Pan Roasting Cod Fillets with Brown Butter Sauce

This dish came in the right moment.  I was wondering how to prepare my cod fillet when I turned on my TV and on the PBS channel was showing AmericanTest Kitchen.  First half of the show was teaching how to sealed scallops and served it with brown butter sauce.  Second half of the show was teaching how to pan-roasting halibut fillets.  So, my cod fillet dish was set after I finished the show.  I was going to pan roast my cod fillets and served it with the brown butter sauce.

I had an accident when pan-roasting my cod fillets.  I forgot to put on my oven mitten when I tried to move the hot pan away and burnt my hand big time (remember I posted on Facebook?).  No only that, I dropped a big piece of my cod fillet on the floor. :-(  It was a burning pain experience for me, luckily the pain stopped the next morning and only left me with a red burn mark on my hand.

So, please take extra caution if you are trying to pan-roasting your fish fillets.  I probably won't be attempting this method again.  Would go for pan-steaming instead.

Verdict:  This dish turned out well and the brown butter sauce is very yummy and goes well with seafood.   But as a health conscious person, I felt that the brown butter sauce might clog my arteries.  :-P Okay, in moderation, not too often would do.

Ingredients:

3 Cod fish fillets, at least 1" thick, rinse and pat dry with paper towel

Brown Butter Sauce:

2 Tbsp. butter

1 shallot, minced

Italian herbs seasonings (thyme, oregano, rosemary)

Salt and black pepper

2 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. sugar

Method:

For Pan-Roasting the cod fillets:

Season both sides of the fillet with salt and black pepper.  On side down, add a little white granulate sugar to aid in the crust formation process.  In a non-stick pan, add in oil.  When hot, add in the fillet with the sugar added side down first and time it to a minute.  After one minute, flip it over for a little while.  And finish cooking it in a preheated 425'F oven for 7-10 minutes.  While the fillets are roasting in the oven, prepare the brown butter sauce.

Brown Butter Sauce:

Melt the butter in a saucepan in medium heat.  Keep watch and not to burn the butter.  When brown, add in the minced shallots.  Stir-well.  Add in the Italian herbs seasonings, season with salt and black pepper.  Lastly add in the lemon juice and sugar.  Stir-well and set aside.

Be careful of the hot pan from the oven!!  Take out the fillets and place on a plate and pour the brown butter sauce on top to serve.

Black Pepper Crabs

Rock crab sections was on sales at my local supermarket recently.  I couldn't miss this sales and bought 2 lb. to fry at home.  The crabs sold here were all cooked and frozen.  So, basically I just defroze it and then stir-fry it again.  I do find the live ones or uncooked ones at the Asian supermarket, but I hardly go for that because then I would have to kill it and clean it.  Thus I always go for the easiest I guess.

Anyway, I loved black pepper crabs.  I had it at my friend's house many years ago, seem like a Singaporean dish at that time as well as Chili's crabs.  Strange that we don't have this dish in the Chinese restaurants here.  All they have are steamed, ginger scallion, chili garlic white pepper, and XO sauce.  They might have butter cream but I am not too sure.

Ingredients:

2 lb. of rock crab sections

Ginger slices

Cut scallions

1 packet of black pepper seasonings

1 Tbsp. of butter

Method:

1.  Heat up the wok.  When heated, add in cooking oil.  When hot, add in the ginger and scallion, stir-fry until fragrant, add in the crabs.  Stir-fry until fragrant.

2.  Add in the black pepper seasonings and butter.  Coat well and stir-fry until the crabs are heated through.  Serve hot.

Korean Scallion Salad (Pa-Muchim)

This scallion salad is usually served along side Korean barbeque in a Korean restaurant.  You can wrap this and the barbeque meat in a green lettuce leaf and eat it together.  I made this to serve it with my Hanainese chicken because I thought it would go well together with the ginger sauce and chili.  This scallion salad was indeed delicious and it would pair well with any meat dishes.

I think it is best to make this on the day you want to serve it and finish it in the same day.

I adapted this recipe from a Korean cookbook that I borrowed from my local library in which I forgot to copy down the title of the book.  It is a cookbook featured Korean chefs in Korean restaurants around LA, California.

Ingredients:

5 scallions

1 tsp. red pepper powder

1 clove of garlic, minced

1/4 tsp. soy sauce

1/4 tsp. granulated sugar

1/2 tsp. sesame oil

1/2 tsp. toasted sesame seeds

Method:

Wash each scallion and pat dry with paper towel.  Trim both ends of each scallion, then cut into 3-inch pieces and then finely cut again lengthwise (scallions are very slippery, so use caution while cutting).  Put the scallions in a bowl and add red pepper powder, garlic, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil. and sesame seeds, and toss to mix.  Transfer to a serving plate.

Whole Wheat Milk Buns

I played with the Haiji white bun recipe and came out with my own version of whole wheat milk buns.   Even though the Haiji white bun was really soft and fluffy but it didn't make of whole wheat.  Since we are a 100% whole wheat bread consumer most of the times, I just have a love for it.  Even though this whole wheat milk bun is not 100% whole wheat, but at least it has more than 50% whole wheat in it.  See, I am pretty crazy about whole wheat isn't it?  I am as crazy about whole wheat as brown rice these days.  :-P  Start your kids young with whole wheat bread and brown rice so that these would be their staple choice in the future.

This whole wheat milk buns turned out soft and delicious as well.  It stays soft for days and now it is our breakfast and snack for the girls.  I would use this recipe to try on my pullman tin and a loaf pan next and show you my result.

Before second proofing/rising

After second rising, ready to be brushed with melted butter (optional step)

Done baking!

Before baking but done with second rising, just brushed with seasoned melted butter

Done baking in the oven

Ingredients:

400ml milk (I used 2%)

2 Tbsp. butter

4.5 tsp. granulated white sugar

1 3/4 cups 100% whole wheat flour

1 1/4 cups bread flour

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. instant yeast

Method:

1.  In your bread machine, place the ingredients as listed, except yeast.  Make an indentation at one side of the flour but not touching milk and add in the instant yeast. Turn to Dough function and let it does it works.

2.  After 1:30 hour later, or when done.  Take the dough out and punch and knead it a few times.  Separate into 4 sections.  Roll each section into roll and cut into small pieces.  You can shape each piece into ball shape and place three into each muffin cup pan (like picture above).  Or shape a bigger ball and make it like a bun (like last two pictures).  Grease the non-stick pan for easy release.

3.  Let it proof until double in size.  I proof mine in the oven with lights on and two bowls of hot water at the bottom.  Took about 60 minutes.

4.  Brush with melted butter seasoned with Italian seasonings, garlic powder and salt (optional step) and bake in preheated 350'F oven for 15 minutes.

5.  Cool on wire rack and store in an air-tight container.  Serve with natural peanut butter and organic preserved.

~Yield about 26 buns for me.

[S$20 Budget Meal] Tom Yam Cream Soup

I always wanted to make the Tom Yam Cream Soup (with added coconut cream) ever since I tried the instant noodle version years ago.  I wondered how I never gotten to make it all these years, perhaps I tried to stay away from coconut milk as much as possible.  Frankly growing up in South East Asia, staying away from coconut milk was almost impossible, especially in Malaysia.  Most food was made with coconut milk either in curry form, kuih-muih, and/or dessert.

Since I had some coconut cream left, I couldn't resist putting a few tablespoons into my Tom Yam soup.  It definitely kick it up a notch being creamier and fragrant with coconut smell.  Instead of shrimps, I used Cod fillets and added a bunch of vegetable and tofu puffs.  Easy one dish meal served with my organic short-grain brown rice.

I am submitting this to "S$20 Budget Meal"  or "US$15 budget meal" hosted by Cuisine Paradise.  This month specific key ingredient is Tofu or beancurd.  I used tofu puffs in this dish and the estimated cost for this meal was about US$8.

Ingredients:

2 cod fillets, cut  $3.33  (on sales)

Tofu puffs, cut into half   70c

Frozen green beans  30c  (on sales)

1/2 yellow onion, sliced   20c

7oz of fresh button mushroom, cut  90c  (on sales)

2 organic carrots, cut  30c

6 bouncy fish balls, cut into half  $1.20  (on sales)

1/6 canned of coconut cream  25c

Total cost thus far was  $7.18.

Plus Tom Yam paste, lime juice and chili paste, I would estimate it to be around $8.

Direction:

Heat up a large pot, add in a little oil and onion.  Stir until onion is soften.  Add in some water and wait for it to boil.  When boiling, add in the tom yam paste, chili paste and lime juice.  Then add the tofu puffs, green bean, mushroom, and carrot.  Turn the heat to low and let it simmer for 10 minutes.  Lastly add in the coconut cream, fish balls and fish fillets.  Cover and let it simmer for 5 minutes or until the fish is cooked.  You can add basil or cilantro at the end before serving too.  Dish out and serve with rice.

Stir-Fried Romaine Lettuce with Dried Small Shrimps (炒生菜与虾皮)

My friend introduced me to dried small shrimps or 虾皮.  I grabbed a packet when I saw it in the Asian market.  When you shake the packet, the dried small shrimps should be loose, if it sticks together then it is a bad stock.  Because this dried small shrimps hardly have any meat in it so it is very rich in protein and minerals, especially calcium, iodine, and magnesium.  It's so packed with calcium that it's considered a "calcium power house" and said to prevent osteoporosis.  The magnesium in it is said to reduce blood cholesterol level, regulate the blood flow and help in hypertension.  These dried small shrimps/ 虾皮 is so delicious that it helps to improve appetite in the elderly.  You can make it into powder form ( wash, pat dry, pan-fry it a wok with a little oil/without until crispy and brown and then process in a food processor until it turns into powder) and sprinkle on rice or porridge.  

It is suitable for all ages, elderly, pregnant women, people with cardiovascular disease, kidney deficiency, impotence, male infertility and weakness of waist and legs.  But it is NOT suitable for people suffering from allergic rhinitis, bronchitis, recurrent allergic dermatitis in the elderly and people with chronic disease.

One thing worth mentioning though, while doing the research on this, I found that this 虾皮 is not suitable to consume at night or before going to bed.  As the extra calcium that wouldn't be absorbed by the intestine needed to be discharged.  And the peak hours for the calcium to be discharged from the body was 4-5 hours after a meal.  So eating 虾皮 at night might prevent the discharge of the extra calcium through urination as you would be asleep at that time.  So, the calcium in the urine would be trapped and deposited in the urinary tract and overtime would form the urinary tract stones.

I found the above sources from various Chinese sites.  Fill me in if you know more about this dried small shrimps.

This easy veggie dish is very delicious!  You should try it and feedback to me ya!

Ingredients:

1 head of romaine lettuce, wash and cut into pieces

3-4 cloves of garlic, slice thinly

1 handful of dried small shrimps/ 虾皮 , about 1/4 cup, rinse and pat dry with paper towel

Salt to taste

1 tsp. chicken powder

Chinese white rice wine

Method:

1.  Heat up your wok.  When heated, add in some cooking oil of your choice.  When hot, add in the dried small shrimps and stir-fry until golden brown and crispy.  Dish out and set aside.

2.  In the same wok, add in more oil if needed.  Add in the garlic and fry until slightly brown.  Add in the harder part of the romaine lettuce first.  Stir-fry well.  Then add in the greener part of the lettuce.  Stir-fry well.

3.  Add salt, mix well.  Add some Chinese white rice wine and the chicken powder.  Stir well and serve on a plate.

4.  Lastly add the fried crispy 虾皮 on top of the veggie.  Serve!

Spicy Sardine Puff Pastry

It is not a bad idea to keep some puff pastry in the freezer when it goes on sales.  It can make for a really quick snack or emergency finger food or appetizer.  Not a bad idea to have few canned of tomato sardine in the pantry for cases like this as well.  I always loved the spicy sardine filling, it was a flavor that I grew up loving and still love.  Too bad Evy didn't like the sardine filling, so Edda and I had most of it. :-P

This is one snack that is really easy to make with the frozen puff pastry.  You can get creative with all sort of fillings that you could imagine.  For example, curry chicken with potato, tuna, apple, kaya, red bean paste, nutella, cherry, strawberry, char siew, etc.  As long as you can imagine it, you can make it!

Ingredients:

1 sheet of frozen puff pastry, thaw in room temperature for 40 minutes.

1 egg + 1 tsp. water for egg wash

Sardine Filling:

1 small canned of tomato sardine, drain

1 big shallot, minced

1 Tbsp. key lime juice

1 Tbsp. ketchup

2 Tbsp. Maggi sweet chili sauce

1.  Cut the thawed puff pastry into 9 square pieces.  Mix the filling ingredients into a bowl.  Use a small roller and roll the puff pastry into a slightly bigger square, fill in the filling and seal it with a fork, like picture above.

 

2.  Brush the top with egg wash.  Bake in preheated 400'F oven for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

But OOPS!!  Why my filling came out during baking?  But never mind, let it cool and just stuff the filling in using a teaspoon.  Do you think is because I put too much filling?  Because I thought I sealed it pretty well.

Crispy Tofu with Sauce

For variation,  I sometimes pan-fried my tofu.  Even though it was not as healthy and we all should eat less fried food, but sometimes it was okay.  As long as I kept fried food in moderation.  This pan-fried tofu was crispy, it was great eating it plain with Thai sweet chili sauce as a dipping sauce.  But I wanted to play with a sauce to pour it on top.  I loved the combination of LKK chili bean sauce and hoisin sauce so the above was my result.  Such an easy dish but fulled of flavored and great with brown rice.  Try it and feedback to me ya!

Ingredients:

2 pieces of regular tofu or firm tofu, cut into pieces, like picture above

Rice flour to coat the tofu, as needed

1 piece of ginger, minced

4 cloves of garlic, minced

2 scallions, chopped

LKK Chili Bean Sauce, about 2 tsp.

LKK Hoisin sauce, about 2 tsp.

1 tsp. sugar

Method:

1.  Place a piece of paper towel on a plate, place cut tofu on top and cover with another piece of paper towel.  Press it to absorb as much water from the tofu as possible.

2.  Heat the wok with some cooking oil, medium heat for pan-frying.  Pour some rice flour into a plate.  Coat the dry tofu pieces into the rice flour and slowly drop into the medium heat oil and pan-fry until crispy and golden brown on both sides.  Dish out and place on a plate with paper towel to drain the excess oil.  Finish the rest of the tofu.

3.  Take the crisp tofu from the paper towel and place on a plate.  

4.  In the same wok, add 1 Tbsp. of oil and fry the ginger, garlic and scallion until fragrant.  Add in the chili bean sauce, stir-fry until fragrant, then add hoisin sauce and sugar.  Stir well and pour on top of the tofu.  Serve hot.

Korean Jajangmyeon (Noodle with Black Bean Sauce)

Even though I am Chinese but I never seen this noodle dish before in Malaysia.  I actually learned about this famous Korean Chinese food from watching the Korean dramas.  I got fascinated because this jajangmyeon only served in the Korean Chinese restaurant and it is a Korean fusion Chinese food.   Last year I found out that the Chinese restaurant near my house also featured Korean menu and jajangmyeon was one of them.  So of course I got to buy and give it a try.  But at almost $10 a bowl, it was not affordable.  Recently I saw this recipe at a Korean cookbook and found out that it was actually very easy to make at home.  All I needed to buy were the fresh noodle and the black bean sauce at the Korean market and I was set to go.

Originally this recipe called for pork but I used chicken instead.  Oh well, I only have chicken in my house and my mom also asked me to eat less pork.  Overall, it tasted almost identical to the one I paid $10 for.  So, I am happy that I can easily recreate this dish at home and save some money.  I served it up with the Spicy Korean Radish.

Sharing this with Presto Pasta Nights hosted at Ruth of Once Upon a Feast.

Ingredients:

Serving size: 5

1  (37oz./1050g) premium fresh noodle or jajangmyeon noodle

1 large boneless and skinless chicken breast, cut into small cubes (marinate it with rice wine, salt, white pepper and cornstarch)

1/2 large yellow onion, chopped

1/2 zucchini (if large), 1 zucchini (if small), cut into cubes

1 small carrot, cut into cubes

3 heap Tbsp. Korean black bean sauce

1 cup water

2 tsp. sugar

2 Tbsp. cornstarch mixed with 2 Tbsp. water

Oil for cooking

Method:

1.  Cook noodle per package direction.  Drain and rinse with cold water.  If not it will stick together and create clumps.  Unless you eat it right away.

2.  Heat wok over high heat and when heated, add in some cooking oil.  When hot, add in the chicken and stir-fry until no longer pink.

3.  Add in the cubes onion, carrot and then zucchini and stir-fry until soften.  

4.  Add in the black bean sauce.  Stir to mix well.  Add in water and sugar.  Stir well.  Lastly thicken with cornstarch water.

5.  Pour on top of the noodle to serve.

Haiji White Bread Using a Breadmaker

Since I really loved the Haiji white bread recipe that I tried earlier, I decided to finish it in the bread maker.  It was easier than using a dough function.  I double the recipe for this 2 lb. loaf and it came out all right.

The bread was still soft and with light crust.  With the crust, it was not as soft as using the dough function and finished it in a pullman tin.  As the crust held the bread together.  But if I am seriously lazy, this would certainly do.  I want to play with this recipe some more... :-)

Ingredients:

500g bread flour

6g instant yeast

400ml milk

20g sugar

6g salt

20g butter

Method:

1.  In a bread-maker, add the following in order.  First add milk, butter, sugar, flour, salt and lastly make an indentation to one side of the flour and add yeast.  Turn the bread-maker on and set to basic function, 2 lb loaf and light crust and let it does it work.