Ingkung Ayam ~ Indonesian Chicken Coconut Milk Stew

Ingkung Ayam is a chicken stew popular in Central Java. White coconuty chicken stew that has hints of aromatics but it wasn't spicy at all.

The recipe I cooked wasn't as complicated as the version in Jogya, but it came together with Nasi Liwet Solo's recipe.

Serve the chicken in large pieces or tear it into strips to serve in Nasi Liwet Solo.

Hokkaido Soup Curry (video)

*All pictures and video taken with my Iphone 7 because my camera was in repair*

Last year, I went to Hokkaido for a road trip. I had a wonderful time driving 1200km around the island together with my husband. We ate a lot of local delicacies and one of it is Soup Curry.

Frankly, when I read about this dish, I was skeptical about it. I thought it's a sweet spiced broth with no punch. I was wrong, so wrong!!

We went to Samurai Soup Curry, it was one of the nearer ones to our hotel in Sapporo. Out of 10 levels of heat, I ordered heat level 7 and my husband ordered one at level 4. I thought... oh what... it's just Japanese standards, how hot can it be for a Malaysian?

Honey Mustard Baked Chicken

It's an easy to prepare dish.

My 3 year old rosemary plant died after I got back to work, LOL. I barely had time to do gardening. And this dish was made before I said goodbye to it.

Homemade Chicken Nuggets

My 2nd daughter was going to have a bithday party and she asked for a Mermaid themed party.

As I planned out the menu, I thought of making a finger food menu, food that can be eaten without cutlery. And I will try to incorporate as many homemade food as possible. And most importantly, food that can be prepared in advance and reheated on that day.

One of which I planned was chicken nuggets as dear daughter doesn't eat Chicken, as in chicken, but she eats chicken nuggets. Cooking for her is always a headache as she can happily say no to everything and eat plain rice happily. So, to make things better, I decided to make them myself, in the shape of fish to suit her theme.

Plum Sauce Chicken Wings Baked in a Flash ~ Book Review n Giveaway

I was given 4 books to review.

This is the first book that I went through, Heavenly Fragrance: Cooking with Aromatic Asian Herbs, Fruits, Spices and Seasonings by Carol Selva Rajah. Carol has written a few books before and you might have seen a few of her books in bookstores.

Ginger Baked Chicken Pieces 姜茸烤鸡片

Sometimes I just feel soo lazy to wash up after cooking.

Initially I wanted to steam the chicken and then cook the sauce to pour over, but the lazy bug hit me the last minute and I dumped everything in and baked it instead. Reducing a lot of washing up. I used just one bowl for marinating and another dish for baking. But if you want, just use the same baking dish to marinate. Even lesser to wash, haha!

5 Spice French Quail 芬香迎春 ~CNY Spread #3

fried :)

French quails are a type of quail. I didn't get them from France and neither were they raised in France.

I just bought them from Jusco/Aeon. Go to the poultry section. Sometimes they are thawed, sometimes they are sold frozen in packs. FYI, this is not pigeon or what is called in Cantonese as "Yu Ghap". This is "Umm Choon", from which you get those small spotty cute eggs

Turmeric Stir fried Chicken ~ Ayam Goreng Kunyit @ My Fav Ala-Thai #3

My final fav ala-Thai

When I was pregs with #2, I craved for white rice. Sometimes, I will eat rice at 7pm, and ask rice again at 10pm. And the rice's taste cannot be overpowered by the dishes. I wanted to taste rice, but yet, won't want plain white rice with nothing.

This dish was the one that I ate with my rice cravings. Not that I didn't like this pre pregnancy, I have loved it all the while, just that, I loved it even more during pregnancy.

Khao Piak Sen @ Lao Tapioca Noodles in Chicken Broth - Indochina AFF~ Lao Food #3

Khao Piak or Ka'piek is a chewy noodle, almost similar to the texture of udon, of which is made with wheat instead. For locals, we will find it not too far off from the texture of Lai Fun (Assam Laksa noodles, but Lai Fun is less chewy. The Vietnamese has another noodle similar to this, called Bánh canh. But served in other ways.

Ayam Pelalah @ Balinese Shredded Chicken - AFF Indonesia #1

I have been to Bali once, and that's for my honeymoon in 2005
Indonesia is the only country that I have ever traveled to, besides Singapore.

I love the friendliness of the people in Bali and most of all, I love the local cuisine.
There's a whiff of similarities as there's chilli, lemongrass, shrimp paste, galangal, shallots and garlic in the things that I eat..but, there is always this different smell in all their sambals. I couldn't figure out what was that special unfamiliar smell, until I got to know it's the lesser galangal, known as kencur in Indonesia, cekur in Malaysia and 沙姜 in Chinese. It is a type of ginger that we usually use for confinement purposes because of it's health properties.

Portuguese Style Chicken 葡国鸡 - AFF HK Macau 鸡 #3

Galinha à portuguesa or Portuguese Style Chicken 葡国鸡 is a Macanese dish that did not originate from Portugal, but given a Portuguese title to enhance its status.

There are many versions on the internet. Some made with turmeric, some with a mixture of turmeric and English curry powder. I did try once with a recipe from Open Rice, of which seemed simple and nice. The taste was good, I have to say, but there's supposed to be a fragrance, of which is missing.

Swiss Wings 瑞士鸡翼 - AFF HK Macau "Gai" #2

Like the previous chicken dish, this is another one commonly mentioned in my Hong Kong culture guru, TVB.

I did wonder did these originate from Switzerland? I found the answer and nope, they did not.
In fact they were first called this way, when a waiter could  pronounce the word 'Sweet' properly. And the customer  liked it so much and came back again asking  for sweet wings by calling them as Swiss Wings, as that's what he thought the name was. And the urban legend lives on. It is said that the best is found at Tai Ping Koon.

Galinha à Africana @ African Chicken 非洲鸡 - AFF Hong Kong Macau 鸡 #1

This month's Asian Food Fest brings you Hong Kong and Macau, both popular holiday destinations, that were once colonies of the British and Portuguese. Visit Annie's blog to read the introduction that she wrote.

Galinha à Africana is a chicken dish from Macau, not Africa.
I learnt of this dish via Hong Kong movies during my teens.

Yogurt Spiced Wings - Wings #3

It’s almost tandoori wings.

I changed so much of the ingredients to suit my pantry’s stuff that I don’t think the recipe seem similar anymore. It's better not to mislead using the same name.
When this is not for MFF, I am back to me, changing the recipe according to my needs, but still try to be as near as possible with similar substitutions,

Oyster Sauce Chicken Wings 蚝油鸡翼

A lot of people asked me, how did I know so many things about cooking at a young age (back then in my early teens). It was through reading the only cookbook that my mom has, the Wei Chuan cookbook. This book provided basic Chinese cuisine knowledge explaining all the cooking terms and the name of the ingredients in English. I can't read much Chinese so, this book was good for me.

As a kid, I loved flipping through the pages and during that time, my favourite part of the chicken is the wing, the middle wing to be exact. Because it has lots of skin and the texture is soft and nice. The picture of this dish is one of my favorites from the book. Glimmering wings.... beautiful. Took me almost 28 years to finally cook it.

Ayam Pentul, Indonesian Chicken Boxings - Wings #1

Yummy yummy! This dish seems to need more effort, but it's all worth it!

My hubby only had one comment, "Why did you make so few?"
10 and it's not enough to be shared among 3 adults, as there were other dishes as well.
Sigh. It's hard trying to guess how much the man wants to eat, right?

Thank you Nisa's mommy, it's a great dish.

Inche Kabin (Nonya Fried Chicken) - Penang MFF #3

Inche Kabin, no matter how it's spelled (yes, there are many variations to its spelling- Enche Cabin, Inchi Kaybin.. or whatever!) is a Penang Nonya dish. Said to be invented by the Hainanese chefs who used to work for the rich nyonya families in Penang.

I first had a taste of this dish in a coffee house, haha, yeah, 20 years back, coffee houses were everywhere. It's not like Starbucks that sort of stuff, but one goes to these places to have sundaes and chicken chop, set lunch and probably get that cup of instant coffee with sachets of  creamer and sugar. I ordered this dish because the name sounds special, I expected something Japanese, LOL.

Linatan~ Chicken Rice Parcels - Sabah MFF #3

When I first saw this recipe.... I asked myself, how nice can this be?

Then as I think about it, I remembered how my mom used to put steamed chicken juices onto our rice, and it was heavenly. No fancy seasoning, and the chicken was only rubbed with some salt and steamed.

Now... I roughly know what it tastes like.

Braised Chicken with Pork Belly - Jolly Belly #1

This is a dish from Terengganu MFF.
Introduced to us by Phong Hong and further elaborated by Daphne Chua, both whose ancestors stayed in Kampung Tiong Kuala Terengganu.

I was very curious about the taste of having chicken and pork belly together in one dish and the use of soooo much shallots. Few other bloggers tried out the recipe and everybody raved about it. So, I didn't want to lose out, hehehe, and so I tried it too!

Fricassée de Poulet~ Chicken Fricassee - Chicken #3

My first time cooking French…. Or was my Ratatouille my first? Well, ok, my first French main course. I never knew of this dish until I went googling for chicken with tarragon, and voila, out came this recipe and I am soooooooo caught by it. And it was just nice that I also have some mushrooms, although not the exact type, but oh well, it might work well.