For the uninitiated, “ayam” means chicken in Malay. Easy enough. And “lodeh“…hmmm….how do I even translate that? I’m scratching my head thinking about it, and, really, really, what in the world is this word “lodeh“?

Honestly, I haven’t got a clue but I can tell you that this lodeh is one hell of a dish. It is usually associated with Javanese cuisine, a gravy, curry like vegetable dish in coconut milk soup;  one that is very popular in Indonesia and amongst the Malay community in Asia. Except that it is usually made with an assortment of vegetables and commonly referred to as “Sayur Lodeh“. Sayur literally means vegetables in Malay.

This time, I thought I’d muck around with it by using meat instead of vegetables just to see how it would turn out. I figured it would not be so bad, because the gravy itself is quite flavourful. The traditional recipe usually has shrimp/shrimp paste in it, and is the one ingredient which I did not use. Otherwise, everything else goes and this goes well with practically anything. The use of galangal makes all the difference in taste for this dish, and therefore is a crucial ingredient.

Ayam Lodeh

2015-09-17 02:11:48

Chicken in spicy coconut soup

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Prep Time

30 min

Cook Time

45 min

Total Time

1 hr 15 min

Prep Time

30 min

Cook Time

45 min

Total Time

1 hr 15 min

Ingredients

1. 6 red fresh chillies, sliced
2. 1 inch turmeric root
3. 2-3 cloves garlic
4. 5 shallots, sliced
5. 1 teaspoon coriander powder
6. 1 (pref. beef) stock cube
7. 500 ml very thin coconut milk
8. 1 slice galangal root, bruised
9. 1 bay leaf
10. ½ teaspoon brown sugar
11. 10 pieces chicken breasts
12. 1 tbsp tumeric powder
13. Pinch of salt
14. Olive oil for frying
15. Salt to taste

Instructions

1. Rinse the chicken breasts. Rub the tumeric powder all over the chicken and mix them together with a pinch of salt.
2. Lightly fry the tumeric-salted chicken in hot oil until they get a little browned. Set aside and drain off excess oil on a paper towel.
3. Blend chillies, tumeric,garlic, shallots and coriander powder. Set aside.
4. Heat oil and fry the blended ingredients until browned and fragrant.
5. Add in the stock cube. Then the coconut milk, galangal and bay leaf.
6. Stir and bring to boil.
7. Add in the chickens that were fried earlier.
8. Add sugar and salt to taste.Return to boil. Add water if you want a thinner soup.
9. Turn off heat.
10. Serve hot with rice.

Notes

1. Save time by blending the ingredients together when you are frying the chicken. Alternatively, you can choose not to use tumeric powder on the chicken and fry them (less flavourful), but just add the raw chicken right after frying in the blended ingredients.

Grubbs n Critters https://grubbsncritters.com/

My original Sayur Lodeh recipe can be found here. It is all vegetable goodness! And if you happen to be a vegetarian, just don’t use the animal stock and you are good to go.

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Something weird and kinda crazy happened while both Silver Bullet and me were doing our late evening groceries at the supermarket today. We both found it to be so weird that I can’t quite even begin to explain as to why or what transpired that to happen. Let me try to explain…

So. We had to do a quick run to the mall right after we put the kids to bed because Spud needs to be wearing white sports shoes for P.E. Nothing but WHITE, and apparently she has been called out and scolded by her teacher (six times!) for wearing brown sports shoes instead of the mandatory white. We have been a bit of a rebel where this shoes thing is concerned because, not only does she outgrow her shoes pretty quickly, she also needs to be wearing a pair of black shoes on non-PE days. And mind you, shoes for kids are not cheap! Why does it matter if it’s a pair of white sports shoes or a grey sports shoes. They are, after all, sports bloody shoes! Does the job for running about on P.E days, no? How many different coloured pair of shoes does a child need?

Anyway, she got scolded enough and I kind of felt bad about having to subject her to unnecessary scoldings because her parents are bloody rebels. We caved and decided to do a quick emergency shoe shopping before heading to the supermarket for some essentials.

At the supermarket, we took the basket for a smaller trolley instead of the normal supermarket trolley since we didn’t need much. Silver Bullet then hung the paper bag with the shoes in it on the smaller trolley and we carted that around while we picked our groceries. We had filled it with small items like coriander leaves, vegetables and a bunch of fresh peppermint.

At one point, we left the trolley on the side of the aisle to grab some other stuff. But when we tried to locate our trolley, we couldn’t find it. Just like that, our trolley basket was gone. And, it was no longer than 30 seconds since we left it! Where could the damn thing be?

As we looked at the side of the aisle, we found that some of our items, along with the paper bag of shoes, had been transferred to the normal supermarket trolley and was left at the side where we had NOT left our original trolley basket. In it, there were several other items which we did not recognise as ours, including a big envelope of something with Thai writings on it.

I have no idea what was inside, and I didn’t check. The fact was, except for some small items we picked out and the shoes that we bought, the rest weren’t ours!

WTF!  Our small trolley basket disappeared out of thin air, and apparently, someone out there had taken the liberty to change our trolley and perhaps claim those items as theirs. It cannot possibly be a mistake – this was done on purpose! We were faced with a an invisible trolley troll!

As we looked around and tried to make sense of things, looking like complete misplaced idiots, there was this one woman lingering around with a small trolley basket and filling it up so quickly with things she grabbed on the side. She seemed a little “caught-out”; but her basket was full, so it may not be her.

Still. Her behaviour was weird and she kept eyeing us. But, if it was her, why would she do that and transfer everything in our trolley into a different trolley? Why would any sane person do that? It’s not like the supermarket had ran out of trolleys. They had plenty and all anyone has to do is walk 10 meters to get it.

What did we miss? Even unpaid groceries aren’t safe!

Was someone trying to claim the paper bag we hung on that trolley and then trying to disguise it as theirs  because the presence of a white envelope on a different trolley would be marked as theirs? And, if we were then to claim the bag of ours, would we then be denied of our ownership to the bag because the bag was in another person’s trolley? It would not be uncommon for such things to happen, really.

STILL?! Crazy, huh! What is wrong with these people?  

While we managed to retrieve back what were ours (including the shoes), I can’t quite wrap my head around the little incident. It was perplexing. This must have been the weirdest grocery shopping experience we have had in Bangkok to date. 

Beware of the trolley trolls, my friends. Beware. You have been warned.