Chicken in Spiced Coconut Sauce and Chayotes Stew

Tonight I had Mo-Fo Duo, ShunBun, Danny and Craig over for an Indonesian dinner at my place. I made Chicken in Spiced Coconut Sauce (Opor Ayam) and Chayotes Stew (Sayur Labu Lodeh). I used to have them for Cap Go Meh (Chinese New Year Lantern Festival) growing up.


ShunBun brought a Chinese New Year Rice Cake (Nian Gao) which he deep-fried with some sugar, flour & water coating. It was my first time having it and I liked it. It reminded me of Japanese mochi cake.


I spent the afternoon making the spice paste for both main courses by grinding the spices using a mortar pestle and cutting up the chayotes into small toothpick-sized juliennes.


I used my Mom's family recipe for the Chicken in Spiced Coconut Sauce and Chayote Stew. To keep the recipe in the family (and close and trusted friends)... here's the NYTimes version.


End product: Chayote, egg, yellow tofu and chicken sprinkled with fried shallots.


Danny brought some French Macaroons and a couple of Chocolate Cakes from La Boulange Cafe & Bakery and I deep-fried some bananas for dessert - although the fried bananas tasted good, the texture was a bit too gooey for me. Next time, I will use plantains instead.


We washed down our dinner with these yummy wines.