Lamb and dhal curry

This dish is normally cooked with mutton but I use lamb instead because it cooks faster and is less tough. Unfortunately, today I overcooked the dhal which is why the curry looks mushy.

Ingredients for the lamb curry

800 gm lamb leg

1 potato (to help thicken the curry)

4 tsp chilli boh

Trim off the fat and cut the lamb into bite size pieces

Take the chili paste out of the bag whilst it is still frozen otherwise the paste will stick to the bag.

Add 2 tbsp of meat curry powder to the defrosted chili paste

Mix thoroughly

Heat some oil in the pan

Put in the chili paste and stir until it is fragrant.

If needed add a little water to prevent the chili being burnt

Put in the lamb pieces and mix thoroughly

Add enough water to partially cover the lamb

Cover and simmer on low heat until lamb is almost tender

Wash and cut the potatoes into fairly small pieces

Add the potatoes into the curry

Cover again and simmer on low heat until the potatoes are cooked

Ingredients for the dhal curry

1 1/2 cup Malawi dhal

There is no need to pre-soak this dhal and it cooks in about 20 – 30 minutes

1 tbsp chilli powder

2 sprigs curry leaves

1 star anise

1 piece cinnamon bark

6 cloves

2 cardamom seeds

1 tsp mustard seeds

Asafoetida is a sulphurous, onion-smelling spice used in Indian cooking to minimise gas and indigestion problems associated with eating lentils and pulses. It has a sulphur smell which dissipates in cooking and just leaves an onion and garlic like flavour. It is mainly used with turmeric in Indian vegetarian dishes. Asafoetida comes from the sap of a plant similar to a giant fennel. The sap dries into a hard resin and it is sold in lumps or powder form.

Wash and boil the Malawi dhal with the chilli powder

Heat up 1 tbsp oil and quickly fry the mustard seeds

Put in the other aromatics and fry until fragrant

Put all the fried ingredients into the dhal curry

Add a pinch of the asafoetida powder and salt to taste

Cover and simmer on low fire until the dhal is cooked

When both curries are cooked add them together

Mix the 2 curries thoroughly

You can either serve it in the pot or transfer to a serving dish 

Chilli stuffed cencaru (hardtail scad)

Cencaru has very hard and tough skin which will keep the meat moist during cooking. Just before eating use a fork to peel the skin which should come off quite easily. When I was living overseas I used to yearn for this dish but it is impossible to get cencaru as it is not available outside South East Asia

Ingredients

2 hard tailed mackerel, torpedo scad

Fresh red chilies

Dried red chilies

Shallots

Garlic

A small knob of tamarind paste

The amt depends on how many fishes you are cooking

To prepare the chilli paste

Cut and boil the dried red chilies to soften it

Cut all the other ingredients into smaller pieces

Add 50 ml water and all the ingredients into the blender

Blend until smooth

Put a little water into a small knob of tamarind paste and mix well

Heat up a little oil and put in the chilli paste and tamarind water

Stir fry the paste on low fire until it is almost dry

Remove the paste and keep in the fridge to let it set

This will make it easier to stuff the fish later

To prepare the fish

Make two short slits along the dorsal side of the fish to form a “pocket”

Using the tip of the knife, make the “pocket” wider and deeper inside

Dry the fish so that it will not splatter when fried

When the fish is sufficiently dried start preparing it

Spoon some of the cooked sambal into the slit

Put in as much of the sambal as possible fill the “pockets”

Put in some of the sambal into the fish stomach

Here it is all ready to be fried

I had to remove the head otherwise it will not fit into my frying pan

In the past I always make the slits the whole length of the fish and ended up losing half the sambal in the oil

Heat the wok for 1 minute

Put in enough oil to shallow fry the fish

Heat the oil until smoking hot

Put in the fish and fry until lightly charred

Turn the fish over to fry the other side

Transfer to a serving platter and serve immediately

Chicken and cloud ear kerabu

Kerabu is basically a Malay salad which consists mainly of herbs, vegetables and anything that the cook wants to use. This is my favourite kerabu which I have not seen in any restaurants (do correct me if I am wrong).

Ingredients

1 skinless chicken breast

50 gm cloud ears (mok yee)

20 mint leaves

3 stalks serai (lemon grass)

1 stalk bunga kantan (ginger flower)

4 pcs limau purut leaves

15 shallots

Sambal belachan

Since I discovered a stall that sells sambal belachan similar to the one that I made, I have stopped pounding it at home.

Method 

Soak the cloud ears until soft

Put in boiling water for about 2 minutes

Drain and let it cool

Cut the chicken into smaller pieces so that it can cook evenly

Put the chicken in a pot of boiling water and cook on low heat for 5 minutes

Drain and let it cool

Shred the chicken into thin strips

Thinly slice the cloud ears (mok yee)

Thinly slice all the herbs

Put all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl

Add:

4 tsp sambal belachan

3 tsp sugar

Salt to taste

Juice of 2 limes

Mix thoroughly and it is ready

You can serve it immediately or keep it for later use

Transfer to an air tight container and keep in the fridge

You can add some pounded peanuts if desired

I personally prefer it without the peanuts

Sprinkle some peanuts on the kerabu just before serving