Eazy Baked Salmon with thyme

one hell of a gorgeous dish!

i personally think that this is the simplest way to bake Salmon. and thyme and lemon is the perfect combination for baking salmon, they work really well. i baked these lovely salmon for our 'healthy' cook out last week but it somehow turned out not so healthy coz some of us keep asking the usual menu like gravy and adding other certain 'not so healthy ingredients.

i was in charge for the Salmon, my sister was in charge of the saute veges, my brother in law was in charge of baked Cod (which turned out execellent by the way)...my brother was responsible for the desserts (he made jello)

if was a fun family event. all of us was there ...oh did i mention that my lil brother just got married? yes he did last thursday...our side of reception is this saturday...i'll upload their pictures later in a different entry.

anyway enuf chatter, heres the BAKED SALMON recipe..

what you need:-

4 large salmon cuts
1 sprig of thyme
salt to taste
black pepper to taste
juice of a whole lemon
1 tbsp lemon zest
1 tbsp olive oil

clean the salmon meat and just rub all the ingredients evenly then sprinkle the lemon zest and let it sit just a few minutes then bake for about 12-15 minutes at 200c. you'll know that your fish is done when they became flakey but becareful not to over bake them or they'll be dry. check on them but fish usually doesnt take much time to cook.

then you may serve them as it is (like i did) or place them in a fancy serving plate.

this recipe will be even more complete if you have hollendaise sauce (is that how you spell it?)...

ok then HAPPY COOKING~

this is the saute vege my sister made

the baked cod - i have no idea what my brother in law put in it

BBQ chicken - my brother in law made, i think theres bird eye chilies, crushed garlic, honey, curry leaves and salt to taste - it was great!

this is the unhealthy part where we had homemade mash potatoes infused mayonese and garlic gravy with cream...
who can resist the gorgeous food??

and thats my children...who ate aLOT of the served FOOD...

Seafood Chowder

ok...this would probably be my rare entry with picture (since my trusty PC failed on me)...and now i am sneaking away using my husband's notebook...well of course i can't upload my whole bunch of pictures he'd notice that i'm using his notebook....yeah i know this is getting pathetic but i can't bare the fact that my blog is getting dull and dull-er every entry....i gotta do something.

i know that i'm 'banned' from using my husband's notebook hance why i'm super duper top secretly using his notebook (i feel like i'm 007 already)... ok gotta do this fast...soo... here's the recipe...for the record, this recipe is something that i come up with so its all in estimation base on what you like ^_^ so feel free to do the + and - the ingredients...

some clams - washed and briefly cook with a bit of salt then extrac the flesh
some crab meat if you have any, i use the crab filament
1 large white fish fillet, any white fish - i use haddock cut into bite size cubes
some squid rings
1/2 large potatoe - cubed
1.5 large potatoes - finely grated ( i strongly suggest you grate the potatoes directly into the cooking pot otherwise it'll turn black before you got to use it)
a dash of black pepper
2 tsp of dill
salt to taste
2c of milk
1c /250ml whipping cream
1 small carrot - cubed
1 stick celery - cut finely
1 onion - finely chopped
2 clove of garlic - finely chopped
2 slice of beef breakfast strips - finely chopped (i think idealy use bacon but this is a halal recipe sooo please be inform)
a cube of butter

=> melt butter and fry the beef strips until crispy. then discard the excess oil and add the onions, garlic, cubed potatoes, carrots and celery and fry until potatoes are almost cooked

=> then add in the milk and cream. stir gently and let it simmer under a medium-low heat.

=> then add in the greated potatoes. unlike most chowder recipes that i found, they use flour or corn starch to thicken the soup but i think using potatoes like this will do the same trick (due to its starch) and will make the soup more filling and hearty. stir gently and let it sit for a minute or two.

=> then lastly add in the seafood this way it'll give time for other ingredients to cook coz seafood cooks rather fast plus we don't want to end up with tough/crumbly seafood.

=> stir again and let it cook for another 5 minutes or so and by this time you'll find that the soup is thicken if you don't like it too think then you can add in more water or milk to adjust the thickness.

=> season your soup with salt and pepper to taste and lastly sprinkle dill and give it another stir and ready to serve!

wallah...very easy my son loves this chowder so much he kept asking for more! but remember when making a dish involving seafood, make sure that its FRESH!

*whispering* ok hope that you'll enjoy this recipe as much as my family does, and happy cooking!

bye signing off~

p/s: i know i'm being naughty right now but shhhhh~ don't tell my husband

Kelantan Traditional Snack: Squid stuffed with glutinous rice

you can see that the glutinous rice is nicely cooked inside the squid

This popular snack during tea-time. the squid is stuffed with glutinous rice and bathed in an aromatic coconut milk gravy. The stuffing is basically soaked in coconut milk before it is stuffed into the squids.

this is my dad's favorite dish. it is sweet with a hint of savory taste. store bought stuffed squid is never as good as homemade, its always too sweet and you usually can't really appreciate the flavors.

anyway i made this today since yesterday's pasar tani (market) only have cute petite squid. my mom once told me that to make this dish the best squid is the young squid or the smaller squid rather than the large one. this is probably because if you were to use large squid you may risk the flesh of the squid being tough as the process of cooking this is rather long (coz you need to make sure that the glutinous rice is cooked inside the squid) besides smaller portion is somehow fun to eat.

what you need:

1 can/pack coconut milk
12 small squids (you can make more)
100g glutinous rice (you may add more if needed)
1.2 cm ginger
1 screwpine leaf (daun pandan) - [optional but with this it'll be more fragrant]
2 shallot
100g palm sugar/brown sugar
a pinch of salt
toothpicks to secure the squid.

This is how you make it:

1. wash glutinous rice and soak it in the coconut milk for a minimum of 30minutes (the longer the better) then toss it and keep the coconut milk aside for later use.
   
2. mean while wash and clean squids. discard all dark ink and its bone. Do not remove the skin.
3. stuff the glutinous rice 1/3 full in the squid and attach back their heads and secure it with a toothpick. this is to allow the glutinous rice to expand and cook in the squid.
4. heat the coconut milk and add in ginger, shallots and screwpine.
   
5. then add in the stuffed squids cook until the stuffing is thoroughly cooked. to know when the glutinous rice is cooked, the squid will look expend and when you touch it, it should feel soft yet firm due to the expended cooked glutinous rice and the texture of the squid.
6. once cooked take out the squids and set a side.
7. then add in palm sugar and salt into the coconut milk stir constantly so that the coconut milk won't break and become oily. do this at a medium to low heat.
8. the gravy should be thicken after awhile. have a taste making sure that it is sweet with a hint of saltiness. then remove from heat and add in the cooked squids and let it sit for several minutes, then ready to serve.

TIPS:

• you can adjust the thickness of the gravy to your liking by adding water.when you do this make sure you check back your taste (sugar and salt)
• use fresh coconut milk is always better than using packed/instant coconut milk.
• palm sugar is the original ingredient but you can substitute with brown sugar or white sugar. but using white sugar will loose its beautiful brown color on the gravy. so perhaps you can try and caramelized the sugar first just to get the color although this may render the original taste slightly.

any questions you may ask me and i'll be gladly answer your questions.

Fried Fish with Fermented Soy Bean Sauce (ikan masak tauchu)

this is our main dish for tonight. my mom used to make this when i was little...i love this dish its so appetizing and when ever mom made this i will eat alot. now i hardly eat this dish, mainly because my husband can't stand anything that has to do with soy. he hated it, he's not allergic to it but just hated it...

so what made me cook this dish anyway? because i basically ran out of ideas on what to cook. ok lets face it if you're not working and all you do is cook for your family, eventually you'll run out of things to cook especially when you have picky eaters...not an easy task. and also lately i've been craving things from the past and needless to say this dish came to mind. since i have not much option especially with limited ingredients for anything else...my maid asked "bapak tak kisah?"(will he(your husband) mind?) and i told her that its his lost if he refused to eat coz its a delicious dish.

then husband came home and eat everything on the table with out question....i gotta say i was amazed! then i asked his is the fish any good? he said yes absolutely (then i begin to grin) then can i cook this dish again? he then said yes you should! (my smile was from ear to ear) he didn't know...and he liked it i'm happy full stop. i didn't tell him though or he'll freak out for absolutely no reason.

but my trick for the dish is that i use some sweet soy sauce and LOTs of ginger to reduce the 'tauchu'/fermented soy smell.

anyway here's the recipe:

2 pieces/slice of any white meat fish (i love seabass and haddock cut. but here i use tenggiri but i don't know what tenggiri is in english...but i think its Spanish Mackerel but i'm not sure... sorry)

lots of fresh ginger sliced in strips

1 large bombay onion sliced

1 clove garlic sliced

a hand full of cherry tomatoes

1 large red & green chili sliced (if you don't like it hot just de-seed them, here i only have red chili)

1tsp tauchu/fermented soy (you can get this at china town)

a splash of sweet soy sauce

1/3c of water

1tsp corn starch diluted with 2tsp of water.

1tsp sugar

**cook's note: you don't need any additional salt in this dish as the tauchu is very salty but i highly recommend you to TASTE your dish and adjust accordingly.

1. season fish with salt then fry them til cooked and tender. set a side.


2. heat a table spoon of oil and saute onion, garlic, ginger, chili, tomatoes until fragrant.


3. then add in tauchu, stir and reduce heat to moderate to low, add in the soy sauce.


4. then add in water and corn starch mixture.


5. cook until its simmers and the gravy is slightly thicken. remove from heat then pour the gravy on to the fried fish and ready to serve.

Steamed Garlic prawns

i just love steamed food they are ever so easy and simple to make....

what you need:

150g prawns de vein
2tbsp light soy sauce
1tsp sugar
1tsp lime juice
1" ginger finely sliced
5-8cloves garlic finely chopped
1sprig spring onions finely chopped
1sprig coriander finely chopped
1-2 bird eye chili (this is optional and if you like it hot then by all means go crazy with the chilies)

combine everything in a steaming bowl the steam for 8 minutes of until cooked through. the ready to serve.

Red Snapper in Sweet n Sour Sauce

My kids love this dish. when ever i made this they'll have their second and third. you can use the same sauce with other seafood or even chicken. a versatile dish i'd say just like the dish i did before in my previous entry.

anyhow here's the recipe:

blended ingredients:
1 onion
1/2 inch of garlic
1/2 red chili scrape off the seeds
1 garlic
1 red tomato.

other ingredients:
1 or 2 slice of red snapper
1tbsp tomato sauce
a pinch of black pepper
salt to taste
sugar to taste (it should be sweet but u can control to your desired sweetness)
1 lemongrass crushed
1 kaffir lime leaf (daun limau purut)

you basically fry the blended ingredients until fragrant then add in the other ingredients except the fish. season it then set a side.

as for the fish, wash and pat dry, season it with salt and pepper then dip into a flour until all covered. fry the fish until well cooked it should turned out golden brown nice and crispy. my children likes their fish this way but you can omit the flour part and just season the fish and fry its ok too. then youcan serve the fish with the sweet and sour sauce.

for the sauce you can then add in pepper bell and some chopped corriender leaves while cooking the sauce, it'll do wonder for the sauce. i didn't add in those coz i was just making do with what i have at stock.

Our Dinner - Steamed Fish with pickle ginger

Today i'm in the mood for something simple...Steamed Fish came to mind... its a great choice coz my hubby and son love steamed fish...I got this recipe from my mother in law its really good and you should try.
What you need:-
1 medium sized Baramundi fish - cleaned and soaked with tamarind water to get rid of the mud taste.
1/2c of sauce for steamed fish - you can buy this from the supermarket or any oriental shop
2tbs sliced pickled ginger
several slices of fresh ginger
1/2 large chili - sliced thinly
1/2 bombay onion - sliced
2tsp chopped garlic
1tbs frying oil
How you do it:-

1. heat oil and saute garlic until slightly browned then add the onion, gingers and chili
2. stir fry until fragrant
3. add in the steam fish sauce, stir then remove from heat.
4. place the fish on a plate, pour in the sauce the steam for 15-20 minutes or until fish is done.
5. ready to serve...you may garnish it with coriander leaves

my other side dish would be stir fried long bean with sweet soy sauce, omelete with carrots and shrimp bits, and stir fry spinach with salted fish bits.

p/s: sorry for the unattractive pictures ^_^

Marinara Fettucinie with Lobster - My Saturday Lunch

I woke up late coz i had a very late night watching my long due DVDs. So when i woke up that morning i felt like having something much more filling then my usual breakfast, so i decided to have brunch instead and before i knew it i've already started cooking my pasta and making the Marinara sauce. This is how i like to take my seafood with my pasta, with the richness of the tomato sweet sour flavor and the fragrant bay leaves and italian herbs oh yeah i do add a couple of table spoon of chilli sauce to add some 'zing' in it..(yeah we asian cannot run far from spiciness) just describing this makes my mouth waters *yumm* i just love this dish even if you go any italian restaurant and got your eyes crossed looking that their menus you can never go wrong with Seafood Marinara Pasta/fettucini, i know coz this is the only thing i'll order if i can't decide...

anyway...this is the recipe: (for 2 person)

what you need:-

2clove garlic - chopped
1 bombay onion - diced
1 large tomato - diced
1/2 can tomato puree
2tbs chilli sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
a dash of sugar
1 bay leaf
a dash of italian herbs
squid - cleaned and cut
prawns- clean devained
any white meat fish fillet - clean and cut to chunks (i use lemon sole fillet)
1 Lobster - cleaned and cut into half
1/2c water

How you do it:-

1. saute garlic and onions until fragrant
2. add in the tomato, bay leaf and italian herbs - stir for a while
3. add in all the seafood except the lobster - stir until seafood is almost cooked
   
4. add in the tomato puree, chili sauce and lobster stock- stir
   
5. add in salt, pepper and sugar - simmer until the sauce is slightly thickens. - ready to serve

To Prepare the lobster:

1. Clean lobster, put it in a deep stewing pot.
2. add in the 1/2c of water
3. if you like you can add in a dash of salt
4. close the lid, cook for a good 20 minutes of until done.
5. when done cut lobster to half then topped it on the fettuccine, dress it! and serve

I prepare it this way because i don't want to complicate it so much as it may loose its marvelous taste (its naturally sweet and tender flavor) so i keep it simple.
Beautifully cooked Lobster...look at the tender juicy lobster meat...yumm!

Buttered Prawn

This is a special dish considering that it actually a combination of various flavors (Malays, chinese, Indian and westerns) Its a very popular dish but for some reason its usually served in a chinese restaurants, you rarely find it else where.

The brown bits in the picture are simply mouth watering-- egg floss (more correctly yolk floss) is filled with bursting flavors of butter, spice, salt, sweet and garlicky ahhh~ words just fails me...(or maybe its just me loving this dish so much...but i can swear i'm NOT the only one!)

Anyway i got this recipe from my collegue's mom. She generously shared her recipe with me and i'm thankful for that and now i'm doing the good deed sharing with you all.

Buttered Prawns
Ingredients

300g large prawns
Oil for deep frying
4 tablespoons butter
1 bird's eye chilies (chopped - just to have some heat but if you like spicy and add more than 1 or omit it altogether if you can't stand the heat ;) )
3 sprigs of curry leaves (use only the leaves)
1 tsp mustard seeds (biji sawi)
3 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
3 egg yolks

This is how you do it:

1. Leave the prawn heads and shells on but chop off the eyes part. Slit down the back to remove the veins. Pat dry. Heat oil and deep fry the prawns. Drain and set aside.
2. Melt the butter, then add bird's eye chilies, curry leaves, garlic, salt, mustard seeds and fry until fragrant.(mind the mustard seeds as it'll get jumpy when incontact with heat)
   
3. Turn up the heat and pour in the yolks with one hand at the highest peak (tuang tinggi-tinggi) and whisk or stir the yolk silmutaniously with the other hand until it turn floss like.
   
4. Add prawns, sugar, Cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently. Serve immediately.

**p/s: sorry about the ugly pictures...all pictures here are taken only with my camera phone

Cheesy Baked Lobster

Ingredients:

1/2 lobster
2 teaspoons melted butter
2/3 cup light cream
1/2 slice beef bacon (chopped finely)
1 clove garlic (chopped finely)
some grated cheddar cheese - enough to coat the topping.
Salt to taste
A pinch of sugar
Some flour
Dried parsley flakes

This is how you do it:

Clean the lobster and cut it into halves (use only half the lobster but if you're having whole lobster just double the recipe).

Heat up a skillet and add in the melted butter. Saute the garlic and bacon until aromatic, then add in the cream and bring to boil. Add salt and a pinch of sugar, and a little flour to thicken the sauce. remove from heat.

Preheat the oven to 375 degree. Spread the mixture onto the body of the lobster and its head evenly. garnish the cheese on top the lobster. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the cheese turns golden brown. Sprinkle dried parsley flakes on the lobster and serve hot with lemon wedges.

Stir Fry Prawn with Butter & Cheese

Prawns...there's so many ways to cook it...but this one comes to mind. There's something about prawns or seafood for that matter and butter & cheese..they just go well with each other, complimenting the taste giving the prawns (seafood) that luxury feel...ahh this dish will blow you away...

and a friend told me that this is a must have in a chinese restaurant so i must say it is that good...only when i made this, i've to make extra on the gravy coz my son simply LOVE this dish he had 2 servings and that's alot for a 2 years old!

Stir fry prawn with butter & cheese
What you need:

5-6 large tiger prawn devained
1/2 onion ( diced)
1 cup light milk
1/4c Kraft cheese - grated
3 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
3 tablespoons melted butter
Some corn starch (for coating the lobster pieces before deep frying)
Some chopped scallions
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste

This is how you do it:

Clean the prawn &de-vain it and you may chop it into pieces if you like. Coat the prawns with some corn starch and deep fry in very hot oil until 80% done or as soon as the shell turns red. Dish out and set aside.

Heat up a wok and add the melted butter. Toss in the chopped garlic, sliced onion and stir fry until aromatic (but before they turn brown). Add in the milk, bring it to boil, and then add in the fried lobster pieces. Lay the 4 pieces of cheese (or sprinkle cheese powder generously) on top of the prawns cover the wok on high heat and let it simmer for a few minutes or until the cheese melts and the sauce thickens. Stir and blend the cheese well with the prawns, add chopped scallion, salt and sugar to taste, remove and serve immediately.