is a creamy curry chicken, with the creaminess derived from the melted russet potatoes and the coconut milk that is added at the end. It taste almost like Yeo's canned curry chicken, but Yeo's has candlenuts added in and mine doesn't.

Japanese Curry Chicken from scratch

Buying those curry cubes is pricey. So, I searched on the internet to see how Japanese curry is made from scratch. So, I found out that there should be lots of onions, worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, and of course curry powder.

I've got a few confessions to make here.

1. I made too much gravy, or is it that I used too little chicken.....
2. I made it too sour, by being greedy and putting in more tomato paste than I should.
3. I didn't have enough carrots

There are actually lots of made from scratch Japanese curry recipes, and I forgot where I got this from.
It's still nice, altho not exactly like the real thing, but acceptable.
Do try it out if u want to save some pennies :)
Japanese Curry Chicken recipe

2 Whole chicken legs, boneless, cut into chunks
Black pepper and a little sprinkle of salt.
Butter for frying chicken

4Tbsp Curry powder (I used Waugh’s Curry powder, Double Rifle Brand)
2 Tbsp tomato paste (I used 3, and I regretted)
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 heaped Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 chicken cube/ or 2 tsp chicken stock powder
1 large onion, chopped (I recommend putting in more)
1 clove garlic, finely chopped.
3 Tbsp oil
2 cups water (Or omit the chicken cube or stock powder and just use chicken stock in place of water)
2 large carrots, cut into chunks

You can make the curry in advance.

1. Boil carrots with 2 cups of water/stock until cooked, but not too soft.
2. Heat wok/ saucepan on medium heat and put in oil. Saute garlic and onion until onion softens. Turn to low heat
3. Put in curry powder, and fry until fragrant. Pour in cooked carrots together with the liquid.
4. Put in tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, chicken cube and let it simmer until desired thickness. Season with salt and sugar.

Final assembly

Marinate chicken with black pepper and light sprinkle of salt. Pan fry chicken in some butter until golden brown. Combine chicken and curry and let it come to a simmer. Serve hot with rice.

Oh yes, please put in more chicken with the amount of ingredients mentioned for the gravy or just half the recipe.

Curry Ikea Meatballs

I love Ikea's meatballs. Besides having them the Swedish way, I want to try making them with a curry sauce.

Few years back, Mike and I went to Pangkor Laut Resort for a weekend getaway. We had lunch at Chapman's Bar on the private Emerald beach, and I fell in love with their curry meatballs. It wasn't done with coconut milk, instead it was done with cream. It was splendid!!!

Here, I tried to recreate it. Although I do not know what spices they used, I tried using this "English" curry powder, supposedly imported from England and repacked here. Why supposedly, cos I'm not sure if it's really from there, I just read it from the packaging. Many aunties have recommended this curry powder, saying it's aromatic but not spicy.

Ok, so, to cook 16 pieces of Ikea meatballs (serves the 2 of us)

I used,
16 pieces of Ikea Swedish Meatballs
Butter for frying meatballs
1/2 cup onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 Tbsp Waugh's curry powder, or any other curry powder u may like
200ml cream (I used 31% fat content)
few tablespoons of water
salt and sugar to taste.

1. Thaw meatballs. Fry in butter until the outerlayer seems crisp. Dish out.
2. With remaining butter in pan, saute onions and garlic until onions turn soft.
3. Put in curry powder and fry until fragrant.
4. Put in cream and let it simmer until it turns thick and creamy. Add some water if it's too thick. Season sauce with salt and sugar.
5. Return meatballs to the sauce and coat them evenly.
6. Dish up meatballs and serve with rice/pasta or whatever u prefer.

Few days later I cooked the meatballs with a sweet and sour sauce.

Swedish meatballs in a Chinese sauce :)

Great fusion and easy to do.

Green Curry Chicken 青咖哩鸡

Mum gave me some green chilies that she didn’t know what to do with them (they were given to her by a friend), so, I suddenly thought of making green curry. I had trouble looking for fresh basil here in Kuala Kangsar, the market peddlers told me there’s no fresh basil in the market, only at people’s houses… So I had to find a
substitute.

Few days later, I got the idea to use ‘daun kesum’ instead, which is also another aromatic fresh herb easily found in Malaysia, especially in Kuala Kangsar where Laksa is the most popular local food here.

As far as I can remember, I’ve never eaten green curry before this, just saw many green curry in jars at hypermarkets

Green Curry Chicken Recipe

Ingredients
(A)3 shallots
2 cloves of garlic
2 cm ginger
2cm cube of belacan
2 lemon grass, bottom white parts only
8 green chilies
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 Tbsp coriander seeds

2 chicken whole legs (cut into chunks)
1 Russet Potato (cut into 12 pcs)

200ml coconut milk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp oil
2 cups of water

Handful of daun kesum (laksa leaves) , or u can use basil

Method
1. Blend (A) to a paste.
2. Heat wok and put in oil. Spoon out 2 Tbsp upper layer of coconut milk and fry until it turns to oil.
3. Put in blended paste and sauté until fragrant, for about 1-2 minutes.
4. Put in chicken and potato. Cook for another 2 minutes.
5. Pour in water and simmer on high fire until the potato is cooked and gravy thickens and greatly reduced.
6. Put in coconut milk and salt. When curry has come to a boil, put in daun kesum. Cook until daun kesum wilts.