My Cooking Journal 14 - Steam White Pomfret (清蒸白鲳魚)

This is another steam fish cooking method that I would like to share. This times I included wolfberry in my steam fish dish. Wolfberry (枸杞子) is very well used in chinese cruisine and in tradition chinese medicine. It is very nutritious and sweet in taste. It contains various important nutrients such as essential amino acids, vitamin C and B2, iron, potassium, zinc, selenium, phosphorous, calcium and germanium and also with small amount of vitamin E, dietary fiber and proteins.

 

Wolfberry is well know for improving our vision and liver, for anti-aging purpose, helps to promote healthy skin and hair growth, boost our immunity, improve our blood pressure level and prevent cancer.  Usually, I also like to add them for my chinese soup recipe.

 

This dish takes about 25 minutes to prepare and cook.

Ingredients:

 

1. 1 medium white phompet 
2. 1 inche Ginger, thinly shredded
3. 1 tomato, cut into 6 wedges
4. 1 red chilli, thinly sliced
5. 2 pieces dried mushroom - soaked till soft and thinly sliced
6. 2 pieces of preserved salted vegetables, thinly shredded
7. 2 stalk Spring Onion, white part cut into (1 inch) length and green part thinly sliced
8. 4 cloves garlic, minced for garnish
9. 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
10. 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
11. 1 teaspoon sesame oil
12. 3 tablespoon olive oil
13. dashed of sugar and white pepper

Sauce:

1. 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
2. 1 tablespoon oyster sauce 
3. 1 tsp sesame oil
4. Dash of white sugar and pepper

Mixed the above in a small bowl and set side.

  

 Deed fried Garlic (for Garnish):

 

1.  Heat wok, add 3 tablesppon of olive oil to heated wok
2. Add minced garlic and fried till 75% of the garlic turned brown. Be careful as garlic get overcooked very easy, you have to watch it closely.
3. Transfer the fried garlic to a bowl, let the garlic sit in the hot oil for 2 minutes.
4. Separate the fried garlic and oil in a bowl. Set aside for garnish.

 

 

My Cooking Journal 13 - Chinese Fish Porridge (鱼片粥)

If you want to prepare a quick, simple and satifying meal for your family, you can try the one-pot approach that is to cook rice and ingredients together in a pot. I am referring to cooking the rice into soft- thickening texture (which is commonly known as "porridge" or "congee") complete with ingredients that you like.  

 

I prefer to cook the porridge in a rice cooker as it is easier, faster and you need not worry of porridge getting burnt on the base. When cooking porridge on a gas stove, you need to stir frequently to get the consistent texture and to avoid the porridge burnt on the base. So in a rice cooker, all you need to do is to add the necessary ingredients and water at right times and provide a good stir when necessary to make a good consistent texture.

I would be using fresh King fish (Known as "Batang" locally) as the main ingredient.

Ingredients:



Sliced King Fish soaked in salt water

1. 200g to 300g King (Batang) Fish - cut into thin slices and soaked in salt water
2. Century Egg - Remove shells and chopped into small pieces
3. 4 nos. medium size Dried Scallop - Soaked in water
4. 2 nos. Fish Cake - pan fried the fish cat & cut into thin slices
5. 1 cup rice - to serve 2 adult & 2 toddlers
6. Water 
7. 2 cloves of garlic - cut into slices
8. 4-5 slices of ginger 
9. 2 tablespoons preserved chinese vegetable (cabbage)
10. Fried shallot and chopped coriander- for garnish
11. Dash of pepper and sesame oil
12. Fish sauce - to taste

 



My Cooking Journal 6 - Chinese Style Pan Fried Salmon Fillet

Fish is a well known food that is high in protein. Salmon fish (oily fish) is rich in omega-3 fatty acids (also known as polyunsaturated fat) is a good source of vitamin A and D. Eating salmom fish can help to improve mental health, reduces the risk of stroke and heart disease as this fish are rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Generally, eating two serving of oily fish a week can helps to obtain the necessary amount of fatty acids our body needs. Other types of oil fish are anchovies, sardines, trout, eel, mackerel and swordfish.

 

However, note that pregnant woman should avoid eating large fish (such as sharks, swordfish and tilefish) as these fish contains high level of mercury, polychroinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dioxins which will cause harm to growing baby's nervous system (Singapore Health Promotion Board).  

My Cooking Journal 3 - Steam Fish (清蒸魚)

As a working mum, I would prefer to prepare a dish that is simple and 'quick to cook' for my family. One of the easiest, healthiest and faster cooking method is Steaming. Also, considering the best choice of meat for our diet, fish is generally the best option which is high in protein and lower in fat compare to animal protein. Steam fish is a convenient and simple dish to prepare for dinner (takes about 7 minutes to cook exclude preparation time). And usually, I would use white phompet, red grouper or seabass for my steam fish (清蒸魚). There are two options to cook steam fish. But most of the time, I prefer to use option 1 as it is simple and faster to prepare than option 2.

Option 1

Ingredients:

1. 1 medium whole fish, ie white phompet or 1 slice of red grouper
2. 2 inches Ginger, thinly shredded
3. 1 tomato, cut into 6 wedges
4. 1 red chilli, thinly sliced (optional)
5. 1 dried shiitake mushroom, soak in water and cut into thin slices when its become soften
6. 2 pieces salted vegetable, thinly sliced
7. 1 salted plum (optional)
8. Green onions (thinly sliced) or Coriander leave for garnish (optional)

Note: If you do not have salted vegetable, you can just put 1 salted plum or vice
versa.

Sauce:

1. 1 tbsp light soy sauce
2. 1 tbsp fish sauce
3. 1 tsp sesame oil
4. little bit sugar
5. sprinkler little white pepper on sauce
6. 1 tsp shao xing wine - optional (If you have kids eating this dish, then I will advise not to add wine in the sauce)

Methods:

1. Wash the fish with salt. If it is a whole fish, make a diagonal slits on fish.
2. Place the tomato, sliced ginger, salted vegetable and salted plum on the bottom of plate.
3. Place the fish on top of the tomato. You may place some sliced ginger inside the fish cavity as well. Then, place some more sliced ginger on top of the fish. Also scattered the sliced chilli and sliced mushroom over the fish and around the side of the fish.
4. Pour in the sauce (mentioned as above).
5. Steam the fish for approximately 7 minutes.
6. Garnish with spring onions or coriander leave before serve.

Option 2
Method:

1. Cutted 4 spring onions, green parts cutted into 1 inch size, white parts finely shredded.
2. Scatter the green parts of the green onions and ginger sliced on the plate. Place the fish on top of the ingredients. You can also placed some ginger sliced in the fish cavity. Then, steam fish for 7-8 minutes.
3. Transfer the fish onto a serving plate and removes the ginger slices. Scatter the shredded spring onions (white parts) and coriander leaves on top of the fish.
4. Prepare a small sauce pan, heat up the sauce pan, pour in 1 tbsp of olive oil, heat up the oil and carefully drizzle the hot oil over the fish. This helps to infuse the green onions and coriander leaves flavour into the fish.
5. Now, pour in the sauce into the sauce pan, heat up the sauce and pour in the sauce over the fish.
6. Ready to serve.