Asam Pedas Fish II

I like Asam Pedas Fish, mainly because it's a healthier version of curry fish, without adding the high-cholesterol coconut milk. In this case, we do not need to substitute the coconut milk content with evaporated milk, just simply ASAM - sourly, hot & very satisfying in taste!
Asam means tamarind pulp. To make this dish originally, we should get the tamarind pulp, lemon grass, garlic, shallot, belachan, kunyit & etc. But since we had bought Tean's Gourmet Asam Fish Paste from Malaysia in the previous trip, it simplified the whole process, & I think, anyone can cook with this method. =)

Methods:

1. Add the paste with 400 ml of water, bring to boil & simmer with fish fillet for 6 mins.
2. Add in the vege, such as lady fingers/okras, tomatoes. Simmer for another 4 mins.
3. Check the fish with fork to ensure it's cooked. If it's cooked, your fork can go through the meat easily.
4. Season with abt 2 tsp of sugar. Take out & rest.
5. Garnish with Chinese Parsley & spring onions.
6. Ready to serve.

My tips:

1. Cut all vege in equal sizes so that they are cooked evenly within the same period.
2. The fish can be cut into medium size as well for easier cooking.
3. No deep frying for the fish, simply not necessary.
4. Add more tomatoes. I added about 6-8 small tomatoes, cut into halves & simmer with the fish. They add another layer of taste into this asam dish. Heavenly.

Balik Kampong - Back Home

This holiday, we went back to Malaysia twice, the first trip was to visit CY's grandparents in Penang & the second was to visit my parents in Titi. This time round, fortunately, we were able to squeeze some time back to nature too. This small farm, belongs to one of the villagers (shown in the picture above), who grows vege for a living. She was kind enough to attend to our last-minute request to cut some vege from her farm for us. See the picture above? She was cutting some Foo Mak vege which was quite common in Malaysia, not so in other countries though. The vege was quite bitter in taste, I was not used to it until one day no choice, had to eat it. Well, I am quite liking it now.

The vege shown above is Chinese Kailan (or Kale) & below is Chinese lettuce, which were very important during our Chinese New Year season.

This farm was not as big as those commercial ones, but is guaranteed all organic. What I observed was that these vege were planted in front & back of her home, with a small stream running across her farm to irrigate the vege.

The aunt might not know what 'organic' means, she charged us RM28 for 1KG kailan (Kale), 1KG Chinese lettuce, 1 KG Foo Mak vege 苦麦 & 0.5 KG green onions. Everything together was RM28 which is equivalent to SGD12. However, this is the usual price for the villagers. =)

Not far from the main road was a pond. We could see dragonflies flying here & there, bringing me fond childhood memories.

The sky was blue & the sun was shining.

What a wonderful day.

Spaghetti & Meatball

SPAGHETTI & MEATBALLS by Tyler Florence (serves 4-6)

1) Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in pan over medium heat.
2) Add 1 chopped onion, 2 cloves chopped garlic & 2 tbsp roughly chopped parsley leaves. Cook about 10 min until soft but still translucent.
3) Take pan off heat to cool.
4) Pour about 1 cup milk over 4 slices white bread (crust removed) in bowl to soak.
5) Combine 680 g ground beef & 680 g pork in another mixing bowl.
6) Add 1 egg & ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese.
7) Season generously with salt & pepper.
8) Squeeze excess milk out of bread, add to mixing bowl with cooled onion.
9) Gently combine ingredients until just mixed together. Don’t overwork or meatball will be tough.
10) Divide into 10 equal meatballs.
11) Preheat oven to 180 ºC.
12) Heat 3 tsp olive oil in pan over medium heat.
13) Brown meatball on all sides for 10 min.
14) Put into baking pan, spoon 2 cups tomato sauce over.
15) Shower with 200 g mozzarella cheese (cut into chunks) & drizzle with olive oil.
16) Bake in oven for 15 min until cooked through.
17) Cook 450 g spaghetti.
18) Drain & put into pan on medium heat. Pour in 2 cups tomato sauce, stir through.
19) Place spaghetti onto plates. Spoon meatballs on top of spaghetti. Garnish with 3 sprigs basil leaves. Serve with extra cheese.

We followed Tyler's recipe closely. However, we found that the portion was too big for all of us, though it meant to serve 4 only. It might because we were all small in sizes as well? =)

Anyway, it was fun making those meatball! The kids enjoyed squeezing & making meatball as much as we did. =)

This was when the meatballs were done. Just look at them...Yummy! Popping hot! Fresh out of oven! They were juicy, yummy & filling. Try to make some at home.
Tips:

1. Do combine red & yellow onions in making the meatball for more flavours.
2. Do squeeze out the liquid inside the minced meat before making them into meatballs. Try to keep them dry.
3. Do skip adding olive oil into the meatball making process to lessen calories intake.
   

Sushi

Sushi…O~i~shi! \(^_^)/

Japanese food is definitely one of my favourites! How could I end this year without it being posted in my blog? In fact, for the past 2 weeks, I had a Big project with my students, which was to make sushi during lesson & they were to write a recipe about it. Isn’t fun? Yohoo…OMG! I sound more excited than my students at this moment!

In fact, they enjoyed making sushi & wrote about it! So much so that one of my students went back to class with some sushi the next day to prove that his recipe actually works! As a result, I was on cloud nine, punched the air & showed my victory sign in front of everyone! Hahaha…. This was one of my ways to encourage them to write Chinese composition. All right, so now it’s your turn to be my students. So do follow me closely. =)

Serve 4

Sushi Rice Preparation:

500 ml Sushi Rice

550 ml Water

30-40 ml Apple Cider Vinegar

2 tbs Sugar

1 tsp Salt

1. Wash the rice several times. Transfer the rice to electric rice cooker & add the measured water. Turn on & wait for rice to finish cooking. Absolutely no peeping!
2. Remove & let covered for another 10 mins. Mix the vinegar, sugar & salt together in a small saucepan.
3. Take a wooden spatula or spoon & cut & fold the rice. Put the hot rice into your mixing bowl & add 1/4 of the sushi vinegar solution. Mix with a folding motion so as to not smash your perfect sushi rice. Repeat until all sushi vinegar is used.
4. After mixing, fan [electric fan will work] the hot rice mixture for about 5 or 6 mins to remove excess moisture & create a glossy shine to your rice. Your rice should have a slight chewiness & be sticky to the touch.

Now– Ready for rolling!

Method

1. Wrap a sushi mat in plastic cling wrap. This will prevent the rice from your sushi roll sticking to the mat.
2. Lay a sheet of seaweed/nori on the mat with the shiny side facing down.
3. Moisten your hand & scoop about half of the sushi rice onto the seaweed.
4. Slowly spread the rice across the seaweed until the entire sheet is covered. Do not spread till the edge because when you roll & press, it may spill out.
5. Starting with the side closest to you, place whatever ingredients of your choice, for example, a strip of crab leg on the seaweed. Follow this with 2 of cucumber sticks. You can also put raw salmon, avocado or egg omelet.

How to Roll

1. Lift the sushi mat by placing your thumbs underneath the mat.
2. Grasp the ingredients with your remaining fingers to keep everything in its place.
3. Bring the mat forward until it touches the edge of the ingredients.
4. Gently squeeze & form the roll using both hands.
5. Slowly unroll the mat & as you do this bring the roll back to the edge of the mat.
6. Repeat these steps until all of the seaweed disappears.

7. Let your roll rest for about a min.
8. Moisten a very sharp knife & cut the inside-out roll into two even halves.
9. Places the halves side-by-side & cut again. You will end up with four pieces.
10. Serve on an attractive plate with a bit of wasabi or pickled ginger if you like.

The picture above shows the sushi made by us!

Garlic Bread with Onion Soup

Here are my niece & nephew, they are going to stay with us for the next 2 weeks! Lovely kids, aren't they? Yesterday we had a wonderful roasted chicken together with my sister & my mother-in-law. It was delightful indeed.

As for today, we had garlic bread with onion soup & salad, in which the kids kept on saying: Lovely~ Lovely~ Lovely!

For garlic bread

Serve 4

1. Cut the bread into 5-6 slices, about 4-5 inches.
2. Heat medium heat, scope in 5 tbsp butter, wait until melt & bubbly, put in 1 whole garlic & a handful of parsley, both finely chopped
3. Season with salt & pepper, fry about 2 mins.
4. Spoon out & spread onto the bread
5. Pop into the oven, grill double-sided for about 8-10 min, or until golden brown.

English Onion Soup (adapted from Jamie Oliver)

Serve 4

1. Put a knob of butter, 2 tbsp olive oil, ½ handful sage leaves (reserve 4 for garnishing) & 3 cloves garlic (peeled & crushed) into heated frying pan over medium heat. Stir.
2. Add 3 red onions (peeled & sliced), 2 large white onions (peeled & sliced), 2 banana shallots (peeled & sliced) - 450 g total onions, & 300 g leeks (trimmed, washed & sliced).
3. Season with salt & black pepper.
4. Place a lid on the pan, leaving it slightly ajar, & cook 30 mins.
5. Remove lid & cook 20 mins, the onions will become soft & golden.
6. Stir occasionally so that nothing catches on the bottom. Having the patience to cook the onions slowly, slowly, gives you an incredible sweetness & an awesome flavor, so don't be tempted to speed this up.
7. When your onions & leeks are lovely & silky, add 800 ml (4 cup) good-quality hot beef, chicken or vegetable stock. Bring to boil, turn the heat down & simmer for 10 minutes.
8. Skim off fat. Correct the seasoning of the soup.
9. Preheat the oven to 250 °C. Toast your 4 slices good-quality stale bread (2 cm thick).
10. Ladle soup into individual serving bowls & place them on a baking sheet.
11. Tear toasted bread over each bowl to top like a lid. Feel free to push & dunk the bread into the soup a bit.
12. Sprinkle with 200 g freshly grated Cheddar & drizzle over a little Worcestershire sauce.
13. Dress your reserved sage leaves & place 1 on top of each slice of bread.
14. Put the baking sheet into the preheated oven or under the broiler to melt the cheese until bubbling & golden within 1 min.

Spaghetti with Clams

Tonight, we had a wonderful meal for 3 people, spaghetti with clams in white wine sauce. My face was lined with joy because I really enjoyed it. =)
Serve 3-4
(Adopted from Tyler Florence)

Ingredients
300g dry spaghetti
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 kg of clams, scrubbed & rinsed well
3/4 cup dry white wine
1 lemon, juiced
2 tbsp unsalted butter
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 handfuls fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
1 tsp of dry basils

Directions
1. Prepare the sauce while the pasta is cooking to ensure that the pasta will be hot and ready when the sauce is finished.
2. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta and cook for 10 mins or until tender yet firm (as they say in Italian "al dente.") Drain the pasta well.
3. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over medium flame in a deep saute pan with a lid. Add the garlic 1st & then red pepper flakes; saute for 2 mins. Add the clams, wine & lemon juice.
4. Cover & cook, stir 2-3 times, until all the clams are opened, about 7 -9 mins. Discard any that have not opened.
5. Crank the flame up to medium-high heat. Add the hot, drained pasta to the pan; add the butter & season with pepper. You may not need salt because clams come with natural salt in them. Toss the pasta with the clams to it's nicely coated. Shower with chopped parsley & dry basils.

Baked Fish with Mushroom

This week, I have been super tired…

This was the result of lesson planning, accounting, marketing, wall painting, teaching with some kind of ‘action’ in class, Christmas decorating & doing spring cleaning before Christmas within a week. Well, am I multi-tasking enough?

While we are satisfied with what we have achieved for the week, we must also reward ourselves with some real good food for the week.

Actually, I was not very tempted to cook, but CY thought that it would be nice to just do some cooking for tonight. So, I followed along.

Unfortunately, halfway through cooking, I almost fell asleep & had to force myself to concentrate. But then, I managed to pull through and get ready for dinner before 7.30pm.

It’s our Fish Nirvana that was worth every bit a comfort food.

Here is the recipe for Baked Fish & Mushroom:

Serve 2

1. Pat dry a few cod fish fillet, season them with some corn starch, salt & pepper.
2. Heat 1 cup of olive oil in a wok, stir in about 3 tbsp finely chopped garlic & thinly sliced 2 inch ginger till golden brown. When they are done, remove to a paper-layered plate.
3. With the same oil, fry the fish fillet till golden brown each side (roughly about 2 min each side over medium high heat). Maintain the medium high heat in the wok while frying. Fish fillet must be patted dry with paper towels to avoid oil splattering.
4. While frying the fish, preheat the oven to 180 Degree Celsius.
5. When the fish is done with golden brown colour on each side, take out & set aside.
6. Spoon out oil, left only 1 tbsp of oil to fry some Shitake mushroom with salt & pepper for about 3 min.
7. When the oven is ready, bake the fish fillet & mushroom for 4 min.
8. Done.
   

Baked Chicken with Potatoes & Tomatoes

This time was our 2nd attempt.
The 1st time was a month ago, it turned out to be so good that I complaint there wasn’t enough food to fill my hunger! ><

After 2 attempts, we more or less confirmed that this is the best baked chicken we ever had to date!


We followed the recipe we did a month ago, the only difference is that we substituted the herbs (oregano, sage, rosemary) to Chinese parsley & basils. It turned out to be quite good, though I still think the 1st one is better, or is it my hallucination?

Still, it has the homely taste to it.