The Spicy Side of Life - Chicken Rendang and Nasi Minyak

I don’t know whether I am back in business, but I try. Today I had that wonderful feeling again … of hot and spicy food slightly heating me up from the inside.

I had some Chicken Rendang and Nasi Minyak. 

As it was my first step into the direction of Malay cuisine, I had to do some research. Usually I go about by checking Wikipedia and then reading through the different dishes. I found a few other things I would love to try, like for example Murtabak, but that has to wait for a while.

I set my eyes on Nasi Minyak, rice flavoured with ghee and some dry spices and … you will see later. The description said, it is usually eaten with Rendang.

The most traditional way of doing that dish is with buffalo meat. As I don’t have it and I didn’t want to try getting it, I settled for chicken, which is also quite common these days.

So, don’t be afraid of the heat or the colour (you will see later, why it has roughly the same colour), we have means and ways to reduce the heat.

Now, let’s go for the Chicken Rendang first.

Chicken Rendang

Ingredients
1 tbsp. ghee
500 g chicken breast, cut into small chunks
1 tsp. turmeric powder
Salt
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Thumb-sized piece of ginger, finely chopped
1 stalk of lemongrass, finely chopped
1 dried chilli, finely chopped (less seeds, less heat)
Some water
400 ml coconut milk
A hand full of fresh coriander

Method
Melt the ghee in a pan. Then fry the chicken pieces together with the turmeric and a bit of salt.

Bash the shallots, garlic, ginger, lemongrass and chilli together in a mortar, adding a bit of water to make a paste – kind of.

Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside. In the same pan, fry now the paste you just made.

Now add the coconut milk and the chopped up stalks of the coriander. Bring this to the boil and leave to simmer.

At some point add the chicken back and continue simmering until the sauce thickens.

Just prior to serving, add the coriander leaves and check the seasoning whether you need more salt.

Serve the Chicken Rendang together with the …

Nasi Minyak

Ingredients
A mug of basmati rice
Two mugs of water for steaming the rice
1 tbsp. ghee
A hand full of cashew nuts
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
4 cardamom pods, cracked open
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped (mind the seeds)
1 tsp. turmeric
Another mug of water
A hand full of peas (frozen, if you like)
A hand full of fresh coriander
Salt

Method
Add the mug of rice and the water into a pot and bring to the boil, while the lid is open. Then put on the lid, reduce the heat to a minimum and leave for 20 minutes.

Fork through the rice to loosen it up a bit, if you like and then set the rice aside.

Melt the ghee in another pan and roast the cashews. Then remove them from the pan.

Toss the cinnamon stick, star anise and the cardamom into the pan and fry them.

After that add the shallot, chilli and the turmeric. Let them all together enjoy some heat.

At this point it’s time for the rice to return. Add them to the pan together with some water.

While you are at heating things up, add the peas as well and finally the chopped up coriander leaves and the cashews.

Serve right away – as I already said – together with the Chicken Rendang. Well, they have both turmeric in it, so it’s not too much contrasting in terms of colour on the plate, but it tastes luvly.

Hähnchen Rendang und Nasi Minyak

Heut ist es mal an der Zeit für malaysische Küche. Das habe ich bis jetzt noch nicht ausprobiert. Also wird es mal Zeit. 

Insgesamt habe ich zwei Chillies verbaut. Es war trotzdem leicht scharf und aufwärmend. Das ist auf jeden Fall gut, wenn es wieder kälter wird – oh nein, der Winter kommt.

Falls man nicht so auf Schärfe steht, wäre es vielleicht angebracht, die Samen der Chillies zu entfernen. Was soll’s immer her mit der Schärfe.

Hähnchen Rendang

Zutaten
1 EL Ghee
500 g Hähnchenbrust, in kleine Stücke geschnitten
1 TL Kurkuma
Salz
2 Schalloten, feingehackt
2 Knoblauchzehen, feingehackt
Daumengroßes Stück Ingwer,feingehackt
1 Stengel Zitronengras, feingehackt
1 getrocknete Chilli, feingehackt
Etwas Wasser
400 ml Kokosmilch
Eine Hand voll frischer Koriander

Zubereitung
Das Ghee in der Pfanne schmelzen. Dann darin die Hähnchenstücke anbraten mit dem Kurkuma und etwas Salz zusammen bis das Fleisch etwas Farbe bekommt – und damit meine ich nicht die Farbe von dem Kurkuma.

Die Schalotten, Knoblauch, Ingwer, Zitronengras und Chilli in einen Mörser geben und dann ordentlich zusammenstampfen. Ein wenig Wasser dabei, so dass eine Paste entsteht – oder so ähnlich.

Das Hähnchenfleisch aus der Pfanne nehmen und statt dessen die Paste hineingeben. Das Fleisch erst mal zur Seite stellen. Die Paste anbraten.

Dann die Kokosmilch und feingehackte Korianderstengel hinzugeben. Das ganze zum Kochen bringen und köcheln lassen.

Irgendwann kommt dann auch das Fleisch zurück in die Pfanne und weiterköcheln lassen bis die Sauce etwas dicker wird.

Kurz vor dem servieren noch die Korianderblätter hinzugeben und kontrollieren, one noch etwas Salz nötig ist.

Das Hähnchen Rendang servieren zusammen mit …

Nasi Minyak

ZutatenEin Becher Basmatireis
Zwei Becher Wasser zum dünsten des Reises
1 EL Ghee
Eine Hand voll Cashewkerne
1 Zimtstange
1 Sternanis
4 Kardamomkapseln, das innere davon
1 Schalotte, feingehackt
1 rote Chilli, feingehackt
1 TL Kurkuma
Noch ein Becher Wasser
Eine Hand voll Erbsen
Eine Hand voll frischer Koriander
Salz

Zubereitung
Den Reis mit dem Wasser in einen Topf geben und zum Kochen bringen. Sobald der Reis schön blubbert, den Deckel drauf und die Hitze reduzieren. Für 20 Minuten vor sich hinköcheln lassen.

Wenn man mag, kann man dann nochmal das ganze kurz mit einer Gabel auflockern. Den Reis zur Seite stellen.

Das Ghee in einer anderen Pfanne schmelzen und die Cashewkerne darin rösten. Dann die Cashewkerne aus der Pfanne entfernen.

Da kommt jetzt die Zimtstange, Sternanis und Kardamon rein. Kurz anbraten.

Es folgt die Schalotte, Chilli und Kurkuma. Die Zutaten ein wenig die Hitze schmecken lassen.

Nun kommt der Reis wieder zurück in die Pfanne mit einem Becher Wasser, so dass uns da nicht anpappt.

Wo jetzt nun schon mal alles erhitzt wird, kann man auch gleich die Erbsen hinzugeben und wenn man dann schon fast fertig zum Essen ist, kommen noch die Cashewkerne und der Koriander mit drunter.

Zeit zum Essen. Wie ich schon erwähnte – ja, das habe ich schon gesagt – Nasi Minyak und Hähnchen Rendang zusammen servieren und Spass dabei haben. Lecker!

Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow - Fish Soup (#ReadCookEat)

I reckon you don't want to hear anything about snow right now, but ... I do it anyway. Where does it say that you have to read books playing in winter and with snow and winter and summer books in summer? Does this aid your imagination or what?
Well, I read a certain book, when I feel like it. There was it on my bookshelf: Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow or as you would call it in the original Frøken Smillas fornemmelse for sne by Peter Høeg. What shall I say? For sure there are better short summaries of the book online somewhere, but I still give it a shot. 
Smilla, 37 year old daughter of a female Inuit hunter and a rich Danish physician lives alone in an apartment complex. One of the neighbours is an alcoholic. That one has a son called Isaiah. She forms a friendship with him. Suddenly Isaiah dies. The police explains it as an accident, the boy falling from the roof. However, due to his marks in the snow on the roof and some other facts, Smilla does not believe in an accident. She investigates, later together with another neighbour, called Peter. He is a mechanic. Whatsoever, there is some kind of conspiracy and ... the rest you have to read for yourself.
As Galina from Chez Maximka and I myself are still doing the ReadCookEat challenge, it is no wonder I also kept an eye on the food in the book apart from obviously following the real plot.
While I would have loved to go for a raspberry cake I decided for this ...

In one scene in the book the mechanic, Peter, is preparing a fish soup for Smilla and himself. The description of the ingredients and the preparation is quite detailed so I tried to reproduce it, although I stuck to the ingredients I could get more easily ... eh ... for what was in that one shop, when I went shopping for the dish.

Ingredients:
Splash of olive oil
1 onion
2 carrots
1 small bulb of fennel
1 leek
Various items of fish (I had: gilthead bream, haddock, salmon)
Hand full of prawns
Rice
2 Star anise
1 tsp. cardamom
2 tbsp. sour cream
Juice of half an orange
Salt and pepper

Method:
I prepared the rice in the usual way with the star anise and the cardamom. I did this in a separate pan. You know, double amount of water, bring to boil, cover, reduce heat to minimum or turn off and let it work for 20 minutes. Anyway, you may have a different method or even a rice cooker. Feel free to do as yo are accustomed to do.

Than start with a large pan to do the soup. Give a splash of olive oil to the pan, which you put on low to medium heat. Chop up your onion and throw it into the pan.
Afterwards go for the carrots. Peel, chop up and off to the pan. Now the fennel and finally the leek. Give the vegetables a good time in the pan to soften them a bit and to release some flavour, maybe 20 minutes or more. Just make sure, you don't burn anything.
In between season the whole thing with salt and pepper and Pour in 1,5 litre or water. All this you bring to the boil and let simmer for 10 minutes.

It's not called fish soup for no reason. Therefore we need some fish in the pan. If you feel you just want to go ahead as I did (with little knowledge about fish) just use whole fish like I did with head, fin and bones and all (as was done in the book as well). However, that might get a bit messy, for later you don't want the head, fins and bones in the finished soup. For your convenience use fillets of fish. That will make your life easier, but you might have less flavour, if you can notice. Just one more thing, you don't want to have the scales of the fish anywhere near your pan. That, of course, if you have a good fishmonger should be no problem at all. I don't have ... a good fishmonger.
Fine, you put your pieces of fish into the pan, pushing it under the liquid and let the fish boil together with the rest for 10 minutes. If you need to remove heads, fins and bones afterwards ... your problem. 
Once all the undesirable parts are removed, add the prawns and cook them for another two minutes. After that you can finish the soup of with the sour cream and the orange juice.

Serve the soup together with the rice and if you like some bread as well.
That was one of the more expensive dishes, for you know, fish isn't that cheap. However, I got a good quality meal and finally some more fish for my health and a more balanced diet. Apart from that, there are some leftovers for another day ... or maybe too.
While eating I still discovered some fishbones in the soup - maybe that's why I don't have fish too often.
Whatever I say, I enjoyed the fish soup and am glad I have some more for the weekend.
Now that's something lovely for ReadCookEat.

Anyway, it wouldn't have been my fault, if the soup would have been terrible, for I followed most of the time Peter Høeg's description.

If it happens to be the case you have been reading something or are still doing so and you find any connection with food in that book and find the power to do a dish, then I see no reason, why you should not join ReadCookEat this month ...

Click here to go to the Link-up

Cardamom Twists by Scandilicious

While browsing the Internet the other week I saw a lot of interesting blogs, recipes, and pictures of food.

One of the things I found was the page by Signe Johansen. There was the recipe for Cardamom Twists. It looked and sounded nice, so I wanted to have a go. All ingredients were on stock at home. Therefore no problem. Well, in order to do it right, you need some time. The point of leaving the dough overnight in the fridge for rising was a bit hard for me, but I survived.

For preparing the dough, though, to start with, you need to scald (not scold - although this thought would be funny) the milk. I've never heard of this before (no big deal - there are a lot of things I haven't heard of before). However, it means you have to heat the milk just before boiling and then let it cool down a bit again before you add it to the dough.

Shortly before midnight, then, the dough was done and went to the fridge to work the whole night, while I went to bed to sleep the whole night (well, it did work out).

This morning then, the show could go on. A little bit waiting in between is on the program, though. 

cardamom-sugar-butter mix on the dough

To me, the dough looked nice when it came out of the fridge. I'm not sure, though, when you look at this picture whether this is really rectangular. Could have put in a bit more effort.

more or less twisted

It's going to be a bit crowded on the baking tray, but I think it can take it.

covered and waiting

It's time to wait a bit again. The twists are covered with lightly oiled cling film. Here we are - this would have also solved the problem I had last  time while baking the garlic bread - just a bit oil on the cling film and you have no sticking. Could have come to this myself. There is always something new to learn (apart from scalding the milk).

out from the oven

The time for baking did vary a bit from what was stated in the recipe. It all depends on the oven you have. I have experienced that my oven usually needs more time then stated in a recipe. Maybe I need a new one, it doesn't seem to make the temperatures it promises.

time to cool down a bit

It's done! Do you see on the last picture what is wrong? Well ...

... I tell you. Three are already gone - simply couldn't wait to taste.

What is the final verdict: It is really a nice recipe - easy to follow with good results. That's what I like. The cardamom taste could have been a bit stronger, though. Well, now all my cardamom is gone. Maybe I put slightly to less in, but this was all I had.

Do I have to call this blog now: Baking around the World? When you think about it, it's all the same anyway.