Portuguese Chicken Rice

Today Mr. K felt like having Portuguese Chicken Rice (葡國雞, Galinh a Portuguesa), its a mild coconut curry served baked with cheese and dessicated coconut. If you can, please go to Macau to try the real deal :)

As for us, who had the sudden craving, we had Portuguese Chicken Rice for the first time. The recipe is actually not as complex as I thought. I combined the recipe from my Dad and used paprika and tumeric on the chicken (see Sunflower's Blog). Before, the chicken was good but lacked a bit of texture. Coating the chicken in the flour mixture before frying gave it a bit more flavour and character. You would eat the chicken and the curry rather than just having the curry with chicken inside.

Ingredients

• 7 Garlic Cloves
• Ginger
• 900g Chicken Pieces (cut into bite sized)
• 1.5 tablespoon tumeric, 2-3 tablespoon paprika, 5 tablespoon flour
• Cacciatore or chorizo cut into small bits
• 1 Leek or 2 Onion (or both)
• 1 Celery stalk
• 1 can of chicken stock
• 1/2 tablespoon sugar, 1/2 tablespoon salt, 2 tablespoon curry powder
• 2 tablespoon butter
• Coconut Milk (400 mL)
• 2 Potato (If frying, keep half unfried to add into curry in the beginning)
• 2 Carrot (If frying, keep half unfried to add into curry in the beginning)
• Whipped Cream (300 mL)

Preparation

1. Marinate chicken with salt and pepper for 30 minutes.
2. Mix tumeric, paprika and flour in a plate and coat chicken with it
3. Fry chicken for a short while. This is just to sear the chicken.
4. (Optional) Fry potato and carrot if preferred to add into curry later

Method

1. Heat pan and add garlic and ginger until fragrant
2. Add cacciatore or chorizo
3. Add leek and onions. Cook til almost soften
4. Add potato, carrot, celery and chicken stock
5. Add curry powder, salt and sugar. Can vary the quantities to your liking.
6. The liquid should cover all the contents (2 parts water and 1 part 'stuff), add water if not enough
7. Add butter for flavour
8. Cook on medium heat to reduce for about 10 minutes
9. Add chicken and coconut milk and cook for another 10 minutes on medium heat
10. Add remaining vegies (already pre-fried ones)
11. Use cornstarch (3 tablespoons cornstarch, 1 tablespoon of water) to thicken if required
12. High heat and bring curry to boil
13. Stir in cream at this stage if you prefer a richer, creamier curry
14. Don't need to boil again, just take it off the stove and serve

The curry turned out a bit too sweet as I added too much sugar at the start. As the curry cooled down it became sweeter than before. The sugar quantities I have listed contain about half of the sugar that I used on my first try so hopefully this will bring about better flavours.

The Last Hazelnut Roll

January 2nd, 2010 was a memorable day. The last Hazelnut roll has been eaten. We were lucky enough to have bought a box (the last box) from a friend who's dad owns a deli, now they're all gone and the last one has been consumed. I couldn't keep it any longer because the ice was starting to frost the inside of the icecream. Nonetheless, it has been my favourite icecream of all time.

For those that haven't heard of them or want to relive the taste of them. Remember the soft melty chocolate coating on the outside. A light vanilla icecream in the inside surrounding a hazelnut flavoured icecream which sort of tastes a bit like nutella but not as sweet. 

Remember those chocolate bits falling off all over the place. I remember when I was a kid, my mouth wasn't big enough to bit the whole roll bit by bit. So it was so hard with all the chocolate bits falling everywhere, so I developed a technique to eat it. Now I still do it and did so for the last time. I would wrap the wrapper around the hazelnut roll so that the foil would catch any fray chocolate bits. Gross as it may sound, any bits that fall on the foil will be subjected to my licking after I finish. Ah, not one wasted bit.

Why did you discontinue them!! Nestle!!