Thursday, August 20, 2009

Steamed Chicken Curry Noodles

I've been thinking of chicken curry noodles for a week now but because the weather was so hot lately, I tried to hold back from having too much spicy food. Then, it rained a little in the morning yesterday and today and that cooled down the weather slightly. And there goes my temporary abstinence from spicy food.

Anyway, there is this stall near where I live that sells really good chicken curry noodles. The steamed chicken is succulently good and the curry gravy, thick and spicy enough. The only slight downfall is that it's a tad bit too oily, but nevertheless, DE-LI-CIOUS! Each time I visit the stall to feed my craving, I tell myself that I must try and make it one day at home. And that was exactly what I did for dinner just hours earlier. The stall has its secret recipe well-guarded and so, I created my own. I reckon the several main ingredients for a good curry gravy are pretty much easy to guess, so here's my recipe to share. Based on feedback from my food critic by the name of Dear Hub, looks like this recipe is quite a winner although there's still room for slight ingredient adjustments here and there.

Chicken Curry Noodle

This recipe serves 2 persons.

What you'll need:
- Quarter of a chicken with its skin intact
- White fish cake
- Yellow noodles enough for two persons
- A handful of bean sprouts (taugeh)
- Curry gravy, see my recipe below

Steam the chicken for 15-20 mins and then chop it. Don't waste by discarding the chicken stock, instead add it into the curry gravy later. Steam the fish cake for 3-5 mins and then slice it. Blanch the yellow noodles and bean sprouts in hot boiling water for 1-2 minutes. Discard the water.

Place noodles in bowls. Top with some bean sprouts, slices of fish cake and steamed chicken. Generously pour hot boiling curry gravy over it and serve hot with a small lime squeezed into it.

For cooking the curry gravy:
- 60g shallots
- 40g garlic
- 1/2 inch galangal
- 1 stalk lemongrass
- 2 fresh chillies
- 1 tbsp dried prawns (soaked in hot water for 5 mins)
- 3-4 tbsp curry powder
- 1 tbsp chilli powder
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 3 stalks curry leaves
- 1/2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 potato, quartered
- 1/2 cup cooking oil
- 1/2 cup thick coconut milk
- 1.3 litre chicken bone stock
- 2 pieces fried beancurd skin with fish paste filling inside (tau pok)

Blend the shallots, garlic, galangal, lemongrass, fresh chillies and dried prawns to form a paste. Mix in the curry powder, chilli powder, turmeric powder and curry leaves into the paste. Heat oil and saute the paste till it becomes drier and fragrant. Then, add in the stock and potatoes and let it simmer. When the potatoes are soft, add in the coconut milk and the fish paste fried beancurd skin or tau pok, sugar and salt. Let it simmer for a minute or two and turn off the heat. Ta da! Your boiling hot curry gravy is now ready to be poured into your bowls of noodles. Bon Appetit!

15 comments:

  1. This bowl of goodness! To be honest, it's true that curry noodles is a luxurious bowl of tastes! Even my other half (he is French) thinks it's a winner of Msian food!

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  2. The curry gravy sounds delicious! I'd love to try this.

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  3. Oh, I absolutely love your curry! I could go for a big bowl of this :)

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  4. i love curry noodle, it is in my "to cook" list! :-p

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  5. this is awesome, just makes me wanting to have on now for breakfast! :)

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  6. This curry looks so yummy! thanks for sharing your recipe :)

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  7. wow!! your curry laksa look really good! at first glance I thought it's singapore curry laksa..love SCL!!

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  8. This looks exactly like what we have at the hawker center~~Yummy!

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  9. Thank you *Everyone* for your comments :D. I appreciate it a lot.

    p/s *mycookinghut*, lucky you to have a French partner who likes our local food :D, else you gotta cook French everyday. hard to imagine life without spicy Asian food after being so used to it. hehe.

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  10. uhm! chicken curry!!! (mouth watering!). I gotta cook one for myself either! :D In VN, we love surry too, we have chiken curry with coconut milk, and sweet potato. :D

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  11. I'm about to smell it! My son loves curry noodle and I'll make this once in a while.

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  12. I ought to try your curry gravy .. we love curry in our family!

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  13. *cookingpractice*, we cook it with coconut milk too but mostly using potato. sweet potato will be really nice too :D.

    *little space*, my nephew also loves curry noodles. hope you'll be making some soon too :D.

    *a world in a pan*, i agree that curry is so delicious and hard not to like :D

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  14. Hi Nyonya, TQ for visiting my blog and tq for the recipe, i named this kind of recipe as gulai ayam in Indonesia, so tasty and delicious

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