Steam Fish - Hong Kong Style
I love fish and there are many ways to cook it and today I want to talk about one of the best ways - steam fish.
Europeans usually fry, grill, roast their fish or maybe the Spanish and Italian might bake the fish with salt but steam is almost never, also mostly they will only eat fish with lemon juice or tomato sauce, maybe because there not many fish is fresh enough and they are mostly frozen so they have to use the lemon juice to cover the fish smell? but I think if you can find "fresh fish" the best way to cook it is to steam. It not only gives the best flavor but it is also very healthy.
Here is Hong Kong Style steam fish, after you learn this, you can try to do it differently, using different ingredients. So have fun and enjoy!
Ingredients:
1 fresh fish (about 500g - 600g),
2 stalks green onion,
1/2 cup finely chopped, thinnest strips ginger,
1 cup thinnest strips scallion,
1/2 cup coriander
2 red chili – thinly sliced
4 tsp sunflower or peanut oil or any veg oil but don't use olive oil.
Seasonings:
4 tbsp light soy sauce,
1/2 tsp sugar,
3 tbsp water,
a pinch of white pepper
1 tsp Shaoxing wine to pour on fish prior to steaming (or any cooking wine like dry sherry, but I like to use brandy)
Equipment:
A plate to hold the fish & large pot or wok for steaming. Big enough to put the plate inside. If you don’t have a steamer insert, take a small bowl and invert to use as a stand.
Preparation :
1. Clean out the fish inside, pat dry. Season inside and out with salt and pepper. Take some strips ginger and scallion stuff inside the fish.
Beside strips ginger and scallion, I also like to put inside some small and thinly cut pork belly.
2. Cut scallion into long pieces, place them on the plate, put the fish on top, then put ginger slices on fish.
Personally, I like to cut up some tofu and place them on the plate instead , the seasoning and fish juice will go to the tofu after cooking and it will give an extra taste to the dish.
3. Soak strips scallion in cold water for 3-5 minutes, drain.
Cooking:
1. Add 6cm of water to your large pot or wok.
Put the fish into the steamer when the water is boiling (if without steamer, put the invert small bowl in the wok or pot and put the fish plate on top, cover the pot or wok), turn down the heat to medium.
Cooking times:
- Whole fish 500g : check at 12 minutes, add 2 minutes for every 100g
- Fillets 3cm and thicker: check at 10 minutes, add 2 minutes for every 1cm more thickness
Tips: to steam the fish, best to put a dish towel in between the lid and the fish , so the steaming water will not drip back on top of the fish.
2. When the time is up, check the fish to see if its cooked:
Cooking curry is very easy, everyone can do it.
The best thing about cooking curry is we can do it in different ways, sweet or hot, with or without coconut milk. You can add fish, chicken, lamb, beef, pork, vegetables. The key is to cook it together with the curry sauce. I love curry so much I can eat it all the time and won't get sick of it, one of my all time favorite is curry beef brisket with potatoes, the beef is so tender it is melting in your mouth, potatos filled with the taste of curry it taste even better than the beef itself. All vegetables are good with curry too. I never heard anyone failed to cook curry, so if you want to impress your girl friend or boy friend, just make curry for dinner, if you want to make it fancy then I suggest that you make this Seafood Curry with Pumpkin. This is really easy to make and simply impressive, the curry sauce and the pumpkin are the perfect match, it taste so good it is almost like a dessert. If you like prawns add more prawns. If you want it to be sweeter, put more sugar. Set up the table, light up some candles, put on Oscar Peterson and open a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc ... you get the picture. Yes, its a bit cheesy but she will love it. If she doesn't like it? get a new girl friend.
Ingredients 1 small pumpkin
seafood mix - salmon/white fish fillet, scallop, prawn, calamari, mussels, etc
1 onion, chopped to bite-size
3 cloves shallots, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tsp fish sauce
2 tsp curry powder (more if you preferred)
2 tsp green or red curry paste.
2 tsp green or red curry paste.
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 cup coconut cream (more if you preferred)
3 tsp evaporated milk
2 tsp plum sugar (more if your preferred)
Instruction
Preheat the oven to 200C.
1. Rinse the seafood under cold running water and pat dry with paper towel. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Cut the top off the pumpkin and remove the seeds. Scoop out some pumpkin flesh, blend it to mash and set a side.
3. Bake the pumpkin in the oven for about 30 to 40 minutes depending on the size of the pumpkin.
4. Remove the pumpkin from the oven and set the oven to 220C.
5. Saute the onion with some butter until soft.
6. Lightly fry the seafood mix with some butter separately, remove and set aside.
7. In a larger pot or pan, fry the shallot and garlic with some butter.
8. Add the curry powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and plum sugar and fry for a little while.
9. Add in coconut and evaporate milk, fish sauce, pumpkin mash and stir well until the pumpkin is like the texture of a thick sauce, if too dry, add coconut cream.
10. Return the onion and seafood in the sauce.
11. Add seafood mixture into the pumpkin and bake in a preheated 220C oven for 10 to 15 minutes.
12. Garnish with coriander, spoon on a little circle of coconut cream.
To be served with rice or bread
French Onion Soup
Ingredients
Ingredients
3 medium yellow onions about 750 g
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp brown sugar
1 Liter beef stock
1/2 cup dry white or red wine /or without
1 bay leaf
1 small baguette
1 tbsp butter, at room temperature
1 to 2 cups grated gruyère or emmenthal cheese
Instructions
- Chop onion in half lengthwise and slice them all.
- Heat butter and oil in a large wide saucepan over medium heat. Add onions, then sprinkle with sugar. Cook, uncovered and stirring often, until very soft and caramelized, about 15 min. Reduce heat if they brown too quickly.
- Add beef stock, wine, seasonings and bay leaf. Scrape up brown bits from pan. Bring to a boil over high. Then cover and simmer over medium-low for 30 min to develop flavour.
- Place oven rack in top half of oven. Preheat broiler. Cut bread into slices, Butter both sides of each. Toast until lightly golden, about 2 min per side.
- Place soup bowls, ladle in soup with a toasts on top. Sprinkle with cheese. Place bowls in oven. Boil until cheese is bubbly, 2 to 4 min. Serve immediately. Now you have it .. enjoy your soup in the last month of winter.
- But if you are in Australia, woo hoo the winter is on its way so you can have this soup over and over again and then when the Australia finishes, we people in Europe will take over and have this soup again...
- I was going to do a history on this soup but I guess I am quite lazy this month so I think I will just tell you how good this soup is... "yes, this soup is good, so try it ".. told you I am lazy.
- Everyone loves onion soup!! You might hate to do the chopping but you will love the soup. Some people who really into studying hitrory of food said this soup is for poor people in France back in the when ever time, and the farmers and poor people love it so much even the King had to try it and make it a "FRENCH NATIONAL SOUP", I guess poor people always have better taste.
Tortilla - Spanish Omelette
Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 potato, cubed and boiled until half cooked
Half of minced onion
4 slices of spicy salami, chopped up or dice bacon
2 tsp of Aioli (garlic mayonnaise)
Olive oil and Butter
1/3 cup of flour x 2 tsp of Milk
Salt to taste
Directions:
1. Put a frying pan with 3 tsp of olive oil and fry the chopped onion with 1/2 tsp sugar and butter, fry until the onions are fully caramelized.
2. Add in the chopped salami and fry with the onion.
3. Add the half cooked potato and stir with the chopped onion and salami, add 2 tsp of Aioli, pepper, salt and garlic salt to taste, pan frying it slowly until the potatos are tender and fully cooked then take off the fire.
4. Mix 2 tsp of flour with 1 tsp of water , beat 2 eggs together and then stir in the potatoes and onion mixture.
5. Heat olive oil on medium heat in a small to medium non stick frying pan, and pour the eggs and potato mixture into the frying pan and give the pan a quick spin so the surface will brown evenly, this is important for the omelette to be crisp around the edges but we don't want it over cook, so carefully lift up one side and see if the omelet is slightly "browned" if so then it's time to flip the omelet to cook the other side.
6. Place a large dinner plate upside down over the frying pan. With one hand on the frying pan, quickly turn the frying pan over and the omelet will “fall” onto the plate.
7. Place the frying pan back on the fire and put just enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan, put the Tortilla back in the pan and cook for other 20 sec and turn off heat and place the tortilla on the plate, remember this version of tortilla should be brown on both side and creamy in side, spread on some Alioi and sprinkle some dry parsley to serve.
If you want to make a smaller Tortilla, put less ingredients, or put more when you want to have it big. You can put anything you want inside, some people I know even put cheese, some like it dry inside and some like it soft, it is really up to you. Important thing is to make it tasty, the first time maybe is not good enough but I am sure if you keep doing it, someday you will master it and your Spanish friends will be proud.Slow Braised Pork Belly
This is what I call "The Magic Dish", if you don't like to eat pork, this dish might change your mind and if you love pork, then you will love pork even more. The way the pork falls apart and the fatty bit melts in your mouth like a jelly candy. The Chinese call it Dongpo Rou and the Japanese call it Buta no Kakuni, the difference is the wine they are using but basically the same. I know many people especially the women who want to watch their weight, when they hear the word "pork belly or pork fat" will run away. The good news is, really the fat bit is not such bad thing, some even say it is good for the skin, I will say anything is better than margarine, just try to wash it away from frying pan you will know how bad that is. Some people say animal fat is bad for the heart, I will say if you eat it everyday maybe, but every once in a while I don't see it can really make your heart so bad. Now a day everything is bad for you, don't eat this and don't drink that. If people listen to that, might all end up dead because of depression, why not just try a good dish every now and then, it won't kill you but only makes you happier, beside this is a easy cooking, everyone can do if you have a bit of time. Try to cook this dish for your pork eating lover, this will make them love you to death, not a bad way to go.
1 kg/2lb pork belly, cut into 8cm cubes
3 tbsp sugar or more to taste
4 slices of fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, chopped
4 slices of fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 small red chilli – optional
1 star anise
1 tbsp cinnamon powder
½ cup soy sauce
5 tbsp mirin/optional
3 tbsp Shaoxing wine/Sherry or Sake
1 star anise
1 tbsp cinnamon powder
½ cup soy sauce
5 tbsp mirin/optional
3 tbsp Shaoxing wine/Sherry or Sake
Water
To serve
2 sliced spring onions
English mustard
English mustard
Heat a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add soy sauce, sugar, mirin, sake and some water, bring it to boil then put in the pork, put in all the fresh ginger, garlic cloves, 1 small red chilli, star anise, cinnamon powder and stir to coat the pork for 1 to 2 minutes then add enough water to cover the meat. Bring to the boil again, and cover it with a aluminum foil, or the Japanese will use a wooden lid called Otoshibuta (cut a sheet of aluminum foil that covers the diameter of your pot, fold the edges up into a circle so that the lid fit inside the pot), then simmer very gently for about an hour. Check the sauce, the sauce should taste a bite like a Christmas cake, you will taste the sweet star anise and cinnamon, but everyone tastes it differently so you can adjust the taste to your liking, if not sweet enough, add some sugar, if not salty enough add some more soy sauce, add water if its too dry, cover with the aluminum again to let it simmer for another hour, until the pork is meltingly tender. Then boil down the sauce until thick and syrupy. Remember, the key is simmer, give it a time, watch a good movie when you are cooking this, go on facebook and tell people about my Blog.., ok now the hour is up, your pork should be ready. Now you know the basic, next time you can do it your own way, put different kind of sugar ? or even cola? want it a bit sour and add some vinegar.
Now is ready to serve the pork pieces with some sauce and a scattering of spring onions. As you eat, add a little mustard if you like.
Sometimes I put Shiitake mushrooms and bak choy in the pot for 10 mins before I serve this. It will give the pork a nice flavour and green color. This dish is just like life itself, add flavour according to your taste, make it sweet, make it lovely and melt in your mouth, give it some color and do it slowly otherwise if you burn it then you might have to do it all over again.
PINK MARTINI
Ingredients:
1 part gin
2 parts vermouth
½ part guava nectar or juice
Dash of Cherry brandy
Shake well with ice and strain into a
chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with raspberries if you like.
Thai Green
Curry Chicken with lemongrass and potato
Always
love Curry, different kind of curry, I think they are all good.
Different
than Indian curry, the Thai curry always have the flowery fragrance , must be
the lemongrass, I think this is one of the happy comfort food, it’s easy to
cook at home and quick to serve.
If you
can’t find lemongrass that’s ok. you can always use lime or lemon instead. The
best thing about cooking curry is that you can do what ever you like. You don’t
want potato? Use carrot or even frozen peas. If you don’t like vegetable at
all, don’t put any, all up to you.
You can also cook it with beef, duck, fish
or even lamb, just improvise, measurement is not important. You got the key ingredients.
Just use your taste, find that curry taste that you love.
Remember
Curry is Jazz in the food world. Enjoy.
Green
Curry Chicken with lemongrass and potato
2 shallots , or 1 small onion
1 stalk lemongrass
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp vegetable oil
3-4 tsp green Thai curry paste- more or
less up to you.
4 boneless chicken leg with skin on
1 tsp fish sauce
some salt
1 chopped red chili
1 tsp sugar , plum sugar is best, or brown
sugar is ok
2 kaffir lime leaves
400g potato or more if you like potato
100g green bell pepper
400ml can coconut milk
20g fresh coriander or basil .
Peel
shallots or onion and cut in half and thinly slice.
Very
finely slice the lemongrass, starting at the thinner end, stopping at the
'woody' part.
Pan fried
the chicken without oil. Chicken skin face down until the skin is crispy then
turn it over
and cook the other side for about 3 minutes, take it out of the
pan, put it aside and let it rest.
If you don’t
like skin then skip this part , just cut the chicken pieces and cook it later .
Heat the
oil in a wok or large saucepan add the shallots or onion.
Fry it and
Stir in the curry paste and lemongrass ,stir fry for 1 minute and then put in
potato pieces and add a little coconut milk and let it cook for about 5
minutes.
When you
are cooking the potato, cut the chicken in pieces.
5minutes
is up add chicken pieces with the fish sauce, sugar, kaffir lime leaves , turmeric
powder and more coconut mil and stir fry
it for 5 minutes, add in more coconut milk and bring slowly to the boil.
Reduce
heat and simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes until the potato is cooked.
Stir the
curry a few times while it cooks, to stop it sticking, before you serve, add in
green bell paper and basil, stir a bit more and Taste the curry.
If you
think you like it hotter then put more curry or chili, sugar if you like it
sweet , fish sauce even coconut milk depends on your taste.
Now you
like the taste? Good , this dish is ready.
Sprinkle
some coriander or basil and chili over the top.
Serve
with rice or bread and grab yourself a beer.
Paella Marinera
Paella. A famous Spanish
rice dish originally came from the third largest city in Spain – Valencia. And because of its perfect climate and soil to grow rice, naturally Valencia
has became a rice farming region and rice is what’s the farmer will eat.
After
a long day working on the rice’s field the farmers will gathering what ever
they got fresh – such as vegetable, chicken, rabbit, frog and even snails and
cook them with rice, they call it paella Valenciana. And this rice dish passed
to Barcelona.
People
living in Barcelona don’t see themselves as Spanish but Catalan, and the Catalan people love seafood, so they started
cooking this rice dish with variety of different
seafood, they call it Paella Marinera or with squid ink rice - Paella Negra
and make this dish as their own.
So,
if you are in Barcelona, you will see almost every restaurant selling this dish
and almost everyone who orders it is not local because locals like to cook it
at home. Paella is a happy food, best is to share it with people you love over couple
bottles of red wine, after all paella is about celebrating life and harvest.
Like
many traditional cooking every house has its own way to do it and here is mine.
Paella Marinera, serves 6 – 8
Ingredient:
1
tsp paprika
1
tsp turmeric
6
tbsp olive oil
3
garlic cloves, finely chopped
200g
onion, finely chopped
1
red peppers, seeded and chopped into small pieces
1
green peppers, seeded and chopped into small pieces
1
tsp saffron strands
1kg
short-grain paella rice
1
liters fish stock
1
liters chicken stock
400g
raw prawns, peeled the prawn and leave their head for later use
500g
small clams, washed
50g
anchovies, finely chopped into very small almost paste like pieces
600g
squid, cut into bite size pieces
350g
large mussels, cleaned
600g calamari rings
8-10
cooked langoustines
Place
a 50cm – 60 cm paella pan/deep fry pan over 2 burners on a medium heat. Add the
oilve oil and garlic and, as soon as the garlic begins to sizzle, add the prawn
heads and anchovies, fry them together until you smell the fragrance of the prawn
heads and anchovies, squeeze the prawn heads, so the juice inside the head will
be mixed with the olive oil, now you put in the onion and fry for 5–6 minutes,
put in some wine and fry until onion soft and sweet.
You
will need to turn the pan every 2 to 3 minutes throughout the cooking time so
that everything cooks evenly. Add the red and green peppers and fry for 5
minutes until the peppers are just softened. Stir in the squid rings and stir-fry
for 3–4 minutes, add the rice and saffron, scatter the prawns and clams around
the pan, and stir everything together well. Add the stock and 2 teaspoons of
salt and bring to the boil, stirring briefly to redistribute the ingredients
around the pan.
Leave
to simmer for 6 minutes over a medium-high heat, but do not stir it any more,
remembering to give the pan a turn, reduce the heat to medium. At the same time
prepare other small frying pan , put in olive oil, garlic and give the mussels,
langoustines a quick stir fried for 20 second, then arrange the mussels and
langoustines evenly around paella pan and push them down slightly into the
rice. Leave to cook for further 15 minutes without stirring, by which time all
the liquid will be absorbed and the surface of the rice should be pitted with
small holes.
Turn
off the heat, cover the pan with a clean towel and leave to rest for 5 minutes
before serving. Serve warm straight from the pan.
Hainanese chicken rice
My best friend loves
it when ever I make my version of Hainanese chicken rice, since he never tasted
the famous “Real” Hainanese chicken rice from Singapore, so my version to him
will be the “original “.
Once upon a time
far far away in Singapore, there were many people working as Coolies from Hainan and
to save money they put money together to buy a chicken, cooked and chopped
up into pieces, cooked rice into a sushi like rice wrap, so they can all share a good meal.
Many years later some
of them have became hawkers and then became shops. Of course, the way they prepare also has improved
and became more delicate. Until today this rice dish is the representative of
Singapore national food.
There are a
couple of famous chicken rice shop in Singapore such as: Wee Nam Kee and Tian Tian. I know I can
never compared to them but let’s try my recipe to see if you like it.
Hainanese chicken
rice
Ingredients:
2kg whole chicken or 6 to 10 pieces of boneless
chicken legs, take more if you like
Salt
Water
Ginger, get a few of them if you love
ginger
Cucumber, sliced
Light soy sauce
Sesame oil
Coriander
Chicken Stock
For the rice
Minced garlic
Chicken fat and stock
2 pandan leaves
To make the chicken
Rub chicken
inside with 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
Heat up a large
pot of water with chicken stock - big enough to put a whole chicken in or -
I like to use
boneless chicken leg, put in as many pieces as you want, but if you use chicken
leg then you will need a Colander to allow
liquid to drain through.
Add a spoonful of
salt in the water and a piece of ginger when it boiled; how much salt
depends on how big is the pot and your taste, you can adjust yourself,
just
remember you want it tasty but not salty.
Now when the water is boiled, put the chicken into the boiled water for 20 seconds and pick it up and put the chicken into ice water for another 10 seconds then put it back into the boiled water again, repeat this process for 5 times .
Check the skin and see if its tighten, if so then boil the water again, put
the chicken back in, close the lid and turn the heat to low for about 5 minutes,
then turn off the heat and let the chicken stay in the pot for at least 40
minutes to an hour. This steps is to cook the chicken with the heat in the pot
but not boiling the chicken. If you are using chicken leg do this step for 25mins. Again its really depends on your experience and the size of
the chicken.
After this step you can take the chicken out [to make sure the chicken
is cooked poke a chopstick into the chicken and if it went thru and no blood
coming out then it should be ok].
Finally take
the cooked chicken out, rub some sesame oil around the chicken skin, let it air
dry for about 3 mins, then put it back in the cold water for other 5 mins, take it out again and air dry. This
way is to make the skin taste better. Some people put the chicken in the
fridge but I feel this way will ruin the taste and the texture of the chicken. Chop up the
chicken into pieces and serve.
For the rice
Now you take out
the layer of chicken fat on the stock surface with a spoon . Don’t worry if
some chicken stock is with it. Fry rice ingredient together with rice and
chicken fat, until you smell the fragrance of the rice then put more chicken
stock and put the fried rice into a rice cooker .. or pot and let the rice cook.
For the soup
Put cabbage and
preserved vegetables cooked together with chicken stock.
For the ginger
sauce
3 tsp chicken fat
from the stock, 5 tsp of thinly
sliced spring onions, 4 tsp grated ginger, 1/2 tsp sea salt, 3 tsp vegetable oil -
never use olive oil, soy sauce –
optional
Sweet Chilli
Sauce
3 tsp chopped red
birds-eye chillies , 5 tsp of grated ginger and garlic, 2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp white
vinegar, ½ tsp sea salt , half lime juice, 3 tsp Fish sauce[The measurement is just a guide, taste it yourself - everyone is different]
ABC’s Dark sweet
soy sauce.
Serve rice with
tomatoes and cucumbers.
Deep fried crispy fish fillet with creamy sweet corn sauce
Just a quick recipe, my friend asked me to share this one up because she loves it . Give it a try and tell me what you think.
Ingredients: 400g fish fillet (fresh or frozen cod fish or catfish)
oil for deep-frying – sunflower oil, never use olive oil to fry
marinades for fish- salt and ground white pepper to marinades the fish,
1/3 tsp or to taste
To
make the Sweet Corn Sauce
2
small cans of sweet corn
1
small pack of cream- 300ml
cinnamon
powder
½
cup chicken stock
sugar, white pepper and salt to taste or 1/3 tsp each.
2
tsp corn starch and 3 tsp water to thicken the sauce
Batter
8 tsp plain flour
1 tsp corn flour
salt
1/4 cup soda water or beer
1 tsp Melted butter
Now to cook .
Doing the fish fillets
If you are using frozen fish, 1st
you need to defrost fish fillet. Rinse it and squeeze extra water. Lay the
flllets flat on a plate or in the sink, then place the plate in basin, pour
hot water toward the fillet , -hot water from tap or from the kettle - you
shall see the meat contracted a bit. Drain any water in the plate (be careful
of the hot water) and do the same thing on the other side. Pat dry the fillet
and cut into about 5 cm squares. Marinade them for roughly 10 to 15 minutes.
This hot water step is only to get away the
frozen fish smell and to make the fillet firmer also it take away the salt if
you are using salty cod fish. So if you are using fresh fish from market you
can skip this step.
Playing with batter
Mix together all the flours for the batter,
then stir in salt, water add in butter and mix well. Heat oil in deep frier if you have one otherwise you can use
a pot or even a frying pan or a wok, over medium heat to frying the fillets.
When oil is heated, dip the fish fillets
into the batter, gently put them into the fryer – what ever you are using
…cook the fish when it turns golden yellow, usually take about a min or 2, depends on how
thick you cut your fish. Dish up fillets piece by piece.
Now the sauce
Pour 2 cans of corn kernels together with
chicken stock, add in salt, cinnamon powder ,sugar and white pepper, then cream, stir it gently. Mix well and thicken with corn starch , you can also put
frozen peas with it to make the color looks better with some green. Once the
sauce is ready, pour it over the fish then serve and you are smiling because it
taste pretty good. Have fun and enjoy!
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