Hedgehog and Avocados: February 2013

Opor Ayam (Indonesian Style White Coconut Curry)

Sunday, February 17, 2013

I plan on going to the grocery stores to stock up on vegetables and meat tomorrow and I plan to buy a lot. The thing is, I would need to clear up some space in my fridge first so I can put fresher things in it. I recall to have one giant chicken leg and breast, and so I decided to make Indonesian white coconut chicken curry, Opor Ayam. The thing that is different though is I will try making it from "scratch", i.e. not using the premade seasoning mix sold in asian market; something like this:

Good things are:

Almost every possible recipe is available on the internet, and youtube has been the most inspiring secret of my cooking adventure.
I actually own a book, with thousands of Indonesian recipe written on it:

3. I own several handy spices powder brought from Indonesia :)

And here is the original recipe:

But you know, since I am not the kind of person who follows measurement in a recipe, and I tend to improvise, I decided to do the following:

I made a blended paste from several ingredients: 6-8 cloves of garlic, a quarter of large size onion (as a replacement for shallot, and 1 tsp of each of the following powder: ginger, galingale powder (kencur in Indonesia), caraway powder (jinten in Indonesia), 1/2 tsp of turmeric, and 1/2 tsp of shrimp paste (terasi).

I also prepared the chicken by cutting them in medium pieces, just enough for me to feel the whole-ness of the chicken. However, I decided not to cut the lower-leg, because I like it that way.

I also diced 4 medium sized potatoes, although usually we do not put potatoes in this chicken curry. We usually do, though, put hard boiled eggs in it. I do not have eggs in the fridge, so I left it out.

Rather than drizzling the oil, put the paste in, and then chicken and boil them all, I decided to sear my chicken first so the skin gets a little bit crispier in the curry.

Then I put all of the pre-made paste, and added 2 small sized bay leaves before finally putting in the potatoes, and adding about 2 glass of milk (I use milk instead of coconut milk, it supposed to be healthier) and water just to cover the chicken and potatoes.

Pinch about 2-3 tbsp of salt and 1 tsp of sugar, the curry is done! :) Just need to wait for the chicken and potatoes to be cooked thoroughly.

Opor ayam is best eaten with dried shallots on top, and some sambal (chilli). My friend, Marco, came over just when everything was about to be done, to bring his home-made bread (I guess he was kinda bored for the long weekend) so I will be eating that too :D