Monday, March 12, 2012

Ayam Kecap


The beauty about growing up in Singapore, having a Chinese Malaysian father, and a Chinese-Indian Malaysian husband (yes, I followed my mother's footsteps in marrying a malaysian!) is that I get expose to other kinds of food other than traditional Cantonese. Ayam stands for chicken, and Kecap means dark sweet soy sauce. It's a marriage between chinese and malay cuisine really.

At first I thought it is a curry dish. But really, it's more of a spiced stew, probably borderlining being a curry. It requires time to simmer which as you know is abit of a luxury for me these days but once I got into it, I really enjoyed the process.

The colour of the dish comes from the dark soy sauce. It has a generous chill hit and lovely texture to it. Yum!

Ayam Kecap (serves 4)
500 grams chicken thighs -or you can use drumsticks/chicken pieces
3 onions chopped
4 big red chill chopped
3 cloves garlic

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg or ground nutmeg
6 whole cloves
1 tsp tamarind pulp soaked in around 3 tbsp warm water
2-3 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
pinch of salt

In a food processor, blitz chopped onions, garlic and chili. Heat paste in a pan. When warm and cooked, add chopped chicken thighs and cook till brown. Then add nutmeg and cloves. If it is a little dry, add some of the tamarind juice. Simmer for 3-4 minutes and add the rest of the tamarind juice with the soy sauce. If still dry, add some water (I didn't see the need to do that). Taste, adjust seasoning and simmer chicken for another 20 minutes or so.



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8 comments:

  1. This dish is awesome with lots of Asian flavours. My family will love eating this.

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  2. waooooo this is one of those things which are really hard to be eaten without rice T_T

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  3. One of my favourites!! I remember the spicy hit, and the sauce is so so good.

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  4. Looks so good and pair so well with rice! Very appetizing!

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  5. this is totally new to me but I totally LOVE IT!

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  6. Whether it is curry or spiced stew, I like the Peranankan flavors of this dish.

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  7. you make it look so easy to cook this. I love this kind of food with LOTS OF RICE hehehe

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  8. sound simple and looks great! i enjoy this kind of dish very much! oh, i dint know your hubby is a chindian, he looks quite fair to me :D

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