The best thing…

…in life is free or in the exact words of the age-old English saying, the best things in life are free and I got this…

…free from my cousin in Melbourne. Nope, she did not send this all the way from Australia. Actually, she was visiting her in-laws and was in Singapore and Johore and she got it from there and sent it over. All this while, we would use the A1 Mountain Globe brand despite people telling me that other brands are good too…and since I had this at hand, I decided to give it a try the other day.

First, I fried the finely-chopped Bombay onion and shallots in just a little bit of oil…

…till golden brown. I think many would use a lot more but in my case, I felt that just a little bit would suffice as there would be oil in the paste as well and some more from the chicken so if I had used a lot, it would be too oily…like some of those curries you see at the stalls and shops – swimming in the oil.

Next, I threw in the serai (lemon grass), bruised – two stalks of it as my potted ones are kind of skinny…and a sprig of curry leaves, removed from the stalk…

The curry paste should go in next but I did not want that as it would send the oil spluttering all over my cooker top. My missus thinks that I am such a fussy and cranky old man because when I’m cooking in the kitchen, while cooking, I would wash and put away the things I have used and make sure the surfaces are spotless. That was why I put in the chicken first – do make sure the meat is dry, not dripping wet, before the paste went in…

I mixed everything together and fried for a while before covering the wok with its lid and let the meat cook and the juices flow out.

After that, I added water, enough to submerge all the meat and brought it back to boil before putting in the potatoes…

I waited till it had resumed boiling and both the meat and potatoes were cooked enough before adding another sprig of curry leaves (also removed from the stalk) and a can of evaporated milk…

Yes, you read correctly – I said evaporated milk all right. I was at a relative’s Raya open house and I really loved the curry – it was thick and very rich and quite different from the usual so I asked and I was told that they used evaporated milk instead of santan (coconut milk). Besides, in our hot and humid tropical weather, the santan in the curry would cause it to go bad easily so I would think evaporated milk would be a better, less worrisome option for us here.

Just bring that back to boil once again and after letting it simmer for a while, it was ready to be served…

There! What do you think of it?

It tasted great – very nice though I still think the A1 Mountain Globe has a slight edge over it but I would consider using it in the event of the other one being not available.

For our vegetable dish to go with this, I fried a plate of cangkuk manis…

…again! My missus bought two ikats (bundles) that day when we saw it at the kampung stall at Bandong, you see. She said it was so cheap as in the town at the market, it would be double that price. However, this time around, I added a handful of ikan bilis – so that would bring the taste to a whole new level. There are so many ways to cook this vegetable and one way would be as good as any other.

So, what have you been cooking lately? Anything to share?