Chicken Curry

Usually when I crave for curry chicken, I will buy prima deli's chicken curry mix. It is the best I have eaten so far and I can get it from the supermarket in Chinatown! Ever since I have learnt to make my own Sambal chilli paste, I have tried to make my own curry from scratch. This year when I went back to Singapore, my mother-in-law bought me 5 packets of meat curry powder and seafood curry powder each. I have so many in my pantry now! Have been trying to use up the curry powder but I don't think I can ever finish!

My neighbour has been giving us gumbo which he cooked for a few times already. He and his father can cook the best gumbo! Even much better than the restaurants! We are really pai sei (embarrassed). Therefore I decided to cook chicken curry for them as they love curry!  It is really not difficult to cook chicken curry from scratch. Just that you will need the time to chop the ingredients for the chilli paste. You can refer to my previous post on how to make the spice paste.

Ingredients: (serve 4 to 5)
1    Chicken wings and drumlets (you can use whole chicken too)
2    4 medium size potato  cut into chunks
3    3 tablespoons of spice paste (the recipe is for cooked spice paste, you can don't cook it too. This time I did not cook my paste)
4    4 tablespoons of curry powder
5    1 can of coconut cream (I can only get can coconut cream here. you can get fresh coconut and squeeze the juice to make curry too. it is definitely better!)
6    Water (around 6-8 bowls or till the water covers the chicken)
7    3 tablespoon of oil
8    Some salt and sugar

Steps:
1    Heat up oil in the pan. Add in the spice paste and saute till you see the oil seperates from the paste or when the paste turns a darker colour. Note: Use medium heat so as not to burnt the paste.
2   Add in the curry powder and saute till fragrant.
3   Add in water and stir well.
4   When the water boils, add in the chicken and potato.
5   Simmer till the chicken is cooked and potato is tender.
6   Add in the coconut milk, salt and sugar.
7   When the curry starts to simmer, you can turn off heat and serve.

Note: I have marinated the chicken with curry powder overnight. you can skip this step if you are lazy.

Updated Version stir fry ladies finger (Okra) with belachan chili and Steam fish

I had a recipe for stir fry ladies finger in my previous post. After my friend ww saw that she told me another way which her mum will cook it. Her mum will pound the dried prawns with the chilli to form sort of a paste. I think it sounds good. This time I have added toasted belachan (I took a piece of belachan and toast it in the oven for a while) and pound it with dried prawns and chilies to cook it with the ladies finger. This version is of cos more yummy as the belachan adds so much fragrance to the dish. You can refer to the old version recipe on how to cook this dish. The difference is that I just added the pounded mixture to the pan to stir fry.

Besides having the ladies finger for dinner, I also steam a fish (Hong kong Style) for dinner too. It is pretty simple. Just steam the fish with ginger and scallions. Meanwhile I added 1 1/2 tablespoon of good soya sauce, some sugar, and 1tablespoon of water in a bowl and heat it up in the microwave till hot. When the fish is cooked, pour away the water accumulated in the plate, the scallions and ginger after steaming the fish. Add some ginger and scallions cut into thin strips onto the fish. Pour about 1 tablespoon of oil (I use shallot oil which I kept after frying the shallot) in a bowl and microwave till hot (be careful when doing this). Pour the hot oil onto the fish followed by the soya sauce mixture. And voila you can enjoy a great meal!

粒粒－－一道不知什么名字的菜

粒粒－－必须用广东话讲哦！记忆中妈妈就是这样称呼这道菜。我想是因为所有材料都切成一粒粒，所以菜名就这样来的。我不知道这是不是妈妈“独创”的菜肴。不过，我好像真的没有看过这样的菜。我觉得如果吃粥的话，配上这粒粒真是非常搭。喜欢吃菜脯的朋友，你应该也会喜欢吃这道菜。下次如果煎菜脯蛋还剩下一些菜脯，不妨尝试煮这道粒粒！

材料：
1  菜脯 （我买已经切成丁的）
2  长豆或四季豆， 切成小段
3  豆干 切丁
4  麻辣花生或腰豆（花生口味随你的口味可以变化。妈妈版的粒粒用的是腰豆但是我找不到所以用花生）
5  豆瓣酱一汤匙（dou cheong）
6  糖少许
7  蒜茸少许
8 油

步骤：
1  用油煸炒豆干至稍微焦黄，然后捞起备用。
2  用油炒香蒜茸，然后加入菜脯炒香菜脯。
3  加入长豆，炒至8分熟。然后加入豆瓣酱和糖炒出豆瓣的香味。
4  加入豆干将所有材料炒均匀。
5  盛盘之后，加入花生就可以吃了！

Chai tou kuey & Bak Chor Mee --- Our way of celebrating National Day

This post is 2 days late. But nevertheless I still want to wish Singapore a Happy 47th Birthday! We had been missing all the excitement and songs for national day for 3 years already. This time, I have decided to celebrate with 2 Singapore dishes which are commonly found at hawker centers. And I must say they are our favourite food! Each year when we went back to Singapore, the first meal which we will have is bak chor mee! We really really miss this yummy noodles! The next is chai tou kuey. The other famous food like chicken rice, laksa, chao kuey teow etc can be found at the malaysian restaurants at Chinatown in Houston. But we can never find these 2 here.

I have tried to cook bak chor mee before. This is my 3rd attempt. We can never mind the type of noodles which taste like those in Singapore. So though it does not taste exactly like the bak chor mee in Singapore but we are pretty satisfied with our version. My husband will usually eats a second round whenever I cook this.

For the chai tou kuey, I have left over radish cake which I have made 1 day ago so I have used it to cook this dish. Originally the chai tou kuey is plain without the chinese sausages, dried mushrooms and dried shrimps. But I am too lazy to make another plain one for this dish. It taste good too! This is my first time cooking this. I like to eat chai tou kuey which is the black type and a bit chao da. So you can see from the photo that some are chao da. Should have added more eggs but I ran out of it, if not it will taste and smell better with the fragrance of the fried eggs.

Overall we had a satisfied meal on National Day! But our minds are still thinking of the real bak chor mee and chai tou kuey in Singapore!

For the recipe of Bak chor mee I have found this recipe from http://foodmadewithlove.wordpress.com/2009/09/20/bak-chor-mee-mince-meat-noodles/ .  Just some minor additions :1) For the stewed mushrooms, I have added a little rock sugar when stewing.  2) Instead of chilli oil, I have used shallot oil which I have reserved from frying the shallots. And I have used sambal belachan chilli which is a must for me to add in the noodles besides the vinegar. I use Zhenjiang vinegar as I like the fragrance and it has a rich taste too.

For the recipe of Chai Tou Kuey this is the recipe I have found : http://rasamalaysia.com/fried-radish-cake-recipe/ .

Radish Cake 萝卜糕

I have been so lazy and tired recently. Just don't feel like doing anything at home. Guess it's the weather which makes me so lethargic It's so hot and getting humid here in Houston. Everyday's temperature almost hit 37! Therefore I try to cook simple dishes everyday. Nothing new. Therefore nothing much to post recently.

Just back track a bit, 2 weeks ago my husband, a Singapore friend and me finally drove to New Orleans for a short weekend getaway. We have been wanting to go there to try the best cuisine in America. New Orleans is famous for Mardi Gras and the cajun and creole food. We tried jambalaya rice, crawfish etouffee, gumbo, authentic southern breakfast at Mother's World best baked ham restaurant, french donut at the famous Cafe Du Monde and of cos the fresh seafood! Every meal is a satisfied meal! 

French donut at Cafe Du Monde. Basically it taste like ham jim bang (咸煎饼)without any filling but instead topped with lot's of powdered sugar. Their coffee taste like Hong Kong's coffee which has lot's of milk.

Famous Seafood Gumbo served with rice

From right to left: crawfish eutoffee, rice to go with the main course and red bean rice.

I love all their food cos it's full of gravy! haha I am just crazy over food with gravy!

Okie back to the radish cake which I tried to make yesterday. I got the recipe from http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2009/01/chinese-new-year-turnip-cake.html. You can check it out at this website. Christine had pictures and detailed steps and useful tips to make a good radish cake. I just tweak a bit with the ingredients. I omit the chinese bacon and add in dried mushrooms. 

I find it is still not as soft as I would like it to be. I think I should add more water as the radish I bought is not juicy enough. I have some leftover and I have use it for another dish to celebrate Singapore's National Day. Can you guess what dish it is? I shall post the recipe tomorrow ;)