My Quick CHICKEN ROULADE...With Red Plum Sauce.

 Cooking From Memories…

I think we all have this chapter in our mental cook books…and quite frankly, for it to be able to linger into the passages of our time and surpassing the others, it has to be quite a spiritual inspirational touch no less. Food goes far beyond filling the tummies and making you go burp into the night; but good food has the ability to go even further, to create an environment all of its own, a vibrating awareness into our past and maybe even a silent wish for a future tradition.

This is a recipe that I really do not know the name of it, but I could still quite clearly recollect its distinctive taste and aroma on my much younger taste bud. It is no Michelin 5-Stars recipe, not quite chicken roulade, and probably just made out of left-overs in the fridge. But the taste has always been unique and exceptional.

The fillet is made of deboned chicken breast (you could also use duck meat - tapi kalau guna itik, perap dengan rempah sup sedikit), thinly sliced and spread, marinated with Lee and Perrins for flavor and then rolled with a filling that’s made of:

Boiled quail's eggs,

Finely cut carrots

Oat meals (to hold the fillings together)

Parsley

Button mushrooms (I have omitted that and swapped it with dates (buah kurma) - out of allergy with a few in this household).

Some spices (I am guessing what they were and this is the closest I could put it today): Rempah Sup (naturally I used Adabi products).

Rolled neatly (you may string it like I did or just roll in a thin-foil wrapper), and then baked at 160°C for 45 minutes. Layer down a few zesty lemon slices on top of the chicken (lemon slices to be removed before serving).

Cooking time is about an hour, provided the quail’s eggs has been boiled and de-shelled earlier.

Serving suggestion: garnish it with asparagus and grace with home-made sweet and sour plum sauce.

As a child, it would fill you till the next stop. But for adults, you might as well add in some side dish to it like pasta or maybe even Asian style fried rice. This is good when entertaining guest for dinner on a short notice, but just be sure to add on pasta or fried rice as a second course to the dinner menu.

Cooking is an absolute necessity for humans; it is all a strong part of evolution ahead. If you don’t eat just how would you evolve? But sometimes, a good recipe opens a lone window into days gone by and it summons back pages of a gone past.

“A dash of sugar for the past, a pinch of salt for the present and a sprinkle of pepper for the future; there you go, bon appétit!” – Anonymous.

My Quick CHICKEN ROULADE...With Red Plum Sauce.