First Anniversary blog buddy celebration.

12 monthly edition of good food.

Possibly more than 24 recipes between Gen over at Eat, Play, Clove and me.

All of which were accomplished and compiled as a regular Friday feature in the last 12 months and I don’t see either of us quitting anytime soon! 

Apparently I had inevitably made Gen hunt down for hard-to-find ingredients with this month’s challenge of  “country swapping” when she had to make a Singaporean dish. Ooops. Sorry, Gen! 

But I have to confess that while I know that some ingredients would be hard to find for her, I was also curious as to what Gen would use as a substitute if she had to. It is things like that which make cooking so much more interesting, don’t you think? Besides, I just know that Gen would love a challenge.  If she used any substitute ingredients in her Ayam Kapitan dish,  I don’t see them in her list of ingredients.

Gen has, like always, did very well with the use of exotic ingredients. She even grew some of the ingredients herself. How cool is that! Her choice of Ayam Kapitan – a rich, creamy and aromatic Malay-Chinese fusion dish. It’s a great choice of a Singaporean dish, usually served in a Peranakan restaurant given the fusion of culture we have.

Peranakan or Nyonya cuisine that comes from the Peranakans, descendants of early Chinese migrants who settled in Penang, Malacca, Singapore and Indonesia inter-marrying with local Malays and combines Chinese, Malay and other influences. Nonya cooking is the result of blending Chinese ingredients with various distinct spices and cooking techniques used by the Malay/Indonesian community. (Source: Wikipedia). 

Here’s what Gen has to say about it:

Back to my Singaporean dish – behold Ayam Kapitan. Yeah, I also had no clue. Turns out it’s a chicken curry, using interesting and exciting ingredients, some of which I wouldn’t usually use. Some of the ingredients I already had in my cupboard, others required a slight search. No worries, I enjoy a challenge. This dish uses some of my favouritist (that’s a word, ‘kay?) food – oh hi garlic, ginger, coconut cream, lemon grass (homegrown in my very own garden, no less) – basically I love every single ingredient. I’d never cooked with tamarind paste before, so that was an intriguing experience. I mean, I felt so *exotic*! Anyways folks, this dish is absolutely delectable. It perfectly fuses all of the ingredients to create a creamy, spicy (but not too hot), citrus-y beauty of a meal. By The Husband’s instruction (sometimes I allow him to think he has a say), I will be cooking this meal again. And again, and again, and then again.

Believe it or not, this is something which I have NOT made before. I mean, I know about this dish, I have eaten it many times over in restaurants but it has never occurred to me to make it. She puts the Singaporean in me to shame! :p

But that don’t matter. That’s why we have Monthly Mystery Munchies because we get new ideas to try out something new, forgotten or even something that we have not really thought of. For that, thank you, Gen,  for yet again being such a wonderful inspiration to home-cooked meals! This one is for you:

 

If you have not checked out Gen yet, make sure you pop over to her Ayam Kapitan recipe  and leave her some foodie love. She’s worth checking out. I should also mention that I love that creamy, yellowy marinade she put up on her blog. That marinade itself is almost a sure-fire sign of good food. Trust me on this one.