Thai Style Steamed Fish

something Thai

This is a very simple but yet very appetizing dish. I cooked one fish with this recipe for lunch and I still have another one fish in the freezer. Most probably will cook the fish with this recipe again because the taste was so good. If you like Thai food, you can not resist this dish. I am salivating now.....

Steam one fish for ~10minutes(depending on the size of the fish). Meanwhile, melt 2tbsp sugar in 2tbsp fish sauce, 2tbsp asam juice and 2tbsp lime juice and bring it to boil. Remove from heat and mix in 2 stalks lemongrass, 8 shallots, 1 red chili , 2-3 bird chillies, small bunch of Chinese coriander. All of the ingredients have to be finely chopped. When the fish is ready, remove excessive water and serve it with this marvellous thai sauce. Garnish with Chinese coriander leaves.

Pork Rib and Lotus Root Soup

This version of Pork Rib and Lotus Root Soup is from Krystal Coffee Shop, Pulau Tikus, Penang. Whenever I visit this shop, I will always order a bowl of Pork Rib and Lotus Root Soup. Their soup has more different ingredients compare to other shops, maybe this is the reason why their soup is so clear and yet so flavourful. I cooked this soup one rainy night, just the right timing.

The claypot in the above picture is my new toy, La Gourment Truly Oriental Claypot. :)
For the ingredients: 600g blanched pork ribs, a bowl of bamboo roots, red dates, groundnuts, red bean, dried tangerine peel(陈皮), dried cuttle fish and 2.5 litres of water.  Slow cook all the ingredients for 4 hours.

Salted Fish & Pork Claypot 咸鱼花腩煲

Can you recognize this dish? It is a popular dish in central Peninsula Malaysia. We used to order this dish when we were in Kuala Lumpur, but now that we have moved to Penang, we could hardly see this dish in Chinese restaurants here. I adopted a few recipes and modified to my own version, but definitely it was a proven working recipe. ;) This dish goes well with white rice, so remember to cook more rice. The only constructive comment I received was the lack of burnt flavour from claypot. So we will get a claypot soon! :)

For the salted fish:

Cut the salted fish into small cubes. The quantity should be double from the above picture. Fry until golden. Set aside.

For the meat:

Cut 300g 5-layer pork into thin stripes. (It is easier to cut into thin stripes when the meat is slightly frozen. For this, place the pork into freezer for 20 minutes.) Marinate with 1/2tsp sugar, 1/4tsp salt and 1tsp light soy sauce for more than 1/2 hour. Add in 1tsp corn flour and mix well. Blanch with hot oil. Set aside.

For the sauce:

Use medium heat for the whole process. Stir fry 6 ginger slices(It was not captured in the pictures), 1 onions and 8 dried chillies with some cooking oil left from frying the salted fish. Then add in meat, 1tbsp oyster sauce, 1tbsp shaoxing wine, 1tsp sugar, 1/2tsp sesame oil and 1/4tsp pepper and enough water to cover the meat. Add in enough black soy sauce for colouring. Simmer with lid on for 40minutes. Add in half of the salted fish. If it is too dry, add a bit of water and simmer with lid on for another 15minutes. By now the gravy should have thickened(if not turn to maximum heat), add in 2 stalks of green onion and remaining of the salted fish. Mix well and serve immediately.

Tomorrow is Public Holiday and we will have 3 days long weekend! Happy weekend everyone!

Taiwan Sytle Silver Needle Noodle

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It is a recipe from Taiwan TV program(料理美食王). A very simple stir fried noodles, but different ingredients and seasonings from our usual Malaysia version. I personally feel that it is healthier with the use of luffa. It was unexpectedly good even though the recipe only require salt and pepper for seasoning. Hard to believe huh? Let's look at the ingredients.

Ingredients(serving for two):

Silver needle noodle 300g

Luffa cut into stripes

Dried shrimp(soaked)

Mushroom(soaked and cut into stripes)

pork stripes(I used 5 layer pork)

shallot

celery(cut into stripes)

Oopss! What was missing in the plate? I forgot to take a picture before I dumped the shallots to the wok.

 frying shallots

Method:

1. Fry shallots over medium heat until crispy. Remove aside.

2. Leave 2 tbsp oil in the wok. Stay with medium heat.

3. Add in with sequence, mushroom, dried shrimp and pork stripes.

4. Stir fry for a while before add in luffa and silver needle noodle.

5. Add in a small bowl of water, 1/2tsp salt and dash of pepper(add more if you like pepper).

6. Turn to medium low heat and cover you wok with a lid for 1-2 minutes.

7. Open the lid. Now you should expect not much water left, and the silver needle noodle is slightly covered with thick and transparent gravy.

8. Add in fried shallot and celery. Mix well and serve immediately.

noodle in wok

Anti Aging Black Sesame Paste

I am not sure how many have noticed that I am using my mobile phone to capture dishes since Herbal Salty Chicken. If not because of the poor photo quality, I would have fallen in love with its light weight. I could cook with one hand and capture with another hand. By the way, if you are interested to know, my camera was on a Taiwan vacation trip. :)

It is raining season in Malaysia now. I always fancy a bowl of Cantonese sweet soup(or what we called tong sui) in a rainy day. Most of the tong sui stalls in Malaysia only sell the bean soup, but not the paste type which is very time-consuming. I miss the rich, smooth and fragrant paste in Hong Kong so much until I decided to make a bowl of black sesame paste for myself. I received a questioning look when I served this bowl of black sesame paste, but luckily the feedback was positive. ;)

Ingredients（Serving for 2-4):

Black sesame 200g(washed, drained)

White Rice 50g(washed and soaked for 2 hours)

Brown sugar in pieces ~80g

Method:

1. Stir fry black sesame in a empty wok over medium heat until fragrant.

2. Blend black sesame with 500ml water until smooth.

3. Filter black sesame water with a fine sieve.

4. Blend white rice with 400ml water until smooth.

5. Filter white rice water with a fine sieve.

6. Mix black sesame paste and white rice water into a pot.

7. Cook with medium heat, keep stirring. Keep stirring in the same direction.

8. When it starts to smoke, add in brown sugar.

9. Add in more water if needed. Adjust the sweetness with brown sugar.

10. Make sure that the paste is not too watery or too thick. 

11. Turn off the heat when it starts to bubble. Serve immediately.

yum yum!

Assam Curry Salmon Fish Head

Assam Curry Salmon Fish Head

It never appear in my mind that salmon fish can be used in local dishes, for example the very appetizing and satisfying assam curry dish. It was until my friend, Lam told me about his mum signature assam curry salmon fish head and brought over a bowl to show off during the recent potluck session. ;)

When we saw this big salmon fish head in wet market, we approached the seller and found out that it was pretty expensive, RM22. The seller explained to us that it is air-flown fresh salmon from Norway, not the frozen type. Queensbay jusco offers a smaller one(the fish head in the above picture minus the bottom part) at RM10. Since this fish head had a lot of meat, which was equivalent to jusco one fish head+another piece of salmon steak(that was just excuse, it was very obvious that he wanted to buy it), so we paid for it. After we bought a pack of assam curry sauce and some other ingredients, we rushed home for a salmon meal. I cooked more rice for dinner and we managed to finish all the rice. :)

For the assam curry sauce, you can also use the ready pack available on supermarket shelf. Most of the ready pack can do a good job, but it is important to add extra fresh ingredients to bring out the flavour.

Ingredients:

Assam curry sauce 1 pack

Onion x1(cut into quarters)

torch ginger flower x1(use only petals)

Tomato x1(cut into quarters)

700g Samon Fish head

Lady finger x(or more)

Mint leaves 1 small bowl

Seasonings:

Salt 1 tsp

Sugar 2tbsp 

Method:

1. Stir fry the assam curry sauce until fragrant.

2. Add in onion, torch ginger flower and tomato and stir fry.

3. Add two rice bowls of water.

4. Season with salt and sugar and bring to boil.

5. Put in salmon fish head and lady finger.

6. Cook over medium heat for 8-10 minutes.

7. Add more salt and sugar if you wish.

8. Serve in casserole and garnish with mint leaves.

Herbal Salty Chicken

I need to come out with more free range chicken recipes as I always bring back some chicken from home. Free range chicken has very firm meat, so not all chicken recipe is suitable. Besides the usual Ginger Chicken Misua Soup and Ginger Chicken, I have decided to cook Herbal Salty Chicken last Saturday. When I tried to make salty chicken last round, I bought 3kg of coarse salt. This time, I opted for a simplify recipe.

Simply rub the chicken with sea salt. I used 2tsp for half chicken. Then steam the chicken with some red dates(红枣), Codonopsis(党参) and Lycium(枸杞) for 45 minutes.

And it is ready to serve. Note the burnt marks on the chicken skin. They are similar to those on Ipoh Salty Chicken. :)