Herbs Gardening and Chicken Otak-Otak

What's new?

Well nothing much... Work... Falling sick.... Feeling good... Falling sick again... Repeat... Though I've been around the island... Got "guests" coming in from all over the place...

Anyway... I developed this passion for herbs gardening. Behold!!! A herbs garden about 96 feet above the ground...

Some of the herbs that I have growing in my herbs garden... Pictured here (from left to right) Turmeric, Curry Leaf, Spring Onion, Potato, Birds Eye Chilli and "Daun Selom".

And to celebrate my herbs garden, and because I'm too lazy to go out and "tapau" something to eat, I raided my fridge and found a chicken breast that a bought a few days back..

Then with a pair of scissors, I snipped some lemongrass, basil, turmeric and birds eye chili and put together this surprisingly tasty dish! Otak-Otak Ayam (Chicken Otak-Otak)

This is a siamese dish... My mom usually make this with fish or fish roe or sometimes- a kind of small yet tasty and chewy mushroom... We call them Kulat Sisir or in Kedah slang that'll be Kulat Sisiaq (see-see-yuck) hahaha...

Here's something to try in the kitchen...

Chicken Otak-Otak (makes 4 small portions)

You will need-

1 Chicken Breast
2 Lemongrass
1 Red Chili
1-3 Birds Eye Chili
1" Turmeric
1" Shrimp Paste (belacan)

Thai Basil
Kaffir Leaf (Daun Limau Purut)
Daun Kaduk

1 Large egg

Banana Leaves (for wrapping- I used turmeric leaves... What to do? I'm a McGyver in the kitchen!)

The method-

1. Chop and pound chicken breast until fine.

2. Pound turmeric, lemongrass, shrimp paste, chili, birds eye chili and turmeric.

3. Mix chicken, pounded ingredients and stir in the egg.

4. Finely chop basil, kaffir leaf and daun kaduk.

5. Improvise a squarish or cones from banana leaf, put some basil at the bottom and spoon in the mixture.

6. Sprinkle finely cut ingredients.

7. Steam for 10 minutes.

The mixture (pre-spooning and steaming)

Fresh from the steamer-pot! This caused my house to smell like a siamese restaurant! I like!

In the process of enjoying Otak-Otak!

Life is good...