Restaurant Style Easy Breezy Chicken Biriyani

This is a long long pending post, was alasly waiting for me to complete, it clicked me when I saw that my ongoing event, "One Pot Meal" is about to finish in 3 days and I told myself, finish it today or never and it perfectly fits the theme as well.
This Fried rice was once a week lunch for me when I was living in Singapore, as I was very much love with this fried rice. I fell in love with the name of the rice more than its look first time I tried it in one of the food stalls in Singapore. After that, whenever I got a crave for this, I made at home with readymade Laksa paste, available in all supermarkets there.

For those new to Laksa, it is a traditional Singaporean and Malaysian dish which is served with combinations of a strict few condiments: boiled prawns, fish cake, tofu puffs, bean sprouts, and hard boiled chicken, duck or quail eggs. Some vendors like to vary the toppings by adding shredded chicken or crayfish to the mix. Either way, real Laksa deviates not much further from this set of toppings. This rice is made of Laksa spice paste and coconut milk. Its is quite spicy, yellowish in color, quite different in taste than any regular Asian Fried rice. The cooking method of this fried rice is very similar to our Indian Cooking. To bring out the best taste of this dish, you have to fry the spice paste in oil until oil leaves the spice paste, just like we fry our masalas in curries, which is known as "Tumis" in malay, that refers to the act of frying a spice paste till it is properly caramelised. Traditionally, after the spice paste is cooked, it is ladled over a bowl of noodles or rice and top with condiments such as bean sprouts, hard boiled eggs, cooked shrimp and chicken. Garnish generously with Vietnamese mint/laksa leaf, a must-have ingredient in Laksa.
Visit the recipe source to know the exact technique of cooking Laksa.
I made this rice following the packet instruction that time, but if you want to prepare this rice from scratch, here is the recipe................Recipe and info Source : Eat Brisbane

You Need :
Cooked Long grain rice(cook rice until just done)
Cooked Vegetable of your choice(carrot, corn, beans etc.)
Cooked Shrimps : 12-15
Spring Onions to garnish(optional)
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste

Ingredients for laksa spice paste :

3 lemongrass stalks, lower 2 inches only, sliced
1 cm galangal peeled and sliced
3 candlenuts (or macadamia nuts), chopped
12 dried chillis, reconstitued in warm water
6 shallots, sliced
2 tbsp dried shrimp, reconstitued in warm water
1 tbsp tumeric powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
1 tsp shrimp paste (that smelly stuff from Asian grocers)
water as much needed to blend
vegetable oil as needed to blend

 

 How To :

• Blending the spice paste : Place all ingredients into a blender with a little oil and water to facilitate blending. Blend till smooth. Add more oil and water as needed to keep the mixture blending.
• Now add little oil to a pan, add blended spice paste. Keep stirring till oil seperates from the solids of the spice paste. You know the paste is ready when the yellowish spice color chnage to dark orange and oil seperates from the spice paste. Add little more water and coconut milk in the paste now to further cook the paste. 
• Simmer for 5 minutes, add cooked vegetables and shrimps, add cooked rice. Season with salt and sugar.
• Finally garnish with spring onions or Vietnamese mint/Laksa leaf if available. 

Note : Most of the ingredients are available in Chinese/Asian grocery stores.   

Some other "One Pot Meal" Ideas from my blog :
 Asian Style Fried Rice with Brown Rice

 

Restaurant Style Easy Breezy Chicken Biriyani

 

Mexican Kidney Beans Rice  

  Nabaratna Shahi Khichdi

 

 

 

 

 Soya Chilli Rice  

 

 

 

 

Baked Pasta with Vegetables

 

For more such ideas, visit my Recipe Index, categorised in different section

Linking all these to my ongoing event, "One Pot Meal"