For my Basque Stage candidate post entry, I found my inspiration from walking through the local markets in Hong Kong.

Produce

From produce to protein, the markets here are significantly different than what I’m use to back in the US.

Lemongrass & Tom yum packages

Because Hong Kong is such a huge melting pot of cultures, there are even specialty shops that carry other ethnic-specific ingredients.

Fresh Turmeric, Galangal, ginger

And this is the shop that inspired the dish that I made.

Three-mix grain coconut sticky rice, chicken percik, charred cucumber yogurt with fried limes. 

Three-mix grain coconut sticky rice

1 cup Glutinous rice

1/3cup Jasmine rice

1/3 cup brown rice

1/3 cup red rice

1inch piece of peeled ginger

1 cup coconut milk

2 1/4 cup water

salt + sugar to taste

1. Wash and drain the rice

2.  Sautee the ginger with a little canola oil until aromatic, then add the rice and a pinch of salt + sugar. Sautee the rice until it is coated and a little translucent. 

3. Transfer to a pot with a lid. Bring it up to a simmer and simmer it on low for 10 minutes. Pull off the heat and leave the lid covered for an additional 10 minutes to finish steaming the rice.

OR transfer to a rice cooker and flip the switch to cook for a stress-free experience. =)

4. Once the rice cools, shape and sear on medium high heat for 2 minutes on both sides. 

Chicken Percik 

Chicken Percik is more properly known as Ayam Percik. It is a Malaysian-styled Barbecue dish where the chicken is cooked in a sauce, and finished on a barbeque/ grill.

1 Chicken thigh

salt

sugar

32 oz Coconut milk

1 inch fermented shrimp paste (Belacan)

2 Tb Chili paste

2 Tb Tamarind paste

Chicken Percik Sauce

7 shallots

1 inch ginger peeled 

2 inch fresh turmeric

1 inch galangal

2 1 inch lemongrass

1. Roughly chop the ingredients.

2.Crush with a mortar and pestle.

3. Mix tamarind paste with a little water to extract the juice. Discard seeds. 

4. Mix coconut milk, shrimp paste, tamarind juice, chili paste and the paste in the mortar and pestle. Bring to a boil and reduce by half. Season with salt and sugar.

5. Cook chicken in sauce at a low simmer until done. (15-20minutes).

6. Pull it out when done, then brush sauce and grill/broil for 10 minutes before serving.

Cucumber Yogurt

1/2 cucumber small dice

3 Tb yogurt

Lime zest

salt 

1. Mix ingredients together

Charred Cucumber

1. Slice cucumber into quarters then make oblique cuts

Fried Limes

1 lime thinly sliced

flour to dredge

salt

1. Dredge limes.

2. Deep fry till golden and add salt to taste.

Toasted coconut

Toast coconut in oven at 350F for 8 minutes. move every 2 minutes for an even toast.

Assemble.

The chicken turned out to be very moist through the slowly cooking it in the percik sauce. The sweetness from the coconut rice balanced out the heat along with the cucumber yogurt. And lastly the fried limes gave it a nice crunch and kick to refresh you palate every now and then =)

Enjoy!