Baked Mackerel Asian Style and more Cultural Exchange

I'm going Asian again for this post and this time it's Fish! I mentioned in my Cod Post that I don't have much experience in making fish but am slowly trying out new things. I also mentioned that my favourite way of cooking fish is to wrap it in foil together with a whole bunch of other ingredients and then bake it. I took the same route this time!

This recipe was inspired by a Steamed Fish we had at Kuala Selangor. This would be a good time for some Cultural Exchange too! Kuala is the Malay word for confleunce of two rivers or River Mouth. Hence, Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, literally translated means 'muddy confluence' as two rivers - Sungai Gombak and Sungai Klang. Sungai of course means River.

Kuala Selangor is the name of a small town locate at the river mouth of Sungai Selangor while Selangor is one of the larger states in Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur, itself a Federal Territory, is completely surrounded by Selangor. So much for the Geography lesson.

Kuala Selangor however, aside from its fantastic seafood, is World Famous for it's fireflies. The mangrove swamp along the river is home to one of the largest firefly colonies in the World! Apparently the only other place that you can see fireflies like this is in Brazil although there is also apparently a cave in New Zealand that has a lot of glowworms. (I'm not sure if glowworms are the same as fireflies...). Regardless, it is truly a wondrous sight.

Anyone of you wanna come to KL to visit me, I'll take you to see the fireflies and then for dinner at Kuala Selangor!

Back to the fish now. Mackerel is what is known as Tenggiri in this neck of thw woods. The fish we had at Kuala Selangor was a steamed Sea Bass or Barramundi - what we call Siakap.



This is what I did with the fish, trying to replicate what we ate.

1 inch ginger - sliced
2 cloves garlic - chopped
3 stalks lemon grass (serai) - bruised
3 tomatoes - quartered
5 bay leaves
4 Mackerel Steaks
a little soy sauce
Chilli Flakes
Sesame Oil

Place fish in Aluminium foil and rub a little soy sauce and sesame oil on it. Add the rest of the ingredients over and around the fish and then fold the foil into an envelope shape. Bake in preheated 190C overn for about 20 minutes till fish is cooked.

So simple and yet so delicious. The Lovely Wife reckoned it was almost as good as what we had eaten and she suggested that next time I should add some Tofu in as well - just like in the restaurant! I myself was very pleased with this effort and the kids loved it too - so a definite winner here!

Chicken Curry

To me, there is nothing quite as satisfying as a fiery curry with rice. Yes, Rice and Curry would definitely have to rank right up there as superb comfort food. When I first started to cook regularly, as a Uni student in Australia, a good curry always brought back images and tastes of home.


I remember sitting with my housemates, watching TV in the lounge, with our plates piled high with steaming rice and hot and spicy chicken curry. It didn't matter how cold it was cold outside nor did it matter that we were in the middle of exams. All that mattered at that moment was how good the rice and curry tasted and how much it reminded all of us of home!

This is my recipe for Chicken Curry.

1 Whole Chicken
1/2 inch ginger
1 tsp Turmeric
1 Large Onion
handful of curry leaves
3 Tbsp Curry Powder
1 Tbsp Chilli Powder
¼ tsp cumin
¼ tsp fennel
4 cloves
3 Tomatoes
2 potatoes
½ Cup Fresh Milk
2 tbsp Cooking Oil
Salt to taste


Wash and cut chicken into medium pieces. Rub chicken with turmeric and ginger, salt and pepper. Remove skin if desired
Heat oil in deep pan or wok. Fry onions and curry leaves
Add in curry powder, fennel, cumin and cloves and lightly fry till fragrant. Take care not to burn the onions. Add in the sliced tomatoes and then toss in the chicken and potatoes. Mix well.

Pour in a little water if too dry. Allow the chicken to cook and then simmer until liquid is reduced. Add the milk and cook until mixture is thick.

If you like a 'richer' curry, use freshly squeezed Coconut Milk (or the canned variety) instead of fresh milk. I try and stay away from Coconut Milk in my curries as it is rather fatty albeit delicious!

Some people prefer their curry with more gravy. I like mine thick and with the curry coating the chicken in all its gooey goodness. If you like your curry with more gravy, just add in more water or milk. Simple as that!

When my mom used to make curry for all of us, she had a little trick to make sure that none of the 'gooey goodness' was wasted. After spooning the curry into a serving dish, she would scoop a spoon of rice into the wok or saucepan and mop up all the leftover curry. We would all then fight for that bit of rice!

Baked Cod Oriental Style

One weekend, we were too busy lazing and around with the kids that by the time we got ourselves into gear and went to the market, most of the fish had been sold. There was however some Cod available. Now Cod is rather expensive in this part of the world but sometimes its nice to indulge.


The Lovely Wife absolutely adores Cod as do the kids. In fact, when the kids were just starting to eat solid food, we used to feed them a little mashed Cod as it is believed that Cod is good Brain food. And all along I thought it was my Genes…

So with the purchase of Cod, I now had to decide what make. I don’t have a lot of experience in cooking fish but I am slowly learning to enjoy cooking it. My favourite method has to be experimenting with throwing a whole lot of seasoning together with the fish, wrapping it in foil and then baking it. Not only is this relatively easy, it is also very healthy. The best part though is that you get to enjoy the flavour of the fish itself without having it doused in too much spice or seasoning.

The Lovely Wife was just happy to have fresh fish rather than the Frozen Dory Fish that I usually like to make. The fact that it was Cod was an added bonus of course!

In trying to figure out what to do, I remembered, that in recent times, Chinese Restaurants have started to serve Steamed Cod doused in soy sauce and ginger. I decided to follow a similar route but use just a tinge of soy sauce. I also thought I would add some mushrooms to the fish.

This is what I did.

450g Cod Fish, cut into steaks
4 cloves garlic – chopped
½ inch ginger – chopped
200 g swiss brown mushrooms - quartered
2 tbsp Sesame Oil
1 tbsp light soy sauce (or more to taste)
Black Pepper

Method
Heat Sesame Oil and fry garlic and mushrooms. Set aside. Mix together ginger and soy sauce. Rub the fish with the mix. Arrange the fish steaks in a pan lined with foil. Make sure there is enough foil to cover the fish and form a package.
Mix the the remaining ginger and soy sauce with the garlic mushrooms and spread over fish. Sprinkle with Black Pepper. Fold the foil over to make a package, folding over the edges to seal. Bake in a preheated 200C oven for about 20 mins.


Part of the fun in baking in foil is serving it as it is on a platter and then opening up the package to reveal the goodness inside!



The cod turned out very nice baked like this. The flesh was firm and juicy with just enough sauce created by the fish oils and juices from the mushrooms. Very tasty indeed! The kids couldn't get enough of the Cod while the Lovely Wife gave it full marks. Looks like I'm getting the hang of cooking fish...!

Stir Fried Snow Peas

One of the things I like most about Chinese food is the vegetables. They are always still crunchy and just lightly flavoured, allowing you to taste the true flavour of the veges. Granted, some vege dishes are doused in sauce but not this one. The other thing that is really great about making Chinese Vege dishes is how easy they are and how quick they are to whip up!

Snow Peas with Garlic is absolutely simple and quick to make. It doesnt require a recipe coz its simply tossing in a bit of this and a bit of that. Well, actually, a load of garlic and a dash of Oyster Sauce. Thats it!

Cut or chop the garlic and fry it with a little sesame oil or vegetable oil/corn oil/peanut oil. Add in the snow peas and quickly stir fry before tossing in some Oyster sauce. Add some salt and pepper too if you like.
Try not to overcook the snow peas or they could become a little limp.



See? What could be more simple!

Black Pepper Beef - A Malaysian Favourite

Black Pepper Beef is a favourite dish that you find in Chinese restaurants in Malaysia. A lot of the Chinese food over here is different from what you would typically find elsewhere, primarily because it has been influence by the local spices as well as the different cultures found in Malaysia. Many restaurants serve a variant of Black Pepper Beef using Venison or even Ostrich Meat.

This dish is a perennial favourite whenever we eat out at Chinese Restuarants - especially with the kids. The only problem with eating out at these restuarants is, more often than not, a lot of MSG (Mono Sodium Glutamate - a taste enhancer) is added. Although the food is delicious, it kind of leaves a dry feeling in your mouth and well, anything that acts as a food enhancer cant be very good for you can it!


I didn't buy a whole lot of beef as I actually had something else in mind to make which I just didnt have the time to do. So in order to make sure that the beef was used fresh, I decided on Black Pepper Beef. This is what I did.

250g beef sirloin or other lean cut
1 inch ginger
1 clove garlic
1 tsp dark soy sauce
Loads of black pepper

Method
Slice the beef into thin strips.Chop the garlic and slice the ginger into thin strips. Sautee the ginger and garlic and then add in lots and lots of freshly cracked black pepper. Add the beef and cook well before adding the dark soy sauce and a little bit of water. Allow to simmer till meat is nice and tender. Garnish with chopped red chillies.

I must say it turned out very well inded! I served it on a bed of lettuce, much like how they do it in the restaurants. Everyone loved it, especially the kids, so I guess this will become yet another favourite at home!

Currypuffs

Ahhh! Currypuffs! You can't get much better for a tea time snack, for a late morning snack or even as snacks to enjoy during office meetings! Yeap, currypuffs are the quintessential snack in Malaysia. Great eaten at any time of the day and perfect no matter what the filling. Some of you will know these delightful pastry puffs as Empanadas. Currypuffs are also usually staple fair at any birthday party!




Currypuffs come in various forms, shapes and sizes. More often than not they are filled with a spicy, savoury filling involving curried potatoes and some meat. Sometimes they are filled with sardines as well. The pastry also comes in various forms and is either baked or fried.
The Lovely Wife whipped up a batch of currypuffs for my daughter's birthday way back in February. The filling was basically a variation of my Kheema but using chicken instead of beef.



She also made some vegetarian - by leaving out the chicken of course - to cater for my daughters Vegen Godmother.

This is a guideline to how it is done. As with most dough recipes, there is a lot of leeway when it comes to specifying quantities!

1 cup flour
1 tbps butter or margarine
water

Mix the flour with the butter and knead. Slowly add in water till a dough like consistency is formed. Let rest for a little while before rolling out. Cut a square to cover the currypuff mould and then fill with the filling.
Fry till golden.

This is the mould. Once you fold the mould in half, it produces beautiful currypufs.



All rather easy and the secret, as with all pastry, is in the dough!

Spicy Sausages ala Pub snack food!

All kids somehow love sausages and most Birthday Parties usually have a large tray of cocktail sausages sitting on the table. I like to serve sausages for my kids birthday's as well - but with a difference. Usually, I cut up the sausages and fry them with tomatoes and some herbs to make it a little fancy.

When deciding the menu for my daugther's party back in February, I decided to make sausages again but this time, I made it somewhat like how they make it in Pubs. Most, if not all, of the pubs in KL serve fried sausages as an appetizer or snack. The way they make them is hot and spicy with a lot of onions and chillis.
I thought I would replicate that and since my kids have no real problem with spicy food, I used loads of chillis, onions as well as black pepper. I also threw in some curry leaves!


This is what you do.

Sautee some chopped garlic and slice onions till fragrant. Add in curry leaves, black pepper and sliced chillies and lightly fry. Throw in the suasages, cut into thin rounds, and mix well. Continue cooking till sausages are cooked through. Sprinkle with more black pepper.



These are delicious eaten on its own or with some bread. Even better with a cold beer!

Beef Kheema

This is one of my all time favourite dishes and also one that has a long history to it. Mum used to make her own version of this when I was younger and she called it a Minced Meat curry. She used to make it with minced beef and diced potatoes and we would all enjoy eating it with rice. The next day, we'd fill slices of bread with the leftover mince curry and polish it off!

Needless to say, when I went off to Uni, this was one of the dishes that I would often cook. I changed the recipe somewhat and added tomatoes as well as frozen mixed vegetables to it whilst omitting potatoes. I used to love this dish so much that almost everytime it was my turn to cook, I would cook this. As a result, my flatmates used to call me the "Mince Meat Man" although they used to enjoy this dish as much as I did!

I remember when I was in my Final year. It was just before mid term exams which meant that we were smack in the middle of Winter with cold, wet nights. We were all busy studying through the night and at about two in the morning, my flatmate walked into my room and annnounced that he was 'feeling hungry' and asked if I was too. We considered driving down to the local 24hr food outlet but decided that we wanted something hot and spicy; something that would 'comfort' us at this late hour when our minds were numb with too much studying. I suggested making some Kheema and my flatmates eyes lit up. He cooked up a large amount of rice while I quickly whipped up my Kheema. We sat in front of the gas fireplace and delighted in the steaming hot rice and spicy hot Kheema. Truly comfort food indeed!


The beauty of this dish is that it is an all-in-one dish with meat and vegetables in it. It's also extremely versatile in that you can eat it with rice, bread or even noodles. In fact, often times, we would eat the leftovers with instant noodles for a quick snack or even a meal the next day.

Kheema is really the Hindi word for Minced Meat but has also become the generic term for a Minced Meat Curry. This is my recipe:

600g Mince Beef or Mutton
300g frozen Mixed Vegetables (Pees, Carrots, Corn)
2 medium-sized Red Capsicums
4 Large Tomatoes - quartered
1 Large Onion
3-4 cloves garlic
a little ginger, chopped finely
6 Cloves
2 - 3 Tbsp Curry Powder
¾ Tbsp Chilli Powder
1 tsp Ground Black Pepper
cooking oil
Salt to taste


Method
Slice onion into thin slices and chop garlic and ginger. Dice Capsicum and thaw frozen vegetables. Lightly fry onions with garlic, ginger, black pepper and cloves until onions are soft.
Add in Curry powder and Chilli powder and fry till fragrant. Be careful not to burn the mix.
Add in tomatoes and mix well. Add in a little water if needed.


Continue cooking till a nice paste is formed.
Add in Mince and cook well.


Add in Capsicum and frozen vegetables
Continue cooking, stirring frequently. Add a cup of water and cover pan. Simmer for a further 10-15 minutes then remove cover, mix well and cook till most of the water is evaporated.



Coincidentally, the topic of the Monthly Mingle this month, hosted by my friend Meeta over at Whats for Lunch Honey is on Comfort Food. Although Kheema is great with plain white rice, it TRULY becomes Comfort Food when served with Yellow Rice or what I call Fools Saffron Rice.

Saffron Rice or Yellow rice is traditionally served instead of white rice for festivals or special occasions. Somehow, the food seems to take on an expensive and exotic twist when Yellow Rice is served.

I call this Fools Saffron Rice because it is an easy way of making fabulous, tasty, yellow rice in a rice cooker that can easily pass off for Saffron Rice – fooling most people!!

3 Cups Rice
4 ½ Cups Water
1-2 Tbsp Butter
2 handfuls Raisins and/or cashew nuts(optional)
6 cloves
2 tsp Turmeric powder


Method

Wash the rice well and place into the rice cooker.
Add the water, butter, cloves, turmeric powder and raisins/nuts (if using)
Mix lightly then turn on the rice cooker.
When rice is cooked, quickly stir the cooked rice to ensure all ingredients are mixed well.



Although I prefer Minced Beef, this dish is just as lovely made with Minced Lamb or even Minced Chicken! (I think my US friends would call Minced Meat as Ground Meat!)

I hope you all like this dish as much as I do!