Ayam Panggan Setan--The Devil's Grilled Chicken

While satay may be what comes to most people's minds when they think of Indonesian grilled chicken, it is not the only grilled chicken on the block in Java.  Indonesians have numerous ways of enjoying grilled yard bird, and in Indonesia the chicken very often is from a nearby yard.  Ayam kampung, village chicken, is a rangy, flavorful bird, smaller and generally tastier than its American free range cousin.  Throughout Indonesia one can find hawkers selling quarters of grilled chicken.  A whole chicken may not weigh more than two pounds, so the quarters are a nice bite.

Indonesians have an approach to cooking chicken that I have not seen elsewhere.  It's one that particularly makes sense for food vendors that have limited or no access to refrigeration.  Rather than simply frying or grilling the chicken, the birds are first simmered in a spiced liquid until cooked and the liquid reduced.  Sometimes the liquid is merely water with salt and other spices.  Other times coconut milk is used.  The cooked pieces of chicken can then be finished to order.  For kaki lima (the pushcarts hawkers use to transport and cook their foods) sellers, this allows them to get out orders fairly quickly and not have to worry about keeping raw chicken refrigerated in the tropical heat.

Precooking in the seasoned liquid also results in a moist, well spiced piece of chicken.  It is essentially cooking in a brine.  For a picnic or when you want to prepare chicken to feed a crowd, this method allows you to have a large quantity of chicken ready to finish off on the grill in minutes.  Consider it Indonesia's answer to sous vide.

When you see a restaurant or warung advertising ayam panggang setan, the only thing you can be assured of is that the chicken is going to be spicy hot.  Some places may simmer in coconut milk, others may not.  The sambal may use red or green chilies.  It may be suuuppperrrr pueeeedas (the more drawn out the syllables, the hotter the sambal) or simply pedas betul.  If you don't want or can't get a beer with it, have some young coconut juice.  This is one of the dishes that would likely be served with sambal lalapan. 

Ayam Panggang Setan

printable recipe

2--3 pounds of chicken pieces (I like thighs)

Spice Mixture:
5 shallots, peeled and chopped
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 inch piece of turmeric, peeled (or use 1 tsp ground turmeric)
3 kemiri (candlenuts)
1 TBS kosher salt
1 tsp peppercorns

3 lemongrass stalks, roughly chopped and pounded
6 kaffir lime leaves
half a thumb of galangal (laos) sliced and pounded
3/4 cup water

Sambal:
8 large red chilies
8 Thai red bird chilies
7 shallots, peeled
5 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 tomato
1 tsp salt
1 tsp shrimp paste (terasi/belacan), roasted
2 TBS vegetable oil

kecap manis

In a mortar or food processor, grind the ingredients for the spice mixture into a fine paste.  Mix the chicken pieces with the paste.  Add the chicken with the lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, galangal and water to a wok.  Simmer over medium heat until the chicken is cooked and the liquid has been absorbed/cooked off.  The chicken can be cooked ahead to this point and then held until you are ready to grill.

In a medium saucepan, boil the chilies, shallots, garlic, and tomato a few minutes until softened.  Drain.  Heat the oil in a frying pan or wok and briefly fry the boiled ingredients.  Process in a blender/food processor until smooth.  Add the salt and shrimp paste and pulse until incorporated.

Although you can grill the chicken directly over coals, as they would in Indonesia, I prefer the indirect approach, which allows you to lacquer chicken with the sauce.  In a Weber kettle grill or something similar, prepare a bed of coals on one side of the grill.  Brush both sides of the chicken with kecap manis and then brush on the sambal.  Place the chicken pieces skin-side up on the opposite side of the grill.  Cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until well browned.  Serve with more sambal and rice.

Laksa Betawi

 

Laksa Betawi is an Indonesian variation (more specifically from Jakarta--Batavia--which is the center of Betawi culture) of curry laksa or laksa lemak which is popular in Singapore and Malaysia.  Less spicy and simpler than its cousins across the straits, laksa Betawi is a lush, savory soup.  Made with coconut milk, it is richer than soto ayam, the chicken soup that is popular throughout the archipelago, but not quite as rich as opor ayam.

Like soto ayam, laksa Betawi is a meal in itself.  Usually served with lontong, it contains both chicken and shrimp.  The shrimp may be dried (ebi), or fresh.  In Indonesia it includes kemangi, lemon basil, but here in Northern California kemangi can only be found during the summer months, so I substituted Thai basil.  Rau ram (Vietnamese coriander, daun laksa in Malay), which is the herb of choice for curry laksa, would also be an acceptable substitute.  While it does not call for chiles in the broth, it would typically be served with a sambal, allowing each diner to spice it up to her preferred level of spiciness.

Laksa Betawi

printable recipe

1/2 chicken, preferably free-range, cut into 4 pieces
8 oz medium shrimp, peeled and deveined,  shells reserved.
2 salam leaves
1 stalk of lemongrass, crushed with side of a cleaver or a pestle
1/2 inch cinnamon
2 whole cloves
1 can of coconut milk (I prefer Chaokoh brand)
4 cups of water
2 TBS vegetable oil

Spice Paste
4 oz/120 gr peeled shallots (Indonesian recipes usually call for a certain number of shallots, but Indonesian shallots tend to be uniformly small, about the size of two garlic cloves.  In the US, sometimes you can find the smaller shallots, but more often much larger ones are available.)
5 cloves garlic, peeled
4 kemiri
1 inch fresh tumeric, peeled
1 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1 TBS salt

To complete the bowls
2 cups beansprouts
4 oz rice vermicelli, cooked
2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and quartered lengthwise
Kemangi, Thai basil, or laksa leaves

Grind the spice paste ingredients until you have a fairly smooth paste.  In a large pot, heat the vegetable oil and stir-fry the spice paste until fragrant.  Add the shrimp shells and the pieces of chicken.  Lightly brown the chicken before adding the salam leaves, lemongrass, cinnamon, cloves, coconut milk, and water.  Simmer, covered, about 45 minutes, until the chicken is cooked and can be easily shredded. 

Remove the chicken from the broth.  When it has cooled enough for you to handle it, remove the meat from the bones and pull into shreds.  Add the shrimp to the simmering broth and cook just until done.

When you are ready to eat, place some vermicelli, shrimp, chicken, and beansprouts into individual bowls.  Ladle the hot broth over the ingredients.  Add the kemangi or basil leaves and a slice or two of the hard-boiled eggs. 

You may choose to serve this with slices of lontong in place of, or in addition to, the rice vermicelli.

Nasi Tim Ayam Jamur--Steamed Rice with Chicken and Mushrooms

Nasi tim ayam jamur is a dish that qualifies for Indonesian comfort food.  A Chinese influenced dish, it is not widely seen on menus outside of Java.  In fact, it's a dish I don't recall seeing very often in restaurants on Java.  If you do encounter it, it's likely to be in a city with a fairly sizeable Tionghoa population.

It is not a difficult dish to prepare, and it has the added benefit of being a dish that can be assembled ahead of time and served when you are ready.  It can be made as a communal dish or in individual servings.  Traditionally it might be served with acar (a cucumber and carrot pickle), but since I had recently made some do chua (Vietnamese pickled carrot and daikon), I served it with that.  A quick stir fry of caisim (choy sum) with chilies and garlic completed the meal.

I used a whole chicken in preparing this dish, using the breast for this dish, the wings and legs for some ayam pong teh, and the backbone and ribs to make the chicken stock.  Tjing doesn't care for chicken breast usually, so this is one way to make it palatable for her.  You could, of course, just buy some boneless, skinless chicken breast (or thighs), and use some canned low-sodium chicken broth instead of making your own.

Nasi Tim Ayam Jamur

printable recipe

1 whole boneless, skinless chicken breast
2 cups rice, rinsed and drained
4 cups chicken stock (divided)
1/2 lb fresh mushrooms (in Indonesia, fresh straw mushrooms are the mushroom of choice, but you may choose to use oyster, button, shitake, or other mushrooms--I used shimeiji, Japanese brown beech mushrooms, because they were available and cheap)
4 TBS oil (approximately)
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely minced
1-inch slice of ginger, peeled and finely minced
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
2 TBS oyster sauce
2 TBS kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)
1 TBS kecap asin (regular soy sauce)
4 green onions, sliced

Cut the chicken into small cubes.  Chop the mushrooms so that they're about the same size as the pieces of chicken.  Heat a wok or skillet over medium high heat and add about 2 tablespoons of oil.  When the oil is shimmering, add the ginger and garlic and fry briefly, not allowing them to brown. Stir in the chicken and fry for about a minute before adding the mushrooms.  Add the oyster sauce, kecap manis, kecap asin and white pepper.  Cook for about a minute longer.  Remove from heat.

In a sauce pan, heat 2 tablespoons of oil over medium high heat.  Stir in the rice.  Stir well, making sure all the grains get coated with oil.  Add 2 1/2 cups of the chicken stock.  Stir and bring to a boil.  Once the stock comes to a boil, cover and remove from heat.  Allow the rice to absorb the liquid, about 10 or 15 minutes.

In heat proof bowls (you may choose which size you prefer--I have used both 1 1/2 cup ramekins and 3/4 cup ramekins) place a layer of the chicken mushroom mixture on the bottom.  Top this with a layer of rice to the top of the ramekin or bowl.  Spoon an additional tablespoon or two of the chicken broth over the top.  Place the filled bowls in a steamer and steam for 15 minutes.  The bowls may be filled earlier in the day (or a day earlier) and steamed when you are ready for dinner. 

To serve, invert a plate over the top of a ramekin.  Holding on tightly to both, flip them over, tap on the ramekin, and the chicken and rice should release, forming a mound of deliciousness on the plate.
Traditionally, a cup of the broth seasoned with the slices of green onion is served along with the rice.

Gokar Kencana--Ayam Goreng-Bakar--Surabaya

Bantam chickens are a breed of chicken that originated in West Java.  A smaller breed of chicken, they are, according to Wikipedia, a popular breed for suburban homes in large part due to their decreased need for space.  That such a chicken should originate in Java is fitting as it is one of the world's most densely populated islands.  Not quite one third the size of California, Java has almost 4 times the number of people as California, just over 136,000,000.  Good luck getting lost on Java; travel half a mile from any spot and it seems there is another cluster of homes.

While tempe is probably the most readily available source of protein on Java as it is cheap enough for everyone except perhaps the most abject poor, chicken is the most common meat of the Javanese diet.  Ayam goreng, sate ayam, soto ayam, and ayam panggang or ayam bakar can be found on just about any street.  Go hiking to get away from the masses and you'll probably find a hawker who has carried his grill and chicken up the mountainside to cater to hungry hikers.  A cold beer is a rare find, but a piece of freshly cooked chicken is never more than a few minutes from wherever you might be.

In Surabaya this summer, Tjing and I enjoyed a lunch at Gokar Kencana, a family restaurant specializing in fried and grilled  chicken. Anyone familiar with Indonesians fondness for acronyms might suss out the restaurant's focus (ayam GOreng) and (ayam baKAR).  In addition to chicken, the restaurant also serves fried and grilled gurame.

The restaurant is located in a suburb near several of Surabaya's universities, Universitas Airlangga, ITS (Institute Technology Surabaya), and Universitas Muhammadiyah Surabaya.  A spacious patio covered by an arching roof, the restaurant would seem to be a great place to grab a meal before or after classes.  It's much more upscale than the typical warung or rumah makan, but the prices seemed very reasonable at around 1500 rp for a serving of a quarter of a chicken with rice.

The fried chicken is not the KFC style with a crisp crust that absorbs grease, but the Indonesian style of chicken that is first simmered in coconut water with a mix of spices before being fried.  This results in a flavorful piece of chicken that is moist but thoroughly cooked without being greasy.  The grilled chicken includes some honey in the mixture that it is basted with while being grilled.  It is grilled on a custom made grill that uses briquettes rather than the lump charcoal that is more commonly used in Indonesia.  Both the fried chicken and the grilled were extremely tasty, as was the fried gurame.  Although I enjoyed all the dishes, I preferred the grilled chicken and its accompanying sambal.

Baked Curry Puffs

Having made the fried version of these Malaysian curry puffs last month, I wondered how they would be baked rather than fried.  As I pointed out in the previous post on the fried curry puffs, the dough is the same as that used for flaky char siu pastries, which are baked.  I knew these could also be baked therefore, but I didn't know if they would retain the distinctive look of the spiral pastry that the fried version has. Unfortunately, the answer is no.  Although you can still discern the spiral pattern if you look carefully, it is much less pronounced than in the fried version.  The fried curry puffs are also more delicate than the baked version, with an incredible flakiness.  On the other hand, these may be slightly better for you (or not quite as bad for you), and you can bake the whole shebang at once, rather than hassling with heating up the oil to just the right temperature and frying several at a time.
If you are looking to impress for a special occasion, I'd definitely recommend the fried version.  If you want a delectable bite without too much work, try the baked puffs. 

Baked Curry Puffs

Flaky Pastry Dough

Water Dough
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting when rolling out
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 TBS vegetable shortening or lard
approximately 1/3 cup ice water

Combine flour with sugar. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles bread crumbs. Stir in ice water until the dough is moistened and just holds together when pressed. This may require a little more or a little less than 1/4 cup. Turn the dough out on a floured surface and knead just until the dough holds together as a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and then form the dough into a circular disk. Refrigerate for at least an hour.

Short Dough
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup vegetable shortening or lard

Cut the shortening into the flour unit mixture resembles coarse meal. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and then shape the dough into a ball. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

After both doughs have been refrigerated at least an hour, unwrap the the water dough and place it on a lightly floured surface. Unwrap the short dough and center it on top of the water dough. Fold the sides of the water dough over the short dough, with the edges overlapping slightly. Press the overlapping edges and both ends to seal in the short dough completely. Form into a rectangle and roll out to approximately 12 x 8 inches. Like folding a letter,  fold the dough in thirds.  Roll out again to a 12 x 8 inch rectangle and fold in thirds again.  Now roll out to a 12-inch square.  Tightly roll the square to form a cylinder with a diameter of about 1 1/2 inches.  Slice into 12 equal rounds.

Chicken Curry Filling

1 potato, peeled and cut into small dice
1 onion, peeled and cut into small dice
12 oz boneless, skinless chicken thighs, chopped into small pieces
2 TBS Madras curry powder mixed with a little water to form a paste
salt, to taste
2--4 TBS coconut milk
2 TBS oil

In a bowl, stir the curry paste into the chicken, mixing well to distribute the curry paste evenly.

Heat a frying pan over medium high heat.  When the oil is hot,  fry the potato until browned on all sides.  Add onions and cook until softened.  Stir in the chicken and enough coconut milk to keep the curry moist but not wet and cook until the chicken is done, not more than five minutes.  Allow the curry to cool before filling the puffs.

Assembling the Curry Puffs

Press each round of dough flat, then roll them into circles with at least a 3 1/2-inch diameter.  Fill the circles with a generous tablespoon or so of filling, fold in half, and crimp the edges closed.  Place the filled pastries on a parchment lined baking sheet and brush with egg wash.  Bake in a preheated 375º F oven for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown.  Cool on a wire rack at least 5 minutes before eating.  May be served warm or at room temperature.

Karipap Ayam--Chicken Curry Puffs

My family has long enjoyed curry puffs as a special treat with cocktails and I had originally thought about including these curry puffs in our New Year's celebration.  Fortunately, I sometimes come to my senses.  These curry puffs are very rich and would have been too much with all the other food we had that night.  They are, however, great with cocktails.  These, a cocktail or two, some gỏi gà and you're set for an evening meal.

These spiral curry puffs originated in Malaysia.  They consist of a Chinese flaky pastry dough with an Indian/Malaysian curry filling.  They look impressive with their spiral layers, and they are not particularly difficult to make.  They are fried though, and that is probably the main reason I won't be making them more often.  While they should certainly be able to be baked (the dough is essentially the same as that used for char siu so bang), I don't know if the spiral effect would be as pronounced.
Frying them produced a very flaky, crispy shell that was not oily at all.

 

I made these following the recipe in Andrea Nguyen's Asian Dumplings. The filling was improvised from boneless, skinless chicken thighs, shallots, potatoes, Madras curry powder and curry paste, and a little coconut milk.  You want something that stands up to the richness of the pastry, that is not overpowered by it.  I served them with a cilantro chutney, tinkering slightly with the recipe Nguyen includes in her book.  Her instructions on how to braid the seal of the puffs were very easy to follow, and even I, with short, pudgy fingers, was able to produce an attractive braid.

The recipe for the dough can be found on my post for char siu so bang. The difference is that instead of rolling the final sheet out to a square, you want a rectangle.  You then roll the rectangle jelly-roll fashion into a log.  You slice the log to get circles of dough which you then roll out to somewhere between 1/8" and 1/4" thickness.  Fill each circle with several teaspoons of your filling, fold and seal.  Fry the puffs in oil around 340º to 350º F until golden brown.  (Nguyen recommends starting them off at around 300º for the first two minutes and then raising the temperature to 350º.  I found there wasn't that much difference keeping them in the higher range the whole time.)  Remove and drain on paper towels.  Serve hot or at room temperature.  They will stay crisp for at least a day.

The water dough is on the left, oil dough on the right.

The water dough encasing the oil dough.

Slices from the rolled log of dough ready to be rolled to form the puffs.

The rolled puff with some filling.

The first batch I made I failed to braid the edges as attractively as I would have liked.  I then did what teachers tell their students to do--I read the instructions on how to make a nice braid.  In the second batch the braid was much more professional looking, but I forgot to get a picture.  

I enjoyed the cilantro chutney with the puffs, but they are also excellent without any accompaniment, save perhaps for a gin and tonic, mojito, beer, or even a martini.

Ca Ri Ga--Vietnamese Chicken Curry

Chicken curry comes in many guises.  There is jungle curry from Laos and northern Thailand that doesn't include coconut milk, red and green curries from central and southern Thailand, variations throughout Malaysia and Indonesia, other variations from India, and then there is ca ri ga, Vietnamese chicken curry.  I don't believe I've yet had a chicken curry that I haven't enjoyed, but of all of them the Vietnamese version is my favorite.  It is spicy, but not incendiary, with a nice balance of coconut milk in its base.  Served with a freshly baked baguette, it made for an especially comforting dinner on an unseasonably cool spring night.

There are many recipes for ca ri ga out there.  Although I have tried many of them, I keep coming back to this one, which I have been using for the last twenty years or so.  Its use of both curry powder and curry paste, the use of less coconut milk than some other recipes, and the frying of the potatoes before adding them to the sauce are what set this curry apart.  Like other curries and stews, this is a dish that may be even better the next day.  It also freezes well, so you may want to double the recipe. 

The recipe comes (slightly adapted) from The Foods of Vietnam by Nicole Routhier, the first Vietnamese cookbook I ever bought and still one of my favorites.

Ca Ri Ga

3 stalks fresh lemongrass, tender, lower third only, chopped
4 shallots, peeled and chopped
5 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 to 3 fresh red chile peppers, seeded and chopped
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp ground black pepper
2 TBS Madras curry paste
3 TBS Madras curry powder
3 TBS fish sauce
1 chicken, 3 to 4 pounds
2 large Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch thick slices
2 white-fleshed sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2-inch slices
2 bay leaves
1 large onion, cut into eighths
2 large ripe tomatoes, core, seeded and cut into eight wedges (I didn't have any tomatoes in, so left them out this time, but do think they add to the curry)
2 cups chicken stock made from backbone, neck and gizzards of the chicken
salt, to taste
2 large carrots, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
1 can coconut milk
2 tsp cornstarch (optional)

Cut the chicken into serving pieces, reserving the backbone, neck, and gizzards for making the stock.

In a food processor, combine the lemongrass, shallots, garlic, sugar, chilies, pepper, curry paste and powder, and fish sauce.  Process to a very fine paste.

In a pie plate or similar dish, spread the paste all over the chicken pieces .  Cover and refrigerate for an hour.

Heat 1/2 inch of vegetable oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Add the potatoes and brown on all sides. Drain the potatoes on paper towels.

Remove all but 3 tablespoons of the oil from the Dutch oven.  Scrape the paste from the chicken and reserve.  In batches to avoid crowding, add the chicken pieces to the pan and brown on all sides.  Remove the browned pieces to a clean platter.

Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a clay pot.  Add the paste and bay leaves to the oil . (Of course, you may choose to continue using the Dutch oven.  The advantage of using a clay pot is that it not only looks nice on the table for serving, but also retains the heat well.) Stirring to keep the paste from burning, fry for about two minutes before adding the onions.  Continue to stir and cook the onions until they are lightly browned.  Add tomatoes, and stir to coat with the paste.  Add the chicken broth and chicken pieces and bring to a boil.  Add salt to taste, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes.  Add carrots and potatoes and simmer another 20 minutes.

Dissolve cornstarch in the coconut milk (or mash one of the potato pieces).  Add the coconut milk to the curry and simmer, uncovered, until the sauce thickens, about 15 minutes.  Be sure to stir during this final cooking time to prevent the curry from sticking on the bottom of the pot.

Serve in shallow bowls with rice or French bread.

I am submitting this to Delicious Vietnam #12, a monthly blogging event celebrating Vietnamese food.  Founded by Anh of A Food Lover's Journey, and Kim and Hong of Ravenous Couple, Delicious Vietnam welcomes submissions from bloggers around the world.  To learn how you might participate, click here.  The roundup for Delicious Vietnam #12 will be hosted by Anh of A Food Lover's Journey. Check out the roundup to find the details on who will be hosting Delicious Vietnam #13.

Soto Madura

Outside of the Indonesian spiced coffee cake recipe that I posted last month, I realize I haven't posted many Indonesian recipes lately.  I could blame it on the season--winter in Northern California just doesn't put one in an Indonesian frame of mind--but it's more likely the result of laziness.  Cooking for just the two of us, I don't feel the urge to cook up a dish that I know I will be eating for several days in a row.  Winter is also the time Tjing finds her way to the kitchen, cooking up large quantities of noodles and pigs feet in soy sauce.  We cook one or two nights and eat leftovers for lunch and dinner the rest of the week.  However, this week I decided to try out a recipe for soto Madura.

Just as Indonesia has numerous versions of sate (satay), so too does it have countless variations of soto, a soup that can be found throughout the archipelago.  In fact, the cookbook that this recipe comes from--668 Indonesian Recipes from 33 Provinces  (668 Resep Masakan Khas Nusantara dari 33 Provinsi)--features 23 recipes for soto and only 11 for sate.  Soto is a perfect dish for rumah makans because the bowls can be assembled per order with the ingredients the customer requests and then filled with the hot broth.

I am particularly fond of Soto Ayam Ambengan (which may lay claim to being the most popular soto in Indonesia), but like other versions as well.  As with Vietnamese pho, the key to any good soto is the broth.  Although you could make a quick version using canned chicken broth, it will be a far cry from a soto made with homemade chicken stock. 

Madura, an island off Surabaya that is now connected to Java by an impressive bridge, is included in the province of East Java.  Javanese generally consider the Madurese to be coarse folk easily angered.  Then again, many Javanese describe almost all non-Javanese this way.  With a slightly drier climate and less fertile soil than Java has, Madura has developed a cuisine with some differences from Java.  Bull racing (kerapan sapi) draws adventurous tourists to the island, and the bulls also feature prominently in traditional dishes, most famously in rujak cingur and soto daging.  This soto ayam Madura may have evolved from the popularity of chicken soto in nearby Java.

As I mentioned, the recipe is adapted from 668 Resep Masakan Khas Nusantara dari 33 Provinis by Yulia T and Astuti Utomo; Agromedia Pustaka; 2008.  

Soto Ayam Madura

1 small chicken, preferably free range, about 3 pounds
1 TBS salt
3 quarts filtered water

12 shallots (smallish ones, shallots in Indonesia tend to be the size of large garlic cloves)
9 cloves of garlic
2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
1/4 cup fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
1/4 cup fresh laos (galingal) peeled and coarsely chopped
7 kemiri (candlenuts) unsalted macadamia nuts may be substituted
1 1/2 tsp sugar

2 cups bean sprouts, blanched by pouring boiling water over and drained
1 pound potatoes, boiled, sliced and fried
4 to 6 eggs, hard boiled, peeled, and sliced in half (or as you like)
6 stalks seledri (a leafy celery that you can find in Asian supermarkets), finely sliced
6 TBS fried shallots
2 limes, sliced

In a sufficiently large pot, place the chicken with the water and salt.  Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cook until done, skimming any foam from the surface.  Remove the chicken, allowing it to cool before shredding the meat with your fingers.  Skim or separate the fat from the broth.

In a food processor, puree the spices until you have a relatively smooth paste.  Add a little broth if needed to make the process easier.  Stir the paste into the pot with the broth.  Simmer for 20 minutes or so.

Prepare bowls by adding some shredded chicken, bean sprouts, sliced potatoes, half an egg, and sliced seledri.  Ladle in the simmering broth.  Top with fried shallots.  Serve with sambal, kecap manis, and sliced limes, allowing diners to adjust the seasonings to their taste.

Vietnamese Cabbage Salad with Chicken--Goi Ba Bap Cai

This is a staple dish in our house.  It is also a fixture at potlucks at my wife's school because it is cheap, quick, healthful, and delicious.  Almost any time we have roast chicken, whether it's one I roast or a rotisserie chicken picked up at the supermarket, we have this the next day.  As neither Tjing, my wife, nor I are particularly fond of chicken breast, finding it generally to be rather dry and flavorless, this is a great way to use the meat.  While I prefer it with rau ram (daun laksa or Vietnamese coriander), mint is a perfectly acceptable substitute.  The dressing does not use oil and can be easily adjusted to different tastes.  When I make this for school potlucks, I am careful about not making it too spicy; teachers are such sensitive souls.

Some recipes call for using rice vinegar for the dressing; others use lime juice.  Personally, I prefer the latter.  The freshness of the lime makes the salad so much more lively and refreshing.  If you have some ground roasted peanuts or fried shallots on hand, a tablespoon or two make a nice addition on top of the salad.

Goi Ga Bap Cai--Chicken and Cabbage Salad

1 to 2 cups cooked chicken,  shredded

1/2 head of green cabbage, thinly sliced

1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced

1 cup julienned carrot

1/2 cup rau ram, or mint, or a combination of the two,  coarsely chopped or torn

Dressing

2 cloves garlic, crushed to a paste in a mortar

1 to 2 red chilies, seeded and minced

2 TBS fish sauce

2 TBS lime juice

1 TBS water

1 TBS sugar, to taste (some prefer a sweeter dressing, others like more bite)

1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

Combine ingredients for dressing and adjust to taste.

Combine salad ingredients.  Toss with dressing just before serving (if you dress the salad too soon the vegetables will lose their crispness and become limp).  Rice crackers (banh da) or shrimp crackers (banh phong tom or krupuk udang) make a nice accompaniment.

I am submitting this post to Delicious Vietnam, a monthly blogging event founded by Ravenous Couple and A Food Lover's Journey to celebrate and explore Vietnamese cuisine.   This month's host is Anh of A Food Lover's Journey.  To learn more about Delicious Vietnam and how you can participate, click here.

Indonesian Grilled Chicken with Grilled Coconut Rice--Ayam Bakar Marqi

One way Indonesian dining establishments reduce the overhead of operating a restaurant is by eliminating the overhead.  Long before the internet reduced the demand for brick and mortar stores, Indonesian restaurants took to the streets.  In any town you can find established dining spots that materialize only in the early evening.  Before that, they are merely parking spaces and open sidewalk.  But come evening, the cook sets up his stall, sets up a few tables with stools and/or lays some woven mats on the sidewalk and is open for business.

In a city like Kediri, with a population of around 300,000, there are probably at least a hundred stalls and pushcarts alone, not to mention warungs and restaurants, selling nasi goreng (fried rice).  There are also stalls specializing in sate, fried tofu, pecel, fried chicken and grilled chicken, among other dishes. While to most people one plate of fried rice might not be that much different from another, like food everywhere, diners have strong opinions on who makes the best fried rice or grilled chicken.  Each stall has its adherents.

 My sister-in-law and her husband are both natives of Kediri, so when they recommend a spot, I listen.  Ayam Bakar Marqi has been in its present location for about six months.  It's on one of the main streets in Kediri, across from Santa Maria Catholic school. While some places prefer meatier, chemically enhanced chickens,  the folks at Marqi only use ayam kampung--village chicken--small, free range chicken that are not fed antibiotics and chemicals to color their skin.

You can order a whole grilled chicken or quarters, either breast and wing or thigh and drumstick.  14,000 rupiah (about $1.50 US) gets you a quarter of some of the tastiest grilled chicken you can find.  Its served with a sambal of fried shallots, a piece of lettuce and a slice of cucumber.  You'll also want to order a packet of nasi uduk (rice cooked in coconut milk) that is warmed over the grill while your chicken is cooked.  The combination of grilled chicken and coconut rice is fabulous. 

Sate Ayam Ponorogo--Chicken Satay

Indonesians are serious about their sate.  There are numerous kinds--chicken and goat are the most popular, but you can also find beef, pork, rabbit, turtle, and dog, depending on where you are.  And for each variety there are different interpretations.  Sate ayam (chicken sate) Ponorogo is different from sate ayam Blora and sate ayam Madura.  In my wife's hometown, Kediri, the local favorite is sate ayam Ponorogo, in particular Pak Siboen's interepretation of the dish.

The sign claims Pak Siboen started selling sate in 1937, so he has a good track record.  The original Pak Siboen is no longer with us, and this restaurant is operated by one of his sons.  He opened it in 1954 and has also opened branches in Malang and Jakarta. Another child operates another restaurant by the same name two doors down, but the locals favor the original. 

Although I almost never disagree with my wife ;-), I am not as impressed with the sate here as she is.  Perhaps it's because I am more a sate ayam Blora fan, but I find Pak Siboen's sate to be somewhat lackluster in taste.  Still, 14,000 Rp (approximately $1.50) for ten sticks of chicken sate doesn't justify marital discord.  For 9,000 Rp you can get ten sticks of chicken skin sate, or liver, or gizzards.  I'm a straight meat man myself.

I prefer lontong to regular rice with sate, but they didn't have lontong the night we went.  Being a halal establishment, bir is not an option among the beverages.  For people like myself who don't like sweet soft drinks, I recommend es teh tawar (plain ice tea).  It is available in virtually any establishment that has ice (and even the smallest warungs usually have ice) and is both refreshing and cheap.

Sate Ayam Ponorogo
Jl. Dhoho, dkt alunalun
Kediri, Jatim

Ayam Goreng Mbok Berek

Like most people who have had the pleasure, I fell in love with ayam goreng mbok berek the first time I tasted it. This was in 1983 on my first visit to Yogya. Not really a big fan of American fried chicken, and certainly no fan of the Colonel, I didn't expect much. Colleagues and students had recommended I try the famous chicken, so I did.

It wasn't until I had been to Vietnam and had Thit Heo Kho (Ravenous Couple have a nice recipe here) that this recipe made sense to me. When I lived in Indonesia, I had had chicken simmered in coconut milk before being fried countless times. This is a common way of preparing fried chicken in Indonesia. It also results in moist, flavorful fried chicken. Although I am fond of drinking young coconut, I didn't think simmering the chicken in the water from young coconut would be much different from simmering in plain water. Yet, if you've ever had the pleasure of having thit heo kho simmered in coconut water, you know the magic of the medium.



The water from young coconuts is subtly sweet, not in a sugary way, but with the freshness of a recent rain. It's like drinking in the day after the first rain in weeks. In Java young coconuts are a dime a dozen, but here in the States they cost a little more. The concentrated stock that one gets after simmering the chicken in the coconut water is heavenly. It would be the ideal base for a bowl of mulligatawny soup.

Although young coconuts are not commonly found in major supermarkets, most Asian supermarkets and Whole Foods carry them. You do want to make sure you use a young coconut and not the more mature ones.



I haven't been able to recreate the crispy bits you get when you buy the chicken in Yogya. Robyn Eckhardt of Eating Asia had an informative article in the Wall Street Journal in which she identifies the crisp bits as deep fried spices from the coconut water stock the chicken is first simmered in, but I've been unable to get them to taste quite like what I remember. Even without those crumbs, this chicken is better than any other fried chicken you are likely to taste any time soon.

Besides some good rice, one other accompaniment this dish really calls for is a good sambal terasi. The heat and pungency of this sambal really complements the richness of the fried chicken. At the restaurant they also serve the chicken with the sambal lalapan (sambal with raw cabbage and other vegetables) and the side is every bit as popular as the chicken. I will be posting the sambal recipe soon.



Ayam Goreng Mbok Berek
adapted from Sri Owen's Indonesian Food and Cookery

1 young chicken, preferably free range and air chilled, quartered
or chicken thighs, wings, and drumsticks
6 shallots, coarsely chopped
2 inches of ginger, peeled, sliced, and pounded
2 inches of laos (galingale), peeled, sliced, and pounded
1 tsp coriander, coarsely ground in a mortar
2 salam leaves
salt and pepper
3-4 cups of coconut water from two young coconuts

oil for frying

Mix shallots, spices and salam leaves with coconut water in wok or saucepan. Add chicken pieces and simmer briskly for 30 minutes or so, until tender. The coconut water should be reduced by about half. Remove the chicken from the liquid and allow to cool.

After the chicken has cooled and dried, deep fry it until it is golden brown. The frying does not take very long because the chicken is essentially already cooked; the frying is done to crisp up the chicken and give it some color. Once fried, the chicken can be eaten warm or cold. Serve with rice and a good sambal.

Laksa Ayam

There are times a recipe on the page sounds so much better than the dish itself. The ingredients are there; you can taste it in your mind, but when the dish hits your tongue, there's disappointment. You anticipated something more. What should have sung a high C instead hums indistinctly.

Alas, this was the case with the ayam laksa I made recently. Curry mee, curry laksa, or laksa, depending on if you hail from Ipoh, Penang, or Singapore, is one of my favorite dishes. A rich, spicy seafood coconut curry broth with noodles, tofu and beansprouts, its right up there among the top ten dishes for me. Unfortunately, my niece who lives with us is allergic to seafood, so I was looking for a variation of laksa that everyone in the house might enjoy. In fact, she and my wife did enjoy the ayam laksa very much. I, however, found it paled in comparison to what I think of when I hear the word laksa.

Laksa Ayam--Chicken Laksa
adapted from this recipe

1 lb boneless chicken thighs, sliced 1/2 thick
5 shallots, chopped
1 inch ginger, peeled and minced
4 inches laos (galingale), peeled, thinly sliced, and crushed in a mortar
1 stalk lemongrass, white and pale green parts only, thinly sliced and pounded with laos
2 red chilies, minced
2 TBS oil
2 tsp Madras curry powder
2 cups chicken broth
1 can coconut milk
2 ounces rice vermicelli, softened in hot water
8 ounces fresh egg noodles, briefly cooked in boiling water
2-4 green onions, thinly sliced
beansprouts
laksa leaves (rau ram in Vietnamese)
cilantro
boiled eggs (optional)

Heat a skillet or wok and add the oil. Fry the shallots, ginger, laos, lemongrass, and chilies until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the chicken; cook, stirring, until the chicken becomes opaque.

Stir in curry powder, making sure it is evenly distributed. Pour in broth and coconut milk. Bring to a boil and simmer on low until the chicken is tender and oils begin to separate from the broth.

To serve, place some of each noodles in individual soup bowls. Add bean sprouts. Ladle the hot broth and chicken into the bowls. Sprinkle with green onions, laksa leaves and cilantro. Add sliced boiled eggs if you like.

A squeeze of lime, some sambal ulek or sriracha sauce and/or kecap manis may be added according to personal taste.