ID this Malaysian curry dish, please.
Takae
Posts: 13,555 Forum Member
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My cousin wants to recreate a dish we had as kids (during late 1970s and early 1980s). The problem is, every attempt she made from chicken curry recipes online and cookery books didn't match the one we had. Wrong look, wrong taste, etc.
As her neighbour, who made this dish frequently, was originally from Malaysia, we checked every possible recipe in Malaysian/Malay cookbooks. No luck. We're hoping you could help with identifying this dish.
This is what we could remember about the dish:
- chicken legs with skins on
- chopped potatoes
- sliced/chopped mushrooms with black skins (similar to shiitake mushrooms)
- possibly, garlic -- my cousin insists there was a taste of garlic, but I don't remember.
- possibly, onion - I remember the taste, but my cousin doesn't remember.
- yellow-ish/brown-ish oily sauce
- the consistency of liquid/sauce is similar to the one in Irish beef stew
- steamed white rice
- we'd occasionally find and remove an inedible green leaf from the curry on our plate. It resembles a bay leaf, but my cousin thinks it's a curry leaf.
Not that spicy. Just slightly tangy. No coconut milk. None whatsoever.
The neighbour often--not always--served a big bowl of white deep-fried crackers, a saucer of two small grilled fishes in dark-brown oily sauce (possibly a mixture of soy sauce and fish sauce), and small plates of stir-fried vegetables as side dishes. He occasionally replaced chicken legs with something like mutton or pork belly pieces.
I don't know if it's relevant, but still: the neighbour was ethnically Chinese, but born and raised in a coastal town near Melaka in Malaysia. He came here during the 1940s to work as a pilot mechanic for the RAF during WWII. He stayed in London after the war, but went back to Malaysia during the mid-1980s to take over his family home after his eldest brother passed away.
A lot of people thought it might be Panang chicken curry or the chicken version of Beef Rendang. After trying those dishes, we know those aren't the one we remembered. Wrong look, wrong texture and wrong taste.
Thanks for any suggestions and help you might have to offer.
As her neighbour, who made this dish frequently, was originally from Malaysia, we checked every possible recipe in Malaysian/Malay cookbooks. No luck. We're hoping you could help with identifying this dish.
This is what we could remember about the dish:
- chicken legs with skins on
- chopped potatoes
- sliced/chopped mushrooms with black skins (similar to shiitake mushrooms)
- possibly, garlic -- my cousin insists there was a taste of garlic, but I don't remember.
- possibly, onion - I remember the taste, but my cousin doesn't remember.
- yellow-ish/brown-ish oily sauce
- the consistency of liquid/sauce is similar to the one in Irish beef stew
- steamed white rice
- we'd occasionally find and remove an inedible green leaf from the curry on our plate. It resembles a bay leaf, but my cousin thinks it's a curry leaf.
Not that spicy. Just slightly tangy. No coconut milk. None whatsoever.
The neighbour often--not always--served a big bowl of white deep-fried crackers, a saucer of two small grilled fishes in dark-brown oily sauce (possibly a mixture of soy sauce and fish sauce), and small plates of stir-fried vegetables as side dishes. He occasionally replaced chicken legs with something like mutton or pork belly pieces.
I don't know if it's relevant, but still: the neighbour was ethnically Chinese, but born and raised in a coastal town near Melaka in Malaysia. He came here during the 1940s to work as a pilot mechanic for the RAF during WWII. He stayed in London after the war, but went back to Malaysia during the mid-1980s to take over his family home after his eldest brother passed away.
A lot of people thought it might be Panang chicken curry or the chicken version of Beef Rendang. After trying those dishes, we know those aren't the one we remembered. Wrong look, wrong texture and wrong taste.
Thanks for any suggestions and help you might have to offer.
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Comments
Apart from your cousins neighbour.
Everyone including the best chefs have their own take on what goes in a curry.
No 2 curries I make @ home taste the same even if made with the same ingredients.
http://happyhomemaker88.com/tag/chicken-potato-curry/
http://juliansi.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/curry-chicken-jules-kitchen-with-help.html
True, but he said it was a traditional dish back home, which is why I'm asking here. All we want is the basic recipe of that dish.
The first one features coconut milk. However, thanks to your links, we think we found the one we were looking for: Ayam Pongteh, a traditional Nynonya dish.
http://www.mywisewife.com/home-kitchen-recipe-ayam-pongteh-nyonya-soybean-paste-chicken-stew-with-potatomushroom.html
http://singaporehomecooks.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/ayam-pongteh-nyonya-chicken-and-potato.html
http://fatboo.com/2012/03/ayam-pongteh-nyonya-stewed-chicken.html
http://phonghongbakes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/pongteh.html
Those recipes have all ingredients we remembered, but fermented soybean paste and palm sugar are the ones we didn't remember. I think the absence of those two are the reason why our attempts didn't work.
We'll give this dish a try and see, but I think we may have the winner. Fingers crossed, eh. Thank you!