Spectacular Christmas Lunch of Golden Pillow : Malaysian Bread Stuffed with Curry Chicken

Malaysian Golden Pillow is a dish of cooked curry chicken stuffed and baked in a soft white bread. If you are keen to take the unbeaten path and wow your Christmas lunch guests this year, how about trying out this unconventional dish ? The presentation is going to impress  your guests and have them talking about it and will definitely be unique after having eaten10 roast turkeys, 13 glazed leg hams running up to Christmas Lunch.

Not entirely sure where the name Golden Pillow comes from but it's easy to associate the name with the look of the finished product. A big pillow size bread that resembles a pillow. The one in the photo was a show stopper just by its size. It was something like 40 x 50cm and weighs a ton. I made mine by using a recipe from a sweet dinner I have used a few times before( it was a joy to eat!) with my own curry chicken recipe (below).

Step 1: Sweet Dinner Rolls 

• 1/2 cup warm water 
• 1/2 cup warm milk
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup butter, softened

Directions

1. Place water, milk, egg, 1/3 cup butter, sugar, salt, flour and yeast in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough/Knead and First Rise Cycle; press Start.Depending on your bread machine, mine takes 3 hours until I get a my dough ready. While waiting to it to be ready, I have enough time to prepare the chicken curry.

Step 2. Malaysian Chicken Curry Recipe:

1-1.5kg boneless chicken thigh ( I used chicken drumsticks because I didn't mind the bones)

2-3 large potatoes, skinned and cubed.

Curry paste:

4cm frozen tumeric

4 large dried chillies; seeds removed and soaked in hot water  (add more if you prefer yours spicier)

2cm ginger

4 stalks of lemongrass

2 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp fenugreek seeds

1 tsp fennel seeds

4 shallots

2-3 kaffir lime leaves (optional)

Others:

1 sprig of curry leaves (optional)

1 can of 400ml coconut milk  ( I prefer Cock brand from Asian supermarkets, use more if you prefer it creamier)

1 cup chicken stock

2 tbsp curry powder to marinade chicken

Oil 

Salt

Pepper

1 oven bag

Aluminium foil

Note: If you don't have all the above spices or just want to cut short the process, you can buy a packet of meat curry powder from an asian supermarket. I am an ardent fan of Baba's Meat Curry Powder($3.50) and they can be found in almost every asian supermarket. I prefer making everything from scratch because it just tastes better but the curry powder is pretty good as well.

1. Marinade chicken with salt, pepper,curry powder and set aside.

2. Blend all the spices in your food processor. If you have a pestle and mortar, you can pound all these ingredients in it. I usually go for pestle and mortar if I have the time just because I enjoy the smell and texture of the paste you get in the end.

3. Heat oil in wok. Add in curry paste and let it 'sweat' in the hot oil.

4. Microwave the potatoes in a bowl covered with cling wrap for 6-7 minutes until potatoes are a little cooked but not starchy. I prefer to cook my potatoes separately because the starch doesn't dilute the curry.

5. Add in chicken meat and cook for about 5 minutes and add in coconut milk. Add in your semi cooked potato cubes and cover for up to 10 minutes in medium heat. If you are using drumsticks or whole thighs, make sure you cut them into smaller pieces to save cooking time.

6. Turn off heat and fill the curry chicken and gravy into 1 oven bag and tie it up and wrap with 2 layers of foil to prevent leakage in case the oven bag breaks.

7. Set it aside and roll out the dough on a dry surface.

8. Put the wrapped chicken curry on top of the dough and fold. 

9. If you want a darker finish on the bread, crack 1 egg yolk in a bowl with 1 tbsp of water and brush it over the dough.

10. Bake the bread for 20 minutes at 200c.

Fill curry chicken into oven bag. Use a bowl to keep it steady.

Tie the oven bag tight to avoid spillage.

Filling wrapped in oven bag then a layer of foil

Fold wrapped filling into the prepared dough and brush with egg yolk 

After baking for 20 minutes,the finished Golden Pillow !

Use a pair of scissors to cut the bread when you serve and then cut into the foil and finally the oven bag. The aroma of the curry will be oozing out of the bread and it's just as spectacular in flavour as it is in presentation. If you are unsure that curry chicken is for everyone i.e young children, make a second Golden Pillow and fill it with a chicken stir-fry with oyster sauce, chicken fricassee etc.

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Annabel Langbein's 5 Minutes Lemon Coconut Cake

My aunt recently gave me a copy of Annabel Langbein's latest cookbook  ' Free Range Cook in the City'.
It was a such a delightful gift because most of the ingredients can be sourced locally and are not complicated to follow. Mostly recipes are simple but produces great food that you can prepare with a few basic ingredients that does not take too much cooking skills to prepare. I never enjoy baking as much as some people that I know. I was determined to rid of the lack of confidence when it comes to baking. And the only way to do so is to keep trying until I succeed. I am not joking when I say I can't bake. I've even failed to bake a simple banana cake.

Back to this recipe, the mentioned prep time was 5 minutes. Thought to self  'sweet, I just do this while waiting for my coffee'. I was so wrong. It took me 30 minutes. Firstly, I have to juice and grate zest of 4 lemons which took me more than 5 mins. Second speed bump was it was not mentioned how big the food processor that should be used. Mine is a standard size 1500ml capacity. I bet Ms Langbein's must be an enormous one because I could barely close the lid after pouring in 3 cups of flour and has to clean up some spillage and pour the remaining cup using the chute. If you have a bigger food processor this recipe will work in 10 minutes. But all the frustration was well rewarded when I saw the end result of a moist and zesty lemon cake.

I decorated mine with orange, lemon, lime slices and a handful of pomegranate. The cake retained its moisture after being in the fridge for 2 days thanks to using oil instead of butter ( as I was told by a very good cook). The cake calls for a 28cm cake tin but I only have a 24cm so I left it in the oven for extra 15 minutes. I brought some to a friend's afternoon tea and they enjoyed it. I will definitely make this again but next time I will only put half the ingredients and make a smaller cake instead.

Recipe:

For cake:

Juice and zest of 4 lemons

4 eggs

1.5 cup unflavoured yogurt

3 cup sugar

4 cups self rising flour

1/2 cup dessicated coconut ( Use the coarser type if you like the texture in your cake)

2 cups neutral oil ( I used rice bran oil)

a pinch of salt

Cream cheese frosting:

75g butter , softened but unmelted

250gm cream cheese

4 cups icing sugar

1/2 cup dessicated coconut

Bake at Fan Bake for 1.5 hours at 160c. I baked mine at 170 because the seal of my oven is a little loose and loses heat. If you are an amateur like me, please resist getting the cake out of the tin while it's hot. Let it cool down on the bench and it will shrink a little and you will not have broken bits like mine. 

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