This recipe, from Fire Islands: Recipes from Indonesia by Eleanor Ford, hails from Lombok and definitely lives up to being “everything you could hope for in grilled chicken”. Despite a few substitutions, the marinade, which also becomes the sauce, had flavour and heat from garlic and many chillies; sourness from lemon; fragrance from curry and lime leaf; depth of flavour from shrimp paste, oyster sauce and soy sauce and a great texture from coconut milk and almonds.
You need a flattened chicken for this recipe. Lay the chicken on it’s breast, cut down either side of the backbone and remove it. Flip the chicken over again and press it flat. Rub it with a little oil, season it with salt and allow it to come to room temperature.
Meanwhile, to make the sauce heat some oil in a frypan and add 5 large red chillies (cut in half lengthwise and seeded), 2 birdseye chillies, 2 whole dried chillies, a few slices of galangal (or ginger if you don’t have galangal), 1 teaspoon of shrimp paste, 10 whole cloves of garlic and 10 blanched almonds. Cook until the garlic begins to brown then remove everything to a blender, add a pinch of salt and some water (up to 1 cup) and process to a smooth consistency. Return to the pan with 2 kaffir lime leaves and 10 curry leaves and cook until the sauce thickens. Turn the heat down and add 2 tablespoons each of oyster sauce, soy sauce and coconut milk. Simmer for a few minutes more then remove from the heat. Place ¾ of the sauce in a serving bowl, adding the juice of half a lemon. To the pan add some more oil to make a marinade for the chicken. Paint the marinade on the chicken and cook on a barbecue, turning and basting, until the juices run clear when you insert a knife into the thickest part of the chicken or when the internal temperature reaches 74ºC (165ºF). Allow the chicken to rest before serving with the extra sauce.
As a side dish I served Asinan, an Indonesian raw vegetable salad which hails from Jakarta and is related to the popular Thai salad Som Tam. Like its counterpart it’s sometimes made with fresh green papaya but I made my version with what was in my fridge. The recipe is from the cookbook South East Asian Food by Rosemary Brissenden.
Finely shred carrots, cucumber and cabbage and refrigerate them to keep them crisp. Meanwhile, for the dressing heat 1 tablespoon of sugar with 2 tablespoons of water until the sugar is dissolved and then allow it to cool. Soak 1½ tablespoons of dried shrimp in hot water for a minute. Drain the shrimp and together with 2 small sliced red chillies pound or blend them to a rough paste. Add the sugar water, 2 tablespoons of white vinegar, salt to taste and enough water to make a good consistency. Toss the dressing through the salad. Just before serving add 3 tablespoons of roughly chopped roasted peanuts.
michelle picker cooks 