Oven Baked Turmeric Chicken Leg

I digged out some turmeric from the garden last Sunday and used them to marinade the chicken legs . I truly enjoy gardening especially on a Sunday before the sun comes out.  I was happy with the harvest. The leaves are used for cooking rendang and the roots are used for marinating fish or meat or for making curry.  Turmeric has a peppery warm and bitter flavor and has a mild fragrance slightly reminiscent of orange and ginger. It is best known as one of the ingredients used to make curry and it also gives ballpark  mustard its bright yellow color.  It has a long list of health benefits too.  I understand that turmeric and onion may help prevent colon cancer...so today recipe has turmeric and onion in it :)  Oven baked Turmeric Chicken Leg is easy to prepare and healthy too :p

Oven Baked Turmeric Chicken Leg -  from WB's Kitchen

Ingredients :-

2 Chicken Legs - with skin intact, wash , clean and dry with paper towel

Pound together 
4 fresh turmeric - sliced
1 tsp of black pepper
4 shallots - sliced

1 tsp of sea salt or to taste

Method:

Pound turmeric , black pepper and shallots together till you get a paste that is netiher too fine nor too coarse.  Add salt to the paste and rub onto the chicken leg and leave to marinade for an hour or more.

Preheat oven 10 minutes @200 C degrees.  Place the marinated chicken leg on rack over a baking tray lined with aluminium foil and placed on the middle rack in the oven and baked for 35-40 minutes till evenly browned and cooked.  Take out and let cook. The skin should be crispy.

Enjoy!

home grown turmeric :)

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Curry Kapitan

It has been a long time since I cooked something nice for WB.  He loves his mother's Curry Kapitan, a nonya chicken curry dish. Nonya cuisine is a unique example of a successful fusion cuisine created by the Chinese people moved to Malaysia and adapted their cooking with the local spices. Curry Kapitan is named for Kapitan China, the title that the Portugese gave to the head of the Chinese clans in Melaka in the 15th century.  I was first introduced to this dish by my mother-in-law.  I used to have lunch at her place during the weekend when WB and myself were courting :p and I fell in love with WB  this dish at first taste.  It took me 20 years married to WB to master this dish to perfection.  With WB constantly comparing his mom's dish and mine, of course I finally managed to get as close to his mother's signature Curry Kapitan but landed me with pain for days on my operated arm :(  I carried the heavy old fashioned mortar and pestle ! forgetting my operated arm for a minute.  I have a blender but I preferred the spices to be pounded rather than machined. I prefer pounding the spices the old fashioned method even though it gives me pain after the pounding LOL!   Today , the pain is lessen but it was worth the pain.  No pain no gain ! :p  WB gave me 99.5 points !!!!  Dancing on trotters despite the pain :p

Curry Kapitan - adapted from WB's Kitchen

Ingredients:

4 chicken legs or 1000 gms of any other parts  - into 3 pieces each leg
5 kaffir lime leaves
200 ml thick coconut milk
salt to taste
1 lime juice
3 tbsp of vegetable oil

Spices for pounding

2 stalks of lemon grass - sliced
15 shallots
5 cloves of garlic
15 pieces of fresh red chillies or 4 tbsp of chilli boh ( chilli paste)
1 thumb size piece of fresh turmeric
1 thumb size piece of galangal
4 or 5 candlenuts ( buah keras )
1/2 inch square belacan ( shrimp paste )

Method:

Pound all the spices till fine ( you can blend them if you like ).

Fry the spice mix and kaffir leaves till fragrant and oil surfaced .  Add in the chicken pieces until chicken is browned and almost cooked.  Add in the coconut milk and bring to boil and the chicken is tender and cooked.  Add in the lime juice and salt to taste.

Enjoy !