Just attended a healthy cooking workshop the other day and decided to put my learning into action. I am not the most healthy cooking cook around, so don’t judge me, I am only concerned for the taste of the dish.
Anyway the recipe calls for brown rice and basmati rice mix for a healthier choice, but seriously, who has that in their warchest? Unless you already are a health conscious person, you’re unlikely to stock up on these grains. The whole reason why I would even bother cooking this dish was because my MIL gave us a whole tub of cooked rice for us to steam and eat the next day. I decided that Olive Fried Rice was the better thing to do.
It’s the quite healthy version, so maybe you would like to try it for yourself or the family, my recipe cooks for two persons. My wife and I. I used Tuna Chunks instead of boiled Chicken Breasts fillets as most people would have used that, and instead of the usual Chinese Olives, I used Kalamata Olives from Greece, a little pricey, but totally worth it for the flavour.
Recipe
Ingredients
Half a bottle of Kalamata Olives (These are your deep purple, almond shaped olives from Greece, nice flavour, NTUC got sell)
3 stalks of Long Beans (Cut into 3 cm lengths)
Half a can of Tuna (I bought the one in olive oil, any brand will do)
2 cups of Cooked Rice (The rice is usually placed in the fridge so that the rice will be more Q <– don’t ask me what is Q)
3 cloves of Garlic (Crushed)
Half a Yellow Onion (Chopped finely)
Drizzle of Thai Fish Sauce
Handful of Cashew Nuts Olive Oil
Method
1. Heat olive oil in non-stick wok/pan and stir fry the garlic and chopped onions until fragrant. Medium heat will do. Stir fry the cashew nuts together with the ingredients until slightly brown.
2. Mash half of the olives and rough chop the rest of the olives. Throw the olives in the wok and continue frying. Add the tuna chunks and continue to fry. If the oil not enough, add more oil (I know this is the part where it becomes less healthy, but if not enough oil, you need to add).
3. Add the chopped long beans into the wok to fry. Fry until the long beans are soften. Now add the cooked rice to fry together. Drizzle Thai Fish Sauce over the rice and fry until the fried rice is fragrant.
Since today is polling day and all the tua tau are walking here and there anxiously at the various places, I thought it would be befitting to cook a very delicious Sambal Belacan Tua Tau to celebrate this milestone moment.
I bought 1 kg of tua tau from the guy that had the most fish left, just to help him out. Of course I know at this time, his tua tau sure cannot make it one. But I wanted to help him. So I bought as much as I could.
And while washing the tua tau, surely as the sun sets in the evening, there was an awful stench of rotting flesh. Okay, you know I am joking right?!
They weren’t the freshest tua tau but after frying it with Sambal Belacan, they were all united in flavour. Delicious.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 kg of Tua Tau (clams, not sure what it is called on English)
6-7 cloves of Garlic (crushed)
4 tbsp Sambal Belacan (you can add more if you like) Olive Oil
Method
1. Wash and rinse the clams/mussels or whatever you want to call it. Make sure they are rinsed thoroughly as they are very dirty. I usually wash and rinse until the water is clear.
2. Heat some oil in a wok/pan. Fry the crushed garlic cloves until fragrant. Then add the washed clams/mussels into the wok to cook. Scoop the sambal belacan onto the top of the clams/mussels. Cover the lid and turn up the heat.
3. Steam until all the clams/mussels open up from their sleep and stir the clams/mussels until the sauce is well mixed. Serve with plain porridge.
My wife got this Xiao Bai Cai from the local vegetable seller and almost sworn by the product. I thought it was funny that she should be feeling this way about vegetable, I mean I usually don’t gush about my groceries. But I guess it was not without good reason. The Xiao Bai Cai that we usually get at the supermarket are usually quite sandy and would require a lot of soaking and washing.
For some reason the supplier didn’t want to disturb the plant so much after it was harvested, and so it was not washed or treated with anything (actually I am not sure if it was treated with anything or not). I always thought vegetables should be packed the same way after they are being harvested. But that said, there are different suppliers and also different ways to grow vegetables these days.
Maybe this Xiao Bai Cai was grown hydroponically at some local farm nearby my house? Anyway, we were both quite pleased with the vegetables as it meant less washing and scrubbing in between the stems and that we could quickly give it a good rinse and cut it up for frying.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 packet of Xiao Bai Cai
2 pieces of Fried Tau Kee (these usually comes with fish paste in between the layers)
3-4 cloves of Garlic (crushed not minced)
3-4 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp Thai Fish Sauce
Method
1. Wash and rinse Xiao Bai Cai thoroughly, making sure there is no sand or debris in between the stems. (Good habit to wash vegetables even though you know they were grown hydroponically. There could be worms or whatever creepy crawlies sometimes, so better to be safe.)
2. Chop them up into bite size pieces. This allows for easy cooking, and also easier to eat. (Of course, you would know that already.) Also, shred the Fried Tau Kee into thin strips.
3. Heat 3-4 tbsp of Olive Oil in the wok/pan. Make sure the oil is hot by turning up the heat to high. Fry the garlic pieces, giving them a quick stir to prevent the garlic from burning. Do this until the garlic pieces are fragrant and start to brown. Then add in the shredded Fried Tau Kee pieces. Fry until you smell the tau kee pieces (sorry don’t know how else better to explain this part). After that, reserve the garlic and fried tau kee pieces in a plate while you cook the vegetables.
4. You generally would want more oil so that the vegetables will cook better and not burn. So if need be, add more oil. (I say more oil because I like to fry my vegetables using high heat, and oil helps to prevent the vegetables from burning. I find that the vegetables cooks evenly that way, so that works for me. I know it is unhealthy to use so much oil.)
5. Next with the remainder oil in the work, fry the stems first as these tend to take a while to cook, and once they are cooked, then add the rest of the vegetables in to continue to fry. Remember to do the pan flip method. Quickly drizzle the Thai Fish Sauce over the vegetables and continue to pan flip the vegetables. The searing sound of the vegetables burning along the sides of the pan would ensure that it is cooked evenly. (At least that’s how I would cook it. Sometimes stirring it with the wooden spatula doesn’t mix the vegetables or the sauce that well.)
6. After that, put the reserved ingredients (garlic and fried tau kee) and continue to do the pan flip method. Once you have mixed the ingredients well, cover the vegetables with the lid and allow it to steam for a few minutes. This would soften the vegetables and allow the fish sauce to mix in well. That’s it.
Stir Fry Bitter Gourd with 妖肉 in Salted Black Beans
I am throwing down the gauntlet for this recipe, it super heightens umami in an amazing manner that I can’t even begin to describe it. Like they say, the proof of the pudding is in the tasting.
This twist to an old recipe that my mum always made looks likely to stay in my arsenal of recipes. Instead of the usual beef stir fry slices, I am using “yeow” meat or in Mandarin 妖肉 as I so fondly refer to that prized cut of pork.
Sliced thinly and simply marinated with light soya sauce and white pepper yields a flavour that is out of this world. Perfect, at least it is in my culinary journey so far.
The bitter gourd fried using the pan flip method and hot oil, flung up and down to a sweetened tenderness that is just fabulous. The key is to cook the ingredients separately and then bringing them together later on to cook together.
Recipe
Ingredients
A whole Bitter Gourd (sliced thinly or about half a centimetre thick)
2-3 tsp of Salted Black Beans
4-5 cloves of Garlic (bruised)
50 grams of “Yeow” 妖肉 (in hokkien it is called “yo lai ba”) Light Soya Sauce Thai Fish Sauce White Pepper Olive Oil
Method
1. Slice the pork into thin slices and then marinate in light soya sauce about 2 tsp. Add some white pepper. Leave the pork slices to marinate for about 5 minutes.
2. Bruise or crush the garlic, no need to mince. Then heat 3-4 table spoons of oil in the wok and stir fry the garlic pieces. Fry until the sides are slightly brown. Then add the black beans in to stir fry. Then add the marinated pork.
3. Stir Fry the pork until it starts to change colours and the water content starts to form what looks like the sauce.
4. Reserve the pork slices aside once the meat texture start to change colours.
5. In the same pan, wash and heat another 3-4 tbsp of oil. This time around, you are frying the bitter gourd using the pan flip method. Fry until the bitter gourd is softened and tender (not mushy). Add a drizzle of Thai dish sauce to the bitter gourd pieces and continue to stir fry. The key I believe is the separate frying of the bitter gourd and the addition of fish sauce.
6. Once the bitter gourd is softened, add the reserved (from just now) meat and combine the ingredients. Keep frying and ensure that the ingredients are cooked and that there is now a confluence of flavours.
I love Kembong Fish, and if there was a choice between Selar and Kembong, I would choose the latter. The flesh of the Kembong fish is sweet and delicious, much nicer than the Selar. Try it.
I love having the fish fried with a little oil and making diagonal cuts along the slides of the fish to fill its guts with freshly chopped red chillis that have been mixed with a sprinkle of sea salt.
I like it fried until it is crispy and crunchy when you bite into it and with a squish of lime – it is perfect. The confluence of salty, sour and spicy flavours mixed together just makes you want to munch the crispy fish head. The perfect dish to accompany any meal, especially porridge.
Recipe
Ingredients
Kembong Fish (a few will do actually, usually I am only cooking for me and my wife) Red Chilli 2 pcs (chopped with a sprinkle of sea salt) Sea Salt (just a sprinkle will do) Calamansi Lime 2 Whole
Method
1. Wash the fish and remove the guts if you haven’t already. If you are not eating the fish on the same day, it is better to keep the guts of the fish in when buying the fish. This helps to keep it fresh longer.
2. Score the sides of the fish deep enough to create pockets to fill the sambal (aka chilli) paste.
3. Chop the red chillis until a fine paste. This paste I also call sambal. It’s a Malay word that means chilli? Sprinkle a little sea salt and give it a good mix with the spoon.
4. Fill the fish with the sambal paste and the fry it under medium heat in a frying pan. Make sure there is sufficient oil so that it can be crispy and crunchy when you bite it.
5. I usually use Olive oil or soya bean oil. The last thing you should be using is any vegetable oil that lists palm oil as its main ingredients. Palm oil is not healthy for you. So Olive or soya bean is best.
6. Serving suggestion: you may add a little bit of coriander leaves for colour, a drizzle of dark soya sauce if you want more flavour and a slight sweetness. Otherwise it is good just as it is.
Stir Fry Chicken with Scallops, Celery and Cashews
It’s a mouthful I must admit, but there is just no two ways of naming this amazing dish. The Stir Fry Chicken with Japanese Scallops, Australian Celery and American Cashews is just as multinational as the number of ingredients in it.
Of course the chicken is 100% local. Or at least I think it is. Or maybe it is Malaysian. *shrugged*
One thing is for certain. I cooked it in a very Singaporean kitchen. 100% home cooked. Okay so what you may say. And you are right. No big deal.
The only thing to shout about is really how well these ingredients all come together to make a delicious dish accompaniment to a perfect meal. The roasted cashews, seared to an uneven edgy char. The marinated chicken bits and pieces seasoned with the troika of marinates – white pepper, soya sauce and oyster sauce – three basic differences that brings such confluence of taste to simple poultry.
I love the roasted cashews and how the celery just added that unique flavour to the dish. Truly I was amazed that I realised to cook this dish only now. This is the stuff legends are made of.
Recipe
Ingredients
2 Chicken Drum (deboned)
Handful of Baked Cashews
3 stalks of Celery (chopped)
6 pieces of Scallops (halved) White Pepper Oyster Sauce Light Soya Sauce Olive Oil
Method
1. Marinate the chicken pieces in white pepper (about 1 tsp), 1 tbsp soya sauce and 1 tbsp oyster sauce. Leave it to marinate for about 5 minutes.
2. In a wok/pan heat about 3 tbsp oil. Then stir fry the cashews until they start to brown. Once the cashews are browning, add the marinated chicken pieces to stir fry. Ensuring that they change colour to a light brown.
3. Add the scallops and turn the heat up to high. Keep stirring to ensure evenness of cooking. Then throw in the chopped celery and cover the lid to steam the vegetables and softened them.
4. Steaming cooks the vegetables and the meats and allows the flavours to come together cohesively. Remove the lid and stir fry until you can smell the dish. Do a taste test and you can serve.
This is a recipe that I picked up on Asian Food Channel and I thought it was a fantastic idea to present it this way. The halibut fillet was topped with an Asian Salmon Sauce which I thought looked really delightful and tasty.
Ingredients like lemon grass, shredded kaffir lime leaves sautéed with shallots and garlic, and then blended with Thai sweet chilli sauce really adds flavours to the salmon to form a pate. Yes, we are blending the salmon fish together to make the fish paste, kind of like making an otah otah and then layering it on top of another fish.
If you can’t find halibut at your local Asian supermarket you can substitute it with the Basa BocourtiFish. If you don’t have either, any dory fillet also can.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 piece Halibut Fillet (alternatively you could also use the Basa Bocourti Fish, a Mekong River Catfish)
1 piece Salmon Fillet (cut into pieces to be blended)
2 stalks Lemon Grass
3 pieces of Kaffir Lime Leaves
2 bulbs of Shallots (small red onions also can)
3 cloves of Garlic (crushed)
3 tbsp Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce
100 ml Heavy Cream (aka cooking cream) Olive Oil Sea Salt Lemon wedge (a squish just before serving, optional)
Method
1. Chop the shallots. Crush the garlic. Then sauté in the pan with 2 tbsp of olive oil. Add a little salt to prevent the ingredients from burning. Salt helps to extract moisture from the ingredients.
2. Shred the lower ends of the lemon grass (about 1/3) and you may discard the rest. The flavour is strongest near the bottom. Shred the kaffir lime leaves and add the ingredients into the pan and continue frying.
3. After the flavours of the ingredients are blended, reserve aside. Chop the salmon into pieces. Place in blender/food processor. Add Thai sweet chilli sauce. Add heavy cream. Then add the sautéed ingredients and blend till well mixed. Adjust the textures accordingly with the heavy cream, if you need more liquid depending on the size of your salmon fillet. It should be an orangy hue like otah otah.
4. Season the halibut fillet with salt and black pepper. Spread the salmon pate on the top of the halibut fillet and then cut them up into squares. Arrange the squares on a baking tray and bake them at 180 degrees for about 6 minutes. Serve with a squish of lemon if you like.
I decided to cook Sambal Belacan Petai with Prawns tonight. The stinky beans Petai is one of those lesser cooked at home and not generally appreciated, but with sambal belacan, it is magically transformed into a delicacy.
The wet market vegetable uncle had a huge supply of Petai that weekend and I had to grab a pack and plan it into my weekly gastronomic journey through the kitchen. One of the things that I enjoy doing these days is quick cooking. That is to come back and quickly whip up dinner dishes for the family in under 30 minutes. It’s a challenge to do it, but I totally look forward to doing it everyday.
So this simple recipe cooked with pre-made sambal belacan will definitely rock your socks off. The key is the cooking time and a non stick pan/wok. Otherwise it is very easy to cook Petai.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 bag of Petai (stinky beans usually available at the wet market)
1 large tbsp of Sambal Belacan (I got those pre-made ones at the supermarket)
1 large Yellow Onion (quartered)
6 large Glass Prawns (I realised that this type of prawns are perfect for the dish, they are expensive, but no regrets)
2 cloves of Garlic (minced)
2 tbsp Olive Oil
Method
1. Some preparation needs to be done with the Petai beans. You need to split the beans into halves and wash them thoroughly. We split the beans because sometimes there are worms burrows and those need to be discarded.
2. In a non-stick wok, add olive oil and stir fry the onions. You would want a non-stick wok or pan because you would be frying the ingredients over high heat for a while and you generally don’t want the ingredients to char and burn.
3. After frying the onions until they are softened and fragrant, add the Petai to stir fry. You then continue to stir fry until some of the onions begin to brown slightly. These visual milestones are important because cooking equipment and timing may differ.
4. Add the minced garlic and fry till you can smell the fragrance of the garlic. Then add a generous table spoon of Sambal Belacan and continue to stir fry, making sure that the ingredients are coated with the sambal sauce.
5. Once you can smell the fragrance of the chilli paste. Add in the prawns to cook. For this dish, you would want to cook the prawns until they turn into an “O” shape. Although I often say “O” means overcooked, it is permissible for this dish as the direct heat is shared with other ingredients.
6. Once sufficiently cooked, taste that the Petai beans are soft and yummy. Serve with steamed rice.
I am making a very simple Beef and Carrot Soup for dinner tonight. Beef provides the necessary iron nutrition for my toddler and I am pairing it with carrots because they both do very well together.
My son loves carrots, so I have added a little more carrots just so that he can mix it into his rice for dinner. I am adding a few slices of ginger, just 5 thin slices (5 being the number of Grace) just so that the beef soup would taste really nice. My maternal grandmother used to make this really nice beef and carrot soup for us kids when we visit on Sundays. So this is a really nice memory for me.
I am also adding half a slice of dried cuttlefish into the soup to sweeten the broth. Cuttlefish has that magic touch to bring the soup together and make it extremely tasty. I will complete the soup tonight with Chinese Celery. I recently discovered that food stall holders have been using a lot of the Chinese celery as opposed to the Chinese parsley for their garnishing. It appears, and I think it is true as well, that the Chinese celery’s strong flavour works very well with meats in general.
Just a simple and very easy recipe for dinner. Cooked in a thermal cooker for a good 10-12 hours so that the meats will be tender and soft for toddler and delicious for everyone.
Recipe
Ingredients
250 grams Shin Beef cubes
2-3 medium Carrots
Half a Dried Cuttlefish (really good for flavour) Sea Salt (adjust according to your tastebuds)
5 thin slices of Ginger
2 stalks of Chinese Celery (to be added into the soup just before serving)
Method
1. As I am using a thermal cooker, I need a large kettle of boiling water for the soup. I am boiling the meat for a good 15 minutes at high heat before putting it into the thermal cooker for slow cooking.
2. I got Shin Beef cubes as they are cheap and since I am slow cooking the meats, it will be tender by the end of the day anyway, so the cheapest cuts of beef will be good enough.
3. The only thing that I need to prepare would be the carrots and ginger as the beef cubes are already prepared by the butcher, so that’s very convenient as I am always short for time in the mornings.
4. Peel and cut the carrots into bite size pieces. Then put all the prepared ingredients into the pot (just like the picture above) for the grand opening ceremony. Pour the hot boiling water into the pot and turn up the heat. Boil at high heat for 15 minutes and by then you should also be able to smell the fragrance of the beef soup taking shape.
5. Come back by the end of the day to re-boil the soup. This time, add the chopped Chinese celery and boil until it bubbles. The soup is now ready to be served.
It’s date night and thank God for precious date nights after marriage. My parents offered to take care of the toddler while we enjoyed a semblance of time together when we were dating. Thank God for understanding parents.
And as my aunty told me before so wisely, “don’t waste time watching movies when you date.. Go have a meal..” she advised. Those were words worth its weight in gold. The simple reasoning behind those words were, you can’t get to know and understand each other if you don’t communicate. Conversations over a good meal are way better than watching a movie.
So we decided to have Thai BBQ for dinner as we could better afford the time and what better place than to try out Thai Mookata Steamboat and BBQ (in a nutshell it is BBQ meats, seafoods and vegetables on a rather unique looking hotplate with soup combination). I did a search and realised that there was only one outlet in Singapore. It was at East Coast Road and kind of out of the way.
Also I knew it can’t be true as I was sure there were plenty more of these Thai BBQ places around, most notably the ones located all over Golden Mile Complex. So I did another search but this time more ambiguous and that result yielded more than 50 weblinks of Thai BBQ places in Singapore. Nice.
Plus my friend told me that there was a tiny stall at a coffee shop located at Block 332 Ang Mo Kio Ave 8 (just behind Christ The King Catholic Church). Siam Square Mookata was the name of that stall and it seems the reviews of the place are that they were “cheap and good”.
That sounded good with us and off we went. I remembered there was a time almost all of our construction was completed by Thai foreign workers. And that just makes sense that Thai food places begun springing up all over the island to cater to their tastes and needs and over time everyone loves Thai foods as well.
It was just a tiny little stall space in a coffee shop and their BBQ plates of ingredients were reasonably priced at either $1.80, $2.80 or greater as you order the more premium stuff like scallops ($3.80).
They have a rather interesting price menu where they offer ala carte prices first and if you feel at any one time you would wanna go all out at the buffet, you can change to buffet price (about $29 per person). Of course the caveat is you can only switch to buffet price if you are still ordering another round of items and not when you are paying up. But the stall people are very nice about it, they will frequently ask if we wanted to convert to buffet. Such nice people, always thinking for their customers.
Apart from that, the freshness of the ingredients was undeniably good, and for what it’s worth, the entire experience was very nice. They offered both marinated and meats without marinate, but I preferred them plain without the sauces. They taste much nicer after BBQ-ing. Plus it wasn’t crowded even at dinner time, so that was an added bonus. I always love these quaint coffee shop places that are located next to a big spacious carpark, it just gives me a feeling of comfort and I am naturally at ease.
Conclusion
So would I go again? Maybe, if I lived nearer. They didn’t offer anything very special, and in the end we almost ordered the equivalent of their buffet price. But still a very nice experience.
So it’s Father’s day today and my wifey planned a secret lunch for me – how sweet. I can only say I was happily and pleasantly surprised when she brought me to the Dancing Crab for Father’s day lunch.
At the door I already had visual hallucinations of how it would be like, like the colourful pages of a Singapore Cookbook that I saw at the book store. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into the crabs and be so totally satisfied. This is the second outlet as compared to the first one which is located at some inaccessible location. So this outlet at Orchard Central makes sense for a lot of customers.
The friendly staff made the lunch experience special. Although the pseudo American accent was a tad too much for me. I guess it is after-all an American styled diner with country music and whiny guitar solos.
We ordered the Combo #1 and that came with the Sri Lankan crab, prawns, clams and some vegetables all mixed in a mild spicy ang mo styled tomato sauce. It tasted mildly fusion as I was half expecting to eat boiled crabs and shrimp and had hope to savor in all that fresh juiciness. Maybe we should have chosen a different sauce? Was there a different sauce? I didn’t really check and just said “mild” when prompted for the level of spiciness.
It’s always a good practice to take the least spicy level when you are not familiar with the place. Make sure you start at the bottom and work your way upwards. But the sauce made the crab taste like a chilli crab recipe that kind of “lost its way” while trying to cater to the Boston palate.
Also, I thought our Sri Lankan crab looked a wee bit tiny as compared to the guys they displayed in the fish tank. So we checked with the waitress and she confirmed that it was Sri Lankan.
So our crab and shrimp combo came in a pot and we were supposed to eat it with our fingers and get our hands dirty. The tables were all covered with plastic sheets so that we can pour (literally) our meal all over the table. Interesting idea, just that the tables were a tad too small for us to do that without having our food falling off the table.
The mild spicy tomato based sauce kind of masked the taste of the seafood for me and for some reason, I couldn’t enjoy my seafood like I usually do. But you might like it, who knows, different tastebuds and preferences. But it didn’t work the magic for me this time.
The truffle fries were very nicely done. We loved it – including our toddler. He munched and munched and totally loved it. The truffle flavour in the fries made us want to munch continuously and that is a sign that they got it right.
The refreshing spin on the lemonades are good. I ordered two flavours, the pink thyme lemonade and the lavender lemonade. And as much as I hate lavender flavour in my foods (because lavender reminds me of the toilet because my office loves using lavender flavoured toilet freshener) the lavender lemonade tasted much nicer than the pink thyme which was strange, but good.
Conclusion
Would I go back there again? Maybe not, but I am sure it appeals to many many people.
Got a day off today and I went to the supermarket and saw some really nice grey prawns. They were of reasonable size and I thought it would be perfect if I made Salted Egg Cereal Prawns.
My wife wanted me to make her favouriteGarlic Tomato Prawns for dinner but I decided that I would try out something different and technically a little more demanding. I always like a little challenge in my cooking.
So I turned on my favourite techno house music and started preparing for dinner. I purposely kept the prawns cold in the fridge until it was time to cook because I saw on tv some tempura chef mentioned that the prawns need to be chilled just before deep frying them. Besides that, everything else is standard in my opinion.
Recipe
Ingredients
12 Grey Prawns (refrigerate the prawns until just before cooking)
1 packet of crispy Cereal (I bought the A1 brand at NTUC and it’s very convenient to use, you may also consider the classic Quaker Oatmeal if you like that.)
4 Salted Eggs
3 sprigs of Curry Leaves (in reality there is a lot of wastage, NTUC doesn’t sell 3 sprigs of curry leaves)
30 grams of Unsalted Butter
4 tbsp Corn Starch
2 Eggs (chicken eggs)
1 tsp Chicken Stock powder
A sprinkle of White Pepper powder Olive Oil (for deep frying)
Method
1. Take the prawns out of the fridge and de-shell them leaving only the heads and tail (as the saying goes in hokkien, woo-tau-woo-buay lit. in mandarin 有头有尾). By now you would have cracked the two eggs into a bowl with the chicken stock and white pepper and given it a good mix.
2. In another plate, the corn starch is spread out and ready to go. Heat the oil in the wok and get it ready for deep frying. Using a pair of chopsticks, pick up the prawns dip in egg batter, then in corn starch coating and then into the hot oil.
3. You generally want to give the prawns a good fry of about 15 seconds. So you got to moderate an assembly line. 1st prawn goes in, then you prepare the next prawn, turn the prawn in the wok when you place the next prawn in and the third prawn is being dipped in batter.
4. Once the prawns have had 15 seconds of oil. Drop them into a strainer. Once all the prawns are cooked, turn off the fire and dip them into the hot oil all at once. Then strain them again.
5. Prepare the salted eggs (it would be good to cook them way before you even take the prawns out of the fridge). Salted Eggs are not cooked and are raw. So you got to factor that into your cooking time. Extract the yolks and you can use the whites for porridge.
6. In a clean wok, melt the butter. Be careful not to burn the butter. Add the salted egg yolks to cook. Using your frying paddle to mesh the yolks into the butter. This forms your sauce. Add the curry leaves at this point and the packet of crispy Cereal flakes. You can use whatever cereal flake you like, it doesn’t really matter.
7. Moderate the heat and stir quickly so that the butter doesn’t become clumpy. Immediately add the prawns into the wok and stir vigorously to coat the prawns with the cereal flakes.
8. Once prawns are all more or less coated with the cereal flakes. You may serve immediately.
The Basa Bocourti fish as the name suggests is really a Basa Fish aka the Mekong River catfish commonly found in Vietnam’s boutique street wet markets. They are very fleshy and are commonly found in their rivers. The fish when cooked has a nice sweet flavour unlike the cheaper Toman fish
This fish is also nicely filleted and packed at NTUC. Good for me because now I can just pick it up from the supermarket without having to haggle with the street side vendor, although I would gladly do the latter. There is something whimsical about market place values that the supermarket just can’t emulate.
Boil a very nice pot of porridge and lightly salt the Basa Fish and you will have a very nice fish porridge. The flesh when cooked is paper white and also flaky although not as firm as theRed Garoupa. There is virtually no bones with the fikkets which is strange but I am not complaining. So it is very safe for toddlers to have them for meals.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 Basa Bocourti Fillet (about $2.50 for a rather large fillet, portion enough for 3 pax)
If there is a fish porridge that I like better thanBatang or Bay Kah fish porridge, it would be Red Garoupa. The firm flesh of the fish just makes for very nice fish porridge, though some older folks will say that it is loh koh (read: hard to eat). I say porridge but you might call it congee. It is the same to me actually.
But it is a fish that is a joy to work with. Slicing is so easy and the flesh is firm and tender at the same time. Just a simple marinate of light soya sauce and the fish slices when cooked is a lovely sweet savoury flavour, and flaky too because that is an indication of freshness. Then add a garnish of shredded Chinese celery and you are good to go.
Recipe
Ingredients
Red Garoupa steak (about 150 grams for 1 portion) Chinese Celery 2-3 stalks (these are very thin stalks) Light Soya Sauce1 tbsp Sesame Seed Oil 1 tsp Dried Chinese Scallops 5 pieces
Half a cup of Rice (to be boiled for porridge)
Method
1. Boil the uncooked grains of rice in a pot for about 15 minutes over medium heat. Longer if you want it to be very mushy. Add more water if you like it watery. Throw the scallops into the pot to flavour the porridge.
2. Slice the flesh of the Garoupa meat thinly and marinate it with the soya sauce and sesame seed oil. Leave it in the fridge for about 10 minutes.
3. Once porridge is boiling and rice grains are soft and broken down, you can add the fish slices in to cook. As seafood doesn’t need to cook very long, about 5 minutes would be suffice. The flesh should be paper white and nicely curved after cooking.
4. Add the shredded Chinese celery into the porridge for that lovely flavour. Add some more light soya sauce if you want your porridge tastier.
If you have tasted Singapore Chilli Crab and like it, you will most probably love crab bee hoon like you love your mother-in-law. Okay, maybe not a good example, but think of crab bee hoon as a softer option compared to the spicy version.
Cooked in a milky buttery broth and served with bee hoon or white noodles, this masterpiece dish is very easy to cook. I say again, anyone can cook this dish. It’s a walk in the park. Add a little tang-orh vegetables and it is a perfect meal.
We usually go to this place at Ang Mo Kio named Melben for our craving for crab bee hoon, but honestly, they have become quite pricey and sometimes the journey there and the long waiting time just makes the whole experience much to be desired.
So I decided that I would make my own crab bee hoon but make it more fabulous with what my wife and I love to eat. Udon noodles instead of the bee hoon. LOL. In fact, I think it tasted better with Udon.
Recipe
Ingredients
2 “live” Mud Crabs (about 800 grams)
2 packets of Udon Noodles
20 thin slices of Ginger
1 tray of Fresh Clam Meat (NTUC got sell)
1 box Mini Toufu Puffs
60 grams of Unsalted Butter
Half a cup of Evaporated Milk
A pinch of Sea Salt (I use the Maldon Brand of Sea Salt Flakes)
2 tbsp Shao Xing Hua Tiao Jiu
2 tbsp Hakka Rice Wine
1 tsp Castor Sugar
1 tbsp Fish Sauce
Method
1. Boil 1 and a half kettle of water. (1 kettle is about 1.7 litres) Once the water is boiled, pour into a large pot. Turn on fire to a slow boil and add the clam meat and 10 slices of ginger. Boil for about 30 minutes. Then discard the clams and ginger.
2. In another pot, fry the rest of the ginger slices in butter and then add the mini Toufu puffs (sliced diagonally) and continue cooking. Once the Toufu has softened. Add them into the main pot.
3. Turn the heat up to medium. Add evaporated milk. Add that pinch of salt, the fish sauce, hua tiao jiu, hakka rice wine and sugar. Continue to stir. Do a taste test to make sure the it is not too salty, but creamy.
4. Kill the crabs. Using a cleaver, chop right down the belly of the crab. Then remove the pincers and then the body parts. Reserve the eggs (if any) and wash the crabs. After the crabs are cleaned, using the back of the cleaver, break the shells.
5. Once crabs are ready, throw them into the broth. Cook until the colour changes to a hue of red. Add the Udon noodles (or white noodles) and cook for a few minutes. After that serve hot.
6. Prepare and wash the tang-orh vegetables. This is to be dipped into the broth and eaten immediately.
I called this dish Special Fried Egg because I really didn’t want to call it Fried Egg with Prawns Pork Minced and French Beans. That would be a tad too long for a title of dish, and remembering that it is important to name your dishes so that it won’t be too obvious. So there, Special Fried Egg.
Of course there is nothing very special about this dish except that it has quite a few ingredients all combined together. Fresh glass prawns are really good for this although a tad expensive. You may just use grey shrimp. Much cheaper and you won’t burn a hole in the wallet. Add regular minced pork and French beans and there you go. Comfort food that every kid who used to eat at home before fast food chains came along and dominated our tastebuds with salt and all things unwholesome.
Putting this special fried egg together was really a walk down memory lane for me. My nanny used to cook this dish for lunch every other week. It has become somewhat a cult classic for me. The taste, textures, the classic burnt edges. They all make up what this classic dish should be.
Recipe
Ingredients
3 large Glass Prawns
60 grams of Minced Pork
10 pieces of French Beans
2 whole Eggs Light Soya Sauce
Method
1. De-shell the prawns and use only the meat. Chop into a paste. Then mix with the minced pork. Now use a heavy cleaver, chop and continue to combine the two ingredients until they become one paste.
2. Cut the French Beans into small pieces. Discard either ends. Assemble all the ingredients into a large bowl. Crack the eggs into the bowl. The egg acts as the social glue. Add soya sauce about 1 tbsp.
3. Now use your hands to mix. I like getting my hands dirty. Leave it to marinate a while.
4. Add oil into a wok (if you don’t know what a good wok looks like, you may want to refer to this Helen Chen non-stick pan). Turn heat up high. Pour the mixture into the frying pan and allow it to cook and congeal. Then do the magic flip and repeat on the other side. Use as much oil as you like. It has to be cooked nicely.
The interesting about Asian foods is that they usually name it by describing its contents, there is hardly any pizzazz in the naming of the dish. It’s probably a dish created by the man in the street for the man in the street. I can’t find any other reason why you would call fish ball bee hoon soup by any other name.
Other foods like laksa or lor mee sound like they were created in a more refined kitchen. Maybe I am just guessing, but I think it is quite a fair assumption to think that way. It’s kind of like calling a spade a spade.
So anyway, I love fish balls. The textures, the taste, and with other else in the bowl, this would make my day. So I decided that I would make a very simple and classic fish ball bee hoon soup for lunch.
Recipe
Ingredients
10 Fish Balls (purchased from the wet market)
1 pc Bee Hoon (I usually use the two chilli brand)
A leaf of Chinese Cabbage Light Soya Sauce
Method
1. Boil some water in a kettle and pour into the pot. Place the bee hoon (usually dried) and cook for a minute over a small fire.
2. Put the fish balls into the pot to cook. The test to see if they are cooked is to watch them all eventually float. Easy. Add the shredded Chinese cabbage and cook a minute longer and you can serve. Add soya sauce to taste.
Another comfort food for those that are in dire need of much comfort. Yes, fish porridge is definitely on my list of comfort foods. I dont usually do fish porridge the way my mum likes to cook it, but since I haven’t been feeling all that fantastic, I thought I should do it like how mum cooks it.
She loves to use bay-kah fish which I don’t really have at ntuc, so I guess I just have to make do with batang fish. Same same but slightly different. The texture of the meat is kind of like tuna in a way. Maybe one of these days I might experiment with tuna to make fish porridge.
Mum would skin off the fish, chop the meat into a paste and season it with light soya sauce and sesame seed oil. All the ingredients that makes it great. I don’t know what else or maybe I wasn’t really paying attention. So this is my version of my mum’s fish porridge.
Recipe
Ingredients
A cut of Batang Fish (usually the lower part is best)
Some Tong Chai (this is some kind of pickled vegetable that is for flavouring soups) Light Soya Sauce Sesame Seed Oil
Half a cup of Rice (this is for cooking porridge)
Method
1. De-skin the Batang Fish or remove as much meat as possible. The meat is then chopped aggressively as if to mince it.
2. Once it is suitably minced, add light soya sauce and sesame seed oil to marinate the fish paste.
3. Once the fish paste is ready, you can spoon dollops into the plain porridge and stir until it is cooked.
4. Cooking plain porridge is easy. Add rice to a pot and boil with water until the rice breaks down.
5. Add tong chai to flavour the porridge and you can eat.
My wife and I went to Putien restaurant for lunch the other day and we ordered their Fish Soup, simply because we love soup. It was then that I noticed that they had a very interesting take on the soup. They used a Yellow Croaker for the broth, which resulted in a light and mildly flavoured fish soup. Personally I thought it was so-so only.
It was oily, gingery but delicious, just that the fish flavour could be a little stronger and the fish itself could be a little tastier. My lightning fast taste-buds quickly deciphered the soup and memorized the ingredients list and reverse engineered the entire cooking process in my mind. So I decided to cook my version of that fish soup, but using my favourite Garoupa fish head. Sure nice one.
I stir fried the ginger slices and a few cloves of garlic. Then fried the fish head without any seasoning or salt. Just in the same oil. In another pot, I was boiling a natural chicken stock. Kind of got tired of the pre-made chicken stocko as I felt it was too salty. Added a few essential ingredients like wolfberries, Chinese scallops and dried oysters. Done.
The final product was a perfect fish soup. The flesh of the Red Garoupa was flavourful and tender, better in taste than the flesh of the Yellow Croaker.
Recipe
Ingredients
2 carcass of Chicken Bones (for making stock)
1 whole RedGaroupa fish head (small)
10 thin slices of Ginger
5 cloves of Garlic
Handful of Wolfberries
5 number of Chinese Scallops
3 number of Dried Oysters Olive Oil Sea Salt
Optional
10 slices of Yam (pre-packed yam will do)
4 pieces of Tau Pok (aka dried bean curd puffs)
Method
1. Boil the chicken stock using the chicken bones. Skim off the fat and dried blood as you boil. Soak the scallops and oysters in hot water for about 10 minutes.
2. Fry the ginger slices in the oil until it starts to brown a little. Then take it out. Now fry the garlic whole (not minced) and then take it out when it browns.
3. Next fry up the fish in the same oil. Add a little more oil if need be. Once the fish starts to brown a little add the pre-fried ingredients of ginger and garlic back into the wok. Add the soaked scallops, soaked oysters and also the wolfberries.
4. Now you can ladle the natural chicken stock into the wok and continue to cook the fish soup over a slow simmer. Do this for about 10-15 minutes. Seafood cooks rather quickly especially fish. It is kind of like having steam boat. Add salt to taste.
5. If you want to add tau pok and yam slices, you may do so, and it will be perfect. But if not, it will still taste great!
This is my mother-in-law’s recipe. As much as you might wonder if the above photo resemble some kind of fossilized crustacean, I assure you, it is not. Those prawns were fresh. My picture taking skills on the other hand leaves much to be desired.
I asked my mother-in-law how she cooked it one day and she said a whole load of ingredients which sounded like a whole load of ingredients. Very hard to follow. So I decided that I would simplify her recipe to just three ingredients.
Make it easy for you and me. Prawns, garlic and good old tomato sauce. Easy. Best part is, it still tastes fantastic.
Recipe
Ingredients
6 medium sized Glass Prawns
Lots of Garlic (rough chop)
3-4 tbsp of Tomato Sauce Olive Oil
Method
1. Heat oil in wok. Throw the prepared garlic pieces in to fry until fragrant. Then throw the prawns in. Fry until they form a “C-shape”. Then add tomato sauce. Continue frying, add a little bit of water. Let it simmer a minute and it’s done.
The old Cucumber Melon can readily be found almost everywhere and is available at your local wet market grocer or NTUC supermarkets. But for some reason, I have resisted cooking it until now.
Don’t get me wrong, I love this traditional soup especially at the Chinese restaurants and sometimes at the food courts. But like the Burdock Soup 牛蒡汤, I have only recently started cooking this melon soup.
Simple, nutritious and delicious. If I can do it, anyone can.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 medium size Old Cucumber Melon
10 pieces Dried Red Dates
5 pieces Dried Scallops
2 pieces Dried Octopus
250 grams Pork Ribs Salt
Method
1. Cut the old Cucumber in half and gorge out the seeds with a spoon. Then chop into chunks. Place the pork ribs, red dates, scallops, octopus and the prepared melon into the pot. Add a little salt. Pour in a kettle of boiling water into the pot.
2. Boil for at least 20 minutes. Then place the pot in the thermal cooker and re-heat after 12 hours when you are back from work.
The most basic recipe in my arsenal of home cooked recipes, the white pomfret steamed in Teochew style. You may also wish to check out my other recipe Teochew Steamed Garoupa if you prefer another type.
The White Pomfret has accompanied our family feasts for many years now, I have been eating this fish since my childhood, steamed to perfection this way. In fact it is one of the few recipes that I used since starting my gastronomic journey.
This recipe is simple and basic. Dried shitake mushrooms, tomatoes, preserved salted vegetables (aka kiam chye), preserved salted plums and ginger. Garnished with Chinese parsley, and it is a perfect dish. I particularly like using this fish for Teochew style steaming because the flesh is very succulent and sweet when cooked perfectly.
Recipe
Ingredients
A medium sized White Pomfret (maybe about 800-900 grams)
50-60 grams of Kiam Chye(shredded thinly)
2 medium sized Tomatoes (quartered)
5 pieces Dried Shitake Mushrooms (soaked and sliced)
2 pieces of Preserved Salted Plums
A few slices of Ginger
3 stalks of Chinese Parsley
Method
1. Wash and gut the pomfret. Or you can get the Fishmonger to help you gut the fish. Of course if you want to keep the fish fresh till the day you’re gonna eat it, it is recommended to keep the guts intact.
2. Place one crushed salted plum in the gut of the fish. Also place a few slices of Ginger in the stomach of the fish as well. This helps rid the stomach of the fish of any smells or bitter taste.
3. Soak the mushrooms in hot water and snip off the stems, then slice them. Continue to soak after slicing. Cut the tomatoes into quarters. As for the kiam chye, shred them thinly.
4. Sprinkle the shredded kiam chye on the centre of the plate. Then lay the pomfret on top of the salted vegetables. Surround the fish with the tomatoes and sliced mushrooms. Place the other crushed salted plum on the plate.
5. Steam the pomfret a good 20 minutes at high heat. Once it is done, garnish with chopped parsley. Allow the heat to wilt the parsley a little before serving. Shiok!
The Garoupa is undoubtedly one of the best fish to be prepared in the Teochew style. The flesh when well steamed and cooked would be firm and flaky, sweet and succulent. It is truly a fish in a class of its own.
It’s one of my favourite fish for my Claypot Fish Head recipe where I would try to get the red variety of the fish. Delicious. There was no way of going back to any other variant of fish after tasting the Garoupa prepared in the claypot fish head style.
Tonight’s dinner is a presentation of this fish in classic Teochew style. Steamed with tomatoes, kiam chye, dried Shitake mushrooms and preserved salted plums. A few slices of Ginger to remove any awkward bitterness in the stomah, and the dish would be complete and ready.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 medium size Garoupa fish
20-30 grams of Kiam Chye (sliced)
5 pieces of Dried Shitake Mushrooms
2 medium size Tomatoes
2 pieces of Preserved Salted Plums
2 inches of Ginger
2 stalks of Spring Onions
Method
1. Defrost the fish (assuming that you are like me, storing the marketing of the week in the freezer). Meanwhile, slice the kiam chye (aka preserved salted vegetables) and quart the tomatoes. Decorate the metal plate (I use the metal plate for steaming all my fishes) with the prepared ingredients.
2. Soak the dried mushrooms in hot boiling water until softened. Then slice into large chunks. Also decorate the plate, surrounding the fish with the mushrooms. Slice a few pieces of ginger and stuff it into the stomach of the fish. This helps to rid the fish of any bitterness.
3. Place a preserved plum into the stomach cavity of the fish and crush another to be placed on the plate. This helps to flavour the fish as well as the fish stock that is expressed from the fish during steaming.
4. Steam the fish for at least 20 minutes at high heat. Garnish with spring onions if you like. Serve hot.
A quick and dirty recipe that I love to use whenever I am short of time to cook, is none other than spaghetti. There are so many permutation of recipes that I could think of with just so few ingredients. It is the technique that is most important when cooking pasta, not so much the choice of ingredients. Of course, if you have fresh ingredients, then that makes for an even better pasta experience.
I usually do this lovely Italian styled recipe with a little Singaporean twist to it. It is not al dente but you could make it that if you wanted to. I cook for my family, and that means my toddler needs to be able to eat it and enjoy it. So I do the Singaporean thing which is to make the pasta softer than usual, and very soupy with lots of sauce. You may not like my style of pasta. But my family loves it and that’s all that matters.
So I got home really late this evening, and it didn’t help that the taxi driver tried to be a know-it-all race car driver. He was speeding, taking sharp turns and slamming the brakes all throughout the journey back. By the time I got back, I was near exhausted and almost collapsed. It was really tough.
Plus I promised the family that I would make the most fantabulous pasta in the world. But I was really zoned out and feeling like crap. It doesn’t help that I have motion sickness and that basically worsened my dizziness. It took me longer than usual to recover this time around, but when I managed to overcome the sickness, I jumped straight into the kitchen.
I like my pasta in a certain way, so this recipe had a moderate difficulty rating as compared to my even quicker and dirtier soups that I make every morning. So if you’re ready, let’s get down to it.
Recipe
Ingredients
half a packet of Barilla brand Spaghetti (cooks in about 8 minutes al dente, but I usually cook them in about 11 minutes)
8 large Prawns (these are slightly greenish in colour)
8 large Scallops (defrosted)
a can of Narcissus Button Mushrooms (small can will do)
a can of Hunt’s Whole Tomato Sauce
a bottle of Leggos’ Tomato Paste (you can use any brand of sauce or paste, it doesn’t really matter)
Salted Butter
Olive Oil
Sea Salt
Black Pepper
Method
1. Firstly boil the pasta in a pot of water with a dash of olive oil and a pinch of sea salt. Boil for about 11 minutes (or longer if you are cooking for kids). After cooking, drain and add some olive oil to prevent it from becoming dry and clumpy. You may wish to douse it in ice cold water to stop the cooking so that the noodles are still firm.
2. Then add butter into the frying pan, with a little olive oil and sauté the button mushrooms. Add a little black pepper and sea salt. Stir fry until the mushrooms sear and shrink down in size. Then add the prawns to cook together with the mushrooms. Keep the heat moderate, and when the prawns start to curl up into the shape of a letter “C”, that is the sign that the prawns are “cooked”. If you don’t watch over this process carefully, what will happen is the prawns will continue curling and will eventually form an “O” shape. That basically means the prawns are now “Overcooked”. Simple tip.
3. Reserve the prawns and mushrooms into their individual plates. Now to cook the scallops. Add some butter, and olive oil to a new pan (if need be, wash the pan that you’re using) and turn the heat to a moderate level. Stir fry the scallops and also allow them to sear on both sides. You want to add a little salt so that they will taste a little better. Now with the scallops, it can be a little tricky, if you fry too long, it dries up too quickly. If you don’t cook it well enough, it may not taste as fantastic. This one requires some skill, and there are not many visible cues like “C” or “O” to help you along. So I will say – use the force.
4. After the scallops are done, place them in their plates and you can now add the pasta into the pan. By now they would be a little dry, and so you would need some water. You may add whatever water that you reserve before pouring out the pot (that you cooked the pasta in). Now the part that I like the most, preparing the tomato sauce.
5. I use a combination of tomato paste and tomato sauce (I don’t mean Maggi Tomato Sauce, but the real tomato sauce with real tomatoes in the can). Pour the sauce into the pasta, and add two tablespoons of tomato paste and stir. Add a little salt and black pepper and continue to cook. Break up the whole tomatoes and combine the paste into the sauce. Mix well.
6. Once it is ready, using a pair of food tongs, serve the pasta onto the plates with the rest of the ingredients. Typically I wouldn’t cook it this way, but it is my quick and dirty recipe. I usually would use a lot of garlic in my cooking, but I used up all my garlic making the Bak Kut Teh yesterday. Sprinkle a little thyme or basil leaves if you have them. Delicious.
I love this dish, especially at the Chinese restaurant whenever we have birthdays with grandma and grandpa. We would go to Tai San restaurant at this undisclosed location. We often go there at night and I would mostly be sleeping in the car due to motion sickness. And when I open my eyes, we would always just be driving into Tai San.
Come to think of it, people must have been richer then. We have cars and big houses. These days I can’t even afford a car or landed property. Have we improved or really become the new poor? We are more educated than our parents, but it seems we have lesser opportunities to break out of the poverty trap.
Anyway, the food at Tai San was always good. And we would always have our fill and family dinners were always about feasting and celebration. So this dish was always something that I would refer to as the menu filler. Scallops and Asparagus never really look like a main dish but more like a dish to make up the space in between great dishes. It was like a transitional dish to help make up the number.
It didn’t matter to me because I loved the dish as if it was a main. It was technically just as difficult as any of the other famous dishes to cook. If the scallops are not prepared properly, they would either be too raw or overcooked, and handling seafood is an art just like estimating the doneness in premium fillet mignon.
Here is my recipe for a very simple but delicious Scallops and Asparagus, hope you like it too.
Recipe
Ingredients
8-9 large stalks of Asparagus
6 large Japanese Scallops
2-3 Garlic (minced)
Drizzle of Light Soya Sauce
2-3 tbsp Olive Oil
Method
1. Shave the skin off the asparagus and sliced diagonally. Heat oil in wok, and fry the garlic until fragrant. Then throw in the asparagus pieces and fry at high heat. You want to create some gloss and be able to sear the vegetable.
2. Reserve the semi cooked asparagus and add oil again to fry the scallops. For this part, there is not much advice I can offer except that scallops cook rather quickly. Depending on the size you would want to moderate the heat in the pan. The end result you want to achieve is for the scallops to sear a little and to cook through.
3. Once the scallops are cooked through (most difficult part), add the asparagus back into the pan and continue to fry at high heat, add soya sauce and it should be just nice.
I realized through much trial and error that the best fish for frying in a combination of dark soy sauce and rice wine is none other than the Golden Pomfret.
The skin of the golden pomfret it seems is rather elastic and hard to tear for some reason, much like the skin of the shark. Of course the shark’s skin is probably tougher. So because of this elasticity, the fish after frying still looks really presentable. Unlike the black pomfret or some other variety of fish. In fact the taste of the golden pomfret fried is delicious.
All you need is a little corn starch and it fries to a nice golden brown. Very nice. The interesting thing about the Hakka rice wine is that once it is added into the hot oil, it bubbles and kind of caramelises the oil into a sauce.
It is also the only fish that we would eat until it is left an unrecognizable carcass of bones. Steaming doesn’t cut it. Frying is better.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 medium Golden Pomfret
3 inches of Ginger (julienned) Olive Oilfor frying Corn Starch for coating the fish
2 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
3 tbsp Hakka Rice Wine
Method
1. Heat oil in wok, then fry the ginger strips under low fire until crispy and slightly brown. Reserve the ginger aside.
2. Coat the pomfret with corn starch, just enough to cover the surface of the fish. Heat some more oil, sufficient for the size of the fish and when the oil is heated, fry the pomfret 5 minutes on each side under low fire.
3. Add the rice wine, and then the dark soy sauce and allow the sauce to bubble until the sauce goes into the fish. Once the fish is sufficiently doused in the sauce, serve with the ginger as garnishing.
There comes a time in the journey of a home cook that you would have to experiment with what you have in the fridge, cooking out of necessity rather than as an art. That moment is today, as I stare down the vegetable cabinet and the emptiness seemed to resonate the treble and bass in my voice as I mumbled to myself.
Drats! That’s all I have, arrowheads and radish. I guess that will do. Time to make magic happen.
Everybody knows that arrowhead (the waterchestnut looking thing in the picture) goes well with the Chinese yam huai san, but desperate times call for desperate measures and the only other tubular vegetable that I have left in the fridge is the humble white radish. Any-hoo, that will do.
My wife and I love this zi char place (read: small eatery) located along Purvis Street next to the famous Chin Chin Eating House (which we also like). But we love the claypot fish head there (that is the shop next to Chin Chin) and would make a weekly pilgrimage on Sundays after church.
Each time we had it, we would almost swear by it and stare at each other with glee written all over our faces. That claypot fish head was by far one of the best that we have ever had. The boss was this heavily jowled, grumpy-faced Chinese uncle that didn’t look happy all the time. I think I have never seen him happy before. And his shop looked run down and almost falling apart. But, they served gold in a claypot and as far as we are concerned, nothing else mattered. Most of the times, we would lick the pot clean save for a few bones.
That all changed one Sunday when we went back and realised to our dismay that they had mysteriously shut the business down. No word, no goodbye message. Nothing. It felt like the end of the world. Honestly, we felt betrayed and hurt. How could they do that to us, their loyal customers. Never mind the fact that each time we went there we ordered only their clay pot fish head, we really felt connected when we were there. These days we have become like wandering spirits in search of that elusive clay pot fish head shop, but alas, our efforts have all come to a nought. Needless to say, the rest of the clay pot fish head places that we have come across so far all seem to fall short of that place. Worse still, we totally never got their name nor name card. Something that we regret much till today.
So what’s so special about their clay pot fish head? Firstly, it is not too salty and has little or no MSG (many sick gourmands), I don’t get that dry throaty feeling after eating, which was a clear indication of how much MSG went into the cooking. The thirstier I got, the more MSG went into the cooking, and that irks me to the core. If you are a good cook, you can do the dish without MSG. What’s wrong with salt? The sauce was a thick, not watery mixture of all things wonderful. The fish head was as fresh as the morning dew on periwinkle petals.
Fast forward many unhappy claypot fish head meals later, we stumbled across this gem tucked away like an enclave, wedged in the middle of OG (read: OG stands for Ocean Garments Shopping Mall) at Albert Complex. Located on the second floor of OG, was this place known as 一口未, and they served really delicious clay pot fish head. I snapped a cannot-make-it photo with my cannot-make-it handphone camera below for all to drool. Trust me, it was drool worthy. They used Song Fish (which I don’t really like) but the sauce was exactly like that shop that we used to eat from.
Looks Shiok right?
However, being the perfectionist home-cook that I am, I wanted to make my own clay pot fish head. All these years of wandering around, finding for that perfect clay pot fish head, has somewhat taken its toll on our discriminating palate, and in a sense our taste buds may have been already damaged by the over MSGed meals that we have had.
So here is the result of much tinkering, my very own adapted clay pot fish head recipe. Tweaked to my liking and more importantly, my wife endorses it. She say 90% like the shop at Purvis with a score of 8 out of 10. I hear already chin happy. My version looks more swee than the picture above, and got more liao. Are you ready? Read on.
Updated 16 February 2015
My friend suggested that I do it again and post with photos, and actually I did do it again, and this time around I found that it tastes even better with Red Garoupa Fish Head! So no more Red Snapper for me, but you can still continue to use if you like. I used a Neoflam Kiesel Claypot for this because I think it cooked better than the traditional claypot. So maybe you may want to check that out.
* please note that I have included amazon affiliate links to the products I use, so check them out if you wish to support me, and if I can get these items from NTUC Supermarket, I would just indicate.
Recipe
Ingredients
800 grams Red Garoupa Fish Head (Split down the middle into two halves) {I buy my fish head from Blk 628 Market at Ang Mo Kio St 61, no regrets! Only $12) 1/2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce 1/2 tbsp Shao Xing Hua Tiao Jiu 1/2 tbsp Ginger Juice 1/2 tsp White Pepper Powder 3 tbsp Hakka Rice Wine 1 Egg (beaten) 3 tbsp Cornstarch Olive Oil (for deep frying, you may use Vegetable Oil if you like a cheaper alternative) 1 packet Bean Curd Puff (mini tau pok, cut into diagonals) 1 small Yam (sliced thinly) $3 worth of Roasted Pork Belly 1 inch Ginger (peeled and sliced thinly) 1 medium Yellow Onion (peeled and sliced thinly) 4-5 dried Shitake Mushrooms (soaked, sliced thinly as well) 1 small can Button Mushrooms (cut into halves) 2 tubes Red Chillies (seeds removed, roughly sliced) 3-4 cups of Chicken Stock 1 tbsp Oyster Sauce 1 tbsp Sesame Seed Oil 3 stalks of Spring Onions (sliced into 2 inch lengths) 2 clusters of Baby Romaine Lettuce (sliced into half)
Method
1. Marinate the Red Snapper in a ziplock bag with the soy sauce, shao xing hua tiao jiu, white pepper and ginger juice for about 10 minutes (if you have more time, you can marinate longer). 2. Mixed 2 tbsp cornstarch and 2 tbsp of water and an egg and mix it into a thick creamy batter. 3. Mixed 2 tbsp cornstarch and 2 tbsp water and set aside. 4. Heat olive oil over high heat and when it is about ready, dip the red snapper pieces into the batter, and deep fry for about 5-8 minutes. Tip: the more oil you use, the less likely the fish will burn. After frying both sides to a crispy brownish colour, set aside. 5. In another pot (this is where the clay pot magically appears and takes its place), add some oil, and fry the sliced ginger and onions. Fry them until they are softened and fragrant. Add chillies, two types of mushrooms, yam slices, mini tau pok and roasted pork belly, and continue frying. You may turn the heat up high for this part. 6. Add the chicken stock (I bought the packet type of chicken stock, although if you’re hardworking, you can also prepare it from scratch), sesame seed oil, hakka rice wine and oyster sauce. 7. Ensure that the ingredients are cooked fairly well, especially the yam and the tau pok. Then add the fried fish head pieces (whole, no need to cut small) back into the clay pot and simmer over low heat for about 8-10 minutes, constantly stirring to ensure evenness in cooking. 8. Last part, add the spring onions and mini romaine lettuce on top and if need be, add the cornstarch water to thicken the sauce a little. You may also pour the remainder of the egg batter into the pot and give it a good stir. Serve immediately with steamed rice.
My chef friend Alvin taught me this dish a long time ago when we were still in the business, and I liked it so much that it has now become one of my favourite dishes to prepare if I have a little more time on my hands. Alvin was always quick to prepare everything, and it was a little challenging to glean off the master, but after a while, I managed to work out the recipe and managed to make it work in my home kitchen.
To make this dish, you got to have the freshest green mussels. Finding them fresh is not difficult as we have them harvested locally in our waters. The only problem was that the ones caught locally were too small for this dish. I usually get them at $3 a kilogram for my steam mussels recipe, but I was looking for the bigger ones. Cold Storage sells these in sealed packets, imported from some exotic location, and they are expensive.
Good thing they sold them in smaller packets, a little cheaper, and the portions was just about right for two persons. You just need to wash and de-beard the clams and they are ready to be used. It does seems like a lot of work at first for something that is so simple in terms of number of ingredients, but personally I enjoy the process of creating this dish, so I don’t really mind.
Then there is the herb pesto sauce which is, in and of itself, another recipe. I am not kidding. I literally wrote a recipe for that. Check it out here. Recipe: Herb Pesto Sauce.
Okay now that you already have the basics of what this dish would require, let’s try it.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 packet of Green Mussels (about 750 grams)
200 grams Spaghetti
2 tbsp of Herb Pesto Sauce White Button Mushrooms (quartered)
3-4 cloves of Garlic (minced) Olive Oil Chardonnay Salted Butter Sea Salt
Method
1. Boil a kettle of water and then add it into a pot for cooking the spaghetti. This helps shorten the cooking process. The pasta that I usually use, cooks in 8 minutes. If you want them a little softer, you can cook them a little longer, like another 3 minutes. Be careful not too cook too long. Remember to pour a little olive oil into the pot. Once ready, scoop the pasta out onto dinner plates.
2. Saute the mushrooms in salted butter in a small pan until they are fragrant. Remove the mushrooms and then add the minced garlic to fry. Do this until you can smell the garlic. Then add the herb pesto sauce and give it a good stir. Then add the mussels and a splash of chardonnay. Seafood usually cooks very quickly, so you want to monitor your seafood carefully.
3. Add a little sea salt for taste, then add the mushrooms back into the pot and continue cooking. Once the ingredients are are sufficiently cooked, pour them over the cooked pasta and serve immediately.
Some people ask me why I post images of raw foods as opposed to delightfully photoshoped pictures. Well, I wanna show the freshness of the ingredients and to show that cooking is all about the beginning (as well as the journey) when you are about to cook because everyone will cook and their individual outcomes may all look different.
Don’t worry, I am sure you will make this dish look absolutely fabulous.
So drunken prawns with wolfberry and dates! Is this difficult to do? No way. It’s so easy I could have cooked it with my eyes closed. Try it.
Recipe
Ingredients
Freshest Prawns in the world
Handful of Wolfberries
4-5 Red Dates
Quarter cup of Hakka Rice Wine
Method
1. Shave off the whiskers of the prawns. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. But they look better clean shaven.
2. Arrange them in a steaming platter. Drop in the wolfberries and the red dates. Drizzle the rice wine all over the prawns. Place the plate in the steamer and steam for about 5 minutes and leave it there for another 1 minute with fire off but lid on. Then serve.
3. Steaming times differ. Depending on the size of the prawns, also if the water is boiling, the type of rice wine used, etc.. Blah blah blah.. Okay Nuff said, enjoy the process. I am sure yours taste the best.
If you are thinking invasion of the body snatchers, well you may not be entirely wrong. With their long extensible arms and legs ever ready to snatch anything within their grasp, it might not be so far fetched to think that they could be aliens from a distant galaxy.
Or if you just watched Penguins of Madagascar, then these three baby octopuses might not be so foreign to you. In fact they do look somewhat scary and cartoonish all at the same time if you thought about it now. But I am not introducing them as aliens or clever animation, they are in fact part of my latest tweak to my ABC Soup in an attempt to make the soup flavourful in a natural way.
If you are doing confinement as a newbie mummy, then maybe plain ABC Soup should be suffice. But if you want that extra bit of flavour, then a piece of the dried baby octopus would turn your very simple soup into an artisan masterpiece, worthy of mention in the many social dinners to come.
Hmmm, I can almost smell it now as the soup boils.
My mother-in-law’s recipe (which she shared in a hazy manner) and my after a few times trial and error to get the right consistency and taste. My official food taster (and my greatest critic), my wife, tends to be a little more critical of the dishes that I copy from her mummy. Naturally if it were my mum’s recipe, I would be a little more strict with the taste-test. This time around though, it is her mother’s recipe and I got to respect the taste. Furthermore, it is a dish that she likes. So I got to get the taste right.
But me, being me, I will usually do it the way that I think is the right way to do it and not the way that people tell me is the right way to do it. I am stubborn like that, but really, it is important to develop your own flair in cooking and be yourself. There are many ways to skin a cat and when it comes to cooking, there is no hard and fast rules to it. To me flavour is everything, everything else is secondary.
Of course this maverick way of cooking only applies to cooking per se and not baking. Where baking is concern, proportions are very important. Baking is more of a science and cooking is like fine art. I can taste my way to perfection if I were cooking Coq Au Vin but if I got the proportions wrong with baking, the Tiramisu will be ruined. There are no two ways about it. So respect always goes to bakery chefs first, and then applause to the celebrity chefs and whatever it is that they are cooking.
So, this I think is perfection. Wifey ate the fish, and enjoyed it silently. Needless to say, I am pleased.
Want to know how it is done? Let me assure you, it is not rocket science. In fact the way I do it, anyone can follow – caveat: you can only if you have the freshest ingredients and the magical Hakka Rice Wine.
1. Julienne the ginger into thin strips. Fry in oil until crispy and fragrant. Once ginger strips starts to brown lightly, remove and set aside. Add more oil if needed, and turn the heat down. Pat dry the pomfret and slowly place the fish to fry. You may slowly increase the heat and ensure that the fish is fried till it is crispy.
2. Fry both sides of the fish, turning every so often to prevent it from burning. The skin of the fish is likely to peel off, that is normal. You can only achieve a high level of frying if you have lots of oil in the wok. As for me, I didn’t want to waste oil, so I didn’t use that much. Once the fish is more or less well cooked, you may add the dark soy sauce into the wok and flip the fish a few times so that the sauce gets onto the fish. Then add the magic hakka rice wine and watch the sauce bubble and you know deep in your heart that it is ready for consumption.
3. Once it is ready, garnish the ginger on the fish like in the picture above and you can serve.
We love fish as a family, and so it is natural that I would buy as much fish that I can get at the wet market for the weekly menu. From left to right in order of appearance.
A beautiful angoli which is not ang (red colour in hokkien) at all. It is a beautiful hue of gold streaks across its body. I bet it is delicious and I have plans to cook it in thai style. Can’t wait.
Next we have the family favourite, the white pomfret. We love it steamed teochew style with Kiam Chye, salted plums, dried shitake mushrooms and tomatoes. These are the main characters in the teochew style of cooking the fish. Ginger is a must and Chinese Parsley as garnishing is totally optional.
Third in line is the black pomfret, a mysterious fish of dark origins. Somehow I feel that since the fish is already somewhat dark, it should be cooked in a dark style. I propose a dark soy sauce with shredded ginger and rice wine to send off this mysterious fish.
Interestingly our next friend is the golden pomfret, a fish with a strong oily flavour and very meaty. Most people fry it until it is crispy but my plan is to do this fish in Hong Kong style with leeks and ginger. That I think would be delicious.
Next to it is the silver trevally, a very nice fish to steam the teochew style. In fact a lot of teochew porridge stalls have this fish. So happy to be able to find this one this morning.
Then comes the red snapper, a fish that works very well in a coconut flavored curry sauce with white cabbage and tau kee. Can’t wait to prepare this fish.
The last remaining two friends are the Selar and Kembong. They both belong to the mackerel family and are best if cooked with Chilli stuffed in its side. Read my Sambal fried fish recipe.
That’s all for introductions. Now the games begin.
A simple peranakan style of frying fish with sambal or chopped/pounded Chilli filled in between cuts along the sides of the fish. Usually Selar or Kembong fish would be ideal for this slightly spicy fish dish. Sambal here refer to Chilli, plain and simple.
The fish is lightly salted and finished off with lime juice after frying it. The key is to cook the fish until it is crispy and fragrant. I also julienned strips of ginger and fried them until crispy as well. These are great as garnishing. I have also recently discovered green chilli or sambal hijau. It’s become my favourite, and it is so easy to prepare as well. Just cook the green chilli until soften in oil and salt. Shiok.
Sidetracked, ready to try Sambal Selar? Here’s the recipe.
Recipe
Ingredients
2 x Selaror Kembong fish 3 pcs of Red Chilli 4-5 cm of Ginger Limes Olive oil Sea salt
Method
1. Julienne the ginger into strips. Then chop Chilli and then pound into a paste. Scored the fish along its sides and stuff the Chilli paste into the sides of the fish. Lightly salt the fish and leave it aside.
2. Heat about 6-7 tbsp of oil and then fry the ginger strip till light brown and crispy. Remove the ginger and place in a bowl. Now fry the fish already marinated with the Chilli paste and salt. You would want to fry till crispy. Do this over medium heat and make sure the fish is evenly cooked.
3. Once the fishes are cooked, garnish the ginger and squeeze juice of 2 limes onto the fish and serve.
Bon Appetit!!
Fill the sides of the scored fishes with Chilli paste.
They have become the unlikeliest of friends, meeting once a week every Saturday morning as they get jostled together and acquainted in the dirty and grimy vegetable stall baskets reserved only for customers. It’s always a bumpy and bruise-full meeting at first, as they are slotted into plastic bags and then heap together with other vegetables.
Then somewhere throughout the week, they are reacquainted again, this time washed and chopped, and all ready to be boiled in a pot with chicken bones and a slice of dried cuttlefish. The end result is often a thick beautiful broth of nutritious goodness.
The lotus root and the radish, uniquely different in their taste, but when brought together in a soup, just makes so much sense. It’s a great confinement soup as well for new mummies, if you wish, you can leave out the cuttlefish and even the sea salt. Just have it plain and it would still be full of flavour.
* please note that I have included amazon affiliate links to the products I use in my recipes, so check them out if you wish to support me, but don’t feel obligated though.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 large or 2 medium tubes of Lotus Root*try getting short rounded cylinders* 1 pc Radish *medium size* 1 pc Chicken carcass *bones* 1 half dried Cuttlefish Sea salt
Method
1. Wash then peel off the outer layers of the lotus root and radish. Then chop into smallish bite-sized pieces for the radish, and for the lotus root, just thin half a centimeter slices will do. This will ensure that the flavour is maximized.
2. Put the chicken carcass (whole) into the steel pot of the thermal cooker and a piece of cuttlefish *optional for newbie mummies* and sea salt to taste. We usually don’t take so much salt in our soups so maybe a teaspoon or less is sufficient. Also, if your chicken bones are frozen, you can either place it frozen in the pot or defrost it. I usually don’t bother defrosting if I am gonna boil it anyway.
3. After all the dry ingredients, vegetables and bones are placed in the pot, add about 1 litre of boiling water and turn on high heat for about 15-20 minutes and when that is done, place the pot into the thermal cooker. The soup should be delicious and ready by the time you get home from work. Just right for dinner.
Wifey asked me what was for dinner tonight and all I had in the fridge was this Sea Bass, and I declared, “Thai-style Steam Sea Bass”. She cringed at the sound of “Thai-style..” and understandably so, I guess we have been eating quite a lot of Thai-style Sea Bass or Pla Neung Manao and she is beginning to think that my cooking skills are severely limited.
So I decided that I would put her out of her misery and do the Sea Bass differently this time around. I remember a simpler way of cooking Sea Bass would be to just steam it with sliced ginger and spring onions drizzled with light soy sauce.
I found this really good video by this Hong Kong Chef Andy Chu and I thought this guy speaks like me. So just imagine that it was me that is preparing this dish, and follow the video if you have a problem listening to instructions.
Recipe
Ingredients:
1 whole Sea Bass *descaled, gutted*
1 stalk Spring Onion
3 inches Ginger
Light Soy Sauce
Method:
1. Sliced Ginger, and chopped the spring onion in the same way as Andy does it. Line the plate where you are steaming the fish. Then placed the Sea Bass on top of the ingredients.
2. Steam the Sea Bass for 7-10 minutes under high heat. I don’t use the kind of steamer that Andy uses, and my pot with lid works the same as well. Once Sea Bass is fully steamed, shred finely ginger and spring onions and then place it on the top of the fish.
3. Boil a pot of oil till very hot and then drizzle it over the top of the fish. Drizzle light soy sauce over the fish for taste and shine.
This is a recipe that I have always wanted to try out and make at home, and today, somehow, I felt the inspiration to do it. So naturally I needed a good recipe that I could follow and try out on my own. Sometimes not everything that you read online is true or makes sense in your own kitchen, but this lady from YouTube “Hot Thai Kitchen” (she’s not that hot) makes a really great Thai style Steam Sea Bass with Garlic and Lime.
I adapted her recipe to the exact measurements, and my wife thinks that it is the best steam fish I have ever prepared and presented. My presentation of steam fish is usually a garbled mesh of ingredients. I only focus on taste, and score very low on presentation.
Here’s the YouTube video to inspire you servant-less cooks to greater heights.
Recipe
Ingredients:
1 whole sea bass 500 grams
3 Tbsp chopped garlic
4 pc Chilli Padi *sliced small*
3 Tbsp Thai Fish Sauce
2 Tbsp Palm Sugar syrup
1/4 cup Lime juice
1 stalk Lemongrass
1/4 cup of Chinese Parsley
Method:
1. Put garlic, chilli, lime juice, fish sauce, sugar syrup in a bowl and mix.
2. Score the sea bass at its thickest side to allow for even cooking. Stuff the belly of the fish with lemongrass.
3. Steam for 10 minutes over boiling water with lid covered.
4. Once done, mix parsley into sauce and pour the sauce over the fish.
5. Serve with steamed rice.
The imagery of how the chef cooked the local delicacy was seared in my memory like a fillet of salmon on a hot griddle. It was undoubtedly any gastronomer’s journey to prepare this dish, like a rite of passage for all aspiring Singaporean cooks and that’s none other than our very own Singapore-styled Chilli Crab. I too decided on that journey recently.
I was at NTUC just taking a walk and wondering at some dinner options. I’m kind of sick of food courts and their exorbitant amounts of MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) and whatever it is that they introduce into the flavours of their dishes. There’s often a dry raspy feeling in the throat and you almost always know that you have just been MSG-ed. No wonder the dubious moniker – Many Sick Gourmets. I was determined to make my own dinner that night.
And there they were all gleaming in their shiny-shell glories. I knew this is the night. I was going to make them mine. But it was a little difficult getting to them at first because there were these foreign talents standing on either side of where the crabs were displayed. They appeared to be browsing, like window shopping. The Indian guys were all discussing dinner options – what to buy; what not to buy. They looked largely undecided with their wide-eyed bewildered expressions. “Great.” I thought, and the aunties on my left were looking rather disinterested, poking at the squids on display as if to test if they were fresh. This was my only chance, I thought and literally threw myself forward and wedged in between them.
Flanked by two of the world’s most populus nations represented here at the seafood section, I felt that I had to grab the opportunity before it all goes away. The mud crabs were looking gloriously fresh, like as if they just stepped out of their sand dunes for a sun-tan, minding their own business and next thing you know they are congregating on ice trays far far away from home. There were a few large ones, perfect for chilli crabs. I made sure i took enough for what I wanted to do. Two mud crabs with a total weight of one point one kilograms. Perfect.
The Chinese ladies on my left started muttering to themselves speaking in their native tongue. “Hey.. look, that man’s buying crabs.. Oh! Look how large they are! Maybe we should buy them as well.. But oh! He’s taking all the big ones..” Needless to say, I was pleased to say the least. The Indian guys on my right were still discussing and still looked undecided. Oh well. No prizes for taking your time dudes.
Preparing chilli crab is just about as difficult as making ice cubes in a tray. It’s pretty much a no-brainer as there are only so many things that could go wrong in the preparation. Like for example, you forgot to pay your monthly gas utility bills and thus there was no gas. Things like that. But other things remaining constant, preparation is a walk in the park. Like I always say. If I can cook, you can cook too.
The other ingredients for the preparation of this particular recipe requires large white onions. These are the kind of onions that they use to cook French Onion Soup. Don’t ask me why they aren’t called French Onions at the shop. I am using three large white onions and four pieces of garlic. Two inches of ginger, and four large red chillis. I couldn’t find red chilli padis at the NTUC as they only had the green ones which weren’t nice. But chilli padis would definitely give it more kick.
A small square of Belachan, which is a fermented mixture of tiny seafoods like shrimps, squids and other microbiotic creatures, is needed. Some background on Belachan. Apparently some fisherman in Malaysia once found a puddle of prawns and squids rotting with maggots and there was an awful stench coming out from it. Undaunted by the smell, he brought it back home and cooked it for the family and ironically they loved it. In fact their food was so fragrant that the neighbours wanted to know what secret ingredient that they were using that night. And that kind of got him thinking that this could be a multi-million dollar business – selling rotting carcasses of tiny sea creatures to the world. Brilliant!
I use canned tomato paste and tomato puree as they offer a nicer texture to the taste of the chilli crab. Less of the artificial flavouring that you would get if you dumped three bottles of Maggi Tomato Sauce as some are fond of doing. It’s too much salt I think. You can choose from any of the brands but personally I think Hunt’s is a good brand. So all that’s left is basically the way of doing this. This is where i will use my trusty kenwood food processor to help me in the preparation. If you don’t have one of these, you should really consider getting one. It can chop, cut, dice, mash. Whatever you want.
Firstly put in the white onions, blend it, then put in the garlic, ginger and chillis.. continue to blend until it’s a pulpy texture..
Then chop and wash the mud crabs, breaking them into pincers, and mids.. reserving the eggs. (if any)
After this, you’re ready. Fire up the wok with about five tablespoons of oil. Once heated, spoon the blended paste to fry till fragrant. Then add in the Belachan and a bowl of water. After which you add in the tomato paste and puree and continue frying. Add in a tablespoon of light soy sauce. Once that’s done, you can throw (literally) the crabs into the wok and fry.
This is where you should also add in three tablespoons of Shao Xing Hua Tiao Jiu aka chinese cooking wine. Throw on the lid and let the spicyness of the mixture fuse with the juicy freshness of the crabs. Then let it simmer for about five minutes and you are just about done. Crack in an egg or two and a little parley for garnishing. Easy!
My romance with Indian food is like an endless bollywood dance. One day, when I have my own food travel show, I will visit India. Maybe my first stop in India would be Kerala. I heard that it is the place for all kinds of spices, kind of like a spice garden. It is like spice capital of India where traders from all around would gather and peddle their wares. I can imagine the marketplace to be perfumed with the scent of exotic spices.
But for now, I will just have to be content with what I smell at the Mama store, or the supermarket.
Anyway, I said all that to say that I love fish curry. The best fish curry in my humble opinion is the one that my friend Mdm Nair taught me. I still remember that Saturday morning in a crowded room with neighbourhood aunties and maids, she revealed her recipe for greatness. The fish curry was fabulous. Since those early days, I have been making Mdm Nair’s Fish Curry much to the delight of my Indian friends who tasted it. They say that it has a very Indian taste, whatever that means.
Where to shop?
The Mama’s Store has everything. The spices, the vegetables, everything is there except for the fish. As for the fish, you can get it at the wet market, or supermarket.
Recipe
Ingredients
Whole Fish (Angoli) 1 pc, 1 kg – (or you can use stingray, I prefer that.)
Red Chilli Paste 3 tbsp
Fish Masala Powder (Baba’s Brand) 6 tbsp
Mixed Spices (Brarath Brand) 2 tbsp
Ladies Fingers 10 pcs
Beef Tomatoes 4 pcs
Onions (sliced) 2 bulbs
Garlic (sliced) 4 bulbs
Fresh Green Chilli (sliced, seeds out) 1 pc
Tomato Puree (Gilda Brand) 1 can
Tamarind (Assam) 1 packet – (you can now get a smaller packet size, in which case it will be the whole portion.)
Carnation Milk 1 can – (I don’t really use that, so that’s optional.)
Curry Leaves 1 sprig
Salt
Oil
To Marinate:
1. Salt the fish for at least half an hour. Then wash and cut the fish into pieces. Mixed 03 tablespoons (tbsp) red chilli paste and 02 tbsp fish masala powder. Add a bit of salt and mixed with fish.
2. Take half packet of the tamarind and soak in half a bowl (5 cups) of water for half an hour.
3. Strain the tamarind and throw away the seeds. Put the tamarind water in a bowl and add 04 tbsp of fish masala powder, 03 garlic and 01 fresh green chilli and a bit of salt and stir.
Method:
1. Heat up the pan with oil. Fry ladies fingers till light brown and keep aside. Add mixed spices (02 tbsp), onions (chopped), 1 garlic (sliced), curry leaves till light brown and add tomatoes and fry till tomatoes are soft. Add the tamarind water with masala together with the earlier ingredients and stir. Close the lid until it boils.
2. Add ladies fingers, 1 tbsp of tomato puree and fish. Then add carnation milk (to thicken the curry). Leave for 5 minutes. Serve with white rice or Korean Instant Noodles.
Probably one of the best Dim Sum (Cantonese styled light meals) places – suddenly realized I have no proper expression for Dim Sum in English – in Tampines. Personally I think better than some famous Dim Sum restaurants in town. Speaking of which there was one terrible one that I do not care to mention the name, fwah 侠 level 9 terrible.
I had a tough time reconciling myself to the fact that they were once a leader in dim sum, with people queuing up to satisfy their cravings. Maybe that was also one of the reasons why they closed down in town and relocated themselves on top of a hill (which I don’t care to mention either) and then subsequently disappeared to I don’t know where. Very sad.
This dim sum place however, is located at a heartland coffee shop at Tampines Street 41 -Blk 419. The style of the dim sum reminds me of old Hong Kong. Yes, it’s that good. Their variety is limited, but they do well for their dim sum standards.
Siew mai, har gao, pai kuat are a must order. Glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaves – must order two (pun intended). Chee cheong fun with char siew and char siew bao are also a must order. The rest I shall leave you to explore.
I don’t remember the stall name, but it’s unmistakable. You have got to be a topoking to not be able to find the place. I appended a map just in case.
Go try it. You won’t regret it. And oh, did I mention that it is also very affordable (read: cheap)?
It’s a new dawn. Not the twilight sexy good looking kind of new dawn with werewolves running around in their skin tight furs. My parents are moving house, and that presents a couple of issues for us that we have taken for granted till now. If there is someone that says “you are taking your parents for granted” – then let me be the first to admit it. You don’t have to say it. I have always knew from day one that the current arrangement while being perfect for us, was really not a solution in the long run.
Ultimately we have to manage on our own how we are going to do this.
So I have decided that I would do the cooking from now on. I know I have been doing most of the cooking anyway. But going forward, it is now a matter of survival. I won’t be cooking for leisure or pleasure, this is the gritty stuff. I have to be determined to cook my way through. So the next thing is to embark on a plan. Yes, we are going cold turkey from next week onwards and how we balance it will show.
I woke up this morning and I had a severe case of heart burn. Possibly it could be reflux from the ginormous amounts of rainier cherries (I should do a post on that) my wife and I had consume the night before. And in between then and now, I had massive LS and multi-fartilosis. It was bad. You won’t want to be within range.
Anyway, so the heart burn made me really uncomfortable, and I knew the reason why, so I wasn’t so disturbed by it. I went to the wet market as it is my usual practice and this time around, I knew I had to refresh my kitchen condiments and stock up for the week. I wanted to stay within budget so the strategy for the wet market on saturday morning was to really buy the basics and then buy the rest of the items throughout the week. That way I can pace myself with what I want to cook. At the moment, my mind draws a complete blank. It is hard to think when you have heart burn.
I purchased my four best friends – sea salt, olive oil, thai fish sauce and light soy sauce. They have been with me for so many years, and I knew that I could always depend and count on them for flavour. My wife’s a picky eater, so I have to be very careful when I prepare my dinners. But really, food is to be eaten.
So my total marketing for the following groups today is $57.60. I got chicken, pork, fish and vegetables. Not bad for starters.
Now the problem is thinking what to cook and to do it efficiently so that it fits into my time schedules.
I have always loved Prawn Noodles and for a long time now I have always wondered what it was that was included in that special broth that is synonymous with great tasting soup. I think it is largely monosodium glutamate is we were to consume the Prawn Noodles at the coffee shop or the hawker centre. But what if we were to try out that old local favourite at home? Would we do it the same way?
I chanced upon a packet of Prawn Noodle mix by Ah Hai (can find at NTUC) and at first glance, I thought that it was just another pre-mix recipe that will probably yield some salty end result. That may be true for some, but I decided to give it a try anyway, and it was one of the best decisions I made (alright you know I am exaggerating a little. This is Prawn Noodles that I am talking about.)
Most people would think that the pre-mix package is probably not good, and probably not great. But it was all good for me. The taste was just right. In fact I went on to make a fresh version of Prawn Noodles eventually, and it tasted just as good. But here is the recipe that I did for the Ah Hai’s Prawn Noodle paste. Enjoy.
Recipe – Serving for four
Ingredients
8 Prawns (Large)
Egg Noodles (500g)
Kang Kong (one bunch)
Bean Sprouts (one bunch)
Yakibuta (prepared separately) [optional]
Fish Cake (1 pc)
Red Chilli (1 pc)
Ah Hai’s Instant Prawn Noodle Paste (1 packet)
Method
1. Cut off the heads of the Prawns and fry the heads in a large pot with a little oil. Fry till fragrant.
2. Pour Ah Hai’s Instant Prawn Noodle Paste (NTUC sells it) into pot and pour in 2 litres of water. Bring to a boil and keep it at medium heat for 30 minutes.
3. Sieve the broth and pour into another soup pot. Blanch the egg noodles, Kang Kong, Bean Sprouts and Prawns in hot water.
4. Place all the cooked ingredients into a bowl and ladle the steaming hot broth into the bowl. Serve with Red Chilli in dark soy sauce. I use Yakibuta as opposed to the traditional Pork Ribs simply because it is tastier.
Bon Appetit!
Bonus Recipe:
Yakibuta – Japanese Char Siu
Ingredients
Pork Belly (300gm)
Shao Xing Cooking Wine
Mirin (Japanese Sweet Wine)
Light Soy Sauce
Dried Kelp
Method
1. Sear the Pork in the bottom of a pot and allow the sides of the meat to cook. Be careful not to cook the meat for too long.
2. Add in the Shao Xing Wine (1 cup), Mirin (3 Tbsp), Light Soy Sauce (3 Tbsp) and fill with water until liquid slightly covers pork. Add in the Dried Kelp. Bring to a boil and cook the meat over a slow fire for about an hour. Use a wooden skewer to test for doneness.
3. Slice the Pork Belly and decorate over Ramen noodles or in this case, Prawn Noodles.
Preparing lunch for myself today on a lazy Saturday. I love lazy Saturdays. No need to think about too many things and only focus on what I love to do. Nothing beats cooking something new and adding it into my recipe listing.
My wife needs to rush some work, so I guess I will just have to chow down all that cod *grin*. I got a few bones leftover after feeding baby with the meat, and it’s gonna taste lovely baked with extra Virginia olive oil and sea salt. Simple and delicious. Finish off with a squeeze of lemon. I think it will be superb. A nice lunch.
What are you having for lunch today?
Recipe – serving for two
Ingredients
Cod steak
Extra Virginia olive oil
Sea salt
Lemon
Method
1. Preheat oven (fan mode with top heating) to 200 degrees.
2. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil over cod steaks and sprinkle some sea salt. Cod tends to be quite yummy as is already so just a little salt will be sufficient.
3. Bake the cod for 15 minutes and finish off with a squeeze of lemon before serving.
After a brief hiatus since my last post, I thought it is about time to share some new recipes that I have been working on.
Here’s my favourite laksa recipe of all time. Tedious to make, but guaranteed satisfaction for all of you Laksa lovers.
The ingredients are commonly found in NTUC or Cold Storage, so ingredient list building shouldn’t be a problem. Perhaps some of you experts out there might question “why no belachan?”, well I decided not to use belachan because good quality dried shrimp is good enough, but you may consider that if you like.
Ingredients:
Vermicelli aka Laksa Bee Hoon – 500 grams
Medium Grey Prawns – 250 grams
Fish Cake – 1 large piece
Bean Sprouts – 1 handful
Dried Tau Pok – 10 pieces
Blood Cockles – 200 grams
Laksa Leaves – 1 sprig
Dried Shrimps – 1 cup
Cooking Oil – 100 ml
Water – 750ml
Coconut Milk – 250 ml
Salt
Sugar
Pound into Paste:
Shallots (or Onions) – 2/3 Bulbs
Garlic – 4 pieces
Turmeric (Yellow Ginger) – 1 inch
Galangal (Blue Ginger) – 1 inch
Young Ginger – 1 inch
Candlenuts – 4 pieces
Dried Chillis – 10 pieces (soak in water first)
Ginger Mix
Fish Cake
Fresh Prawns
Pounded Dried Shrimp
Dried Shrimps
Laksa Thick Bee Hoon
Laksa Broth
Coconut Milk
Dried Bean Curd
Method:
1. Blanch prawns in 750 ml of water till 90% cooked. I gauge this cooking process by looking at the prawns and if they curl into a “C” shape. “C” means cooked, but if however, the prawns turn into an “O” shape, then that means the prawns is now over-cooked. Just a little tip for all of us servant-less cooks.
2. Once prawns are cooked, set them aside.
3. Add Laksa leaves into the broth, and bring to a boil. You can also shred the Laksa leaves to sprinkle over your noodles for that extra flavour.
4. Then turn the fire to a low simmer for about 15 minutes.
5. Heat 100 ml of oil in a wok.
6. Add in dried shrimp (pounded) into pounded condiments (paste) and fry for 5-7 minutes over a big fire until fragrant.
7. Pour the cooked ingredients into the pot of prawn stock. Again, bring to a boil.
8. Add in the coconut milk to thicken the broth. Add salt and sugar to taste.
9. Add in the Tau Pok (sliced diagonally) to cook until soft if you like, before serving.
Serving Suggestion:
1. Present cockles, bean sprouts, fish cakes (sliced) and tau pok (cooked) in a bowl of Bee Hoon Noodles before ladling the Laksa broth over the ingredients.
2. Sprinkle Shredded Laksa leaves for extra flavour.
If there is such a thing as comfort food, then mine would be fish sliced bee hoon soup with thick white bee hoon. Here’s a recipe for fish sliced bee hoon soup that I think will rock your socks off. This is why I think this recipe so totally rock. This is a recipe that’s been tweaked to my liking.
* please note that I have included amazon affiliate links to the products I use, so check them out if you wish to support me, and if I can get these items from NTUC Supermarket, I would just indicate.
Fish slices (fried):
Ingredients:
Fish *Use Angoli* 500g (Angoli is Hokkien for Sea Bream and not to be confused with Red Snapper which is known as Ang Kway in Hokkien which literally means Red Chicken, don’t ask me why)
Sea salt(alternatively, you could consider what I use instead, which is the TADKA brand Himalayan Pink Salt [NTUC])
Chicken Stock Powder(I use Knorr Chicken Stock[NTUC] most of the time for this as it’s really the best, mum uses it for her cooking, and I use it as well)
Egg(one)
Potato starch(any brand will do, even the house brand from NTUC)
Shao Xing Hua Tiao Jiu(there are many varieties and brands that you can find at NTUC, but the brand that I like best is the Pagoda Hua Tiao Chiew, it’s the most expensive bottle with similar looking bottle branding)
White pepper
Method:
1. Cut the Angoli into thin slices about 1cm thick and then salt lightly, leave it to marinate for about 30 minutes. If you don’t like your fish to be too salty, you can wash it after marination.
2. Then prepare 5 tablespoons of potato starch *use measuring spoons* and crack an egg into it. Put half a teaspoon of chicken stock and half a capful of hua tiao jiu, white pepper and then whisk with a fork into a smooth creamy mixture.
3. Then dip the fish slices into the mixture and deep fry it over low heat, this is to ensure that the fish is cooked while the batter doesn’t burn – you want the fish slices to taste cripsy, not rock solid. Also not having a big fire ensures even cooking.
4. Fry till light brown *not too long* as fish cook easily, the texture should be just right, and the fish is not cooked too long. The taste should be soft and juicy and the batter gives it a nice crunchy texture.
Fish Soup:
Ingredients:
Sea salt (you can omit this and use chicken stock only)
Salted vegetables (Kiam Chye)
Sour plum (preserved salted sour plums)
Carnation milk (if you like)
Tomatoes (quartered)
Spring onions (cut into 2cm lengths)
Ginger (thinly sliced)
Method:
1. Bring about 1.5 litres of water to the boil, and add either 1 teaspoon of salt or chicken stock. I use salt instead because I am using salted vegetables for flavouring already, you can use chicken stock if you’re not adding salted vegetables an alternative vegetable is szechuan vegetables as it adds a different taste to it.
2. Bring the water to boil, then add the salted vegetables, sliced ginger and sour plum to flavour the soup (if you like you may also wanna add 4-5 whole garlic). Only add the tomatoes, spring onions last as they cook very quickly.
3. For the bee hoon, I use laksa bee hoon from NTUC and one packet feeds about 4 people easily. Boil the noodles first and then add it to the soup. The trick is to prepare everything ready and then adding it together to make the dish.
Serving Suggestion:
You can either add the fish into the soup when you prepare the noodles or not. It’s up to you. I prefer not so that I can taste the crispiness of the fish slices.
As an alternative, you can add chye sim, although I prefer to add thinly sliced bitter gourd to give it that extra taste.
That’s it, perfect!
Bon Appetit!
Usually I would end here with “Bon Appetit!”, but there is a YouTube video with my look-alike Adrian Pang and the very lovely Michelle Chia, and incidentally they are both promoting Sliced Fish Bee Hoon, so what the heck:
If there is one thing that I love, it has to be seafood. Not because I love the cartoon “The Little Mermaid”, or their tiny sea creatures but because I love all kinds of seafood. Alright, maybe that was kind of like not saying very much.
My favorite seafood would be prawns, scallops, crabs and squids. All of them reputably not very good for you if you were to consume in large quantities day in day out. Good thing I only have it once or twice a week.
For the most times, we have fish and in all manifestations of it. Fried, steamed, or sliced into porridge, that’s basically how I like my fish. And the best place to get fresh fish is really at the wet market. They get it directly from the fishery port and anything fresher than that would be from the sea itself.
At this juncture it would be wise to also form good relations with your fishmonger as they are the ones who would be able to tell you which seafood item came from where and if they were fresh or otherwise (of course everyone proclaims to sell fresh seafood only). The problem comes when you get back home, when the realization happens. You then realize that the circle of trust might be broken.
I think it is also a matter of how popular the fishmonger thinks he is that day and on his willingness to strike you off his customers’ list.
Nobody sells only fresh seafood. It’s not possible.
Food wastage is a reality in the FNB industry and it affects anyone selling food products. There is always something fresh and something else that is going for a discount. The key is to let go that which is not so fresh and appear as if you are a great guy at the same time.
it also depends on his track record with you as well as the business performance of the only other competitor in the wet market. If the competitor consistently does badly, then this guy can take a chance and “offend” some customers or he could do the honorable thing by giving a discount.
That said, the catchphrase “I give you discount” or “I give you special price” is often a keyword phrase that might mean something else entirely. Most people would think that this is an attempt by the fishmonger to build social capital but really, you wouldn’t know until you get home to find out just how good a deal you really got.
Freshness is subjective and how fresh something is, is largely based on visual and smell and lots hours of wet market experience.
That all being said, I hope it does not deter your own discovery and experience. Jostle in and learn. You will never know what you will find.
