Thursday 28 April 2016

Mad Cooking 5 : Hoisin Sauce + Rempah Gulai?


Fusion food has been around for ages. Marry ingredients from two or three different cuisines and you get something new. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't, it's mad cooking.



Since ingredients like curry leaves are used in kam heong dishes and work so well, I was game for some experiment. All this started with my usual weekend activity - digging treasures from the fridge.



I found a bottle of Hoisin sauce, contents half full (or half empty if you are the pessimistic sort). Then behind the fridge I found our famous Terengganu rempah gulai cap Bunga Ros (Rose brand spices). My mum bought those for me upon my request. How long ago, I forget. 



Then a voice in my head told me to mix the rempah gulai with Hoisin Sauce to make a marinade. I crushed some garlic and ginger, mixed them with some tomato ketchup, light soya sauce, oyster sauce and some oil. 

Actually now I'm not too sure what I put, I'm just guessing. Then in went the Hoisin sauce and rempah gulai. Mix, mix, mix. It actually smelt quite nice.

Then I added  plump chicken legs and mixed to coat and left them to marinate for 2 hours at room temperature. The chicken legs were still cold since I just bought them from Aeon.



When the chicken legs were no longer cold to the touch, I roasted them in the oven at 180C for 45 minutes, skin side down first. After 25 minutes, I flipped them over. I basted the chicken with the excess marinade and roasting juices every now and then. 

These looked very messy. I didn't bother to plate the roasted legs because I was pretty sure it was not blog-worthy. I mean, it probably will taste funny and mad cooking does not require styling.



But hey, this thing turned out pretty good. It smelt good, it tasted good and I enjoyed every bite. Weird as it seems, I may have a potential recipe here.

I just need to figure out the ingredients properly and document it before I put up a proper recipe. In the meantime, I'll just leave you with this ugly but surprisingly delicious mess.


40 comments:

  1. Roast chicken! Anything works on roast chicken, trust me.. Hoisin sauce or oyster sauce with butter pun boleh, serious..I don't have hoisin sauce at home, just oyster sauce.. Now when I think about it, I use oyster sauce in almost everything I cook, haha, well, except soup la..

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    1. Oyster sauce on roast chicken??? Walau eh.... must try it.

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    2. Yup, TM.. Can one, trust me.. Phong Hong also tried before.. Oyster sauce+tomato sauce+herbs+butter, boleh punya!

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    3. Louiz, I agree with you 100%. Roast chicken anyhow we marinade, sure turns out well everytime.

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  2. When I saw the first pic, I was skeptical with the title "mad cooking"! How can something that looked so good not taste right, I wondered. The ingredients in your rempah gulai are probably those used in ayam berempah, so it had to be good while the hoisin sauce brings some salty and sweet flavours. Luckily, in the end, I read that it turned out pretty good. So, your 'mad cooking' actually turned out to be 'mad eating'! :D And for 'mad eating', the last pic of a rustic plating will do. ;)

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    1. hah..hah...it turned out well, surprisingly. Or else it would have ended up in the bin.

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  3. Your roast chicken looks great and delicious. I would prefer to roast more till dark, burnt sikit with crispy skin. Heavens!

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    1. Me too love burnt skin. It's supposed to be bad for health but since we don't eat it everyday, it should be OK.

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  4. With the sauces mentioned and the ingredients above, I can imagine how the roasted legs smell like.. must be very heong teem *fragrant sweet* and can just eat them right from the oven! Yummmss!

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    1. It was good, Surprisingly good hah..hah...

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  5. Plate what? It will be messy when eating anyway, so it is perfectly fine to be messy when presenting! :D

    We should always be adventurous when it comes to cooking, if not everyone makes the same honey roasted chicken, life would be so boring. I'd take hoisin rempah chicken anytime! :D

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    1. heh..heh...You are very encouraging :)

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  6. OK. Now I'm inspired to follow this. ;)

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    1. Follow at your own risk hee..hee...

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  7. now a brand new recipe is born..I like the adventurous way of finding new recipes.

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  8. Rempah and hoisin sauce? Sounds good ... spiciness and sweet! Looking forward to your recipe Phong Hong.

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  9. I have taken my lunch, but see the roasted chicken, drooling liao, hehe...

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  10. Hi Phong Hong, not mad cooking, cin cai cooked food at home can be very tasty too cos' it is the tastes we like.

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    1. Kimmy, that what my grandma said once. She said at home, we simply stir pun it turns out delicious :)

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  11. Rempah gulai looks like the packets of rempah masak hitam that day when I went round the shops looking for the instant paste. Never seen that before, first time - I wonder if it is the same as this gulai one and can be used in the same way. Didn't ask. Your roasted chicken looks so good!

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    1. This rempah gulai is available only in Terengganu. It's quite aromatic, Malay style and used in Terengganu Malay cooking. I have yet to explore curries using this rempah.

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  12. Hi Phong Hong,
    Guess that's how fusion food comes about marrying different cuisines and taste good. These roasted chicken surely look yummy!

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    1. Karen, this one is very promising :)

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  13. Phong Hong, I like this mad cooking. It is not ugly, its a pretty sight because that's how it should look - super yummy!

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  14. Since it works and tastes good, then by your own definition of mad cooking (When it doesn't, it's mad cooking) then this wouldn't fall under mad cooking. This is creative tasty cooking!

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  15. With chicken almost everything matches:)

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  16. Love this post! So much optimism here. Forgive my Malay, but what is rempah gulai?

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    1. Rempah gulai is Malay curry spice mix :)

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  17. Haha, that is what I do on the weekends as well :) Love all your chicken recipes!

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  18. Must not waste those gravy on the foil, hehehe!

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