Opor Ayam Kuning (Javanese Chicken Curry)
Opor Ayam Kuning is one of my comfort food at it best. Super flavorful chicken curry, a mix of coconut milk and spices infused into a divine creamy soup. Many said that cooking a curry dish requires a plethora of spices and laborious work and they are not totally exaggerating. I will not say cooking Opor Ayam is hard, but it does requires a lot of cooking time.
Opor Ayam is a must-have dish on Ied Fitr in Indonesia. Its one of the Ied Fitr signature dish. I absolutely have no idea what made the tradition to have Opor on Ied Fitr, but as far as I remember, every family I know have Opor as one of their menu on the said day.
There are two kind of Opor Ayam; Opor Ayam Kuning (Yellow Curry) and Opor Ayam Putih (White Curry). The different between the two lays on the spices. Opor Ayam Kuning has a bit more of the spices and it tastes slightly richer than the Opor Ayam Putih. Today I am cooking the Opor Ayam Kuning. As you will see on my recipe, it is not that complicated and the spices needed are not far off from Indian curry. I paste all my ingredients using electronic processor, I add oil instead of water to avoid excessive liquid and I can sauté the paste right away.
Ingredients:
10 chicken legs
5 Kaffir lime leaves
2 Salam leaves
2 lemongrass stalk, bruised
2 cm of fresh galangal
2 1/2 tsp salt to taste
1/4 tsp white pepper powder
1/2 tsp sugar
1 liter of coconut milk (I used to cans and add a bit of water)
3 tbsp oil
Ingredients to paste:
5 shallots
4 garlic
5 candlenuts
2 cm of fresh ginger
1/4 tsp caraway
1 tsp corriander powder
1/2 tsp curcuma powder
Cooking steps:
- Using an electronic food processor, add 3 tbsp oil, shallots, garlic, candlenuts, ginger, caraway, corriander powder, and curcuma powder. Turn all the ingredients into a smooth paste,
- Sautee the paste ingredients along with kaffir lime leaves, salam leaces, lemongrass stalks, and galangal until fragrant (and the color turns into bright yellow),
- Add the chicken in and continue cooking until the chicken changes color,
- Add salt, white pepper powder, and sugar, stir well,
- Add coconut milk and continue cooking on low heat until the chicken tender, the longer the better,
- Real Opor is cooked for minimum two hours until the sauce thickens, there will be a layer of oil separated from the soup as you can see on the image above, it means the Opor is ready,
- Serve with a bowl of rice and sprinkle fried shallot on top.
Happy cooking!
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