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Random bits and bobs ..

Ayam berempah /goreng / KIND of …k…fried C WITH A tonne of flavour

The name is not really accurate it’s like saying grill fry chicken. Berempah is grilled goreng is fried so this is kind of hybrid version of them both.

Ideally made with chicken with the skin on cos the fat from the skin slowly melts as you cook it and bastes the chicken and gets cripsier yeah that’s an actual word that some folks have invented .

So in the world of takesaway and fried chicken places galore this sticks out like a sore thumb cos it’s slow not deep fried and needs some effort to get right.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating as they say and it’s the same with me goreng..( see the pun there).

  • Chicken cut into 12 skin on ideally roughly 1-1.2 kg
  • Salt
  • Lemon juice or white vinegar
  • Garlic5-6 cloves
  • Ginger – 1 piece roughly 25 g
  • Turmeric – 1/4
  • Coriander stems- 5 g
  • Red chilli fresh 2-3 ( not very hot but not mild either)
  • Cumin-1/4 t
  • Star anise- 2-3 small petals from 1 star.
  • Chicken stock powder/ji jing – pinch

Ok we need to grind the above except chicken to a kind of paste / marinade and then add in….

  • Oil 30 ml approximately
  • corn flour- 10 g/ 1/2 T
  • rice flour- 20 g/ 1 T

Marinade and keep overnight atleast ..12 hrs.. the longer the better.

The next day , take the chicken out of the refrigerator atleast 30 mins before cooking. then line a cast iron deep saute pan with baking paper and arrange the chicken on it skin side down. Heat the pan , and keep the lid on so it stays moist and juicy. after about 10 minutes turn the pieces over to see that they are not burnt and cook some more. How much more , youll know it when the juices from the leg , when pierced run clear( or use a meat thermometer – to cook until 75 C/ 165 F internal).Chicken is not something you cook rare or medium..

You wont need any extra oil as you already had oil in the marinade and the trick is to slow cook it so that the skin fat melts aand bastes the meat and keeps t moist and juicy and gets crisped. the Rice flour and cornflour also help with that. If you want it crispier you can add a bit more of those and as in all recipes feel free to play around a bit to get it to the taste/ flavour profile you are looking for. This is recipe is not the stairway to heaven , merely points in the general direction .

You have to love the food , so that you get make it good!! thats the trick.

Cooking international, Desserts and baking

Sour dough -oil poached bread fritters

2 Comments

Actually we are cheating a bit by saying oil poached . I did that just to make it sound healthy. Well it’s great for your mental health when the little monsters you make it for say yummy can we have some more ….but it’s not really poached more like deep fried ..good bye right artery of the heart .

The dough does have oats inside so supposed to reduce your bad cholesterol.But if you truly want to be healthy then you will be and won’t be trolling the internet for ways for heart health.

The good bit is you can say no..Ahh who are you kidding , when u dip one of these puppies in the chipotle tamarind sauce all resolve melts away..

Without much ado..

  • Sourdough starter approximately 200 g
  • Water – 75 ml
  • Oats – 50 g
  • Flour to make into a soft dough- 300 g( can use a mix of wholewheat and white)
  • Salt to taste
  • Sugar- 5 g/ 1 t
  • Basil and parsley to flavour or you can add your favorite herbs or even kimchi..
  • Olive oil- 20 ml
  • Oil to gently poach…😆😆😆

The method is to simply mix everything and keep it till it’s very bubbly , then shape into small balls and deep fry poach in oil 😛

Cooking Asian

Nasi Goreng- just like INdo style

So there is this rice, fried rice, some say from Indonesia and some say,’Gulp, dare i say it Malaysia”Oh god, well in any case we arent here to argue over the provenance, but rather to look for the best way to cook it.

Since i learnt to make this from my Indonesian Chefs, one Nety Rudat and Harryson Tobing , im dedicating this to them.

  • Shallots or small red onions- 6-8 or2 medium/ 100 g
  • Red chillies non spicy banana pepper kind- 5-6
  • Garlic cloves -8 large ones peeled….with all of these there is room for give and take, depending on how hot the chillies might be or how pungent the garlic and so on.

We peel the shallot/ onions and grind it to a paste with very little water.

  • Cooked Jasmine rice- 2 cups/ raw approximately 1 cup/ 100 g
  • Oil for cooking- 30 g
  • raw chicken cubes- 100 g
  • peeled and deveined prawns – 100 g
  • spring onions -2 green separate and white separate sliced
  • Prawns krupuk- as many or as few as you like look for the ones wit mst prawn content, not the cheapie ones.( fry these in advance and hide them, they will disappear otherwise )
  • Kecap Manis ABC- ive put a photo of this in the saus kacang recipe- how much to put…is dependant on how sweet you want the rice too be.. it gives it caramelly tones and colur and offsets the heat from chilli garlic.
  • Salt or Light soy sauce-little.

The way to make it very simple. Heat the oil and add the chilli paste and saute it till fragrant. Add in the chicken and cook till done., when the chicken is nearly done add in the spring onion whites(no greens yet)

Add the prawns then too saute for a minute or two till they turn pink and add the rice and rest of the imgredients..saute it so it doesnt burn because Saus ABC is very sticky….

Serve with some krupuk, and maybe a Telur bawang/Fried egg, ( i dont put it on mine because i dont like eggs ).

Random bits and bobs ..

How we discovered not to go fishing-or how not to be a drownded rat!

So this is a story not related much with food unless you say but theres fish on the heading. Well there is but these were not the kind that you ate unless your were Gollum/ Smeagol and ate fishies.

So imagine a city in Western India where you have a band of young peoples. Their names are Yash and Deep and they are typical boys who want to have a bit of an adventure as boys are prone to be. So these young scoundrels were interested in fish because they save fish in a tank at someones house. Now there are shops which sell fish and the paraphernalia to go with the fish but that costs mucho rupees,(2-3 Rs, which at the time in the 80’s was a fair bit ) which they are not likely to get ( or so they think), but they havent asked yet.

So in the are where they live lets call it the colony..indiranagar colony.

There they have other male children who have similar tastes. One male child says hey there are sugarcane fields next to the colony and ive seen a well in them. All the other kids are wide eyed/ OMG, he has been in the forbidden forest of sugarcane, where no living being should go.

So they set off on Sunday morning for this quest. The well is deep in the fields, and has a narrow set of stairs to go by the waters edge deep down. these steps were solid mud not brick or stone, so as the kids went up and down they would get wet , nay make that very wet and slippery.

When the kids went missing for such a long time, the father met up with another dad across the street and they took their black retriever “Bagheera” to track these rascals.

Back the well the kids were having a blast. Walk down slippery clay to the waters edge and crouch down on thee knees and with your palms try and catch slippery colourful fishies. they had collected a few in sort of container by noon. Suddenly they hear barking and a familiar voice calling out and lo and behold. Two dads and a barking Bagheera are by the wells edge .

40 years later i realise how stupid we were and so lucky not to have an accident or drown. None of use knew to swim and followng this we did get a fish tank with 2 and 3 rs fishes swimming inside till they all went belly up

Cooking Asian

The saus kacang / peanut sauce which makes you want to sing out loud

There are peanut sauces/ satay sauces which you get in a bottle which make you cringe and squirm with all the citric acid in there..in a pinch you could use it as an abrasive cleaner for your pots or pans..

Not that the one I’m telling you about will actually make you want to sing in joy but I had to use a catchy title or you might go away and look at that recipe from the Net with brilliant photos .

You won’t get that here.. what you will is something which is tried and tested and tasted .. and something which is truly ” Enak Sakali”( tasty in Bahasa). I learnt how to make this from my Padawan Chef Harryson Tobing. Harryson now is culinary Jedi master in the usa.

I had seen a different version which was served in our Thai restaurant at The Oberoi which was good too but the Indo version with its Saus (not misspelt)ABC- kecap Manis .was something else.. a sweet molasses like sauce which makes it even more special.

I have deviated from the original I learnt only to simplify it because I like the Kiss( keep it simple,stupid) principle quite a lot.

  • Peanuts balanced and deep fried ..or make it simpler and use a very good quality crunchy peanut butter – how much ..let’s say about 250 g
  • Red chilli fresh preferred – 2-3 big ones not very hot
  • Garlic cloves- 2-3 large ones
  • Dessicated coconut- 10 g/ 1 T approx
  • ABC kecap Manis / sweet soy sauce- 1 T or a bit more it’s hard to say depends on how sweet you want the sauce to be and how dark.. don’t substitute unless you just can’t get it but I think this is the best..
  • Coconut cream- 400 ml
  • Brown sugar or Gula Melaka- again depends on how sweet you want it to be..I don’t like it too sweet.
  • Kaffir lime leaves/ Daun Limau/Bai makrut – 1-2 torn
  • Oil – quite a lot..nearly 50-60 ml.. I never said this sauce will make you slim, I said sing..

So you grind the garlic and the red chilli together .heat up the oil and add in the chilli garlic mix till gets a nice colour then add in the coconut and peanut and get ready to not leave the stove side because if you do it’s going to burn horribly and can’t get rescued..

Which is also one of the reasons to add in all of that oil..when you see the oil start to separate out from the mix then add the kecap Manis and coconut cream( when you buy this look for the one with maximum coco content ) or use the Maggi Coco milk powder .

also add in the Daun Limau / what is that…the lime leaves which smell like summer refreshed ..and can’t be substituted with anything else.

Some people also like to add some tamarind extract inside their peanut sauce..I’m not one of those people’s!! Having said that if that’s what floats your boat go for it..

Serve this pot of delicious NESS with satay or grilled fish or tofu or with crackers if you like.. you will thank me and throw away that yucky tacky stuff from the bottle in the closest bombing site where it will get obliterated never to bother decent hoomans again.

The photo above shows chilli grown in my garden and the ABC which didn’t ..don’t be tempted to save money and buy the 6 kg plastic tub..this is better..keeps better and can be recycled better.