lemon grass

Steamed Soon Hock

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Steamed Soon Hock

I purposely titled this as Steamed Soon Hock for the fun of it. I guess it doesn’t really matter since it is after all the best fish in the whole of Singapore. Any style you cook it, it would be fantastic. For this, I cooked it Hong Kong style.

I was at the wet market this morning and the fishmonger uncle greeted me as “老板!” and immediately I felt a damn shiok feeling. The morning suddenly seem brighter and the $50 in my pocket started singing “so long farewell..”. It’s always like that at the fishmonger’s. His fish is fresh and unfortunately expensive. But today he was selling Soon Hock! And they were going for $15 a kilogram. I got one and it was only $9!! Unbelievable.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 Soon Hock (it was about 600 grams which was sufficient for the two of us.)
2 stalks Lemon Grass (I decided to use lemon grass to flavour the stomach of the fish as ginger might be a little too strong)
2 stalks Leeks (I juliened the leeks into 3 inch lengths, this is the garnishing for the fish after steaming.)
3 tbsp Kikkoman Soya Sauce (I use Kikkoman because it is I feel the taste is quite consistent.)
5 tbsp Olive Oil (I pour hot oil over the fish after steaming it, so this oil has to be smoking hot. I pour it gently little by little so that it cooks the leeks as well.)
1 stalk Coriander Leaves (for garnishing – nothing else)
1 tsp Sesame Seed Oil (for flavour)

Method

1. Wash the Soon Hock and make sure the fish is gutted and cleaned.

2. Boil a kettle of water and prepare to steam the fish in the wok (I assume you know how to steam fish?). Once the water is ready, pour the water into the wok and prepare the steamer tray for steaming.

3. Chop the lemon grass and stuff the stomach cavity of the Soon Hock (fish). Steam the fish for 15 minutes. In another pot, boil oil over a small fire. Boil the oil until smoking hot. (For this you got to time yourself.)

4. While waiting for the fish to steam, you can juliene the leeks into fine strips.
5. Once the fish is cooked. Place the leeks on the fish and pour the hot oil over the leeks (to cook them) and drizzle the soya sauce and sesame seed oil over the fish. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Bon Appetit!

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Fresh Soon Hock fish

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Chop the lemon grass

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Stuff the cavity of the fish with lemon grass

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Leeks

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Coriander leaves

Halibut Fillet with Asian Salmon Sauce

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Halibut Fillet with Asian Salmon Sauce

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 Bocourti Fish. 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.

Bon Appetit!