INTRODUCTION

I think I will not do justice to my blog if I did not blog one of my favourite childhood dishes, curry chicken and potatoes.

When I was young, my late mum used to prepare this dish once in a while. She will go to the backyard to pull out some fresh lemon grass, turmeric, galangal and pound using a mortal and pastel together with some common household herbs such as shallots, garlics, chilli, ginger and etc. Preparation was rather fast and then there was no premix available. Therefore, every family will have their own concoction of spice mix or rempah.  

Yesterday, I have decided to replicate what my mum have prepared years ago. However, I have also decided to add in a few more spices that I have at home. Having homemade curry paste  have one advantage, I can easily adjust the spiciness of the curry to suit my kid’s taste buds. In addition, you can prepare 5-6 servings in one attempt, cooled and keep it in the fridge.

After the dinner, I prepared a bread dough and wrapped the leftover curry inside the bread dough, baked and become a curry chicken bread commonly sold in Singapore and Malaysia.

The bread recipe that I have chosen are simple 40 minutes bread roll recipe. It is faster and suits this recipe well because curry can turn bad rather easily in Singapore and Malaysia’s hot weather.

The curry looks very spicy but it is not. I did not actually knew the reasons but I believed it is due to the brand of chilli powder that I used. I don’t usually used fresh turmeric and chilli in the blending with other ingredients with fear of staining my blender and  difficult to wash. Therefore, I usually resort to the use of ready made chilli and turmeric powder.

Is preparation difficult? It is not nowadays, with the help of blender, ready made herbs powder, the process of preparation can be shortened significantly. The recipe lists out quite a number of the spices and I have to highlight that it will definitely not a complete list but most are optional . Quantities used for these herbs and spices may needs only 1/2 a teaspoon or less, therefore you can safely omit it..

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: About 5-6 adult servings

Spice mix (Rempah)

• 10 cloves of garlics
• 10 shallots
• 2 stalks of lemon grass
• 2 cm long of fresh galangal
• 2 fresh chilli/10 dry chilli or 2 tablespoons of chilli powder (depending on taste buds)
• 2 cm long fresh turmeric or 1 tablespoon of turmeric powder
• 1 tablespoon of coriander powder (serbuk ketumbar)
• 1/2 teaspoon of cumin powder (serbuk jintan manis)*
• 1/2 teaspoon of fennel powder (serbuk jintan putih)*
• 10 candlenuts – soaked (buah keras)*
• 2 cm long of shrimp paste (belachan)

Others

• 4 large potatoes – cut into smaller pieces
• 4 chicken drumsticks – cut into smaller pieces
• 2 stalks of curry leaves
• 1 packet (200 ml) of thick coconut milk
• 3-4 tablespoons of cooking oil.

Items marked * are optional

STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Peel the potatoes, clean and cut the chicken into desired sizes (best to be about 3 cm x 3 cm  or bigger so that it can withstand long hours of cooking). Marinate your chicken and potatoes with some of the turmeric powder if you wish for half an hour. In recent years, I have by passed this step and cook with freshly cut chicken and potatoes. However, I will leave the curry to rest for at least one hour before i serve the curry. Then the meat will be flavourful enough.

• In a blender, put all the spice mix (rempah) ingredients in the blender, add some water just enough to cover the ingredients, blend until fine. Set aside. Meanwhile, add some water to the dry powdery spices to make a paste.

• In a big pot, heat up 3-4 tablespoons of cooking oils. Put in the rempah ingredients and the spices paste.

• Use medium to low heat to stir fry these herbs and spices until the colour had darkened, aroma starts to permeate the house and volume has starts to shrink due to loss of water vapour. It will take about 10-15 minutes.  If in the initial stage of stir frying process, you find it hard to stir fry, add in more oil. Once the rempah is cooked and it will become drier and oil will be secreted out.

• Add in the curry leaves,  meat and potatoes. Stir fry for 2-3 minutes until it is well mix. Add water to cover about 3/4 of the chicken and potatoes (more water will be secreted out during the cooking. Therefore, you can monitor and add more water in the process). Bring the curry chicken to boil and turn to medium heat to simmer the chicken and potatoes until it is soft (about 15-20 minutes) . Add in the thick coconut milk and seasonings (suggested: salt and sugar). Once boiled, off the heat. Cover the lid and let it rest in the pot for at least 1/2 – 1 hour for the meat to fully absorbed the flavour.

Preparation of Curry Chicken Bread Aka Golden Pillow

• I will not share the bread recipe here, but if you are interested, my suggested recipe is 4o minutes bread roll recipes here.  In my humble opinion, a quick bread recipe is preferred as curry cannot be in room temperature for too long as it can turn bad rather easily. Therefore this recipe is suitable. Since most are able to eat curry with French Baguettes, therefore, texture is of second consideration. Due to the weight of the curry chicken, the bread is a bit dense in the bottom which is totally acceptable. Though dense, it will help to absorb the curry sauce and become soft.

• Get ready a container of your choice, put 2 layers of the aluminium foils followed by 2 layers of non stick (water proof) baking paper. Shape the foils and paper follow the shape of the container. Put the curry in the bowl.

• Seal the the baking paper with a string followed by wrapping with aluminium foils. Roll your bread dough into a big flat shape. Size of the dough should be adequate to cover or wrapped the curry chicken. Put the wrapped curry chicken on top of the dough.

• Wrap the curry chicken in your desired shape, proof and bake in the oven in accordance to the instructions as stated in the bread recipe. Remember, you can always get the simple bread recipe:  4o minutes bread roll recipes here. or recipe 2 below 

Recipe 2

• 150 grams of plain flour
• 200 grams of bread flour
• 30 grams of milk powder
• 30 grams of castor sugar
• 30 grams of butter 
• 4 grams of instant yeast 
• 1 egg
• Pinches of salt
• 130 plain water or milk 

• Knead all the ingredients until it forms a smooth dough, Transfer to the lightly floured surface and let it rest for 15 minutes.

• After 15 minutes, roll it into a circle flat dough. Place the flat dough on top the wrapped the curry chicken. Tuck in the dough at the  and wrapped the aluminium ball .

• Let it proof until double in size, egg wash  and bake in the pre-heated oven of 180 degree Celsius until golden brown.

CONCLUSION

Homemade curry chicken is not difficult. It is just the assembly of ingredients, blend and cook. However, it provides you with an advantage of tailoring the ingredients to suit your family’s taste buds. You can always prepare 5-6 servings of the rempah (spice mix), cool and keep in fridge for future use.

If you are game enough, try to prepare curry chicken bread to impress your guest.

You can always chose your preferred bread recipe or my suggested quicker bread recipe. But it should be best consumed as soon as it is baked as it can turn bad rather easily. Is it not the 40 minutes bread rolls recipe clearly suits this purpose?

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have a nice day.

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