Nyonya chicken
I love nyonya food but when it comes to cooking it, that is a different tale. I find that is one of the most tedious and with the most preparation. So when Betty cooked this delicious meehoon (vermicilli) kerabu and gave me the recipe for the rempah (spice paste), I had it sitting in the drawer for months before I finally gave it a try. Now, my preconception about Nyonya cooking has change but not that much...not as tedious (that's with a lot of help from the food processor) but still so much sobbing involved (the shallots, obviously).
The result, I must say, was worth all the tears though. It was this heaven of aromatic fragrances that intoxicate all of the senses.
It goes well with steam fish, fried fish, chicken and even pork, not just vermicelli.
I started off wanting to double the recipe as I figured I might as well get more for the the same amount of work and according to Betty this paste keeps well in the fridge for a month or so. Alas, it turned out I didn't have enough dried chillies, so I had to stick with one recipe and that turned out plenty, enough for at least 6 dishes!
10-15 dried chilies*, soaked and seeded
30 red small onion (shallots), peeled
1 bulb garlic, peeled
5 stalks lemongrass, use white parts only
1 bunga kantan (ginger flower)
5 buah keras (candlenut)
3 thumb sized lengkuas (galangal)
Blitz all the ingredients until fine in a food processor (and if you like the exercise or torture, use the mortar and pestle which some purists would swear make better paste).
With 2-3 tablespoon of oil, fry the paste over medium heat until fragrant and dry. Season with salt.
The paste keeps well in the fridge for a month or so.
The picture of nyonya chicken at the top most of this post was readied in just the time it took to cook through the chicken pieces, about 20 minutes.
Nyonya Chicken
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1 chicken, chopped into small pieces
3 T nyonya paste
3-4 kaffir leaves*, washed and shredded coarsely
1 T sugar
2-3 T lime juice (can be substituted with yogurt or tamarind juice)
salt to taste
Marinate chicken pieces with the paste for 30 minutes or overnight in fridge.
Heat up 1 T oil in wok and add chicken pieces to brown.
Add 1/4 cup of water and bring to boil, lower heat to simmer.
When chicken is soft, add kaffir leaves* (will give the dish a bitter taste if added too early), sugar, lime juice and salt to taste.
Cook until gravy thickens a bit and dish out.
Nyonya Fish
It is just as easy with fish, just fry the fish as usual. Then add 1 or 2 tablespoon of the paste in. Add a little water, lime juice (or tamarind), sugar and salt to taste.
Voila...yum yum.
Asam (tamarind) Fish Head
Over the many visits to this joint we tried many different dishes. Some we love and some we don't - like this steamed fishhead with soy sauce. The sauce way too salty and fish overcooked. K can do better at home.
Gong Bao Sotong (squid). Nicely done with the sotong cooked just right, very tender but the sauce is not the expected fiery hot and spicy of gong bao's. Still tasty nonetheless.
Pucuk pakis with sambal belacan and dried shrimps.
Although this is presently my favourite hound, there is this one detail that bugs me... I am not usually very fussy but the sticky plastic sheet (for protection?) they have over the batik tablecloth freak me out. I wanted to lift it up and fold it to one corner but it was thumbtacked to the table!! Why can't they just leave the lovely tablecloth alone? I had to do a complete wipe down before I dare place my hands on it. Sound rather obsessive but it just made me feel so sticky all over and I can't eat comfortably. When I mentioned this to the boss, he said they are going to change that. Hope that will happen soon.