Assam Curry Fish

My friend, Isabella loves fish, appreciates tangy flavours and also likes chillies. With this in mind, I was geared up to prepare Assam Fish Curry for her lunch today.

The following is not my recipe but I can’t remember where I got it from in the first place.

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves: 6-8

Ingredients:
1½ lb/750g ikan tengiri/Spanish mackerel or ikan merah/red snapper
½ coconut milk and 1½ cups/375 ml water – mix together
½ inch/120 ml tamarind juice
Salt to taste
4 tablespoons cooking oil

Pounded Ingredients:
8 dried chillies
4 stalks serai/lemon grass
1 inch/2.5 cm kunyit/tumeric
6 cloves garlic
1 thumb size piece ginger

Method:
Wash fish in salt water and drain dry. Cut fish along the length into ½ in/1.3 cm slices.
Heat cooking oil in a pan. Fry fish till slightly brown on both sides. Remove
Put in more oil if necessary. Fry pounded ingredients until fragrant. Add santan (coconut milk), fish and salt to taste. Bring to the boil.
Add tamarind juice and simmer for another 2-3 minutes.
Dish up and serve hot.


Note some changes I made to the recipe:
I have included red onions, kaffir lime leaves and two tablespoons of my own home cooked chilli sauce into the pounded ingredients. It's vital that oil seeps to the surface of rempah (pounded ingredients) before proceeding to add in the liquid components. This is instrumental to the success of any curry dishes.

Semi-skimmed milk was used as I did not have any coconut milk.
A pinch of sugar and tamarind juice was incorporated into the sauce, adjusted for seasoning BEFORE the fried fish was added.

Fried White Radish Cake with Prawns

The yearning for fried radish cake is overwhelming again but the problem is in getting fresh radish. The kind available here is of a smaller version but hey, that will have to do. Beggars cannot be choosers. A radish is a radish regardless of the shape and size.

I have never cooked and am not exactly keen on the white version of radish cake but hmmmmmmm, why ever not try experimenting?

I am trying to reproduce this from memory so please advice if I am wrong. Many thanks.

Ingredients:
1. Cooked radish cake, portion for one, sliced lengthwise.
2. Three pieces preserved radish or more, depending on taste, chopped into small pieces.
3. One egg beaten well with a teaspoon of water.
4. One stalk of spring onion, finely sliced.
5. Two cloves of garlic, roughly sliced.
6. Three tablespoons of lard, onion oil or oil of your choice.
7. Eight pieces of medium sized cooked prawns, more/less according to taste.


Method:
1. Medium heat, when pan is hot, add lard, when lard is hot, add sliced up white radish cake.
2. When it's heated through (and optionally cut up into smaller pieces in the pan), push to side of pan. Add preserved radish and when preserved radish starts to 'pop' around, add garlic. When garlic is aromatic without browning, mix mixture well together.
3. Increase heat, add prawns to fried radish cake, stir well and pour egg over mixture. Leave it for a few seconds before flipping cake over. You may need to add more oil around edges of mixture before flipping over. Let mixture set for a few seconds.
4. Garnish with sliced spring onions and serve hot.

Note: No seasoning added as the preserved radish I have in stock was very salty.

Squash with Dried Prawns and Kek Zi

When I was warded in hospital for a major operation two years ago, my friend, Isabella insisted in staying the night over with me in the hospital as she said it would be comforting should I wake up in the middle of the night and see a familiar face and in addition, she was there should I need help in the middle of the night.

I have never forgotten her kindness and it was a blessing to have a friend to care enough to do so unconditionally.

Isabella was in the hospital for an eye operation and I was so blessed to be in a position to reciprocate.

I was wondering what I should cook for her and knowing that we have the same taste, it wasn't much of an issue at all. Green vegetables were not an option as I was clueless as to what time she was allowed food.

The safest bet would be vegetables that can be re-heated without marring the nutrient values which are beneficial to her health.

With this in mind, I decided to cook squash before her scheduled operation.








Ingredients:
1. Four cups of squash, sliced in wedges
2. Two or more cloves of garlic, slightly bruised but left whole
3. One small onion, sliced
4. Two tablespoons of dried prawns, sieve off the impurities
5. One stalk of spring onion/coriander, sliced
6. Dash of white pepper
7. Few drops of sesame oil
8. One teaspoon of corn flour, mixed with two tablespoon of water
9. One cup of chicken stock
10. Two tablespoons of Kek Zi, rinsed and patted dry (optional)
11. Three tablespoons of onion oil or oil of your choice
12. Pinch of sugar
13. Pinch of sea salt

Method:
1. Heat pan and add oil. When pan is hot, lower heat to medium, add garlic, fry still lightly golden, and add dried prawns. Fry till fragrant without burning.
2. Add onion slices and fry till aromatic. Add squash and dash of white pepper. Mix well and fry for about three minutes.
3. Add chicken stock, stir well and leave it to simmer till pumpkin is tender or soft according to your taste. Add more stock if necessary.
4. Add corn flour/potato mixture, kek zi, spring onions and dash of sesame oil. Mix well
5. Serve hot.

Note: Kek Zi aka known as Wolfberry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfberry

Love ....

“Love keeps the cold out better than a cloak.”

Baked Chicken With Garlic and Potato

Ingredients:
1. One chicken breast with skin and bone in.
2. One potato, thinly sliced
3. Half a leek, sliced into rings
4. Half a Spanish onion, sliced
5. 9 whole cloves garlic with skin (depending on taste)
6. One cup of hot chicken stock
7. ¼ cup of white wine - optional
8. A teaspoon of coarse black pepper
9. Sea salt
10. Sprig of rosemary
11. Glug of EVO

Method
1. Place sliced potatoes, leeks with a pinch of salt and bring to a boil till vegetables just about to be tender, drain and kept warm.
2. Switch oven to maximum heat.
3. Rub chicken with sea salt
4. Grease warm baking dish lightly with oil/butter of your choice.
5. Layer potatoes, onions, leeks and pour combined hot cooking liquid over vegetables.
6. Sprinkle dash of coarse black pepper on vegetables.
7. Place chicken on top of vegetables and scatter whole garlic cloves.
8. Wrap aluminium foil loosely around dish and bake on maximum heat for twenty minutes.
9. Remove aluminium foil and brown chicken skin till slightly golden.
10. Serve on warm plate and drizzle more EVO on dish before serving.

Note: Optional to serve peas with fresh mint on a side

Carrot and Squash Rice

I love winter squash, pumpkin, acorn and butternut squash etc. I hope you enjoy this humble offering of mine too.

Ingredients:
1. One cup rice, preferably long grain or basmati
2. One carrot, sliced in small wedges
3. Two cups squash, sliced in small wedges
4. Half red onion, sliced
5. One or more whole garlic cloves, skin removed
6. Pinch of ground cumin
7. Pinch of ground coriander
8. 1½ cups chicken stock
9. Pinch of saffron, soaked with three tablespoon of warm water
10. Three tablespoons of onion oil or oil of your choice
11. One tablespoon unsalted butter
12. Pinch of sea salt
13. Thumb of ginger, diced into cubes
14. Pinch of castor sugar
15. Dash of white pepper

Method:
1. In a pot, water level two inches above rice, bring water to a rapid boil. Add rice, stir occasionally on high heat for about five minutes. Drain water and keep warm.
2. In a separate non stick pot (same pot you are going to cook the rice in later), on high heat, add ginger, stir and immediately lower heat to medium. Add garlic cloves, fry till ginger and garlic are slightly golden, add onion, and stir till aromatic.
3. Add butter, stir for a few seconds, add vegetables, dash of white pepper, castor sugar, cumin, coriander powder, sea salt, mix well for about three minutes, add about a tablespoon of chicken stock and mix well.
4. Top vegetable with rice, spoon saffron water around edges of rice and on rice; pour balance HOT chicken stock over rice. Press rice down gently with a spatula but without compacting it too much.
5. Cover lid tightly and simmer gently for about twenty minutes or till rice is cooked.
6. Place plate over pot to invert rice.
7. Serve hot.

Note:
1. The vegetables are heavenly to eat and rice good enough to eat on its own. Pumpkin is very yummy in this recipe too. Oooooooooooo, the crust and yes the crust .....
2. For a more substantial meal with meat warrants a different recipe.

Fried Fish With Ginger

Sauce for fish



I used fish fillet to cook for Dad when he was hospitalised and his eyes never failed to light up when he saw the dish. I was sad and happy to see him chuffed so quickly too.

Whenever I have the opportunity to cook at my sister's house, she will remind me of this dish as both she and my brother-in-law love it too.

This is my style and hope you will enjoy it as well.

Ingredients:

1. One medium sized whole fish about one and a half lbs, scaled, gutted and washed.
2. Sprinkle some salt in cavity and inside the fish head. Leave for about five minutes, rinse and pat dry.
3. Dash of sesame oil

For garnishing
1. One spring onion, sliced including the white part.
2. One or more thumbs of ginger according to taste, sliced into very thin strips.
3. One fresh sliced red chillies or more (optional).

Sauce:
1. Two tablespoons of Shao Hsing Hua Tiao Chew.
2. Three tablespoons of light soya sauce or more depending on your taste.
3. Two tablespoons of warm water and a very small pinch of castor sugar. Mix together with item '2'.

Method:
1. In a medium hot frying pan, fry ginger till crispy, set aside.
2. Fry fish and set aside in a warm serving plate.
3. Drain oil but leave about one tablespoon, reheat pan till high, add in spring onion and chillies, quick stir for a very few seconds. Top fish with garnish.
4. Reheat same pan to high heat, splash Shao Hsing Hua Tiao Chew, stir in sauce and dash of sesame oil. Quick stir and pour over fish. Top with crispy ginger.
5. Serve hot.