Medan Chicken Curry (Kari Ayam Medan)

Our family usually consume curry for weekend, because one dish could last till dinner or if lucky it could last till the next day, it's a win - win situation, parents only cooked once, and children still get to eat home cook meal. Of course after trial and error I came out with this almost identical recipe that my family usually cook.

Ingredients:

- 1 Whole chicken cut into pieces (I bought one that one has already been cut by the butcher in local grocery store)

- 1 lemon, squished and get the juice

- 1 can of coconut milk (400ml)

- 400 ml water or 1 can chicken broth

- 4 lime leaves 

- 2 bay leaves

- 1 lemon grass

-  1/2 tsp of salt (mind the salt if you using chicken broth)

- 1 tsp sugar

- 4 Tbsp oil (for frying the ground paste)

- 1 star anise

- 1 cinnamon

-1/4 tsp cumin powder
- 3-4 white potato (optional

ground paste:

- 4 big shallots

- 5 cloves of garlic

- 1 big ancient chile

- 3 thai chillies

- 1 tsp coriander

Directions:

1. Mix the lemon juice and chicken marinade for 10 minutes and rinse the chicken, pat dry and set aside.
2. Fried the ground paste until fragrant using medium heat (approximately 3-5 minutes) then add the rest of the ingredients (lime leaves, bay leaves, lemon grass, star anise, cinnamon, and cumin powder). pour the coconut milk over the paste and add water.
3. Stir until all of the ingredients incorporated, leave it to cook in medium small heat, stir once in awhile.
4. In another wok/pan, pan fried the chicken using one tablespoon of oil, fried until the skin get the light brown, then transfer them into the  spice pot.
5. Turn the heat to small and let the chicken cook in fragrance spices for 30 - 45 minutes, (add the potato along with the chicken if you use one for the curry) 
6. serve with bihun or white rice.

note: picture will come out soon. ;)

Lemon Chicken

I know summer is over, but you can serve this dish on any weather :) . The fresh lemon could be substitute with orange.

Ingredients:
- 2 boneless chicken breast cut in stripe
- 1 bunch green onion cut diagonally
- 1 lemon
- 1 crushed garlic
- 1/2 cup chicken stock (125 ml)
- 1 Tbsp fine sugar
- 4 Tbsp Corn Starch
- Thickening Agent ( 1 tsp corn starch + 1 Tbsp water)

Marinated Sauce:
- 1 Tbsp light soy sauce
-  pich of sugar, salt and pepper
-  1/4 tsp garlic powder (optional)

Method:
1. Mix the chicken breast with marinated sauce, then coat into corn starch.
2. With a vegetable peeler, remove the lemon zest and cut into fine shreds, reserve half of the lemon juice
3. Have ready the chicken stock, lemon juice, sugar, cooking wine in a bowl
4. Heat the wok, and fried the chicken in small batches for 3-4 minutes, until it slightly brown, set aside.
5. Remove the oil from wok, and reserve 1 Tbsp oil, add scallion and garlic, and cook for 2 minutes.
6. Add the stock, and bring it to boil, the stock will slowly reduced, and then add the thickening agent, when the sauce thickened, add the chicken, stir to evenly coat the chicken, and serve.

Taiwanese popcorn chicken

Ingredients:

• 500 gr breast chicken or tenderloin cut into bite size pieces
• 1 egg
• Tapioca flour or Potato flour

Marinated Sauce

• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 3 cloves of mince garlic/ 1 Tbsp garlic paste
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1 Tbsp mirin or rice cooking wine
• 1 tsp chicken powder
• 1/2 tsp five spice powder
• 1/4 tsp chili powder or chili flakes
• 2 Thai basil leaves

1. Marinated chicken with the marinated sauce for 2 hours, don't leave it too long, five spice powder could make the chicken taste bitter

2. Drain the marinated sauce, coat chicken in egg and toast in flour

3. Heat the wok, and fried the chicken until it turn golden brown, drain and toast it in the preheated 320F oven for 10-20 minutes.

ps: watch closely when fried the chicken, chicken turn brown easily.

Pek cam ke (Steam Chicken with green onion)

Ingredient:

• Whole Chicken (around 2lb or 1kg)
• 2 pieces sliced ginger
• 1 green onion

Topping:

• 2 Shredded green onion
• 5 Thin slices shredded ginger

Marinated Sauce:

• 1 Tbsp Cooking wine
• 1 Tbsp Salt
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 Green onion cut into 4
• 2 Slices of ginger

1. Rub all the marinated sauce all over the chicken, and into the cavity. Insert the ginger and the green onion into the cavity, leave it for one hour, or over night in the fridge. 
2. Place the chicken in the steamer, and steam the chicken for 15 minutes, breast up and flip it over and steam for another 15 minutes.
3. Cut the chicken into bite pieces, and retain the excess liquid that left in the steaming plate, and serve it later with the chicken.
4. Heat 3 Tbsp of vegetable oil and 1 tsp of sesame oil in the pan, heat it until very hot and drizzle it all over the chicken.
5. Top it with fresh shredded green onion and shredded ginger.
6. Served with chicken rice or steam rice.


ps: I like to leave my shredded green onion and ginger in the bowl of ice water to add the extra crisp before serving.

pss: Before drizzle the oil on to the chicken, I like to add some chopped garlic into the oil, if the oil hot enough, the garlic will cooked immediately.

psss: If you let the chicken over night in the fridge, it best to let it down in to the room temperature before steaming.

psss: I use corn chicken for this recipe, If you use whole chicken, please steamed it longer, around 30 minutes for each side, and don't forget to check the temperature before remove it from steamer (it should be around 160 F or 70 c) or simply pierce the chicken on the thickest side, if the liquid broth come out clearly not bloody, you are good to go.

note: to make chicken rice just mix ginger(slices) and garlic cloves to the rice cooker along with canned chicken broth. I found great value canned chicken broth works well with this recipe. 

Banana Bread

Do you always have over ripened banana on your kitchen counter that you forget to eat? And the banana itself is too soft to eat? Well, this banana bread will safe you from throwing that banana into the trash to a delicious companion for tea time. This banana bread is really simple to made.

Ingredients:

• 2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar 
• 2 eggs beaten
• left over banana (you are welcome to add more banana if you like)

Method:

1. Preheated the oven to 350 F and lightly greased the loaf pan with butter.

2. Mix the all purpose flour, baking soda and the salt in the big bowl, set aside.

3. In the other small bowl, mix the room temperature butter and brown sugar together.

4. In another bowl, mix the over ripened banana (i used two) with the egg with the mixer until fluffy (around 2-3 minutes)

5. Mix the butter bowl and the egg bowl together until well blended.

6. Using spatula, stir banana mixture to the flour mixture. 

7. Prepare the loaf pan and bake in the oven for 60-65 minutes. Use toothpick inserted in the centre of the bread to check, if it comes out clean, the bread is ready, let it cool for 10 minutes before you serve it.

p.s.: for more banana flavor, we could add more banana up to 4-5 bananas.

p.s.s.: do not stir too much when you mix the banana mixture to flour mixture, if not your bread will turn hard not moist.