Cooking frenzy

F's coming home today. After five days in camp. My poor sweetie have been eating endless packed rice and junk food i.e. pizza delivery (sheesh... talking about roughing it out in camp). Bet he missed home cooked food. I have leftover Mum's Nasi Lemak (which I have to add is AJ's fav dish) and F's fav quail eggs sambal. I decided to cook another of his fav dish - Ayam Ungkep... or Ungkep Ayam. Whichever way you pronounced it, it is a Javanese dish full with coriander flavour. Must make it spicy for him.

I learnt that this was his fav dish way before we were married. I asked MIL how to cook it. Thinking that I have all the skills of a chef, she just blabber the ingredients. I was flabbergasted. So after we got married, I surfed the net for it (ahhh... the wonders of internet) and chanced upon this one:

Ungkep Ayam

1kg chix wings (or you can use a whole chicken cut into 10 pieces)

5 tbs Coriander powder

1 tbs Cumin powder

1 tbs Grounded inger

4 - 5 Onion

1 - 2 cloves garlic

A pinch of tumeric powder

A bit more tumeric powder to marinate chix

Half cup of water

Salt and sugar to taste

** If you like it really spicy, then a few chillies. I used dried chillies and sometimes bird eye chillies. Depending on the heat/ spicyness.

The easiest method is to chuck everything (except the chix of course!) into a blender and grind until smooth.

1. Use a bit more tumeric powder to marinate the chix, leave it for 30mins. Then sear the chix pieces in a hot hot wok, no oil cos the chix will produce it's own oil.

2. Remove chix from the wok. Use the oil from the chix and perhaps a bit more to then fry the grinded ingredients till fragrant. You can add your salt and sugar here... or after step 3. Whichever rocks your boat....

3. Add chix and stir until chix are coated. Add water and let it simmer.
And voila.. you have Ungkep Ayam. Yet another chix recipe from the chickeney kitchen......

Here's a pix of the golden seared chix:

I have a confession. I overslept in the bus on the way home today and ended up at another neighbourhood. Heheh... I am quite familiar with the place, the fact that I overslept in the bus more than once. Hey... can't blame me, I did a 12-hour graveyard shift. And I had this overpowering urge to buy and cook veg veg veg. Also the fact that NL and I just discussed about doing a tour of the farms in Lim Chu Kang. Soo exciting to know that we have working farms in Singapore. Not just a lame educational farm with a few patch of Cai Xin and Cabbage.

Anyways, I bought the following:

A bag of carrots

2 bunches of spinach

2 ears of corn

A small bag of beansprouts

And a Thai Pumpkin... now I really dun know the exact English name but Mum called it Labu Siam. Literally translated Thai Pumpkin. Here's how it looks like:

OK. So I forgot to take a pix of it before I cut it. But the colour is just like a Guava, but more in a shape like a pear. The smaller ones, slightly smaller than your fist is nicer and sweeter. The bigger ones has less flavour.

And I went into a cooking frenzy. Planning and cooking for the next two days' meals. While the chix simmer, I made a Javanese Veg soup. It's really refreshing and you can put any hard veg that you like. Into the soup goes the corn, carrots, thai pumpkin, long beans (I have that in my fridge) and a small can of braised peanuts (washed off of the soya sauce coating). That'll be for the upcoming two days.

The spinach will go into a clear chicken stock soup. That's for today to go with the chix.

Since I only use the Spinach leaves for the clear soup... I took a bit of the stems, cut it into little pieces. Combined with julien carrots... and I'll make veg fritters. That's be for the upcoming two days too. I'll fry the fritters tonight for tmrw's lunch (I am working on Sat and Sun.... thus the rush).

And then..... I planned to do a stir-fry of beansprouts, spring onions (have that in the fridge k...) and little pieces of salted fish. I know I have some salted fish that mum or 3rd bro got for me on their last trip to M'sia. Yummy... but this one have to be eaten when it is freshly cooked. So this will probably be Monday's lunch. Hope the beansprouts lasts till Monday.

OK. So which veg recipe should I type first?

Javanese Veg Soup

Soup base:

2tbs dried prawns (soaked for a few mins in water to wash off the salt and then pounded)

2tbs grinded onion

2tps grinded garlic

1tbs grinded chilli (i used dried chillies)

1 tbs oil

About 4 - 5 cups of tamarind water

Salt and sugar to taste. (More sugar... cos the tamarind can be rather sour. But if you like sour... by all means...)

Again... the easist way is to just chuck everything into a blender and grind.

1. In a pot, fry the grinded ingredients until fragrant.

2. Pour in the tamarind water and let it come to a boil.

3. Put in your fav veg. You can choose from my shopping list above. Sometimes I put in cabbage too.

4. Bring it to a boil or until whatever veg that supp to be tender is tender e.g. corn.

The marvellous part is eating the corn. Cos it absorbs a bit of the sour, salty, spicy flavour of the soup.... but somehow retains part of its sweetness. So when you bite into the corn you can the soup flavour... and then the sweetness of the corn hits you. YUMMM!

More about the rest later I supp. F's back.... heheh