AYAM MASAK MERAH (SPICY TOMATO SAUCE CHICKEN)

I love ayam masak merah! All my friends and loved ones know I am a chicken meat lover. I love sweet or spicy foods, so when I first tried this in Malaysia's Ayer Keroh Highway R&R back then, I was blown away! Never knew before that such a delicious Malay delicacy existed (o.0!) Wow! Where had I been all these while? I would then try the dish at Malay food stalls in Singapore, and never found the servings enough to satisfy my appetite.  The servings were simply too small for me.....I could eat a whole bird!

I attempted to cook this once when I was new in the kitchen. Armed with a promising cookbook, I followed the recipe but either I did not know the techniques, or the measurements were off, the dish did not turn out quite right. I had to deep fry (T.T) the protein, which was quite a disaster. I felt that all the efforts of preparing this dish were simply not worth since the outcome did not quite make it. 

After a few years wiser and spending more time in the kitchen, I decided to try again. This time, without the cookbook, but based on my own senses and preference. Made a few searches on internet to find out what various ingredients were used, I thought this compilation would work well for me. I did not deep fry the proteins (spare me, please!!), and used evaporated milk instead of coconut milk. I also added in potatoes and carrots as I always have them in my pantry. So, presenting..... Little Mouse style Ayam Masak Merah!

AYAM MASAK MERAH (SPICY TOMATO SAUCE CHICKEN)

Ingredients

(A)

1kg boneless chicken thighs, each thigh cut into 3-4 parts
2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp white pepper 
1 tsp light soya sauce

4 potatoes, cubed

2 carrots, cubed

(B)

5 red chillies, deseeded and sliced

4 garlic cloves, diced

(C)

3 onions

20g ginger

20g galangal

3 lemongrass (use only the white part)

(D)

1 star anise

3 cloves

1 cinnamon bark

2 cardamon seeds

Some vegetable oil

(E)

2 small tomatoes, cubed

1 small can tomato paste

2 tbsp oyster sauce

4 tbsp ketchup

1 cup water

salt and sugar to taste

(F)

1/4 to 1/2 cup evaporated full cream milk (depending on desired consistency)

Methods

1. Marinate cut thighs with salt, pepper, light soya sauce and turmeric powder. Leave them in fridge overnight.

2. Roughly chop ingredients (C) and blend / pound till fine to form paste. You may add a little oil to aid blending.

3. In a wok, add some oil and fry potatoes and carrots till browned. Remove the roots from wok and set them aside.

4. In the same wok, add a little oil and fry meat till browned and half cooked. Set aside.

5. Using the same hot wok, with about 2 tbsp of oil and over low heat, saute (D) till fragrant.

6. Pour in (B) and blended paste (C). Turn up to medium heat to stir-fry till they bubble and become fragrant. Lower heat to continue simmering until oil is separated from the spices.

7. Stir in cubed tomatoes to cook till softened. Add (E) and simmer until tomatoes turn soft.

8. Now add in half cooked potatoes, carrots and chicken thighs, including the liquids while resting the meat. Saute over medium heat for about 10 minutes, let it simmer until meat becomes tender, potatoes and carrots are soft.

9. Stir in (F).

10. Serve.

This dish was supposed to taste better the next day, but my gang attacked it anyway. Nothing was left except for an empty plate.

BEER BUTT ROASTED CHICKEN

Never tasted it, only saw on TV foodie programs. Looked so so good, great as a compliment dish for beer with friends or as a main in family. The poultry was juicy and succulent, with the skin so roasted and yummy! Arghhh! Can't wait any further!

Before you attempt this dish, please make sure your oven is tall enough.

BEER BUTT ROASTED CHICKEN

Ingredients

(A)

1 whole chicken, cleaned with neck and feet removed

(B)

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp fennel

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp black ground pepper

1 tsp white pepper

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp oyster sauce

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tbsp dried herbs (oregano, thyme, rosemary)

(C)

Some onion, diced

Some garlic, diced

Some potatoes and carrots, cubed

(D)

1/2 can beer

Methods

1. Gently toast cumin, fennel, coriander seeds in a pot till fragrant. Grind finely.

2. Mix with everything else in (B) to form a paste.

3. Rub onto chicken inside and outside and marinate for at least 2 hours and more.

4. Preheat oven to 190C.

5. Stick the butt of chicken to beer can. Tuck wings behind.

6. Stuff (C) firmly into cavity of neck. Make sure there is no air space.

7. Place bird vertically on a bake tray to catch melted fats, and bake for about 90 min.

8. Enjoy!

(hint: you might wish to place a piece of baking paper on top of the neck to avoid getting bird burnt on top)

SUPER EASY ALL IN ONE RICE COOKER MEAL

I was down with flu, took medication and was feeling a little drowsy. My hubby and mother in law were both not at home, so I still had to prepare lunch for my boys. What was the best way to cook? Let the rice cooker be chef of the day! 

After sending my number two to get chicken breast meat from the supermarket across the road, I embarked on the mission to give them a tasty (I hoped as my taste bud was on vacation) meal. 

I guess the meal must be pretty good because the cooked rice filled to almost the brim of rice cooker, but when I headed for lunch afterwards, the rice level was down by more than half. Apparently my three boys each had at least two servings!

picture from Google

SUPER EASY ALL IN ONE RICE COOKER MEAL

Ingredients

1 pc chicken breast meat

3 pcs Chinese sausages

1/2 cup dried mushrooms, soaked, diced

1/2 cup minced pork

6-8 cloves garlic

1 onion, diced

4 cups uncooked rice

1 cup Swanson Chicken Broth

2.5 cups water

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 cabbage

Method

1. Slice chicken breast meat thinly. Season with light soy sauce and pepper. Set aside.
2. Season minced pork with some light soy sauce, pepper, salt and cooking wine. Set aside.
3. Soak Chinese sausage in water, peel and slice thinly.
4. Clean cabbage, rip into smaller bits. Set aside.
5. Wash rice. Pour everything into rice cooker, except for cabbage. Stir to mix well. Cook as usual.
6. When the rice is cooked, immediately pour in ripped cabbages. Stir to mix well. Cover rice cooker and at WARM mode, let cabbage cook for about 10 min.
7. Serve while warm.

EASY CHICKEN RICE - RICE COOKER STYLE

Got inspired by a FB posting on cooking chicken rice in rice cooker. For the first try I followed her recipe, and have since made some adjustments to make the dish taste better and neater. It's so much easier than in the past where I had to poach chicken that took at least one hour, used the not-much-flavoured stock in the rice, etc. THIS is much quicker and I can take my time to slowly do the side dishes! 

Tip: Place the crushed ginger and pandan leaves in the middle of rice cooker, and raise the bird with a steamer rack. In this case, you will avoid getting wet rice in the centre and rice-coated chicken.

My family also loves this simple side dish - salted succulent shallots. It's very easy. In an oil bath, just gently fry a bowlful of roughly sliced, peeled shallots until they become ttranslucent. Place in a heat-proof bowl (leaving most oil behind) and add salt (lots) to taste. Salt compliments well with sweet shallots.

EASY CHICKEN RICE - RICE COOKER STYLE

Ingredients

1 fresh kampong chicken, about 1.2kg

4 cups uncooked rice

1 bundle pandan leaves

1 bulb garlic

Ginger, approx palm-sized

2 cups water

1.5 cups Swanson chicken stock

1.5 pc chicken stock cube

40g salted butter, cut into 3 slices

Salt to taste

Marinade

2 tbsp low sodium salt

1 tbsp Shaoxing wine

1 tbsp light soya sauce

1 tsp ground white pepper

Some crushed ginger

Method

1. Clean chicken and marinade it. Remember to rub the cavity as well. Place ginger in cavity. Set aside for 30 min.
2. Lightly crush ginger and garlic, leaving the peels on.
3. Wash rice, stir in ginger, garlic, pandan leaves, butter, chicken stock, stock cube and water. Give a taste and adjust to your liking. Try to place most ginger and pandan leaves in the middle of rice cooker.
   
4. Place a small steamer rack in middle. Cut chicken open at the breast. Place chicken on rack with breast facing downward.
   
   
   
   
5. Cook rice as usual.
6. Once rice cooker beeps, remove chicken. Stir rice to mix well. 
7. Place chicken back onto rack into rice cooker and allow keep-warm mode to continue cook the chicken, about 20 min.
8. Rub cooked bird with some sesame oil and salt if desired. Serve!
   

CHILLI SAUCE

Ingredients

10-12 red chilli padi, remove stalks

2-3 red chillies, remove stalks

2 cloves garlic, remove peel

1.5 tbsp white vinegar

1.5 tbsp low sodium salt

1.5 tsp sugar

3 tbsp oil (from frying onion)

Just blitz everything in a chopper or small blender. Adjust taste accordingly.

AIR FRYER CRISPY CHICKEN

Ran out of ideas what to cook for family. So I attempted to use air fryer to "fry" one whole chicken. Hey, it turned out well-received, cooked perfectly and still moist. My kids kept asking for more.

 

Ingredients

800g whole young chick

2 tbsp low-sodium salt

1 tbsp five-spice powder

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1/2 cup approx of finely grounded bread crumbs

Method

1. Clean the bird well, remove all organs. Drain off excess water. 

2. Massage and rub the whole bird with salt, five-spice powder, followed by oyster sauce. Do not forget to rub the cavity too. Set aside for 1 hour.

3. Slit the bird half-way up at the breast. 

4. Pour the bread crumbs onto a plate. Place the bird into the plate and coat all over, cavity too. Tuck in the wings.

5. Place the bird with breast side up in air-fryer. Bake or "fry" at 180C for 35 min. Do not over bake or the meat will be dry. I turned the bird the other way after 30 min. 

6. Serve while a little warm.

Note: The bird should be at room temperature upon baking for better results.

this is the young bird i used

DIY bread crumbs

DIY Bread Crumbs

Cut old bread into small cubes and bake at 200C for 12 min. When it is cooled, blend till fine. Seal tightly and place in fridge for future use.

CHICKEN PIE WITH SOUR CREAM PASTRY

The other day I watched Masterchef Australia S3 and saw Ellie made a beautiful chicken pie using suet as the combining agent. I had never used suet before and was not sure where to get it in my neigbourhood. But I was very certain that I would be churning out a chicken pie soon!

Please feel free to make your own version of chicken pie filling. It could be sweet, savoury or spicy. Um... I decided mine to be savoury. I thought it would take a long time for the filling to cool, so I made the filling first. As it turned out, the pastry took a long time to chill . Next time, I will make the pastry dough first.

I made an error of using 250g butter instead of 200g. No wonder it took so long to chill and was difficult to roll out nicely. But the error was beautiful (LOL!) as the sour cream pastry turned out very buttery. Yummz!

Sour Cream Pastry (adapted from Maggie Beer)

Ingredients (I made double portions)

200g cold butter, cubed

250g plain flour

125ml sour cream (I used light sour cream)

Methods

1. If you have a food processor, great! It will save you lots of time. Just pulse butter and flour to resemble bread crumbs and add sour cream to pulse to form dough.

(I do not have a food processor, so I used 2 forks to help me cut the butter into flour. As I am making double portion, I needed a longer time. Do not overwork the dough after adding the sour cream)

2. Cling wrap pastry dough and chill till hard enough to be rolled out, about 20 minutes. (Somehow I needed to chill much longer than 30 min)

Chicken Pie Filling

in the end, I omitted cream, Worcestershire sauce  and garlic

Ingredients (please feel free to use your own versions)

1kg boneless chicken leg, washed and cubed into 1.5 inch pieces

1 broccoli, washed and cut into florets

1/4 pumpkin, cubed

2 sticks carrots, cubed

300g mushroom, stem removed, washed and pat dry

1 medium onion

1 can green peas

1 tbsp dried oregano

1 tbsp dried thyme

1 tbsp dried rosemary

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 cube Knorr chicken stock cube

1/2 cup red wine

1/4 cup Shaoxing wine

50g butter

2 tbsp plain flour

3/4 cup water

Oil for stir frying

Pepper and salt to taste

Egg wash: One egg mixed with 2 tbsp milk

Methods

1.  Marinade cubed chicken leg with some salt, pepper and shaoxing wine for 20 minutes.

2. In a hot wok, pour some oil and stir fry chicken till browned. Remove meat and juice separately, set aside.

3. Melt butter in hot wok. Add mushrooms and fry for a few minutes. (Make sure wok is hot before adding mushroom so that the mushroom will not lose its liquid)

4. Sprinkle flour on the mushroom and keep stirring for a minute. Add in the juice from step 2. As the juice starts to thicken, slowly add water, wines, and oyster sauce. (You may wish to add some cream to thicken the sauce, which I intended but omit)

5. Add carrots, pumpkin, meat, broccoli, dried herbs, onion and stock cube and cook until carrots are soft and meat is tender. Stir in canned peas.

6. Add pepper and salt to taste.

7. Keep cooking until the liquid has reduced to become sauce.

8. Leave to cool completely.

still cooking to reduce liquid to sauce

Assembly

1. Roll chilled pastry out into 3mm thick. Cut and line into greased pie pan or spingform pan, leaving a "lip" over the edge. (Make sure there is no hole and patch up thin areas)

2. Fill with filling to the full.

3. Cover the pie with pastry lid and seal the edges. Chill for 20 minutes.

4. Score the top lid to make a cross. Egg wash the lid. Place pan on a baking tray (thankful that I heed the advice because the pastry is very buttery) and bake at 220C until pastry turns golden brown. 

5.Serve while warm.

served with homemade mashed potatoes with sauce, cherry tomatoes and lettuce

VERDICT

The sour cream pastry compliments the savoury dish very well. It is a very filling dish, so next time I will use a s.maller pan

ORIENTAL MUSHROOM SOUP WITH CHICKEN SHREDS

This is my favourite soup. In fact my family loves this. I can make a huge pot and we will be very happy. So easy to make too!

ORIENTAL MUSHROOM SOUP WITH CHICKEN SHREDS

Ingredients

1 boneless, skinless chicken breast meat

400ml water

5 pcs dried scallops 

1L Swanson Chicken Broth

2 or 3 packets of fresh mushroom of any type, diced

1 tbsp oyster sauce

3-4 tbsp sweet potato starch (or corn starch or potato starch) + 100ml water

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cube Knorr chicken stock cube (optional)

Garnish

White pepper

Black vinegar

Methods

1. In a pot, put in water and bring to boil. Add chicken breast and dried scallops.

2. Once the chicken is cooked, remove the meat only, leaving water and scallop in pot. Set aside to cool.

3. Add chicken broth and bring to boil.

4. Add diced mushrooms and bring to boil again.

5. Add in oyster sauce. (You may now add the stock cube if you wish). Bring soup to a simmer.

6. When the soup is simmering, slowly add in the starch mixture. Simmer a while longer to get thickened soup.

7. When the soup is thickened to your desired consistency, add in beaten egg with a steady stream and stir at the same time.

8. Shred the chicken breast meat and pour into soup.

9. Serve with pepper and black vinegar while warm.

CRISPY SKIN HERBED CHICKEN

I really love to use herbs in my cooking, especially when it comes to proteins. For this dish, I am using dried herbs, but if fresh herbs will taste more refreshing.

CRISPY SKIN HERBED CHICKEN

Ingredients

5 pcs chicken thighs

1-1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp white pepper

2 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried rosemary

6 tbsp melted butter

3 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1/2 tsp sugar

5 pcs cream crackers, crushed

Method

1. Clean and pat dry chicken thighs.

2. Rub in salt, pepper, dried herbs all over the meat. 

3. Tightly sealed in plastic bag and marinade for at least 2 hours.

4. Preheat oven to 180C. Place non-stick baking paper on tray.

5. Place the meat on the tray in a single row with the skin side up. Do not stack or pile up.

6. Mix melted butter, garlic, oyster sauce and sugar in a bowl. 

7. Pour mixture all over the meat.

8. Generously pour and press the biscuit crumbs onto the skin.

9. Bake for 25 mins, turn up temperature to 200C for another 5 min.

10. Remove from oven and let cool slightly before serving.

HONEY ORANGE BALSAMIC VINEGAR CHICKEN WING

Actually I wanted to make honey lemon wings, but I just could not get the lemon from the store below. So I used orange instead. To add to the tangy taste, I decide to try balsamic vinegar for a boost. Turns out well, and love the orange peel!!

Ingredient:
1kg chicken wings or drumlets or any part

Marinade:

Juice from 1 big orange (I used navel orange)

1 grated orange zest (without the white pit)

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp brown sugar

2 tbsp rice wine (or Shaoxing or white wine)

1 tsp oyster sauce

Some honey for brushing the wings 

Method:

1.Wash and clean chicken wings. Marinate overnight in fridge.

2. Remove wings from fridge and set aside on counter top for 15 min.

3. Preheat oven at 200C. 

4. Place wings and zest on a well lined baking sheet. Discard the marinade. Brush honey on the wings.

5. Place tray on upper half of oven. Bake for 25-30 min. Halfway through, flip over the wings to ensure even browning.