Sunday 3 November 2013

Roti Jala with Chicken Curry

Roti Jala with Chicken Curry

It's been awhile since my last entry. There's no excuse for it, just laziness and the fact that I'm without a maid now. Work has been piling up on me. My youngest daughter has gone and come back. She's looking for a job. My second girl has had her dream wedding. It was a fairy tale wedding the likes of which the old folks in Kg Tunku had not seen. Of course they griped about the place being far but you can't have everything in this world. Now Fara, who will be joining her husband in L.A ( that's Los Angeles not Lubuk Antu) wants me to enter more Malarecipes. Ok, here goes. One of the family's favourite is the roti jala. This is a simple recipe except that  the roti or crepe needs a bit of practicing with the wrist. There is a special tool to drip the roti onto the pan, but it's alright if you just do it crepe-like. The taste will be the same . It's only the presentation.


Roti Jala

500gm of plain flour
5 1/2 cups of water
2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of turmeric


Method

1.  Mix all ingredients in a blender and blend until fine.
2.Sieve the batter. Try scooping it up using the roti jala tool. If it's too watery and drip too fast, add a bit of flour but if its too thick and drip slowly, put in a little bit of water
3. Rest the batter for 10 mins.
4. Pour a tblsp of oil in a saucer, get a piece of kitchen towel. This will be used to clean the pan  so that it will not stick. If you are using a non-stick pan, better. Use the oil sparingly.
5. Start scooping the batter and move the scoop slowly making small circles until the pan is covered. Leave room at the sides for you to scrape up the cooked roti jala.
6. Serve the roti with chicken curry.


Chicken Curry

1 kg chicken, cut into small pieces and remove the skin
2 potatoes, skinned and cut into quarters
1 medium carrot, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 tomatoes, quartered
2 cups of coconut milk ( santan)
2 tbsp of meat curry powder

5 shallots or if not available a medium size onion
2 garlic
a tiny piece of ginger
if available a sprig of curry leaf and 1 lemon grass ( crushed)
2 tbsp of oil
salt to taste

Method

1. Blend the onions,garlic, ginger. Add in the curry powder to form a paste.
2.Heat the oil and fry the curry leaves and lemon grass until fragrant.
3. Add in the curry paste on low heat and sautee until fragrant.
4. Put in the chicken and potatoes, on medium heat until the water comes out of the chicken. Then add in the coconut milk.
5. After 10 mins on low heat, and when the curry is softly bubbling, add in the carrots and the tomatoes. Salt to taste. The curry will be cooked when the potatoes and chicken are done. I like to simmer the broth until the chicken is really cooked. For potatoes that are soft, put them in when you put the carrots in. Here I used the Holland potatoes, so they are a bit hard and take sometime to soften.