Thai Steamed Fish With Garlic And Lime Juice

"I feel like I'm in Thailand!" chirped my elder son, as he sipped another spoonful of the sauce.

He was referring to my new recipe - Thai style steamed fish. I have always steamed fish using
Chinese methods, e.g. Cantonese (soy sauce, tomatoes, ginger, preserved salted vegetable, mushrooms and others), or simply with bean paste.

Using kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, lime juice as the main ingredients, they add a tangy taste to the dish which immediately tantalizes your appetite.  For the more daring friends out there, add more sliced chilli padi to bring up the  flavour one notch.

The preparation is not tedious and ingredients are easy to get.  I must admit this is another one of my family's dinner favourite.


Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 whole fish  about 600 g to 700 g   (sea bass or red snapper or any fish you like)
1 stalk lemon grass, torn

Sauce:
4 cloves garlic, chopped
6 chilli padi (you can put more if you want more spicy)
4 tablespoon fresh lime juice
2.1/2 to 3 tablespoon fish sauce (adjust to your taste)
2 teaspoon fine sugar
4 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves
1/2 cup chicken stock

Method:
1) Clean the fish, score the fish with 3 to 4 diagonal incisions on each side of the fish.

2) Place the fish onto a deep dish and steam over rapidly boiling water for 10 minutes (or 80% cooked)

3) Make the sauce while the fish is seaming.:
      Boil chicken stock and sugar till just boil.  Remove away from heat. Add in the sauce ingredients except coriander leaves.

4) Open the lid pour the sauce over the fish and continue to steam for 5 to 8 minutes or the fish is fully cooked. Sprinkle coriander leaves and more chilli padi ,serve.    


ENJOY

蒜茸白肉 Poached Pork Belly With Garlic Sauce

Ate this dish at one of the famous restaurants in Singapore. The price is not cheap at all for 6 small pieces. Today  I had the desire to make it myself  so  I decided to  give it a try.  I am quite happy because it turned out  better than I expected.

Recipe:

500 g pork belly

1 to 2 cucumbers, cut into thin slices or shredded

Garlic Sauce ingredients:   Mixed together

2 tbsp garlic paste  (use a grater)

2 tbsp spring onions (diced)

2 to 3 tbsp soy sauce paste (if you can't get may replace with oyster sauce)

1/2 to 1 tsp sugar 

2  tbsp chilli oil

3 tbsp cooked cool water

1/3 tbsp vinegar

Method:

1)  Wash and clean the pork belly.  Place it into a pot with boiling water, cook till it cooks through.

When cool, cut  them into thin slices

2)  Place one piece of cucumber on a plate, lay one slice of pork belly over it, roll outwards to form Swiss roll shape.

3) Serve with the garlic sauce.

食谱：

材料：

A）500 克 三 层肉

B）1 至2条黄瓜，切成长薄片状或者丝条状

C）

2  汤匙蒜泥

2  汤匙葱花

3 汤匙酱油膏
1/2 茶匙白糖
2 汤匙辣椒油
3 汤匙凉开水
1/3 汤匙白醋

制法：

1）把肉洗干净，然后放进滚水煮熟。 提出肉待冷。切成薄片。

2） 把（C）料搅拌均匀。

3）把一片肉片放在黄瓜片上，然后向外卷起来就成。吃时沾上醮料。

Lamp Soup with Chinese Herbs - 药材羊肉汤

第一次做这道汤，味道很香也带一点甜。不妨一试。

This is the first time we made this soup. We felt that the soup was quite sweet.   This is worth a shot as it is very simple  and delicious too. You can  tweak the recipe depending on your preference.

Recipe: source from ONE DAY ONE DISH

Ingredients:

500 g lamb

20 g astragalus (bei qi 北芪）

20 g codonopsis (dang shen, 党参）

20 g Chinese angelica root (dang gui, 当归）

25 g Chinese wolfberry ( 枸杞）

25 g dried longan (龙眼干）

1 small piece of dried tangerine peel (陈皮）

Method：

1）Wash lamb, scald in boiling water for a few minutes, rinse under running water. Drain and cut into big pieces.  ( I used leg of lamb as the bone enhances the flavour)

2)  Rinse the ingredients  (Herbs) and drain.

3)  Bring  1 litre of water in a claypot to a boil. add in the lamb and the ingredients .

Cook over low heat for about 3 hours.  Add salt to taste before serving it.   Add pepper and chopped fresh coriander leaves if desired. 

     Note :  if you find the soup is too concentrated at the end of cooking,  add some hot water.

               you can use a slow cooker  instead of claypot

Monkey Swiss Roll 2016

Hi dear bloggers. I wish you and your family a blessed New Year with bundles of  joy and happiness

Whole Wheat Butter Bread Loaf 奶油全麦面包

Like this bread very much. The texture is soft and a bit chewy.  And it is nutritious also when compared to white plain bread.

Recipe: Adapted from Carol's "Original Flavour" Book

Ingredients:

200 g bread flour
100 g whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon instant dried yeast
15 g fine sugar
100 c.c. water (room temperature)

30 g unsalted butter (room temperature)

Method:
1) Put all the ingredients except butter in a mixing bowl. Beat till form a dough.  Add in butter continue to beat till you get a smooth and elastic dough. Place the dough on a lightly greased container or big bowl.  Cover with a damp cloth or cling-wrap. Leave to ferment for  60 minutes or double in size.
2) Sprinkle bread flour on working counter, take out the fermented dough and punch out gas.
divide dough into 2 equal portions. Roll them round, and leave to rest for 10 minutes (cover).
3) Roll each dough flat into rectangular shape. Roll from the width. Rest and cover for 10 minutes again.
4) Roll flat till the length is about 40 cm and the width is the same size as that of your baking mould so that it fits.
5) If your mould is not non-stick, grease the mould and dust with flour. Place the dough into the mould with the end of the folded dough facing downwards. Place the 2 doughs at each side of the mould with some space in between them. Ferment for 60 - 70 minutes till the dough reaches 90% of the rim of the mould.
5) Preheat oven 10 - 15 minutes at 210 deg before the baking time.
6) Cover lid (the lid needs to grease with oil too) . Put into the preheated oven and bake for 40 minutes.
7) Take out from the oven and immediately remove the bread loaf from the mould. Allow to cool on the wire rack before slicing them.

Christmas Tree Nutella Bread

Hi! Dear bloggers and friends. Today is Christmas Eve ,here I would like to wish everyone of you a very Merry X'mas and a Happy New Year.

Recipe:

Ingredients:
320 g bread flour
50 egg (whole egg without shell)
3/4 teaspoon instant dried yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
20 g fine sugar
160 c.c fresh milk
50 g unsalted butter ( at room temperature)

some nutella

Method:
1) Combine all ingredients ( except butter) in a mixing bowl . Mix and knead to form a dough.
2)  Add butter and knead till the dough becomes elastic and smooth dough.  Put the dough in a lightly greased  big bowl, cover with damp cloth or cling-wrap.  Leave to ferment for 50 - 60 minutes in a warm place.
3) Divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Roll into balls. Cover and rest for 15 minutes.
4)  Sprinkle a little bit of flour on the working surface table, flatten the dough with rolling pin. The shape is slightly square bottom and a sort of tear drop, triangle like  a Christmas tree.   Roll equal size for each piece of dough (long triangle shape).  Got a piece of baking paper lift the shaped dough onto the paper. Spread nutella across the area.  Please watch the video for clear instruction.
4)  Leave to ferment for 40 - 50 minutes. Brush with egg wash and bake in preheated over at 180 deg for 15 minutes.

Happy baking.

Heng Hua Braised Noodle /lor me (兴化卤面)

Ingredients: (Vary amounts according to your liking)

1. Pa-mee  also known as hand make noodle without alkali  (1 kg (feeds 8 people)
2. Wong Bok (chinese cabbage)
3. Prawns 300 g
4. Venus clams 1 kg (soak and wash sand away)
5. Pork belly 100 g
6. Lean meat 200 g
7. Flat taupok 5 pieces
8. One chicken breast

Method:

1. Stir-fry minced garlic and shallots together with sliced pork belly till fragrant or light brown.
2. Add water (about 8 big soup bowls) and chicken breast. Simmer till broth is slightly creamy (about 1 to 1.5 hours). (Add ikan billis if you like.)
3. Use a strainer to remove residue in the broth.
4. In another pot of water, cook the venus clams till they are cooked (opened). Discard those that did not open. Let this water stand for about 30 minutes so that any residual sand can sink to the bottom of the pot. Otherwise, use a fine mesh strainer.
5. Add this water to the broth and bring to boil.
6. Cook the noodles in another pot of water so that the excess starch does not go into the broth.
7. Slice up all other ingredients. Add ingredients and noodles into broth. Mix in the venus clams.
8. Season with salt.
9. Garnish with coriander, spring onions, fried shallots and serve hot.
10. Mince some garlic and chilli  and light soy sauce to make a garlic-chilli dip. This goes very well with the noodles