Coconut Day
Haha! I cooked TWO yummy dishes yesterday! Nasi Lemak was the challenge of the day, cos I’d never cooked this before. Fish Head Curry is an old time favourite…:)
For me, Nasi Lemak has four main must-haves:
1) the aromatic coconut rice
2) spicy sweet sambal SSSsssedap!
3) deep fried mackeral
4) crispy chicken wings!! (which is the main reason for this post)
And good-to-haves would be the ikan billis with peanuts, fried egg and cucumber slices!
A few days ago, I suddenly had a craving for crispy chicken wings sold at a Malay stall in my primary school canteen… of course, it’s impossible to get them now, since my old school has closed down… But isn’t it funny how you used to love certain childhood foods so much you never got sick of eating them EVERY DAY and now, just imagining their taste would bring back snippet after snippet of nostalgic memories?:)
It’s like that with those chicken wings,
(This is associated with licking spilled chilli sauce off the hem of my pinafore and getting it greasier cos my fingers were still holding the half-mangled wings…)
and a particular type of mee siam,
(Funnily, this is linked to crawling into huge longkangs/ drains with my Malay friends, exploring the complex network of huge drains underground, peeping up at shafts of light only to see people walking on the grilled walkway right above us and trying hard to stifle our giggles so we wouldn’t be discovered…)
and a particular type of fishball kway teow soup,
(This is associated with Nanyang days- queuing up for such a long time that recess would be almost over. Usually, my good friend and I would slurp everything up in 5mins, including two heaping tablespoons of spicy shrimp sambal mixed thoroughly into the soup, just as the bell rang….)
and Lee Tong Kee Ipoh Hor Fun…
(This is brings back fond memories of Saturday family dinners at our favourite stall. Even my little brother, who was only six years old then, could down almost two bowls of this!)
Oh man, I’m rambling like a nenek. Okay. Where was I… yes. The chicken wings. I was so happy to stumble upon this blog, nasilemaklover.blogspot.com and adapted the chicken wings recipe from there. So sad I couldn’t follow the recipe to the tee cos I had missing ingredients…
Here’s my version for:
CRISPY MALAY CHICKEN WINGS
10 chicken wings (three-joint type)
Batter
3/4cup crispy chicken flour (Suri Brand)
1/4cup water
Marinade
3 stalks lemongrass
1 big onion
8 shallots
4 cloves of garlic
1 knob ginger
1/2 tbsp tumeric powder
1 tsp salt
2tbsp sugar
1tsp sesame oil
A dash of white pepper powder
1tbsp fish sauce
Step 1) Blend all marinade ingredients together
From this, to this:
Step 2) Coat chicken wings with the marinade and leave in refrigerator for at least a few hours.
Step 3) mix flour and water into a batter. Coat wings with batter and deep fry. Done!
While the wings were marinating, I cooked the Fish Head Curry.
FISH HEAD CURRY
1 large fish head halved/ some fish steaks for those who, like B, can’t stand the sight of such horrifying monsters
Being kind to B, I also included Seafood Soy Chips
Here are the other usual ingredients
1 large brinjal, sliced into thick sticks
1 onion sliced thinly
1 tbsp chopped garlic
2 tomatoes, quartered
Some baby lady’s fingers
A1 Fish Curry paste
250ml tamarind juice
250ml coconut cream
Some curry leaves
1 chilli padi
1 litre of water
Step 1) stir-fry onions and garlic till fragrant
Step 2) Add in A1 curry paste and fry till oil seeps out.
Step 3) add in the veggies and stir-fry till half-cooked.
Step 4) add in the coconut cream, water, curry leaves and chilli padi
Step 5) add in the fish head/ steaks/ soy chips. Simmer for half an hour or till fully cooked. If, like me, you are a fan of the thermal cooker, then put everything into the thermal cooker for an hour once it comes to a boil.
Step 6) serve in a nice dish.
Okay, this is silly but I took out the fish head so B wouldn’t lose his appetite at first sight and I forgot to add it back into the dish when taking the picture! By the time I remembered, it was too late…heehee… Here’s fish head curry without the fish head…:P looks almost like the 2nd last pic, except that the fish eyes would have turned white.
The wings didn’t taste like the ones from my childhood days, so my quest isn’t over yet! Still, it was a satisfying dinner.:)
Technorati Tags: crispy chicken wings, fish head curry, A1 curry.
