Chicken in Buttered Curry

Today I went lunch with some church people. I'm so thankful to God that I didn't leave right away. If I did, maybe I'll continue to be silent all day on Sundays. I went to the Asian market and splurged a little on my kitchen larder. I'm slowly building back my whole full range of spices and sauces I'm used to in Singapore. It's like a kung fu master being stripped of his powers by some weird acupuncture and now slowly getting back his mastery.

So I went down to the hardware store to restock my gas canisters. I also treated myself to a hand held blender. It'll come in very useful later.

Came home, and knocked out. I slept so late yesterday, went out to have too many beers to sleep right away. I feel guilty for all that alcohol in my system... I wasn't even buzzed, what a waste of stomach space. I woke up and there was nothing at all to do. I wasn't hungry so I thought I'd cook my lunch for tomorrow and keep it in the fridge.

I was thinking of the butter curry that Charisse's mom or maid cooks every time there was a gathering. There were two versions, butter curry, and the other was the condensed milk version. I wanted to do the condensed milk version, but I bought the sweetened version by mistake, so I had to rectify. So I married the two dishes and came out with this one. From my memory of tastes, it slightly Peranakan. Here's what I did.

>1 whole chicken (Loblaws had specials, $5 for a whole chicken.) Cleaned, Cut into pieces, with bones. (I like to keep the kampong (rustic) feel of the dish.)

>Oil. To deep fry. Yes, I deep fried in my small space.

>Salt and white pepper.

Dry the cut pieces of chicken and season with salt and pepper before deep frying, season lightly.

Achieve a golden brown colour. My oil was at around 350F. You can see the oil moving, just as soon the first appearance of steam appears, put the protein in and turn down the flame very slightly. Strain and reserve on paper.

The sauce.

>30g-40g of dried shrimp, soaked.

>7 chilli padi. 7 is a mild spice for me, I think it's balanced with this quantity, but if you want spicier, go with 9 to 10 pieces.

>4 cloves of garlic.

Blend the above ingredients into a purée.

>3 tbspn. Sweetened condensed milk.

>Cold butter, cubed.

>Salt and pepper.

>Lime.

>Coriander.

In some oil, cook the purée until it's fragrant and the fumes doesn't make you choke so much. Use a non-stick pan or a well seasoned wok.

On high heat. Splash some water and put a tablespoon of the condensed milk into the pan and scrape any pan stickings, then stir in the rest of the condensed milk. Put the chicken in, toss together. Season.

Turn the fire down to low, below a simmer, add in the cold butter cubes gradually. Toss or mix the chicken. Keep adding until you have a gravy. I think I used 150g-200g of butter. Some where in between that amount. Keep mixing until you get a nice rich sauce. Don't add too much, you'll get butter leaking out from the sauce. Don't boil, the sauce will break and all the butter will separate from the sauce. Taste and rectify the seasoning.

The last part is optional. If you like the richness, leave it, serve. I prefer to tone it down and give it a little finishing fresh scent. So I squeezed a wedge of lime juice into the curry. Just a little.

I don't have coriander, so I used spring onions.

I'd plate this very differently. But I only have a bowl. It's very sad... I don't have the heart to spend on china though, I won't be here permanently anyway.

I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I do. It's going to be my lunch for the next 2 days.