After almost a month of staying at home, the craving for curry finally prompted me to made one for myself. Initially I thought about using one of those pre-mix curry paste, but what’s the fun in that, right?
So here’s how you make curry chicken from scratch, a process that’s not exactly difficult, though it can be slightly more tedious than the usual simple recipes you see on this blog.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 chicken, small, chopped to chunks
- 3 stalks lemongrass
- 4 red onions
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 inch ginger
- curry leaf
- 1 box coconut milk
- chili paste (or you can blend fresh chili + dried chili too)
- 3-4 potato, parboiled (boil for around 10 mins, then remove skin)
Cooking Instructions:
- lemongrass, ginger, onion, garlic, chopped n blend
- fry with oil till fragrant, add cili paste
- add chicken to fry for a few mins
- add santan and simmer for half hour
- add parboiled potato for 5 mins
- decorate with mint.. Optional of course
To be perfectly honest, I was quite pleased with the result. The curry was thick, flavorful, and went really well with steamed rice. Try it yourself!
From this blog, I sometimes get invitation to events hosts by or for certain celebrity chefs and TV personalities, these are usually official or semi official events that are very structured and .. distant, something that I don’t usually enjoy that much.
Well, there’s those, and there’s the session with the Fabulous Baker Brothers who has a show starting October 16, 7:30p m on TLC (Astro Channel 707). Encores every Thursday at 10:30 a.m. and Saturday at 10:30 p.m.
Restaurant Limablas at Jalan Mesui Off Jalan Nagasari
Our initial destination of choice was Jalan Alor, but due to the uncooperative weather condition we moved the session to Limablas, and what a great adjustment that was.
Limablas, located right next to “No Black Tie” at Jalan Mesui, is a quaint little Peranakan Restaurant (Baba & Nyonya) run by Uncle John. The ambiance is that of an old Peranakan settlement, from the row of glass bottles filled with ingredients, to furniture, to the antique cash register.
Tom and Henry Herbert of the Fabulous Baker Brothers
While parking at Jalan Mesui usually isn’t most ideal, you can always leave your car at the paid parking at One Residence just a stone’s throw away.
Together with Tom & Henry Herbert, the baker and the butcher & chef who make up the Fabulous Baker Brothers, the group was about 20 strong, including PR, important people from Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific, and writers/bloggers.
Our session was scheduled at 7 pm, and by 7:05 pm, everyone arrived. I cannot over stressed how happy I was in everyone’s commitment in respecting each other’s time. Being timeliness is often a lost art in many Malaysian.
nyonya tauhu telur, paitee, rojak
Our dishes on the day were recommended by Uncle John, and it was (I guess) basically almost everything on the menu.
We started out with a few appetizers in Nyonya tauhu telur, rojak, and paitee. These dishes were a little bit sweet, slightly spicy, and positively full flavored. I particularly like the paitee with its crunchy pastry and juicy stuffings, that piece of small prawns on top is a nice touch as well.
ayam pongteh, nyonya curry chicken, kangkung goreng sambal belacan, ayam sioh
Since this is a pork free establishment, there were plenty of chicken dishes.
Ayam pongteh, Nyonya curry chicken, and ayam sioh were the three we tried. They were all distinctively different in taste.
Ayam pongteh is the Peranakan’s version of stewed chicken, a comfort food. Nyonya curry chicken has the same familiar taste I’m familiar with, and I so desperately want some nasi kunyit to go with this. Ayam sioh, or chicken in coriander and bean paste, is a stronger flavored counterpart that goes really well with steamed rice.
The kangkung goreng sambal belacan at Limablas is another well executed dish, carries a kick that this classic dish should.
cincaluk omelette, sambal udang petai, sambal terung, sambal ikan
Cincaluk omelette is a classic Nyonya dish that anyone should try, the cincaluk (fermented krill) gives it a slightly salty seafood taste that is a little similar to fuyu (fermented tofu). I find it very exquisite.
Sambal udang petai was awesome, but my favorite dish of the night had to go to the sambal terung – it was a perfect blend of sweet and spicy.
Our last main dish of the night was the sambal ikan (with tilapia). Another spicy dish that turned out to be rather decent, but in my opinion, doesn’t live up to the other dishes at Limablas. After all, it is just tilapia.
ais kacang & sago gula melaka, we had a feast
Desserts came in the forms of ais kacang, cendul, and sago gula melaka. They proved to be as good as those I’ve tried by the side of Melaccan roads, and it was a shame we had to share them.
Before the end of the meal, Cheng Yi of fatboybakes fed the two brothers some home made durian cheesecake while the rest of us (Nigel, Umei, Josen, Meena etc) watched on, they didn’t manage to finish the slices, but I give them credit for trying tho.
we had loads of fun, the two guys are really friendly and down to earth
The two brothers were ultra friendly and very down to earth, we had an awesome session sharing lots of stories over some really impressive food at Limablas. A few glasses of wine certainly helped too, I wish we’ll have more of these kinda meet ups.
Address:
Limablas
15 Jalan Mesui,
Off Jalan Nagasari,
50200 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.148872, 101.708399
Tel: 03-2110 1289
Hours: break from 3pm to 530 pm Mon – Sat
