Seafood Bonanza

We had so much seafood in a day last weekend that I am convinced it's not a good idea to let B go shopping alone at the Sydney Fish Market. I was only thinking of cooking seafood soup with rice last Sunday, but B came back from the Fish Market with a kilogram of seafood marinara, a pack of vongole, 1 rainbow trout, a dozen fresh oysters, a pack of sliced salmon sashimi and a box of seaweed salad.

I cooked the rice and seafood soup as main for lunch (check out the recipe), and served the oysters, seaweed and sashimi as appetisers.

My salmon sashimi roses. I love sashimi but was refrained from eating during my pregnancy. I'm so glad I can eat all I want now! Wahahaa.... You can find my salmon sashimi don recipe here.

A dozen of fresh oysters for $10. My plate can only fit 10 oysters so there is no reason why I couldn't slurp a couple before serving. Ha...


Marinated thready seaweed salad with toasted sesame seeds and red pepper flakes for $3. I always enjoy a side dish of wakame, love its toothsome chewy texture and refreshing taste.

Seafood Soup 番茄海鮮湯

Been super busy with work, baby, doctor visits, household chores and cooking. That pretty much sum up what I did the past few weeks. It's good to be back at work and learning new things in a new team. At home, I am starting to cook baby food as Bryan is now 6 months old and ready for some semi-solids.

Today I'm sharing a triple tested and tried recipe that started off as a fish soup and after a few experimentations, I added host of other ingredients and it became a one-pot soup meal. You will need some fresh ingredients to make a good seafood soup. I got my seafood from De Costi at Sydney Fish Market. The soup is slightly sour because of the tomatoes and makes it very appetizing, and if you don't eat prawns, just add more fish and vegetables of your choice (tofu, seaweed, enoki mushrooms, etc).

Ingredients (Serve 2-3)
400g fish fillet
6 big prawns, remove shells and deveined
1 squid/calamari, cut into rings
1 small piece ginger, cut into thin strips
5 cloves garlic, chopped
Lettuce leaves
2 tomatoes, quartered
1 piece silken tofu, cubed (optional)
1 small piece dried seaweed (optional)
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Cooking oil
3 bowls water
2 bunches coriander (for soup stock)
Coriander leaves for garnishing

Method
Add water into a saucepan and bring to boil. Add tomatoes, some ginger and coriander, and simmer for 30 minutes. Drain stock through a colander; retain stock and discard ingredients.

Heat oil in a deep pan, saute garlic and remaining ginger till fragrant. Add seafood and pan fry for 2-3 minutes. Add stock, lettuce leaves, tofu and seaweed into pan. Bring stock back to boil for 1-2 minutes, add salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish soup with coriander leaves. Serve with rice.

Steamed Red Snapper with Ginger and Soy 蒸红鲷

This post is long overdue.*_* This was our dinner two weeks ago, wait, or was it three weeks? Haha I seriously can't remember. Don't have much time of my own these days. It's never easy being a full time mum, doing chores plus cooking and trying to keep up a social life, well, not that I have any now. I am not complaining, motherhood is beautiful and such a blessing. ^_^

Ingredients
1 red snapper or fish of your choice
1 small piece ginger, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks spring onion, cut into rings
Sprinkle of salt
2 tbsp cooking oil
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp rice wine
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
1/3 cup water

Method
Clean and scale the fish. Make three diagonal cuts on each side of fish. Sprinkle with salt inside and out.

Steam fish on plate or a steamer basket, covered, for 8-10 minutes over medium-high heat. Steaming time could be longer for bigger fish.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a pan and sauté garlic and ginger for 2 minutes till fragrant. Add all seasoning and water. Mix all ingredients well. Pour in the spring onion and give it a good stir.

Remove fish from steamer, drain and discard the juice. Pour the sauce over fish.

Serve immediately.

Steamed drunken prawns 紹興藥材醉蝦

This drunken prawns recipe is steamed and not eaten cold, as the traditional Shanghainese dish has the live prawns doused in Chinese wine and eaten "alive". The combination of herbs and Shaoxing wine add a rich fragrance and bring out the sweetness of the prawns.

Ingredients
8 medium/large prawns
1 small ginger, sliced
4 slices dang gui (Angelica Sinensis)
1 tbsp wolfberries
Generous amount of Shaoxing Wine
4 tbsp water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp soy sauce

Method
Trim and devein the prawns, leaving the shells intact. Arrange prawns and ginger on a steaming plate. Splash in Shaoxing wine and soak prawns in wine for an hour.

Combine all remaining ingredients in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave the herbs on high heat for 1 minute to release the flavour of the herbs. Alternatively, you can steam the herbs for 20 minutes.

Pour herbs over prawns and steam on medium heat for 5 minutes. Drizzle more Shaoxing wine and serve immediately.

Pan-fried Pomfret 香煎鯧魚

I seldom do deep-frying as I live in an apartment with a small kitchen just next to my living room. Any heavy cooking will make my apartment "smell" for several hours after that. My most common method of cooking will be steaming, boiling, sautéing, stir-frying, stewing and baking. I do on occasion, pan-fry or shallow-fry fish and meat. This pan-fried pomfret recipe is another tried & tested easy recipe and a nice change from the usual steamed fish that we have.

Ingredients
1 pomfret
1 small ginger, julienned
2-3 tbsp corn flour
1 tbsp soy sauce
Dash of pepper
3-4 tbsp cooking oil

Method
Wash and clean the fish, score the flesh on both sides.

Heat oil in pan/wok and saute ginger until crisp and brown. Remove and set aside. Dust fish with corn flour and shake off excess. Fry the pomfret until golden brown on both sides.

Dish and put ginger on fish, pour 1 tbsp hot oil over fish and season with soy sauce and pepper.

Serve immediately.

Steamed Pomfret 清蒸鯧魚

Another simple and healthy recipe that requires minimal preparation and cooking time. The Cantonese believe that the best way to savour the sweetness of fish is to steam it, and steaming is also one of the healthiest cooking methods. The fish tastes best when served right after steaming, so start cooking only when everyone in the family is ready for dinner.

Also check out the post on pan fried pomfret 香煎鯧魚 .

Ingredients
1 medium sized white promfret
1 piece ginger, julienned
1 tomato, cut into thin slices
2 stalks scallion
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Chinese wine
1 tsp sesame oil
Dash of pepper
Salt

Method
Clean fish and make two slits on both sides of the body. Rub fish lightly with salt. Arrange scallions on a plate and placed fish on top of scallions. Scatter tomato slices and ginger on the fish. Stir in soy sauce, Chinese wine and sesame oil.

Bring water to boil in a wok or steamer. Steam fish over high heat for 8 minutes. Season with a dash of pepper and garnish as desired. Serve immediately.

Spicy Sambal Baked Tilapia 參巴辣椒魚

This is an easy baked fish recipe and it's perfect for freshwater fish like Tilapia. I cheated and used ready-made sambal olek, which is so much easier. Heh, I am just plain lazy. B said it's somewhat like ikan panggang (grilled fish over charcoal fire) minus the banana leaves.

Ingredients
1 whole Tilapia
3 tbsp of sambal olek
1 tbsp oil
Sea salt
1 lime

Method
Clean, scale and gut the fish but leave whole. Score the broad side of fish diagonally across both sides and lightly rub fish with sea salt. Fill the openings with sambal olek. Set aside for 15 minutes, preferably keep it refrigerated to preserve freshness.

Pre-heat oven to 200°C. Place fish on an oiled aluminium foil and lightly cover/wrap it. Bake at 200°C for about 25 minutes, depending on the size and thickness of the fish.

Squeeze one lime over fish and serve immediately.

Home-cooked Goodness

Today I'm going to share with you my journey to cooking, how I started it and my passion towards home-cooked food.

I'm lucky to be blessed with a wonderful mother, who is a full-time homemaker and a good chef. Even though she feels she's not as good a cook as her friends and relatives, I have always think she cooks really well.

Since my mum is a great cook, I never had the need to learn to cook. I spent time with her in the kitchen watching her cook and be the kitchen hand once in a while chopping up stuff and did the washing. But have never got around to really cook a proper meal for the family.

I left home at 16 for studies and missed my mum's cooking terribly. When I was still living at home, mum always had dinner ready when we came back from school and work. Nothing fancy though, just simple home-cooked dishes with the company of my family and the the news broadcasted on TV. The 20 to 30 minutes at the dinning table has a remedial effect and was enough to make me forget the tiredness and stress I had from school.

As I grow older, started working and eventually get married, I still didn't have my own kitchen and we dined out everyday. My dream then was to be able to cook a decent meal for my husband when he comes back from work, and it didn't happen until we moved to Sydney last year when I started serious cooking. Since then, there's no turning back. Cooking became a daily affair, an affair I am sure B doesn't mind me having.

Here are some home-cooked goodness we had last weekend.

Steamed cod fish (Teochew style) with tomatoes, mushrooms, ginger and fried shallots. 潮式蒸鳕鱼. Check out my previous post and recipe on steamed ocean perch.

Stir-fried garlic shoots. 清炒蒜芯

Salmon Sashimi Don サーモン丼

We went yum cha with friends at Fisherman's Wharf Seafood Restaurant today. Who will expect to find a yum cha restaurant at Sydney Fish Market (SFM)? I certainly didn't but I am so glad I joined! The food and service at Fisherman's Wharf are comparable to Zilver, if not better.

I'll talk about my yum cha experience another day. I'm going to share with you our dinner tonight, which is also B's favourite - Salmon Sashimi Don.

You see after our yum cha session this afternoon, we decided to buy some fish and seafood before heading home. Trips to SFM are not complete without buying some seafood and sashimi home. My shopping today include half kg of seafood marinara mix for $10.90/kg which is so much cheaper than Coles, salmon sashimi for $6.30, a packet of marinated seaweed for $2.50. There is also a fruit and vegetable market there and guess what? They sell Japanese pumpkin for $0.99! Needless to say, I have gotten one and bought a head of cos lettuce ($1.99) for making Caesar salad tomorrow.

I am sounding like an old maid now, excited over cheap and fresh groceries. -__- Let's not deviate from the topic today.

Here's a picture of the sashimi we bought the other time because I have forgotten to take pictures of the salmon I bought today.

Maguro, salmon and toro sashimi - $16.00

Ingredients
1 cup short-grain/sushi rice
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1.5 tsp fine sugar
1 tsp salt
1 packet Japanese seaweed
Salmon sashimi
Kikkoman soy sauce
Wasabi

Method
Click here for a detailed recipe on making sushi rice.

Cook rice in a rice cooker. Prepare sushi vinegar by mixing rice vinegar, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Microwave the mixture for 10 seconds to dissolve the salt and sugar.

Once rice is cooked, scoop rice into a bowl and lightly fan rice while adding the vinegar mixture over it. Fold the rice gently and be careful not to break the grains.

Arrange sashimi and seaweed on rice. Serve with wasabi and shoyu (soy sauce).

Grilled Sardines 烤沙丁鱼

This is a really simple recipe, so simple that I am hesitant to post it. But B enjoyed the dinner tonight and was full of praise. He was even thinking of going to the market to buy the fresh sardines again tomorrow. *__*

I am not sure if fresh sardines are sold in Malaysia and Singapore, but I have only had canned sardines back home. My dad loves canned sardine in tomato sauce, and I'll cook this grilled sardine dish for him the next time he visits us in Sydney.

Ingredients
12 fresh sardines
Sea salt (optional)

Method
Wash and clean fresh sardines. Pat dry sardines and sprinkle with some sea salt if you like. I personally prefer to have it plain with the original taste.

Grill sardines over a grill pan or in an oven on grill mode for about 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the fish.

Serve with a squeeze of lemon juice over fish.


So there you go. I told you it's easy! Simplicity is always the best.

BTW, do you know that sardines are rich in omega 3 fatty acids, which is good for the heart? They also provide good source of vitamin D and calcium.

Steamed Ocean Perch 清蒸鲈鱼

Ingredients
1 ocean perch, scaled and gutted (I have to cut the fish into 2 because my steamer is small)
2 dried Chinese mushrooms, pre-soaked, stem discarded and cut into strips
1 piece ginger, julienned
1 tomato, cut into thin slices
2 stalks scallion, cut into 2-inch lengths
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
Salt


Method
Rub fish lightly with salt. Arrange scallions on a plate and placed fish on top of scallions. Scatter tomato slices, mushrooms and ginger on the fish. Stir in soy sauce and sesame oil.

Steam fish over high heat for 10 minutes. Garnish as desired and serve immediately.

Fried Fish in Black Bean Paste Sauce 豆鼓鱼

Ingredients

1 red snapper (I used the fish head), cleaned and scaled

4 tbsp corn flour

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tbsp black bean paste

1 fresh chili, thinly sliced

1 tsp sugar

Water

Salt

Oil for frying

Method

Rub some fine salt over fish and coat fish with dry corn flour. Heat oil in a hot wok or deep-frying pan and fry the fish till crisp and brown, about 10-15 minutes depending on the size of fish. Remove and set aside.

Heat oil in pan and saute garlic till fragrant. Add bean paste and chili, stir fry briefly. Pour in water and bring to boil. Add sugar, lower heat and simmer the sauce for 5 minutes. Thicken the sauce with some cornstarch mixture. Slowly pour in the mixture to prevent lumps forming.

Pour the sauce over fish and serve immediately.

Apple & Fish Soup 苹果炖鱼汤

Ingredients

Fish head with bones and meat (I used Salmon)

3 red apples, peeled, cored & sliced

1 carrot, peeled & cut into big pieces

10-20g sweet & bitter apricot kernels

3 - 4 slices ginger

Salt to taste

5 bowls water

2 tbsp oil

Method

Heat oil in a non-stick fried pan over medium heat and saute ginger slices till fragrant. Pan fry fish head till slightly brown.

Transfer fish and ginger into a pot of cold water. Once boiled, add the remaining ingredients and lower heat to simmer for at least an hour. Remove any floating oil. Add salt to taste.

Dish and serve hot.

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Note

- Do not blanch the fish to remove the fishy smell. Pan fry the fish helps to prevent flaking and get rid of the smell.

- Unlike pork/chicken, do not cook the fish in hot boiling water, use cold water instead.

Pan-fried Salmon 香煎三文魚

Ingredients
1 piece Salmon fillet
1 small piece of ginger, thinly sliced
1 small lemon
Salt

Method

Wash salmon and pat dry. Sprinkle some salt over fish and lightly coat both sides of fish with a thin layer of dry cornstarch. The cornstarch helps to seal the moisture and form a slightly crispy exterior.

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Heat a nonstick frypan with oil over medium-low heat. Stir-fry ginger slices until fragrant. Add and pan-fry salmon until it turns golden brown, about 5 minutes on each side. Remove ginger slices before dishing.

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Serve with lemon wedges.

Spicy Assam Fish 酸辣亚参鱼

Ingredients
500 gram fish fillet (I used Ling), cut into cubes
3 tomatoes, cut into wedges
Vegetables (Okras, long beans, snap peas, egg plant, etc)
1 Spanish onion, chopped
1 packet of Assam fish paste
2 tbsp oil
4 tbsp lemon juice

400 litre water

Method
Heat oil in a frying-pan and brown the fish fillets. Remove and set aside. Saute the chopped onions until fragrant. Stir in Assam fish paste and fry for 2 minutes.

Add tomato wedges, vegetables, fish fillets, lemon juice, water and bring to boil. Cover, and simmer on low heat for another 5 minutes. Serve hot with rice.

Grilled salmon fish heads 烤焗三文魚头

Ingredients
2 salmon fish heads
Sea salt
Pepper
Lemon


Method
Wash salmon fish heads and pat dry. Sprinkle sea salt and pepper on both sides of the fish heads. Pre-heat oven at 200 degree celcius under grill mode. Grill salmon fish heads for about 35 minutes or till they turn brown. Squeeze lemon on fish heads and serve.

Dinner tonight

Grilled salmon fish heads, roasted chicken, salad and rice.