Sydney’s weather has been unfriendly for weeks now. The rain has been pouring non stop throughout the week and that made me feel like I want to stay indoors. Lucky my husband offered to drive me to the Paddish Market in the afternoon, so I could do some quick shopping. I went to a butcher and bought a whole chicken. I also asked them to chop them into small little pieces, and one of Laksa making task is done. I went to the groceries store next to the butcher instead of crossing the street to get to Paddish Market, because the rain was pouring so bad. It turned out that the grocery store did not have any fresh lemon grass left, however the do have some finely chopped frozen one. I thought that would do for me.

We arrived home at half past six and I went straight to the kitchen to prepare everything. I was hoping that we could have dinner by half past seven. I would say that making laksa is not a hassle or hard work at all. It was pretty simple and quick. Just be aware of the chillies if you are not a big fan of some hot and spicy stuff. I used about 10 dried chillies and to my surprised, it was pretty hot for my toddler liking. My 2 years and 9 months son like a little bit of chilli in his food but this is just a bit way of his range.

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken about 1.5 kg, cut into little pieces (ask your butcher to do it)
• 6 cloves garlic
• 4 cloves shallot
• about 2 fingers ginger
• 8 dried chillies or less, soaked in hot water
• about 10 gr belacan/shrimp paste (I used 2 dried blocks of belacan)
• 4 pieces of galangal, about the size of 20 cents coin
• 1 stalk of lemon grass, bruised
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 tsp of turmeric powder
• 400 ml of coconut milk
• about 800 ml of water (water is needed to thin the laksa. They should be light, so add water as needed)
• salt, sugar and lime juice to taste
• a packet of fried tofu puffs
• oil for stir frying
• vermicelli noodles, soaked in the cold water
• egg noodles (optional)
• bean sprouts to serve
• spring onions to serve
• fried shallots to serve

Cooking time (duration): 45

Culinary tradition: Malaysian, Singaporean

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You!!!

A little information about Kwetiau Goreng for those of you who have no clue about them. Kwetiau Goreng is also known as Cha Kwetiau or Fried Rice Noodles. It is a common dish in most Asian household, especially Indonesian, Malaysian and Singaporean. You definitely could find it in Asian food court and hawker stalls.

Ingredients

• 500 gr rice noodle
• 3 cloves of garlic, sliced
• 2 cloves of shallot, sliced
• 3 small chillies or according to your preferences
• 1 tomato, cut into wedges
• prawns or chicken or beef or pork (I used beef balls)
• 3 eggs
• 3 tbsp of sweet soy sauce or as needed (When added to the noodles, stop when the noodle is brown enough)
• 1 tbsp of fish sauce
• salt and white pepper
• 1 tbsp of tomato sauce
• oil for stir frying
• bean sprout ans slices of spring onions to serve

I tried making Hainanese Chicken Rice so many times. They always turned out like bloody in the center, despite the fact that I always boiled them longer than the recommended time. I steamed them like an hour and they were still blood in between the flesh and bone. So we ended up having Fried Hainanese Chicken Rice instead. I almost give up making this dish, which is supposed to be a simple dish.

This is my latest attempt on making Hainanese Chicken Rice. They turned out OK, not as great as I expected them to be. I still could found some blood in the middle, but after steaming, they were fine. Now, I wonder whether the main factor of failing is the kind of chicken used. I used free range chicken for this recipe, last time I used ordinary chicken. If you would like the recipe, click here.

Culinary tradition: Chinese, Singaporean

Please leave your comment/suggestion if you find this recipe useful. Can’t wait to hear from you and Thank You!!!