Sweet and Sour Fried Fish Fillet

 

Time pass by so fast and it's already the middle of May, and just two more days before my Dad and my sister comes to visit me in Sweden for the first time and to meet his grandson/her nephew too! My Dad promised to cook me many delicious food while he's here so hopefully some of those dishes will end up on this blog too. 

Motherhood has been very tiring but it doesn't stop the craving. I can't remember exactly when I cooked this (definitely not recently) but it's one of those dishes we will order when eating at a zi char store. This is my simple version of it and the fish I used was what they called 'pangsiu' on the package here. It's some kind of white , boneless, frozen fish fillet, which I'm sure would have tasted better with fresh fish if you can get them.

Ingredients

2-3 large white fish fillet, thawed

1 egg

1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine

salt and pepper

½ green bell pepper

½ red bell pepper

1 large onion

thumb size ginger

potato flour

oil for deep frying

4 tablespoons ketchup

3 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce

Water or stock 

A few drops of sesame seed oil

Steps

1. Slice the fish into large pieces and marinate it with the wine, salt and pepper and 1 egg. Coat it generously with potato flour to be deep fried.
   
   
   
2. Fry the fish slices until golden brown, drain on kitchen paper and set aside.
   
   
   
3. Cut the bell peppers into bite size pieces and the onion into similar slices. Minced the ginger finely.
4. Using a hot pan with about 2 tablespoons of cooking oil, fry the minced ginger and onions until fragrant, then add the bell peppers and mix well until slightly soften. Add in the ketchup and chilli sauce enough water or stock to create a thick gravy and bring it to boil.
   
   
   
5. Toss in the fish slices and mix well. Mix in some sesame seed oil just before serving.
   
   
   

Stewed Bittergourd with Chicken

I first tasted this dish when I was giving tuition to my colleagues' kids as a favor for a period of time. Since we went directly after work to her mother-in-law's place, it was a blessing to eat good home-cooked food there. And every time I tasted something good, I will asked her how she cooked it, especially those I thought my Dad would like. It's simple but a good variation from the normal way of how bitter gourds are cooked.

Ingredients

1/2 large bitter gourd or a small one, cut length wise into four and cut further into large chunks

1 boneless chicken thigh fillet, sliced into equal size as the bitter gourd

1/2 tablespoon fermented black beans, rinsed and chopped roughly

1 tablespoon finely minced garlic

1 tablespoon finely minced ginger

1 or 2 chili padi, finely minced (optional)

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

2 teaspoons dark soy sauce

Steps

1. Heat up about 2 tablespoons of oil in a hot pan and briefly stir fry the minced ginger, garlic, fermented black beans and chili until fragrant.
2. Add in the chicken thigh fillets and cooked until just changed color.
3. Add in the bitter gourd chunks and mix well. Add in the dark soy sauce and oyster sauce before adding enough water to just cover the ingredients.
   
   
   
4. Turn to medium heat to simmer for about 10 minutes or until bitter gourd is soft (or to your preference).
   
   
   
   
5. Season with salt to taste before serving with rice.
   
   
   

 

Borough Market Brownie

If you have ever been to London and visited the Borough Market, you might have tasted this delicious brownie that's situated right at the end of the area. My friend Sylvia and her hubby are coming to visit us in a couple of weeks' time to take pictures of our son Isac (we are very honored!) and you should definitely check out their Facebook page for Eight Dot Photography and also her blog, Peaches and Donuts which I have mentioned before. She is bringing me some goodies from London that I can't get here in Sweden, unfortunately, no brownies, so I googled and found this recipe from BBC Good Food website and it's a keeper! I halved the recipe so it's enough to make one square pan (20 x 20 x 3 cm) of brownies and also had to adjust some ingredients since I didn't have quite enough dark chocolate in my pantry when I first made it, but it works fine and I've done my version a couple of times now that has always turned out well. Serve it warm with a nice vanilla ice cream....ah the pleasure of life :)

Ingredients
170g dark chocolate (at least 55 per cent cocoa solids)
160g unsalted butter
3 whole eggs
150g caster sugar
25g cocoa powder
40g plain flour

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C while you prepare the batter by first melting the chocolate and butter in a small pot or in a bowl over boiling water. Let it cool slightly.
2. Whisk the sugar and eggs together until pale yellow, then add in the chocolate butter mixture.
   
   
3. Sieve the flour and cocoa powder and fold it into the mixture until well blended. Line the pan with baking paper and pour in the batter and bake for 20 minutes. Let it cool in the pan before enjoying this rich brownie.
   
   

    

   

Pig's Trotters in Sweet Vinegar Confinement Food

In Sweden where it's not common to hire help after giving birth, I had to do my own confinement in my own way. What I discovered from many Chinese friends is that there are different ways how confinement is being done, and this dish is certainly more unique to South East Asian Chinese or the Hokkiens. I got a slow cooker or crock pot for my birthday from my in-laws (nice huh!) and used it to cook this for myself. It's a very simple recipe but the key thing is to use the correct vinegar - which is the sweet vinegar, identified by its name or one of the brand, Ba Zhen as shown in the picture. Contrary to belief, this dish can be eaten by anyone and is one of my Dad's favourite too.

Ingredients
1 pig trotter
1 large piece of ginger, about 200g
2-3 tablespoons of sesame seed oil
1 bottle of sweet vinegar
1-2 blocks of gula melaka
Hard boiled eggs (optional)



Steps

1. The night before cooking, prepare the vinegar solution by crushing the ginger with a cleaver and place in a pot to fry without oil until dry before adding the sesame seed oil and fry until fragrant. Add the whole bottle of vinegar and let it simmer for 10-15 minutes. Let it cool overnight.
   
   
   
2. The next day, scald the pig trotters in a pot of boiling water, rinse and drain. Heat up the pot with some cooking oil and brown the scaled trotters slightly.
   
   
   
3. Place the trotters, gula melaka and the vinegar solution together in the crock pot and let it cook on low heat for four hours or until the meat is falling off the bone. Add in the peeled hard boiled eggs half an hour before serving. Serve with rice.
   
   
   
   
   
   

Macarons with Raspberry Jam Filling

My birthday this year was spent in the hospital, but for a good reason since our son arrived just the day before. So for his first month celebration, I decided to try making macarons again. Yes, I have tried making them before but it wasn't very successful. Since my darling hubby got me an expensive macaron making kit (baking sheet with 'built-in circles and a pipping gadget), what better time to give it a try again. I have to say it's not my favourite dessert but it is very pretty when done correctly. So for my friends who wanted to try it out, here's the recipe and you may have to adjust the temperature and timing depending on the type of oven you have. This is adapted from a Swedish baking book 'Macarons, Cupcakes, Cakepops och andra söta bakverk' from Mia Öhrn, also a birthday present :). So I had a really good birthday this year after all!

Ingredients

170g icing sugar

110g grounded almonds without skin

90g egg whites (about three eggs)

2 tablespoons castor sugar

A few drops of food colouring

for the filling

200ml raspberry jam

50ml syrup

Steps

1. If you can only get almonds with their skin on, you would need to do an extra step of soaking them in hot water and peeling the skin off. Otherwise, try to look for those that has no skin and use a food processor to grind it until very fine or as fine as you can. The book recommend a almond grinder which I have not found, but if you can even get almond flour (100% almonds), good for you! This and the following two process of grinding and sieving is the most tedious I find but necessary if you want pretty products in the end. Sieve the ground almond once.
2. Weigh the icing sugar and mix it with the ground almond and sieve it through once more.
3. Whip the egg whites in a clean and dry bowl until foamy, then add in the castor sugar and whip until firm.
4. Fold in the almond/icing sugar mix into the egg white together with the food coloring if using. Do not overmix, the final result should be like flowing lava.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Pipe it into a fancy baking sheet like I have or on normal baking paper. You might find it helpful to draw the circles first before piping if you are not so good at it. Let it rest for 45 minutes. At this point, if your mixture spreads out from the circle you have piped too much, it may mean you have overmix it previously. Try to have more space between each circle in that case to 'save' your work.
   
   
   
   
6. Preheat the oven at 125°C and place your baking tray at the lowest rack and the original time suggested was 20 minutes. I found that to be sufficient for the smaller macarons I made (about 2.5cm in diameter), but about 30 minutes or more for the larger one (4cm in diameter).
   
   
   
   
7. Remove from baking sheet while warm.
   
   
   
   
8. For the filling, I boiled the jam and syrup until it thickens and piped it on accordingly.
   
   
   
   
   
   

Stir Fried Bitter gourd and Egg

I just saw I only had one posting in February. So sorry about that, but now I am adjusting more to parenthood, the postings should be more regular again hopefully!

Some people say the older you get, the more you appreciate things you don't used to enjoy when you are younger. The same can be said for my growing appreciation for bitter gourd. To the point that I recently paid SGD7 for a medium size bitter gourd from the local Asian store. I probably wouldn't buy it again in the near future but the two dishes I made was this classic one stir fried with egg. I like the egg more omelet style so this is my version of it.

Ingredients
1/2 bitter gourd, cut lengthwise and sliced thinly
2 egg, beaten with a little salt and pepper
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 shallot, minced
Chicken stock powder to taste

Steps

1. Pan fry the omelet first, I like it a bit brownish and use the spatula to cut it into bit size pieces. Remove from the pan and set aside.
2. Using the same pan, add about 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and stir fry the minced garlic and shallot until fragrant, then add in the sliced bitter gourd. Cook until the bitter gourd is bright green before adding in the omelet.
3. Add some water and chicken stock powder to taste. At this stage, you can adjust accordingly to how tender you want the bitter gourd slices to be. I like them soft with just a slight crunch. Have them with rice or some plain porridge, the way my Dad likes it.

Bee Hoon Ze Char - Rice Vermicilli with Meat and Seafood Gravy

This could have been a healthy dish except for the addition of the fried pork lard, but without it, it taste oh so different. So indulge in them once in a while, especially when you are overseas with no Zi Char store to go and just buy them from. I did this with bee hoon, but you can chose to use egg noodles or hor fun or any noodles you fancy.

Ingredients (2-3 portions)

Fried pork lard (cut up the pork lard into large cubes as they will shrink and render them to crispy bits over medium heat until golden brown. Keep the oil for frying later or in other dishes too)

6 fishballs, cut into halves (you should use fish cakes if you can get them)

7-8 prawns

100g lean pork, sliced thinly

1 sheet of dried bee hoon, soaked in cold water to soften and drained

2-3 bunches of caixin or bak choy, cut into 2 cm sections

2 garlic cloves, minced finely

1 egg

2-3 teaspoons dark soy sauce

1 teaspoon chicken stock powder

white pepper

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce

Steps

1. Marinate the prawns and pork with some white pepper and soy sauce while you prepare the bee hoon first.
2. Over a hot wok, heat up 2 tablespoons of the oil you rendered from the pork lard and add in half the minced garlic, stir frying it quickly so it doesn't burn and add in the soaked bee hoon. Add in the dark soy sauce and mix well until it is evenly colored, adding a little water if necessary. It should still remain relatively dry as you will be adding the gravy over it when you serve.
3. Once the bee hoon is cooked, place in a serving bowl and set aside. Using the same pan, add in 1 tablespoon of the oil rendered from the pork lard and add in the rest of the minced garlic.
4. When the garlic are slightly browned, add in the fish balls first and stir fry. Add in the prawns and pork next and fry until they are 80% done before adding the vegetables and mix well.
   
   
   
5. Add in enough water to cover the ingredients and stir in the oyster sauce, chicken stock powder and some dark soy sauce for color if desire. Taste and adjust seasoning where necessary. Let it come to a boil before cracking an egg in the middle of the gravy and stirring it slightly to get those eggy whirls.
   
   
   
6. Once done, scoop over the bee hoon in and serve hot with some sliced chili padi or pickled green chili if you have prepare beforehand. Top it up with some crispy pork lard cubes and it might just bring you a bit closer to home.