Grilled Chicken in Creamy Turmeric Sauce - Ayam Panggang Santan Kuning

Another recipe from what I made for baby M's recent bday celebration at home.
I hardly use coconut milk when marinating meat, but I should really use it more often. It's this magic ingredient that makes everything creamy and fragrant. Plus, the wet marinate keeps the chicken meat moist even after grilling.

Recipe
(for 4)
- 4 Chicken thigh fillet with skin on (allow half or one chicken thigh fillet per person, depending on whether it's served with other dishes and lots of rice/other carbs)
Marinate
- 3 cloves of garlic, peeled
- 3 shallot, peeled
- 2 cm ginger, peeled
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 2 tsp turmeric
- salt, pepper, sugar
- 200ml of coconut milk
Process everything except coconut milk in a food processor or blender, or you can use mortar and pestle to make your paste. Add coconut milk, mix well. Marinate chicken in the mixture for a couple hours, or leave overnight in the fridge.

On the day of serving, you can either cook the chicken a bit in the marinate before broiling the chicken to brown the skin, or you can place chicken in a preheated oven (200C) along with some of the marinating liquid and grill it until it's done (you can crank up the heat in the last few minutes to really brown the skin). Cook the remaining marinating liquid until reduced, thickened and creamy as use as a sauce.

Golden delicious.
I might make this in the form of sate...because who doesn't love food on a stick?

Grilled Turmeric Chicken (Ayam Panggang Kunyit) & Sambal Kecap (Chilli & Sweet Soy Condiment)

I know exactly what you wanna say...
- I can't believe she grilled a bird again!
- Can she do anything else other than grilled bird?
- If I saw another grilled bird on this blog, I'm gonna...(fill in the blank)
- Another bird? That's it. I'm gonna unfollow, unsubscribe, unfriend, and everything else starting with "un" her.

Hehe.

I know, I know, I know!
But I just can't help it.
I like easy and tasty, and these grilled birds are.

This time, I tried grilling chicken using Jamie's duck grilling method. Obviously, because it is easier than my old method, which involves marinating, covering, uncovering, lowering and cranking up heat etc. All those steps got eliminated and I wonder if it would still end up as good.

Ingredients
- 1 (relatively small) chicken
- 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 6 cloves of shallot or half an onion, thinly sliced
- 1 cm ginger, sliced thinly
- turmeric powder, ground corriander seeds, cumin, salt, pepper

Preheat oven to 180C. Rinse chicken, pat dry, I removed neck, feet, tail, tip of wings and excess fat. Stuff some garlic, ginger slices and shallot in the chicken's cavity and or in between skin and flesh. Rub chicken all over with salt, pepper, ground corriander seeds, cumin and turmeric powder. Generously. Remember the cavity and in between the skin and flesh. Place chicken on baking dish and grill (uncovered) for 1 hour, flip and grill for another hour (total two hours).

Crispy, golden delicious skin, tender, juicy and tasty flesh.

I mentioned that the best way to consume this sorta chicken is with Indonesian sambal, right?
This time I made sambal kecap.

Back home, we'd use mortar and pestle to make the paste. Alternatively, we could use a blender or food processor to do it. But since the thought of having to wash a food processor, the vessel, the blade, the cover, etc scared me beyond belief, I decided to chop all of the ingredients. Whew!

Ingredients
- 20 red chilli (I removed most of the core and seeds, leaving only about 5 with seeds and OMG! the sambal stil ended up so bloody hot)
- 2 small cloves of garlic, minced
- 4 cloves of shallot, thinly sliced
- juice of half a lime
- 1 tsp salt, fish sauce, kecap manis, olive oil

Heat up a bit of olive oil, saute chilli, garlic and shallot (you'll need a super strong exhaust fan. If you're making this for a party, it is better to do it before your guests arrived, I've experienced suffocating my guests with chilli fume before) until fragrant, add salt, fish sauce, and kecap manis. Transfer to a bowl and drizzle lime juice over it.

Grilled chicken + sambal + hot steamy rice (eaten with bare hands) = undescribable.

I wish I could promise that this would be the last grilled chicken I post....but you know I can't :p

Nasi Goreng Kunyit - Turmeric Fried Rice

My closest friends are well aware that I am a yellow freak.

I love everything yellow.
I can't get enough of yellows...
- on me (if you saw me buying another yellow top...just let me, it's my thing. get over it)
- at home (I had my study room painted bright yellow. I accessorized other rooms with yellows, I buy yellow flowers...yellow, yellow, yellow!)
- on my food too (lemon, bananas, egg yolk, golden brown fried foods, yellow curries and spices...yum!)

However, I don't do saffron (hello, expensive)...but I love poor man's saffron, turmeric.

It turns everything gloriously golden and appetizing, and I love its mild fragrance and flavor, especially when paired with its good spice friends, cumin and corriander seeds.

Use the flavor combo for curries, meat or vegetable dishes...but when in doubt....make fried rice, just like what I did.

Fried rice has been my easy way out these days.
Dump any lean meat, vegetables, aromatics and spices, mix them together with tiniest bit of oil in a non stick pan, and I got myself a quick, easy, tasty, spicy, super satisfying, hearty and healthy dinner.


Recipe
- 1 cup of rice (I use white and brown rice), cooked, refrigerated overnight
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 2 cloves shallot, thinly sliced
- 1 or 2 red chilli, chopped
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped into small bits
- any lean meat, cut into bite sized chunks (I used boneless, skinless chicken breast, half a pound)
- salt, pepper, sugar, ground corriander seeds, ground cumin, turmeric powder, 1 tsp olive oil, a couple dashes of fish sauce

In a non stick pan, saute garlic, shallot, and chilli in that tiny bit of olive oil. Add bell pepper chunks, add chicken, add rice, season with all the spices, taste until you reach the desired flavor balance. You should taste the salt, and the fragrance of all the spices, the color of your fried rice should be beautifully golden.

That reminds me, I don't have a yellow hand bag.
Let's go shopping.