Sarah Cooks: Curry

Crispy Chicken Rendang Spring Rolls

5/04/2018 06:10:00 PM

Crispy Chicken Rendang Spring Rolls

When that whole crispy rendang incident was playing out, I really wanted to see if it would be possible to create actual crispy rendang. After much deliberation, I thought the best way to achieve this would be to take the meat and sauce from a chicken rendang, and use it as a filling for spring rolls! So yes, I went through the whole rigmarole of making rendang from scratch, just so I could make these spring rolls. And while I made these crispy rendang spring rolls as a joke, I'm pleased to say they didn't taste like a joke. They were fantastic!

Once you've actually got your rendang, making these spring rolls is pretty easy. (I wouldn't recommend making it all on the same day, unless you have lots of time and are feeling very energetic!) In fact, the hardest part of the whole exercise is peeling apart the spring roll pastry!

You start by removing the meat and skin from the bones - and I'd suggest doing this by hand, but make sure you wear food gloves! Then finely chop it with some of the sauce. I like a ratio of about 70% meat to 30% sauce, but this will depend on how much you have left over. For funsies I actually made a few spring rolls that were all sauce, and they kept their shape, so it's ok to go for a higher ratio of sauce.

Spring roll pastry & leftover rendang

And here's how you roll the spring rolls. I hope this picture is helpful for any spring roll novices out there - I once read a recipe in one of my mum's books that had no pictures and simply said: "Roll the pastry spring roll style". Cool, thanks. Another tip is to brush the edges of the pastry with a mixture of cornflour and water to help seal them.

How to roll a spring roll

Frying the spring rolls

I don't deep fry often, as it can be a bit of a hassle to dispose of the oil, and it can stink up the house if you don't have a good exhaust, so when I do deep fry, it has to be worth it. These spring rolls were definitely worth it.

All the wonderful complex spices and aromatics of a rendang, in an easy to eat and crisp little package. Serve the cooked spring rolls with sambal belacan or sweet chilli sauce, they are crazy delicious. Crispy rendang for the win!

Crispy Chicken Rendang Spring Rolls
An original recipe by Sarah Cooks

Ingredients
Leftover chicken rendang
1 packet spring roll pastry
1 tablespoon cornflour, whisked with 2 tablespoons water
Vegetable oil for deep frying (lots)
Sambal belacan and sweet chilli sauce, to serve

Method
Allow the spring roll pastry to defrost according to packet instructions. I usually put it in the fridge for a few hours before cooking.
To prepare the filling, remove the bones from the leftover chicken and discard. Roughly chop the meat and skin. (Note: the skin will not be crispy; this is ok). Mix the chopped meat and skin with some of the leftover sauce, you want a ratio of approx. 70% meat and 30% sauce, although this will obviously depend on how much you have leftover. Set aside.
Remove the spring roll pastry from the packet, and cover with a clean damp teatowel while you make the spring rolls.
For each spring roll, take one piece of pastry and place it on a board in front of you, with one of the corners pointing towards you. Place a tablespoon of the filling mixture on the pastry, just below the horizontal centre. Roll the bottom of the pastry over the filling, then roll it over once to enclose the filling. Fold the right and left sides in, moistening the pastry with a little cornflour-water mixture to seal. Continue rolling the spring roll to form a little tube, sealing the tip with more cornflour-water mixture. (Look at the pictures above for a guide). Repeat until all the filling is used up.
Heat a few inches of vegetable oil in a wok or heavy-based saucepan until 180C. If you don't have a thermometre, sacrifice one sheet of spring roll pastry to test. The oil should bubble up around the pastry as soon as it hits the oil, and it should take a minute to turn a nice golden brown.
Fry a few spring rolls at a time, being careful not to overcrowd the pan. Fry for a minute or so on each side, or until golden brown. Remove the spring rolls and let them drain on kitchen towel. Repeat until all the spring rolls are cooked.
Serve with sambal belacan and / or sweet chilli sauce for dipping
Amount you get will depend on the amount of leftover chicken rendang you have.

Have you made this recipe? Leave a comment below! Tag me on Instagram @sarahcooksblog and hashtag #sarahcooksblog

Chicken

Chicken Rendang

4/23/2018 08:30:00 AM

Chicken rendang nasi lemak

As promised, here's my recipe for chicken rendang! I wish I could say it was a secret family recipe, handed down from my amah, but I actually just found it on Pinterest. (Are you on Pinterest? Do you follow me? I'm constantly pinning random ideas for dinner parties and cakes to bake. Exciting times!) Rendang isn't something my mum cooks regularly, so she didn't have a go-to recipe - she's more of an egg curry, chicken curry kapitan and loh bak kinda woman. So, when I decided to make chicken rendang, I just searched for it on Pinterest and found a recipe that looked good and had clear pictures of the ingredients. Most Malaysian recipes I see are targeted, obviously, for cooks in Malaysia, with access to typical Malaysian ingredients, and assume a level of familiarity with the ingredients and these types of recipes that I just don't have.

Some examples I found that confounded me:

Dried chillies - what size, what type?
One piece ginger - HOW BIG IS THIS PIECE?
1.5 cup grated coconut & 1 cup water, mixed & squeezed to make santan (coconut milk) - Come again?
20 shallots - seemed excessive, until I realised it meant 20 cloves of those small red shallots!

The winning recipe was this one, on Kitchen Bowl by Huang Kitchen, whose clear pictures answered all my noob ingredient-related questions. I used her recipe, making some adjustments to the method and ingredients based on what I could find here in Melbourne, and have also rewritten the recipe for clarity and with extra explanatory text. If you are a Malaysian cooking novice like me, I hope you find it helpful!

I don't do a lot of Malaysian cooking - I could never compete with my mum - and it was really fun devoting an evening to making this iconic Malaysian dish from scratch. Full instructions are in the recipe below, but basically, what you do is make a spice paste (rempah), and cook it with your chicken pieces, coconut milk and a little sugar. And you just keep cooking and cooking until the sauce is thickened and quite dry, adding some toasted and pounded coconut (kerisik) at the end for extra roasty flavour and sweetness.

Lemongrass, dried chillies, fresh chillies, galangal, turmeric, red shallots, garlic, kaffir lime leaves, candlenuts, palm sugar, fresh ginger

A rempah is the backbone of traditional Malaysian cooking, a complex mix of spices and aromatics. Traditionally you'd make your rempah in a mortar and pestle, but I don't have one (and didn't fancy lugging my Mum's huge stone one from her place to my place), so I used a mini-processor. And actually, you make two spice pastes - one with the dried chillies and fresh chillies (for the love of god, wear food gloves!), and one with all the remaining ingredients. You do add them both to the wok at the same time though.

Let's take a look at the cooking process! You start by heating LOTS of vegetable oil in a wok (and on reflection, I probably could have used even more!), and frying a bruised stalk of lemongrass and a piece of galangal until fragrant. Then you tip in the rempah and start cooking! Here's the initial rempah in the wok, still quite watery.

Rempah in wok

You keep cooking, the water evaporates and it starts to thicken and darken, with the flavours mixing throughout the oil.

Cooking the rempah

Now the chicken pieces! I bought a whole chicken and asked my butcher to chop it for me. (My mum can dismember a chicken with a cleaver; I am not that skilled). I definitely suggest using bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces, for flavour and texture. I've seen some recipes that stipulate small cubes of skinless chicken breast, and I can't see how they wouldn't just get dry and stringy. Embrace the dark meat and the skin. You keep cooking and stirring until the meat is covered in the rempah and has started to brown a little bit. (The skin won't go crispy; this is ok).

Chicken in the wok

And now we're sweetening it up and mellowing the flavours, with coconut milk and palm sugar (I used Sri Lankan jaggery because I happened to have been given some by a lovely friend). And kaffir lime leaves for their wonderful aroma and bright flavour.

With the coconut milk

Just keep stirring, just keep cooking. The sauce will keep darkening and thickening.

Thickening sauce

And now, the essential part of a rendang, the kerisik! It's basically toasted coconut, which you then pound into a powder or paste. I used shredded coconut from a packet, but if you're more energetic than I am, grate your own coconut, and I'm sure it would taste even better!

Coconut for the kerisik

With no mortar and pestle on hand, and my mini processor still dirty from the rempah, I used a cocktail shaker and muddler to pound the coconut, heh. Possibly should have pounded it a bit more, but that was all I could manage. The main point is to release the oils in the coconut and intensify the flavour, so it's still worth doing even if you can't get it to be a super fine powder or paste.

With the kerisik

And finally, here we are! Super intense, aromatic, spicy, slightly sweet, deeeeeelicious chicken rendang!

Chicken Rendang

I served it nasi lemak style, with coconut rice, cucumber, fried peanuts, a hardboiled egg and sambal belacan (Malaysian chilli sauce with fermented shrimp; which came out of a jar, because there was only so much cooking I could cope with that day). I couldn't find any ikan bilis (fried anchovies), but I'll keep searching and hopefully will use them next time! I even served it on a banana leaf because I got carried away at the market when I was buying all the ingredients and thought it would look pretty.

Nasi Lemak Chicken Rendang

It was so satisfying making my own rendang! It was a lot of work, and a real labour of love, but I loved the rich and complex flavours, and the juicy and tender chicken meat. Sedap! Not at all crispy, totally delicious. (I did make crispy chicken rendang spring rolls with the leftovers though... and will be blogging the recipe shortly!)

Do you like Malaysian recipes? Would you like to see more here on the blog? Let me know in the comments.

Chicken Rendang
Adapted from Kitchen Bowl

Ingredients
Spice paste A
20 dried chillies
5 red chillies
Spice paste B
20 shallots, peeled
5 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 x 2.5 cm piece galangal
1 x 2.5 cm piece ginger
1 x 2.5 cm piece fresh turmeric
3 sticks lemongrass
5 candlenuts
For the curry
1 x 1.5kg chicken, cut into 8-12 pieces
1 x 2.5 cm piece galangal
1 stick lemongrass
1/2 cup vegetable or coconut oil
250 millilitres thick coconut milk
8 kaffir lime leaves, divided
30 grams palm sugar
1 cup shredded coconut

Method
To make spice paste A, first - wear some food gloves! Deseed the dried chillies by ripping off the end and shaking the dried seeds out. Place in the bowl of a small food processor or blender, and pour some hot water from the kettle over while you prepare the fresh chillies. Deseed and roughly chop the fresh chillies. Add the fresh chillies to the dried and whizz to form a smooth-ish paste. Set aside.
Make spice paste B. Peel the shallots, garlic, galangal, ginger and fresh turmeric. Cut into rough chunks and place in the bowl of a small food processor or blender. Trim the ends off the lemongrass, remove the tough outer leaf and chop roughly. Add to the processor. Add the candlenuts to the processor. Whizz to combine, adding as much water as you need to form a smooth-ish paste. Set aside.
Now, let's make the curry! Season the chicken pieces with salt and set aside. Peel the galangal and bash roughly to release the flavours. Trim the lemongrass stick and give it a bash too. (I didn't have any heavy implements to crush the galangal or lemongrass, so I just cut them in half).
Heat the oil in a wok until shimmering. Add the galangal and lemongrass, and stir-fry until fragrant.
Add spice paste A and spice paste B to the wok, and stir-fry over a medium-high heat, until most of the water has evaporated, the oil starts to separate, and the mixture has thickened and darkened.
Add the chicken pieces, and stir to coat in the delicious spicy mix. Keep cooking until the chicken starts to brown. Pour in the coconut milk and stir to combine. Crush 4 kaffir lime leaves in your hand, and add to the wok, followed by the palm sugar. Mix in well.
Bring the mixture to a boil, then turn the heat low and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Stir frequently to allow the chicken to cook evenly, and to make sure nothing burns on the bottom of the wok.
Meanwhile, toast the shredded coconut in a separate dry frying pan, until golden brown and aromatic. Pound the toasted coconut in a mortar and pestle (or use a cocktail shaker and a muddler like I did!) until as fine as you can manage. The main point of this is to release the oils in the coconut and intensify the flavour, so don't worry if you can't make a fine powder. Set aside to cool. This toasted coconut is called the kerisik.
Once the chicken has had its 30 minutes, add the kerisik. Finely shred the remaining 4 kaffir lime leaves and add to the wok. Taste a little of the sauce and season with salt to your taste.
Simmer for another 10 minutes. By this stage the sauce should be really thick and reduced, mainly clinging to the chicken.
Fish out the galangal, the lemongrass and the whole kaffir lime leaves.
Transfer the rendang to a serving dish, and serve with rice.
Serves 4-6 depending on what you eat it with

Have you made this recipe? Leave a comment below! Tag me on Instagram @sarahcooksblog and hashtag #sarahcooksblog

Chicken

Crispy Rendang

4/11/2018 12:26:00 AM

Curry

Meal Prep Monday: Red Lentil & Chickpea Dhal with Indian Roast Potatoes & Cucumber Raita

2/19/2018 08:37:00 AM

Red Lentil & Chickpea dhal, Indian roast potatoes; Cucumber raita

Good morning! New Meal Prep Monday here for you today! Up and at 'em! Today I've got a super flavourful Indian-inspired meal: red lentil and chickpea dhal, with Indian roast potatoes and cucumber raita.

This was my lunch for the first week back at work this year, but since then it's gotten seriously hot in Melbourne, and I've been waiting for the weather to cool down to post it! I loved the idea of starting the year with a protein and fibre-packed vegetarian meal, but I was also seriously craving some spice and bold flavours. You see, Sandra's parents were visiting over Christmas, and we were travelling together, so we were eating a bit differently from usual. Sandra's mum, in particular, can't tolerate any type of hot or spicy food, and there are many spices she doesn't like, so Indian food (and other cuisines I love, like Sichuan and Mexican), were definitely off the table!

So when it came time to make this meal prep, I had a quick flick on Pinterest for some Indian recipes, and because I had a kilo of potatoes sitting in the fridge, I thought I'd have a go at Nigella's Indian-spiced roast potatoes (from Kitchen). Our pantry is well stocked with spices and pulses (Sandra went through an Indian-vegetarian phase last year), so there was barely any shopping involved. Woop woop.

Let's start with the potatoes! These Indian roast potatoes are essentially an oven-roasted version of panchporan aloo, or potatoes in whole spices. (A recipe for panchporan aloo also appears in How to Eat). The spice mix is pretty much the same in both versions (How to Eat uses fenugreek; Kitchen uses fennel; I used both). Spice up your life! Look at all those beautiful spices. And they're not just there for a pretty picture - measuring out all the spices first makes the whole process a lot simpler.

Spice mix for the Indian roast potatoes

So anyway, you coat the potatoes in a little oil and the spice mix...

Ready for the oven

... chuck some garlic cloves in the tray, and then roast until crisp. Ta-dah!

Roasted!

I believe panchporan aloo is traditionally cooked on the stove (and I did make it that way during my How to Eat Project), but the oven is so much easier, especially because you can cook other things while the potatoes are in the oven! Nigella adds some lime-steeped red onion and fresh coriander to her Indian roast potatoes, and I love the pop of colour and the fresh flavour.

Indian Roast Potatoes

So, dhal. I found a recipe for red lentil dhal on Indian Delights (via Pinterest), which looked like a pretty good basic dhal recipe. I made some small adjustments to the ingredients based on what I had, and also added some chickpeas and spinach leaves at the end. (Bonus protein! Bonus texture! Bonus green vegetable!) As per my previous advice, it makes things a lot simpler if you prepare and measure out all the ingredients before you start cooking.

Dhal ingredients

I gotta say, the sizzling spices and garlic smell SO good! It reminded me of that spice mix they use in Sichuan cookery, that you might find sprinkled over fried lamb ribs. (Ungggggh so good).

Spice mix

From here you basically chuck all the other ingredients in and simmer slowly until cooked.

Dhal

I don't normally order raita at restaurants, but I did think something fresh and light would be nice against the dhal and potatoes. For this, you simply whizz together some yogurt with green chilli, mint and coriander, and then stir through some cucumber. I cut the cucumber into half-moons, but I think in future I'd prefer a more uniform texture, so would probably grate or finely dice the cucumber. Either way, it tasted great and complimented the curry and potatoes well.

And that's it! I really enjoyed this meal, with all the great spices and complex flavours. I was looking forward to it every day, even though I ended up eating it for six meals over one week. I misjudged how much those red lentils expand when you cook them, and made a much bigger batch of dhal than expected! Apart from all the dhal I ate myself, I gave a couple of individual servings to friends, and even froze an individual portion for a future speedy supper.

However, I have adjusted the amounts for the recipes below - the recipe will make approximately four generous servings, so a week of meal preps. Enjoy!

Red Lentil and Chickpea Dhal
Adapted from Philosokitchen

Ingredients
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon whole yellow mustard seeds
1 teaspoon red chilli peppers flakes
1 teaspoon garam masala powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 pinch nutmeg powder
2 tablespoons vegetable oil or ghee
1 small onion, peeled and chopped finely
225 grams red lentils
1/2 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 x 400g tin chickpeas
60 grams baby spinach leaves
1 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, chopped

Method
Place the garlic, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, yellow mustard seeds, chilli flakes, and clove in a small bowl and set aside.
Mix together the garam masala powder, turmeric powder, and nutmeg in a small bowl and set aside.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large pot. Once hot, add the garlic and whole spices, and stir fry until fragrant, approx. 1 minute. (Be careful not to let the garlic burn).
Add the chopped onion and stir well, cooking until the onion is softened and translucent.
Add the red lentils and stir to coat in the fragrant oil mixture.
Add 2.5 cups (625 millilitres) of hot water from a recently boiled kettle, followed by the grated ginger, tomato paste, and dry powdered spices. Stir well and bring to a gentle simmer.
Cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure the mixture doesn't stick to the pan. Add more hot water if the mixture gets too thick.
Add the chickpeas and baby spinach leaves, and stir in until the spinach is wilted.
Season with salt to taste.
Garnish with chopped coriander to serve.

Indian Roast Potatoes
Adapted from Nigella's Panchporan Aloo (How to Eat) and her Indian Roast Potatoes (Kitchen)

Ingredients
1 kg potatoes
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon nigella seeds
1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon hot chilli powder
1 bulb garlic
1/4 red onion, finely diced
juice of half a lime
Fresh coriander, chopped
Salt, to taste

Method
Preheat the oven to 200C. Peel the potatoes and chop into 2-3 cm dice.
Place the potato pieces on a large shallow baking tray in a single layer (I used two baking trays), and drizzle with the oil.
Mix together all the seeds and spices, then sprinkle over the potatoes and toss to coat evenly. Break up the garlic clove and add to the tray.
Bake for 1 hour without tossing the potatoes. (If you are using two baking trays, swap the baking trays halfway through cooking).
Meanwhile, place the finely diced red onion and lime juice in a small bowl, cover with clingwrap and set aside.
Once the potatoes are cooked, transfer to a serving dish or your meal prep containers. (I remove the garlic and discard, but feel free to keep them in if you love garlic and aren't afraid of garlic breath). Season generously with salt. Garnish with the red onions (discard any excess lime juice) and chopped coriander.

Cucumber Raita
Adapted from Indian Delights

Ingredients
1 green chilli (de-seeded if you like)
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves
2 tablespoons fresh coriander leaves
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 Lebanese cucumber
Salt, to taste

Method
Place the chilli, mint leaves, coriander leaves and yogurt in a blender and mix until combined.
Trim the ends off the cucumber, cut in half lengthwise and then cut into fine half moons. (Alternatively, grate the cucumber if you prefer a more uniform texture).
Stir the yogurt mixture and the cucumber together. Season with salt to taste.