Chicken Rendang

• 50g desiccated coconut

• 10-15 dried long red chillies, de-seeded & soaked

• 3 stalks lemongrass

• 25g galangal

• 25g ginger

• 10g fresh turmeric

• 5 Thai shallots

• 1 red onion

• 4 cloves garlic

• 200ml vegetable oil

• 1 cinnamon stick

• 2 star anise

• 4 kaffir lime leaves

• 600g chicken legs

• 300g coconut milk

• 1 turmeric leaf, sliced (optional)

• 25g palm sugar

• 1tbsp tamarind paste

• salt to taste

• Steamed rice to serve

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Firstly, toast desiccated coconut over medium heat in a pan to make kerisik. Once it turnsbrown, remove the coconut from the pan. Then, pound it using a pestle and mortar until it releases oil.

Next, blend chillies, galangal, garlic, shallots, turmeric,ginger, red onion and lemongrass stalksin a food processor or mortar. Put oil into a pan and set the heat to medium. Put the cinnamonstick and star anise, and blend of ingredients into the pan and fry for 5-10min until the paste is fragrant and oil starts to separate from the paste.

Next, add the kaffir lime leaves and chicken meat into the pan. Stir-fry using medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes.

Add some water, salt, tamarind paste and palm sugar to enhance the taste of the dish. Cook for about 5 minutes until the gravy becomes thick. Add coconut milk and the kerisik (toasted grated coconut) into the pan and simmer until chicken is cooked and gravy has thickened.

Add sliced turmeric leaf to make the dish taste better. Then, mix it and serve the chicken rendang with rice.