Chicken Nasi Briyani

I was feeling a little lazy the other day and wanted to make something simple, yet nice to eat. I remember I had a few packets of Briyani Rice Mix left in my pantry, so I decided to make Chicken Nasi Briyani for dinner.

Nasi is the Malay word for rice and Briyani is derived from the Persian word "berya", which means fried or roasted. There are many different variants of Nasi Briyani across the globe but basically they all have the same basic ingredients - rice, spices and some sort of meat or vegetable. The one I am going to make today is the Malaysian version. It was made famous by the Indian Muslim merchants/travellers that arrived in Malaya back in the day. Here is the quick and simple way of making Nasi Briyani. Enjoy!

You start of by melting some butter in the rice cooker. Once its all melted, add in the Nasi Briyani Mix.

Mix it well with the butter and allow it to simmer.

You know it's ready when you can smell the fragrant smell of spices, just filling the kitchen. Then, add in some chicken meat. I used 3 pieces of chicken thigh, cut up into small pieces.

Stir fry the chicken for a bit then add in about 2 cups of rice.

Mix the rice up with the chicken, then add in some raisins. You can also add in some cashew nuts or peas if you like.

Once you have mixed up all the ingredients, add in about 2 and a half cups of water.

Mix all the ingredients up for one last time then cover the rice cooker. Set the rice cooker to "cook" and that's it! Just remember to stir the Nasi Briyani ever so often while cooking, to prevent the rice from burning and sticking to the bottom of the rice cooker.

Here is it! A steaming hot pot of Chicken Nasi Briyani! A yummy one dish meal thats just perfect for that chilly autumn evening :D

Malaysian Chicken Satay

Kevin and I (Kevin especially) love satay. Apart from Char Koay Teow, I can safely say that it's one of Kevin's all time favorite Malaysian hawker/street food. Back when we were still living in Malaysia, we used to order satay almost every time we go out to coffee shops or the mamak. We can get satay here too but it's really really expensive, compared to what we can get in Malaysia.

My parents sent us this packet of satay marinade seasoning mix along with all the other seasonings that they sent us a while back. So, I decided to try and make some chicken satay at home!

To make chicken satay, you have to start off by cutting skinless chicken tenders ( you can also use breast or dark meat, but tenders works the best) into tiny bite size pieces.

Then, sprinkle on the satay seasoning mix.

Next, add in some oil and mix it together with the chicken and marinade. Allow the chicken pieces to marinade for a couple of hours but I left it in the refrigerator to marinade overnight (the longer, the better).

Ketupat (some sort of Malay rice dumpling) is always served with satay. Originally, the ketupat is made by filling a woven palm leaves pouch with rice and boiled. Since I do not have excess to palm leaves or know how to wrap a ketupat, I bought the instant version. It taste just as good!

Just boil a big pot of water and add in some salt.

Then, drop in the pre packed rice packets.

Cover the pot and allow it to boil for about an hour or so.

Once it's cook, remove from the hot water and allow it to cool for at least 4 hours before cutting. To speed up the cooling process, you can put the ketupat in the refrigerator. It is really important that you allow the ketupat to cool fully before cutting. If not, you will be left with a sticky mess :P

Now it's time to skewer the chicken. It's really easy, just skewer the chicken pieces about half way into the skewers.

Here we go, a big plate of chicken satay, waiting to be grilled.

Ideally, satay should be grilled outdoors on a bed of nice hot coals. Since we live in an apartment, we had no choice but to just make do with our George Foreman grill :P You can brush on some oil just before you turn over the satay skewers.

Satay is always served with a side of peanut sauce. Well, certain places in Penang serve it with potato sauce and certain places in Malacca have their own belimbing sauce. However, satay is generally served with yummy and oily peanut sauce. I didn't make the peanut sauce from scratch. I just bought the instant chunky satay peanut sauce from the Asian grocery shop and reheated it. Tasted very authentic and good!

Once you are done grilling the satay, serve immediately. Here is the end product after assembling everything together :P Some nice juicy chicken satays with a side of ketupat, cucumbers (you can cut up some red onions too), peanut sauce and some toast (people from Penang sometimes like to dip toast in their peanut sauce, it's yummy!). I can safely say that it tasted very authentic, it even received a thumbs up from my satay loving husband :P No more spending senseless money on expensive satay appetizers in Malaysian restaurants from now on. I can't wait to make my next batch of satay! Maybe beef and pork satay this time? :D

Roti Jala with Chicken Curry

Roti Jala (loosely translated as 'net bread', however I think it's more crepe like instead of bread :P) is one of my all time favorite Malay delicacy. Usually eaten with chicken curry, it's a popular dish among the Malays (and other races alike) in Malaysia during the fasting month of Ramadan. You can find Roti Jala stalls at any of the Ramadan bazaars all over Malaysia during the fasting months. Since it was Hari Raya (to celebrate the end of the fasting month) two weekends ago, I decided to make some Roti Jala!

This is the mould/cup that is used to make Roti Jala. My parents just mailed that to me last month, so the timing was just perfect! Before, when I wanted to make Roti Jala, I would have to punch out holes in a soup can and use that as a mould. It can get really messy and sometimes it doesn't really work that well :P Sooo, I'm really glad that I have the mould now!! :D

It's fairly easy to make the Roti Jala batter. To start off, pour 2 cups of coconut milk into a large mixing bowl. Then, add in about 1 cup of water.

Crack in two eggs and beat lightly.

Next, add in 1/2 a teaspoon of salt.

Then, in goes about 1/2 a teaspoon of turmeric powder.

Whisk it all together and make sure that all the ingredients are mixed together well.

Using a fine sieve, sift about 2 cups of all purpose flour into the mixture.

Stir in the flour into the mixture gradually until a thin crepe like batter is achieved. At this point, you can add in some more water if the batter is too thick. If the batter is too thick, it will not be able to flow out smoothly from the mould later on.

Now it's time to make some Roti Jala! On medium heat, spray on some non stick cooking oil onto a pan. Pour in a ladle of batter into the mould and in a circular motion, form a net like pattern in the pan. Check out the video I made to demonstrate how it's done.

Remember to use a small flat bottom bowl to place the mould into once you are done. This should prevent the rest of the batter from flowing out from the mould. Of course some might flow out, so just pour it back into the mixing bowl...no big deal :D

Allow it to cook for a bit (it doesn't take long at all). Once it's done. fold it to half and then quarter it. Lift it to a plate and repeat the steps again until you are out of batter. Remember to grease your pan ever so often and if the batter begins to thicken, just add in some water so that it remains in a thin crepe batter like consistency.

Here it is. A large plate of Roti Jala with some Chicken Curry. You can get the recipe for the Chicken Curry here. It's so yummy, I can eat this everyday for the rest of my life and not get bored of it!! Mmmm mmm mmmmmm :D