Gulai Ayam or Chicken Curry from Indonesia

Gulai Ayam or Chicken Curry is become one traditional dishes that used to consume for special occasion days like Lebaran or to celebrate a special day. Most of Indonesian love this kind of dishes and now many people serve it as everyday food. Not just for special occasion.

And not just native Indonesian, many Indonesian Chinese that have already stayed or even born in Indonesia used to have Gulai Ayam for special day like Cap Go Meh (to celebrate the 15th day of Lunar New Year), Indonesian Chinese used to serve it with Lontong or rice cake. The Indonesian Gulai Ayam or Indonesian Chicken Curry maybe different from Indian's Chicken Curry. But I think the spicy  taste is almost the same.

We used many coconut milk here :) well, I think it is not so good for the waist line. So, I think this dishes is better to consume just for special day, for the sake of our waist.

Ingredients :

2 kg of chicken (boiled and given 1 teaspoon salt + 1 teaspoon sugar)
3 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon curry seasoning
2 kaffir lime leaves
2 bay leaves
2 Turmeric leaves tied
1/2 liter of thick coconut milk (1/2 kg coconut plus 1/2 liter of water)
11/2 liter of thin coconut milk
150 cc oil

Blend :
35 grams Onion
30 grams garlic
15 grams turmeric
25 grams kemiri nuts or candle nuts
30 grams ginger
75 grams red chilies
2 teaspoons pepper
2 stalks lemongrass
60 grams galangal
1 tablespoon sugar

Direction:

1. Heat the oil, then saute the spice blend with curry spices, bay leaves, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, turmeric leaves and swirled.
2. Add the chicken that has been boiled, stirring constantly.
3. Then enter the thin coconut milk, simmer over low heat and cover the pan.
4. Finally enter the thick coconut milk with sugar and salt and bring to a boil again.

Kaffir Lime leaves
Kaffir Lime tree is an Indonesian native lime tree. The Latin name is Citrus hystrix, C. papedia. We usually used the kaffir lime fruit and the leaves. The leaves are highly aromatic and and suitable for various Asian cuisines, including Thai, Indonesian, Cambodian and Lao cuisines. They are easily recognizable by their emerald-green, doubled sections, which makes them appear as if two leaves are joined together. I really love the smell.

But if it's hard to find these kind of leaves, you may substitute it with a bit of grated lime zest and a dash of lime or lemon juice, it taste almost the same.

Coconut Milk

Is a kind of milk that is derived from the coconut's flesh. You have to finely grated the coconut's flesh and soak it in warm or mineral water. After that, you have to squeez it through a clean cloth, and you will get the white liquid, that's the coconut milk.

You may learn how to make coconut milk here : About coconut milk

Kemiri Nuts

Kemiri is often used to make a thick sauce. You may subtitute kemiri nuts with macadamia nuts. You may find this kind of nuts in Asian market.