Ayam Masak Merah (Chicken in Spicy Tomato Sauce)

I have wanted to cook this Ayam Masak Merah (Chicken In Spicy Tomato Sauce) for so long but only waited till now.  

You see, my house only have 2 sometimes 3 persons, so cooking for a small portion to me is quite difficult.  And when I wanted to cook it, either I am not well (bad cough) or the other family member is on Chinese medicine for a month and so have to wait, and then another had sore throat, blah , blah, blah, and wait till the timing is right for me to cook this.

I am not good in cooking spicy dishes,  and when I prepare the ingredients, blend to paste, fry, saute, add this, add that, and wondering in the end am I doing it right procedure.  But of course, no worries, in the end, the taste do seem real good and delicious!  How I wish the expertise to help to taste and comment for me...

Lisa. , actually I wanted to use fresh milk in this but do not know whether it feels right or not and in the end I still go ahead with the coconut milk ~ hee...hee....just trying to cut down my cholesterol level since doctor said it is high after my last check up.

So, herewith my post today is Ayam Masak Merah (Chicken In Spicy Tomato Sauce)

 

Ayam Masak Merah Recipe 
Recipe from Lisa of From My Lemony Kitchen
Serve 8-10
(I cooked half portion of this recipe)
 
Ingredients:
2 x 0.9-1kg chicken, cut into 8 pieces/chicken
20 dried chillies, soaked
2 red onion
5 cloves of garlic
40g ginger
25g galangal (lengkuas)
5 lemongrass
2-3 star anise
4 cloves
3 inch of cinnamon
3 cardamom
1 can of tomato soup
1 can (400ml) coconut milk
Salt to taste
Vegetable oil for deep frying plus ¼ cup extra
1 cup of peas, optional

Method:
Preparing Chicken. 
Rub chicken with turmeric and salt. Set aside for 30 minutes. Heat up the oil in a wok and deep fry the chicken pieces until golden in colour. Set aside.
Roughly chopped red onion, ginger, galangal and lemongrass, then transfer to a blender or food processors. Add in chillies and garlic. Process into a paste.

Heat up the wok with ½ cup of oil. Sauté the spices : Cinnamon, star anise, cloves and cardamom until fragrant. Then add in the blended paste. Bring the heat up until the paste bubble then lower the heat. Simmer till the paste is thoroughly cooked, fragrant and the oil separates from the paste (pecah minyak). 

Add in canned tomato soup, coconut milk and chicken pieces. Bring up the heat for a quick boil, then lower to a simmer and cook until the sauce thickened. Add peas and season with salt to taste. 

Garnish with some spring onion before serving.

 

So, was it good?  You bet, two thumbs up!!  Taste much more better eating with your hands!

Aah, another dish to go with extra rice.........