Grilled Turmeric Chicken (Ayam Panggang Kunyit) & Sambal Kecap (Chilli & Sweet Soy Condiment)

I know exactly what you wanna say...
- I can't believe she grilled a bird again!
- Can she do anything else other than grilled bird?
- If I saw another grilled bird on this blog, I'm gonna...(fill in the blank)
- Another bird? That's it. I'm gonna unfollow, unsubscribe, unfriend, and everything else starting with "un" her.

Hehe.

I know, I know, I know!
But I just can't help it.
I like easy and tasty, and these grilled birds are.

This time, I tried grilling chicken using Jamie's duck grilling method. Obviously, because it is easier than my old method, which involves marinating, covering, uncovering, lowering and cranking up heat etc. All those steps got eliminated and I wonder if it would still end up as good.

Ingredients
- 1 (relatively small) chicken
- 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 6 cloves of shallot or half an onion, thinly sliced
- 1 cm ginger, sliced thinly
- turmeric powder, ground corriander seeds, cumin, salt, pepper

Preheat oven to 180C. Rinse chicken, pat dry, I removed neck, feet, tail, tip of wings and excess fat. Stuff some garlic, ginger slices and shallot in the chicken's cavity and or in between skin and flesh. Rub chicken all over with salt, pepper, ground corriander seeds, cumin and turmeric powder. Generously. Remember the cavity and in between the skin and flesh. Place chicken on baking dish and grill (uncovered) for 1 hour, flip and grill for another hour (total two hours).

Crispy, golden delicious skin, tender, juicy and tasty flesh.

I mentioned that the best way to consume this sorta chicken is with Indonesian sambal, right?
This time I made sambal kecap.

Back home, we'd use mortar and pestle to make the paste. Alternatively, we could use a blender or food processor to do it. But since the thought of having to wash a food processor, the vessel, the blade, the cover, etc scared me beyond belief, I decided to chop all of the ingredients. Whew!

Ingredients
- 20 red chilli (I removed most of the core and seeds, leaving only about 5 with seeds and OMG! the sambal stil ended up so bloody hot)
- 2 small cloves of garlic, minced
- 4 cloves of shallot, thinly sliced
- juice of half a lime
- 1 tsp salt, fish sauce, kecap manis, olive oil

Heat up a bit of olive oil, saute chilli, garlic and shallot (you'll need a super strong exhaust fan. If you're making this for a party, it is better to do it before your guests arrived, I've experienced suffocating my guests with chilli fume before) until fragrant, add salt, fish sauce, and kecap manis. Transfer to a bowl and drizzle lime juice over it.

Grilled chicken + sambal + hot steamy rice (eaten with bare hands) = undescribable.

I wish I could promise that this would be the last grilled chicken I post....but you know I can't :p

Spicy Tomato Chilli Paste - Sambal Tomat Sedep

There is a misconception about how Hongkongers inability to handle heat.
I wasn't talking about the balmy 30something degree weather, nor the heat radiating from Megan Fox' luscious lips. I meant chilli heat. Hot! Spicy, spicy.

Is it really a misconception? Do most Hongkongers eat spicy food? I felt that way, as most of my local friends are able to nonchalantly chew on raw chillies and slather their food with chilli sauce/chilli oil, even when I was already panting, sweating, crying, pleading for more iced water. There's one thing I noticed though. They would drown their wontons/noodles/meat in chilli sauce, but they hardly use any chilli condiment with rice.

Hah! This is where I see my niche. Being Indonesian, I love chilli condiments with my rice, especially Indonesian ones. The condiments do not need to go with any entree, it can be considered the star of the meal. I could probably finish a bucket of rice with a serving of tasty chilli sauce, and I definitely plan to influence the heck outta my friends. They'd better be eating rice with chilli by the time I am done with them.

What type of chilli goodness would be suitable for this dominatrix mission? One of the candidates is...

Spicy Tomato Chilli Paste - Sambal Tomat Sedep

Recipe
- 1 head of garlic, peeled
- 8 cloves of shallot, peeled
- 10 small red chillies (remove seeds if you want it mild, or use large chillies)
- 2 tomatoes, cut into 8 sections each
- 1 candle nut
- 2 tsp ground corriander seeds
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp sugar
- a dash of white pepper
- a dash of fish sauce
- olive oil

Throw everything into a food processor, pulse until you end up with chunky pieces (I pulsed mine too much). If you are not using a food processor, finely chop garlic, thinly slice shallot, chop chillies and chop tomatoes into chunky pieces. Heat a bit of oil in a pan, saute the mixture until the liquid evaporates and it formed a paste, taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Since it is a condiment, the flavors should be strong enough, it is ok to be a little on the salty side.

The plan for domination didn't go well, I shall try another time (never give up!).
Meanwhile, maybe I should also start to influence my friends to try another Indonesian habit, eating carb with another carb (rice with noodles, noodles with congee, rice with potatoes, etc)...*multitasking fever*