Tom Yam Pasta

Ingredients:

500g pasta (boiled al dente in salted water, reserve 1/2 cup of the liquid)
3 tbsp olive oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
10 medium sized prawns
300ml whipping cream (if youre using thickened cream, use 200ml of that and 100ml milk)
1 cube tom yam stock
2 eggs (whisked)
A dash of thyme and nutmeg powder
Salt and pepper to taste
Parsley for garnish

Directions:
Heat oil, brown garlic and add prawns.
Once prawns are cooked, add the cream, tom yam, thyme and nutmeg and bring to a gentle boil. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Turn off the heat before whisking in the eggs.
Toss the pasta into the prepped sauce. Add water to loosen the sauce if necessary.
When serving, sprinkle a bit of parsely.
Done!

I cooked everything in 20 mins and should be enough for 5.

Shixcooks: Beef Hor Fan

I'm supposed to go to my cousin's for a girls' night in but decided to cook something for the hubs so he will have something for dinner and this was the planned dish. It's fast, easy and super cheap too.

Prep time: 5mins
Cook time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

Beef Marinade:
400g beef sliced thinly
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ginger juice
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp oil
1 tbsp corn flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Charred noodle:
3 tbsp oil
500g kway teow noodle
1 tbsp dark soy sauce

Gravy:
5 cloves garlic
1 inch ginger
2 cups beef stock
2 cups mustard greens (sawi)
3 stalks spring onions
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp corn flour
1/2 cup water
Pinch of salt and pepper
Oil

Method:

1. In a bowl, marinade the beef with the ingredients above and leave it until it's needed (abt 10 min)

2. Heat up the oil in a wok and char the noodles. Once it's lightly golden brown, mix the soy sauce thoroughly. Put that aside.

3. In the same wok place abt 3 tbsp oil. Once heated, fry up the beef till it's almost cooked. Once that's done, put that aside.

4. Heat up another 2 tbsp oil and fry the garlic and ginger. Add in the oyster sauce, greens and spring onions.  Once slightly wilted,  add the beef stock and wait for it to boil. Once that's done, mix up the water and flour and add it in. Add salt and pepper to taste and you're done!

Within 20 mins you should be eating this beautiful and delicious noodles.

Shixcooks: Kangkong Sambal

Kangkong Sambal

Kangkong or water spinach is a very South-east Asian thing. Elsewhere it's apparently a weed haha. I've cooked this as a side dish to my nasi lemak. I've stir fried it with a sambal belacan type of paste. The sweet salty and spicy taste balances very well

Prep time: 15 min

Cook time: 20 min

Ingredients:

• 500g kangkong
• 4 cloves shallots
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp belacan or 1 tbsp dried shrimp
• 2 tbsp ground chilli
• 2 cubes ikan bilis
• 3 tbsp oyster sauce
• sugar and salt to taste
• oil for frying

Method:

• Ground the shallot, garlic, chilli, belacan. ikan bilis together but ensure it's still got a bit of texture. Don't want it to be too fine. 
• Cut up the kangkong till they're about 2 inches in length. Discard the last 4 inches from the root.
• In a wok, heat up the oil. Place the ground ingredients and fry till fragrant.
• Once that's all cooked, add the oyster sauce then kangkong. Add some water if it's too dry
• Add salt and sugar if necessary and youre done
• Eat it!

Shixcooks: Ikan Bakar Sambal Cincalok (Grilled Fish)

Ikan Bakar Sambal Cincalok 

(Grilled Fish with Fermented shrimp chili)

Don't run! It tastes nicer than it sounds! What is cincalok? It's this pungent and salty goodness that is OPTIONAL in this dish. hahaha.

But I'm not kidding. It tastes really good. My husband who HATES fish. I mean HATE! He loved this. Even asked for more after eating 2 portions.. That's how I know I can cook it again.

Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 1h

Ingredients:

1. 8 portions of fish (You can use any fish. This sambal begs you to eat it with fish.)

2. 14 cloves shallots
3. 8 cloves garlic
4. 2 inch ginger
5. Fresh tumeric or 1 tbsp tumeric powder
6. 1 inch galangal
7. Juice from1 lemon or 6 calamansi
8. 6 tbsp groud chili
9. 10 pcs lime leaf
10. 5 pcs tumeric leaf
11. A bunch of mint leaves
12. Banana leaf and foil (in a pinch, baking paper works)
13. 3 tbsp cincalok  (fermented shrimp paste - don't be deceived, this salty pungent thing is quite delicious) - optional
14. 2 fresh tomatoes
15. 2 tbsp tomato paste or 10 tbsp tomato ketchup
14. 1/2 cup oil (eyeball this)
15. Salt and sugar to taste

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a wok
2. Ground items 2-6. Spoon the paste into the wok (I counted mine as 12) and fry till fragrant
3. Add in the fresh tomatoes and ground chili (always half the amount of onion paste mixture. Less or more, depending in your tolerance level for heat) and fry till fragrant. At this point, the oil should be rising from the chili mixture.
4. Take a tumeric leaf and 2 lime leaves, cut off the middle stem and slice them thinly. Add them into the mixture.
5. Add in the sugar, cincalok or salt and ketchup.
6. Lastly, add in the juice to taste and turn off the flame.
7. While the chili is cooling, prepare the banana leaves by wiping them clean, cutting them into the right size to wrap the fish in and heat the leaves over an open flame until they become pliable. (Kinda what you do to a tortilla before you roll it up) If you don't have banana leaf, just use foil. If you don't have foil, on baking paper. If you don't have any of them, just use a casserole dish.
8. Separate and cut the mint, lime and tumeric leaves into 8 portions
9. On your banana leaf (or aluminium foil/baking paper/ casserole dish) place the tumeric leaf, 1 tbsp chili we made, fish portion, 1/2 tbsp chili, lime then mint. Then close the banana leaf (use toothpics to secure the end) and wrap it with foil. Repeat until you finish all the fish.
10. Bake it in the oven at 190degC for 30 mins

Shixcooks: Nasi Lemak (Savoury Rice)

So today my sister wanted Nasi Lemak (savoury rice) as her welcome back meal so I made these sides to go with this versatile meal.

Coconut rice (not pictured)

Prep time: 5mins
Cook time 30 mins
Special Equipment: rice cooker

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of rice
• 2.5 cups of water
• 3 tbsp coconut cream/milk
• Pinch of salt
• 1 inch ginger 
• 3 cloves garlic 
• 4 tbsp oil (some prefer margarine or butter)

Method: 

1. Wash the rice in a pot and once done add in the water.
2. Add in the oil, coconut cream and salt and mix well
3. Bruise the garlic and ginger and add into the pot. Bury them well so that they perfume the rice.
4. Let it cook.

Note: Being a rice eater, my rice is cooked in the rice cooker. If you don't have one, cook it in the pot at medium heat until water boils then cover and use extremely low heat under water dries up.
At this point, mix it and turn off the flame and leave the steam to do the work for the next 15 min

Rice Variation

Garlic and ginger are used here as aromatics. This is the way mu mum does it. There are other variations that people normally use which are written below:

1. Omit the ginger and garlic and use 3 pandan leaves instead. Wash them and tie into a knot before adding them in step 3. (Most common)

2. If you would like green rice, replace the ginger and garlic with 5 pieces of pandan leaf. Grind the Pandan leaf into a paste, sieve out the paste to remove the fibres and let the rice be coloured and fragrances by the juice collected.

3. Omit the garlic and use 2 sticks of lemongrass instead.

Side Dishes

I've cooked the rice with grilled fish and kangkong belacan. Usually, it's cooked with other proteins and vegetables like:

1. Fried yellowstriped scad/trevally

2. Omelette

3. sliced cucumber

4. fried peanuts

5. fried dried anchovies

6. Sweet sambal

7. Otak-otak (grilled spiced fish paste)

8. Fried chicken

9. Fishballs

10. Sausages

Do try out these recipes. It's really easy and cheap too!

Cereal chicken

The husband requested for cereal chicken todqy and because I have an enormous can of nestum cereal from the last time he had a yen for cereal prawns,I obliged haha

Ingredients:

A )Fried chicken

500g boneless chicken cut into chunks
2 heaped tbsp flour
1 tsp tumeric powder
3 tsp garlic
1 inch ginger
1 egg white
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

B) Cereal Mix

2 tbsp butter
2 egg yellows
1 egg white
4 chili padi (sliced)
4 stalks curry leaves
8 tbsp nestum cereal
Sugar and salt to taste

Duration: 30 min

Equipment:
Mortar and pestle, Deep fryer and wok

Method:

A) Fried chicken

- using a mortar and pestle, ground the garlic and ginger
- mix the other ingredients together and leave the chicken to marinade for 30 min
- fry the chicken in hot oil and put it aside once it's done

B) cereal mix

- melt the butter in a wok
- fry the egg yellow followed by the egg white in the melted butter. Be sure to scramble it out.
- add in the chili and curry and fry till it's fragrant
- add salt and sugar to taste before turning down the flame
- add in the cereal and fry till it's lightly toasted
- lastly, add in the chicken till it's heated through

Done! Now it's ready to makan!

Shix cooks: chicken prawn dumplings

Ingredients:

Filling:

400g Minced chicken

15 medium shrimp cleaned and chopped

1 bunch coriander leaves chopped

1 inch ginger finely chopper

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp seseme seed oil

1 tbsp cider vinegar

Some salt and white pepper

1 pkt dumpling skins. 

Method:

Mix everything for the filling together then let it sit for 30 min. Then, use the wantan wraps to make your dumplings! You can either steam them before eating or make a basic soup and dump them in. Make sure you cook the dumplings through. 

Recipe from http://rasamalaysia.com/steamed-dumplings-recipe/2/

Shixcooks: Mussels 2

Quick 15 min cooking 

400g mussels (soaked in salt water for 15 mins then cleaned)

5 shallots

50 g butter 

1 tsp tarragon

1 lemon 

A splash of cider vinegar

A cup of water

Method:

In a pot, add everything except the lemon. Cover and let it cook for 5 min. squeeze in the lemon juice and let it cook for another 5-7 min. That's all!

Shix cooks: eid specials

Serves 20

A. Spiced rice

Ingredients: 

6 cups basmati rice

3 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)

2 tbsp blended shallots

1tsp garam masala

3cm cinnamon stick

2 cloves

2 cardamom

2 star anise

1 tbsp salt

Yellow colouring

6 cups water

Garnish:

Fried shallots

Coriander leaves

Method:

1. Soak rice overnight. Drain just before cooking. 

2. In a large pan, melt ghee before adding all the spices. 

3. Once fragrant, add in rice and salt. 

4. Once all the rice has been coated with oil, if you are cooking in the rice cooker, at this point, add in 2 cups of water and bring it to a boil before transferring it into the rice cooker and add 4 more cups of water and cook. If you are cooking on the  stove, add 6 cups of water and bring it tu a boil before covering the pot and let it cook at a low flame. In the middle of cooking, after about 10 min, add 4 drops of colouring to the wet rice. This will give it a nice rich yellow colour. Once cooked, garnish with coriander leaves and fried shallots. 

B. pineapple salsa

Ingredients:

1 honey pineapple quartered and sliced

1/2 green capsicum

1 red chili

1 shallot

Method:

Chop up the shallot and chillis into small chunks and mix it up with the pineapple. Leave it a container (preferably made of glass) overnight.

C. Chicken in spiced tomato gravy

Ingredients:

2kg chicken

400g shallots

6 garlic

4cm ginger

1 cinnamon stick (abt 6cm)

2 cloves

2 cardamom

2 star anise

1 handful dried chili

2 tbsp tomato purée

1/2 can tomato

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbsp salt

2 tbsp yoghurt

2 bunches mint

1/2 cup oil

Method:

1. Blend the shallots garlic and ginger. 

2. Heat up oil and fry 12 tbsp of the blended mixture. 

3. Add all the spices

4. Blend the chili and add in 6 tbsp of the mixture 

5. Once fragrant, add the tomatoes and fry further till fragrant. 

6. Add the sugar and salt till the flavour is to your liking

7. Add the chicken and cover till cooked. 

8. Add yoghurt and mint and mix well just before turning off the flame. 

D. Lentil curry

Ingredients 

Part (i)

2kg lamb ribs

1 white onion (quartered)

4 inch ginger (sliced)

Part (ii)

500g shallots (ground)

6 garlic (ground)

5 inches ginger (ground)

1 cinnamon stick

2 cloves

2 cardamom

2 star anise

2 cups lentils (soak for at least 2 hours)

3 stalks curry leaf

6 tbsp dalca curry powder

300g eggplant 

2 carrots 

4 potatoes

300g long beans

6 whole tomatoes 

Salt to taste 

Lots of water

Oil

Method:

In a pot, put (i) then add water till it covers the meat. Boil with low heat for at least 5 hours. Refil water as needed. Once the meat falls off the bone you know it's ready. 

In a separate large pot, put enough oil to fry the onion/garlic/ginger mixture. Once fragrant, add the spices and fry for a few minutes. Then, add curry leaves and curry powder. Fry till fragrant then add the lentils, meat and stock and bring to a boil. Add salt to taste then add vegetables. Boil at low flame for about an hour for the flavour. It's best to be cooked a day in advance to develop it's flavour. 

That's it!

As long as you plan in advance, it will all be done within 4 hours (not including cooking the ribs).

Shix cooks: Pumpkin and summer squash

Ingredients:

2 tbsp butter 

1/2 Spanish onion (cubed)

750g butternut squash and pumpkin (cubed)

1l stock

1 tbsp curry 

Salt pepper and sugar to taste

Method:

1. Melt butter in a saucepan  and fry the onion till yellow

2. Throw in Squash and pumpkin till it's browned.

3. Add in stock and curry and mix it up

4. Let everything boil and ensure the squash n pumpkin are soft. 

5. Once cooked, blend the squash and pumpkin. 

6. Add some water if it's too thick.

The end

Shix cooks: Prata

Why would anyone make prata? Let me lay it down for you:

It's 5.30 am and you're hungry. You heat up the chicken curry you cooked the day before while you hunt for bread to toast on a pan. You go to the bread box and you find an empty bread bag. It seems the hungry husband got to it first. So what do you do? You open the pantry and see the multiple bags of flour. Leftovers from all the Eid baking you did. You think to yourself: Should I make bread? Naaaah. Too long. So what else goes with curry? Prata. 

I'm sorry my brain works weirdly. So after a bit of googling, I came up with this recipe. Please note that a lot of eyeballing is involved. 

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

1 egg

Healthy pinch of salt and sugar

100ml of oil + 100ml more 

150ml of water

Method:

In the mixing bowl, put together the flour, salt, sugar and egg. Get that mixed up before pouring the100ml of oil. Add water in a little bit at a time. Add more oil/flour as is necessary. Mix that up till it's nice and smooth. 

Separate the ball of dough into 2 or 3 and oil them before putting it into an oiled bowl to rest for an hour. 

Once it's done resting, oil a surface (I just placed grease proof paper on my kitchen tabletop and poured some oil on it). Flatten out your prata and oil it before frying it with more oil. 

As you can already tell, it needs lots of oil. You can choose to use healthier oils and reduce the amount of oil used during the flattening process - although, that will not give you the proper prata experience - which will give you a crispy flat bread like mine. 😁

Side note: while waiting for the prata to rest, you can make yourself some sambal tumis.

 

Sambal tumis ikan bilis

3 large onions, blended 

3 spoonfuls Chili paste

1 piece asam keping

Handful of ikan bilis

Salt and sugar to taste

Oil

Stirfry the onion followed by the chili paste. Remember that chili to onion ratio should be 1:2. After a few mins of stirfrying, add in the asam. Then, add ikan bilis and cook for a few more minutes before adding sugar and salt to taste

The end. 

Shix cooks: cheesy baked mussels

So this awesome dish is super fast but for someone with allergies, it's the worst lol. 

Ingredients:

500g mussels

50g butter

2 shallots

3 tbsp flour

1/2 cup milk 

1/4 cup cheese

Method:

In a pot, place 1.5 cups water and the cleaned mussels. 

Cover and boil till the mussels open up. About 15 mins. 

In a pan, melt the butter and add in the chopped shallot. 

Mix the flour in to make a roux before adding the milk and cheese. If the consistency is too thick, add more milk. Turn off heat. 

Once mussels are cooked, open it up. Fill the mussel with the cheese roux and bake at 200 deg for 15 min. 

Eat!

Shixcooks: herbed meatballs with veg and tofu soup

My sisters just came back from Australia and bought me a whole bag of goodies 

As you can see, it's a whole lot of chocolate, bags of nuts, tea, slippers, sleeping pants, a notepad, a pack of tissue (hahaha) but my prized possessions are the vanilla pods and fresh herbs (they're in the brown bag). 

Side note: if you were wondering, yes my walls are pinkish. Hahahaha. 

Back to the posting proper. I used a itty little bit of herbs to make the meatballs and MASYAALLAH it was so nice. It's quite fast (because I do everything at the same time) so here goes:

Prep time: 20 mins

Cooking time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

3 litres of beef stock (or 3l water and 2 beef cubes)

1 onion, sliced

2" ginger, mashed slightly 

1 carrot, sliced

2 potatoes, small chunks

200g leafy vegetables

1 tube of firm tofu, cut into 1

Salt to taste

500g ground beef

A stalk of thyme

A stalk of rosemary 

Salt and ground pepper to taste

Method:

1. In a pot, place the stock, onion, ginger, potatoes and carrots and bring it to a boil. 

2. Pull off the leaves of the thyme and rosemary from the stem then finely chop them up. 

3. In a bowl, mix the minced beef, herbs, salt and pepper thoroughly. 

4. Using your hands, make tight balls using the beef mix of approximately 2-3 cm in diameter. (I make them small so that they cook quickly.)

5. Once the stock starts to boil, add in the meatballs. Leave it to simmer for about 10 min. 

6. Once the meatballs have all floated to the surface, you know they're cooked. Add in the veg and tofu. 

7. Once the veg have wilted slightly, carefully mix everything up and add salt if necessary and turn off the flame. 

We're done!!

Tip: 

- put your meatball in one at a time just to check that it doesn't crumble when cooking. If it does, make sure you compress the remaining meatballs so that this doesn't happen. 

- use any vegetables that you have in hand

- if you have only dried herbs, use about half a teaspoons each. 

Enjoy!

Shix cooks: Lemon-ginger chicken

A simple recipe that it very over friendly

Ingredients:

Ground to a paste:

2 cloves onion

3 cloves garlic

2 tbsp chilli paste

2" ginger 

3 stalks lemongrass

1 tsp coriander seeds

1/2 tsp each fennel seeds and cumin seeds 

1 tsp lemon rind 

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

1 kg chicken

1/2 cup coconut cream

2 slices dried tamarind

Salt and sugar to taste

3 tbsp oil

Method: 

If you're planning to bake this, marinade the chicken in the spice paste together with salt and sugar then bake it at 170 deg for 30 mins

If you're cooking this on the stove top, start by heating the oil a wok or a deep skillet. Then, fry the paste till fragrant (and MasyaAllah, is it fragrant). Once that's done, add the tamarind slices and chicken. Cover your pot and let the chicken cook. After 20 mins, add in the coconut milk, salt and sugar. Let it cook for another 15 mins then it's done. 

Shix Cooks: Roast Chicken with minty yoghurt

I adapted this recipe from this from Nigel Slater's simple suppers here http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/grilledprawnswithyog_92524

Ingredients:

 

To marinade:

1kg chicken wings

6 cloves garlic

1 inch ginger

6 red chillies

1 tbsp each of cumin, coriander, black pepper corn and tumeric 

A bunch each of mint and flat leaf parsley (cilantro)

Juice from 2 lemons

1/2 cup coconut milk

1/2 tsp salt

Dip:

2 tbsp yoghurt

Bunch of mint and flat leaf parsley

Method:

Blend all the ingredients for the marinade.   Marinade the chicken overnight.  Bake at 200 deg C for 30min. 

For the dip, finely chop the herbs and mix into the yoghurt. 

DONE! 

Shix Cooks: Ayam masak kelantan

This chicken dish is a pansy version of lemak chili padi (chicken in a curry of creamy birds eye chili).  Nicely spiced with just enough heat to prevent the dish from being overly rich. 

Cooking time: 45 min

Prep time: 10 min

Ingredients:

3 tbsp oil

10 cloves shallots

3 cloves garlic

1 inch ginger 

5 red chillies

1 lemongrass

1 tumeric leaf

Approx 700 g chicken (1/2 a whole chicken or 8 pcs chicken wings)

100ml coconut milk

100 ml water

Method:

In a pot, heat up the oil. 

In a food processor, blitz the garlic, shallot, ginger and chillies and put it in the oil. 

While the paste is frying, take only the lower half of the lemongrass and bruise it. 

Then, thinly slice the tumeric leaf. 

Place the lemongrass and tumeric leaf in the pot and let everything fry for about 10 mins. 

Once everything is fragrantly frying, add in the chicken. Mix then cover the pot. Let it cook for 20 min. 

Add in the coconut and water and let everything simmer for 10 mins. 

Lastly, add some salt to taste. 

Stir it well and we're done!

Shix cooks: Chinese Style sweet & sour Chicken

This easy sticky chicken is awesome!

Prep time: 1h 15 min

Cooking time: 30 min

Ingredients:

Part A:

500g chicken fillet cubed

2 tbsp corn flour

1 egg

2 cloves garlic (chopped)

Salt & pepper to taste 

Oil for pan frying

Part B:

4 cloves garlic (chopped)

1 thumb sized lump of ginger

1/4 cup tomato or chilli sauce

2 tbsp soy sauce 

1/2 cup cider vinegar

3/4 cup sugar

Method:

In a bowl, mix the chicken, corn flour, egg, garlic and salt and pepper. Mix well and set aside for an hr to allow the chicken to marinade. 

In a pan, put in just enough oil to cover the base and fry the chicken. Wait for the chicken to brown slightly on both sides before leaving it to rest. Remember not to overcrowd your pan to allow it to crisp. 

Once all the chicken is cooked, put the garlic and ginger into the pan to allow it to fry in the chicken oil. Once done, add in the rest of the items. 

Wait for the sauce to bubble before adding the chicken. Mix it up till it's nice and coated then turn off the flames. 

Serve with rice over a bed of greens. 

Shix cooks: Fried fish soup

Today's rainy day deserves a nice warm soothing meal

Prep time: 1h 10min

Cooking time: 1h 15min 

Warning: prep and cooking times overlap! It only takes a little over an hr to prepare ahahah

Ingredients:

Fried fish

Part 1:

2 pcs White fish fillet cut into bite-sized cubes

2 tsp cornflour

1tsp salt

1 tsp seseme seed oil

1tsp tumeric powder

Part 2:

Oil for frying

2 tbsp cornflour

1 egg

1/4 cup water

Soup

Part 3:

1.5 litres water

1 handful anchovies ground

1 handful soy beans

1 inch ginger bruised

Dash of fish sauce (optional)

Salt to taste 

Optional:

2 tomatoes quartered

2 handfuls leafy greens

Condiment (optional)

Part 4:

1 handful Birdseye chilli 

1/2 cup light soy sauce

To serve:

White rice

Blanched noodles

Method:

1. Mix up part 1 then leave it to marinate in the fridge for an hour. 

2. Put items in part 3 in a pot and leave it to simmer for an hour. 

3. If you like it hot, prepare the chilli condiment by mixing items in part 4 together and leave it to stand for a while. Do not store in a metal container. 

4. Heat up the oil for frying. 

5. Mix up the other ingredients in part 2. Dip the marinated fish into cornflour mixture and fry. 

6. Once the soup has simmered for an hour turn off the flame. 

7. If you want, you can blanch the vegetables in the hot soup. 

8. To serve, put a serving of white rice or rice noodles in a bowl followed by the soup, veges, fish and chilli and it's ready!

Shixcooks : Chicken Biryani

By request, I made biryani for Mr R a few weeks back. 

Other than the saffron basmati first-timer biryani rice (HAHAHAHHAHA), I made a raw pineapple salad (paceri nanas), chicken in a spiced coconut sauce (rendang ayam) and prawn masala. If you're counting, there's an extra dish coz it was leftovers from the day before - nyonya chicken. Room for improvement but not bad I thought! 

Shix cooks: Turmeric Thai-style chicken

I'm trying to come up with something easy and interesting to fill up my leftover pitas so here it is:

Turmeric thai-styled chicken

Prep time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 15 min

500g chicken breast, cut into chunks

1 piece Tamarind slice 

4 pieces calamansi/lime leaves

Juice from 4 calamansi 

Finely ground paste:

2 cm ginger

10 cloves shallots

4 cloves garlic 

2 stalks lemongrass

8 birds eye chilli (add more or less depending on how much heat you want)

Oil to fry

Salt

Sugar

Optional: a handful of cherry tomatoes

In a wok, heat up about 2 tbsp of oil and fry the paste. About 3 mins in, add in the tamarind and leaves. Fry till fragrant. Then, add in chicken chunks and continue stirring till it looks cooked. Add in the tomatoes, juice then salt and sugar to taste.  Once you're happy with the product, turn off the heat and you're ready to eat! Serve with rice or pita/tortilla /flat bread

I need to tell you that I got some of the herbs and spices from a community garden! 

Check out my haul:

See you soon!