Steamed Fish with Fermented Bean Paste (豆瓣酱蒸鱼)

Good quality taucheo 豆瓣酱 (aka Fermented Bean Paste) is very fragrant and umami. It could bring out the sweetness of the fish. Fresh tasting fish like Red Snapper or Threadfin works well with taucheo as they taste milder, and not as fishy as fishes like big head carp.

I love using Malaysian made taucheo. They are more fragrant, flavorful and not as salty as those imported from other place. Somehow, I'm quite particular. Am I too used to the taste? Or I had a cursed tongue? No. Probably I just love the taste. Haha..

I'm having problem here. I actually don't know what is the Chinese name of Red Snapper. Until I asked around, then I came to realized that the scientific name of Red Snapper is 红鲷, and fellow Hokkiens called Red Snapper as 红鸡. Now I learnt new words :)

I'm lucky. I've got myself two slice of nice and fresh Red Snapper fillet at the Supermart. So, I'm gonna steam it! FYI, incase you are buying at the wet market, market price for Red Snapper is about S$20 to S$22/kg. So, don't get cheated by fish monger! :)

Ingredients

• 2 slices of Red Snapper Fish Fillet (mine is 380gm in total)
• 1 tsp Salt, to rub on the fish
• 1 tbsp Corn Flour / Tapioca Flour, to rub on the fish (optional)

Condiment

• 75g Fermented Bean Paste, a.k.a 豆瓣酱 / 豆酱 "Tao-Cheo"
• 1/2 tsp Sugar
• Ginger, julienned
• 1 tbsp Soy Sauce
• 1 tbsp Hot Shallot Oil 

Garnishing

• Fried Shallot
• Spring Onions
• Coriander Leaves

Method

1. Clean fish, pat dry. Rub salt on the fish, and then pat some corn flour on it.
2. Place some ginger on a steaming dish, place fish on top. 
3. Apply fermented bean paste on top of the fish. Just like spreading peanut butter on your bread, generously. Sprinkle sugar on top.
4. Bring water in the steamer to a boil and steam fish over high heat for 7 minutes. 
5. While the fish is steaming half way, heat shallot oil and soy sauce in a pot and bring to a boil.
6. Remove fish from the steamer, pour away excess steaming liquid.
7. Drizzle hot shallot oil and soy sauce mixture over. Garnish and serve!

You must be wondering why I rub some corn flour on the fish before I steam it. Very simple. I'm steaming fish fillet here. The logic is to "lock" the juices from the fish meat. If you are steaming whole fish, you may skip this part.

These two slices of fillet is from big fish, and it has big bones. Difficult to cook, especially at the bone side. So, I steam it for 7 minutes. But please please please always bear in mind. When I mentioned the steaming time, I do expect the fish is in room temperature. If your fish is cold and right out of the fridge, please increase the steaming time.

Steamed fish must be eaten right after it's out of the wok. It won't taste nice if the steamed fish dish turned cold. Hence, whenever I blog about steamed fish, I fought my way through the rush hour try to make all the garnishing and photo taking as fast as I could. Because at another side, my family is waiting for me and the steamed fish to start the dinner.

This explained that my steamed fish has no strict rule on how this dish supposed to looks like, nor it looks neat. This is a home-cooked dish. The messier it is, the more home-cooked it looks like! Agree?

I hope you like it!


Do visit my other steamed fish recipes too :)

Prosperity Steamed Cod (富贵鳕鱼)

Canto Style Steamed Red Grouper (清蒸红石斑）

Hong Kong Style Steamed Cod Fish (港蒸鳕鱼)

TeowChew Style Steamed Pomfret (潮州式清蒸鲳鱼)

Nutella Cake / Torta Alla Gianduja

This cake is fabulously easy and yummy! It's moist, light and DELICIOUS! you won't regret baking it. It's Nigella Lawson's Torta Alla Gianduja. Simply Nutella Cake.

Another reason for you to bake the cake, it's Mother's day soon. The hazelnuts on top somehow gives it a burnished, ceremonial and yet home-made look. I'm sure your mom will feels so proud of you if you baked this for her :)

Max is a huge fan of Nutella. Or I'd say, he's obsessed! He can eat almost everything with Nutella and even the Nutella alone! Urgh! Nutella Monster! Anyway, he's happy when I told him I wanted to bake Nutella cake. And when I complained that hazelnuts are expensive, he said he sponsor it. But he end up didn't even pay me. And neither did he mention that he wanna sponsor that big jar of Nutella. Sigh!

The ingredient is simple. This cake is not the ordinary cake. If you notice, this cake doesn't have flour, baking powder and sugar. Fret not. It will be okay. The cake will collapse. But this is what it should be.

I use shop-bought lightly roasted hazelnuts. Brought home, toast it on the pan. Grind half of it, and keep the remaining half for decoration. And also, if you have Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur) at home, use it. If not, use rum. If you have none, don't scream. Just use water. I don't have Frangelico, and my bottle of Rum gone missing for no reason. So, used Bourbon instead. And I kinda like it :)

Ingredient
(Source : Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess book)

For the Cake
6 Large Eggs, separated
pinch of Salt
125g Soft Unsalted Butter
400g Nutella
1 tbsp Frangelico, Rum or Water (I used Bourbon)
100g Ground Hazelnut
100g Dark Chocolate, melted. (I used Valrhona)

For the Icing
100g Whole Toasted Hazelnuts
125ml Double Cream (I used Whipping Cream)
1 tbsp Frangelico, Rum or Water (I used Whisky)
125g Dark Chocolate

Don't worry about the cream part. The difference between double cream and whipping cream is in the concentration of fats. For this cake, I used whipping cream because I can't get double cream. I'm fine with it.

Preparation

1. Toast 200g Hazelnut in a dry frying pan until the aroma wafts upwards and the nuts are golden-brown in parts. Keep shaking the pan so that they don't burn on one side and stay to pallid on others. Transfer to a plate and let it cool completely. If they go on the ganache while hot, it'll turn oily. So, be patient. Let it cool first. You may want to consider to make this a day ahead.

2. Grind 100g of the cooled Hazelnut. And I just can't tell you how much I love my Cuisinart mini food processor! It makes my cooking and baking so so so much easier! :)

3. Melt chocolate using double boiling method, to allow it to melt over gently under indirect heat. Once chocolate begins to melt, stir it gently with plastic spatula. When almost all of the chocolate is melted, lift up the bowl from the saucepan and set it on the counter. Stir continuously until it is shiny, smooth and completely melted. Set aside and leave it cool before use.

Okay, let's start baking!

Method

For the Cake

1. Prepare a 9 inch springform tin, greased and lined. 
2. Preheat the oven to 180 degree.
3. In a large clean bowl, whisk the egg whites and salt until stiff, but not dry. 
4. In a separate bowl, beat the butter and Nutella together, and then add the Frangelico (or whatever you are using), egg yolk and ground hazelnuts.
5. Fold in the cooled melted chocolate, then lighten the mixture with large dollop of egg white, which you can beat in as roughly as you want, before gently folding the rest of then in a third at a time. Just like the way you make chiffon cake. 
6. Pour into the prepared tin and bake it for 40 mins or until the cake's beginning to come away at the sides.
7. Let the cake cool on a rack completely before you un-mould them carefully. This is a damp cake, you might find it abit difficult removing it from the tin.

My cake cracked badly, because I forgot to adjust my oven rack. I just dump the cake in and let it bake while I enjoy my favorite TV show at the living room. I'm a bad baker! Hahaha.

Well, as I said, the cake will collapse abit once it's cooled. But because mine cracked badly, so, it sank like a Titanic! But I'm not worried at all. I'm gonna ice it anyway.

For the Icing

1. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, add the cream, liqueur (or whatever you are using) and chopped chocolate, and heat gently under low fire. 
2. Once the chocolate's melted, take the pan off the heat, leave it cool down abit and whisk until it reaches the right consistency to ice the top of the cake. 
3. Ice the top of the cake with the chocolate icing, and dot thickly with the whole toasted hazelnuts.
4. Set the cake aside and let it rest (or in the chiller) for an hour. This will allow the icing set and sit nicely on top of the cake when you cut. Or incase you want to bring the cake to a party or something. It would avoid mess. But if you are only eating it at home and you'd want some sexy and runny icing effect (just like mine), you don't have to let the cake rest that long then.

Here's the tips. You could prepare, and bake the cake a day ahead. And then, ice the cake on the 2nd day. This delicious chocolate cake keeps very well. 

So, how good is this cake? Max swallowed ate 1/3 of the cake AFTER our dinner! OMG! Can you imagine that? He just had his dinner, and this cake supposed to be his dessert. But.... when he's allowed to freely cut his portion of cake, he greedily cut 1/3 of the cake! He doesn't feels guilty at all! And I witness him eating the cake happily and kept saying "oh~yumm" while he nom it.

All in all, this recipe is indeed a keeper. And it's gluten free!

Happy Mother's day to my mom, my mother-in-law and all the mothers out there! Happy Baking! :)

Akok Kedut / Wrinkly Akok (MFF - Kelantan)

Never ever judge the taste by it's look. Never! The look of this kueh can be deceiving. Yes! But it taste really nice! This palm sugar and coconut dessert is accentuated by their rich, caramel taste and distinctive aroma.

Well, human depend way too much on their sense of sight as it is their primary tool of perception. But this kueh looks like a mega failed soggy cake! How can people NOT judge by it's appearance?

If you scroll down, read the ingredients, and you should be able to imagine how delicious this kueh is. The making process is quite fuss free too! :)

I've got myself some really nice Gula Melaka (Palm Sugar) from Melaka last month. The 1st day when I reached Melaka, I bought a pack of Gula Melaka at the roadside. It cost me RM4.50. The 2nd day, I went Makko Restaurant for some Nyonya cuisines. And I spotted 100% Gula Melaka! It cost RM6.00 a pack. Look at this, just by the color itself, you could tell the difference.

Ingredients (Makes about 18 to 20pcs)
(Source : Wendyinkk)

• 5 Eggs
• 30gm Plain Flour
• 150gm Palm Sugar (Gula Melaka)
• 125ml Water
• 2 blades of Pandan leaves (Screwpine Leaves), snip into pieces.
• 200ml Coconut Milk
• 1/8 tsp Salt
• Oil as needed

Method

1. Preheat oven 200C Fan ON. Apply a few drops of oil on a non-stick muffin tin. You could use aluminium egg tart pans. Put the oiled muffin tin into the oven to preheat together.
2. Chop palm sugar into small pieces. In a saucepan, add water, pandan leaves and palm sugar. Bring to a boil and gently simmer for 5 minutes, lid on. Let it coo to warm. You should get about 150ml to 160ml in the end.
3. Whisk eggs vigorously. I use hand-held mixer to do the fast work. Add in flour and salt. Make sure you whisk until no lumps are seen. 
4. Strain in coconut milk and palm sugar syrup. Discard Pandan leaves. Mix well.
5. Pour batter into the hot muffin tin. Like 2/3 full will do. You won't finish all at one go. You could repeat the baking later.
6. Bake them for 12 minutes or until surface is golden brown. 

The mixture is now done and ready to bake.

When this Akok Kedut is baking in the oven, I sent a photo to Alan and Wendy. Alan asked if I'm baking Yorkshire pudding! Oh well, good guess! *wink*

Once it's out of the oven, the Akok will shrunk and collapsed immediately. Max thought I failed my cake baking when he saw it! Waaahahahaha...

The texture is like.... egg pudding? No. It should be baked caramelized palm sugar egg pudding! Yes! This sounds much nearer :)

Yes, it's wrinkly, it's ugly, it's not appealing. But it taste really delicious! The fragrant smoky sweet aroma is just... just... just hard to resist! Max loves it. He ate quite alot. Haha :)

I am submitting this to Malaysian Food Fest Kelantan Month hosted by Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippets

Prosperity Steamed Cod (富贵鳕鱼)

This recipe is meant for my girlfriend Katherine Xu who'd just got pregnant and she's gonna due in another 4 month's time I think. I'll try to post somes dish that's suitable for confinement. So that she would be able to refer to my blog during her confinement if she run out of cooking ideas :)

I like steamed fish. It has less fat which makes it healthy, easy, and most of all, the kitchen is less greasy and less cleaning compared to pan-fried fish. This is my first attempt steaming fish with herbs. And I must admit that it's delicious, and the herbal gravy pairs very well with plain rice.

But I confess, I do use good quality ingredients. Good quality angelica root 当归, good quality red dates 红枣, good quality wolfberries 枸杞子. They are bought from Eu Yan Sang medical shop. I reckon that they do sell good stuffs, but of course, pricier than the usual medical shop of course.

Good quality angelica root 当归 is very important. If you are buying good quality ones, it taste sweet. If you are buying those at a lower priced ones, they taste bitter, and less fragrance of course. This highly revered herbs is very popular. Some people called it "female ginseng", as it used to nourish the blood and is believed to help invigorated blood circulation, strengthen liver, heart and spleen. My mother says it is also a uterine tonic, effective against menstrual disorders. Angelica root sounds powerful eh? Indeed. And it is also explains why angelica root is widely used in confinement soups and recipes to treat postpartum women.

Note : Pregnant Woman should not consume angelica root.

Oh! Come back to my fish. I got a piece of really nice cod fish at Bukit Merah wet market. It's not expensive. I stand at the fish stall and gave my sad puppy look to the fish monger, I end up paid only S$12 instead of S$15. Hahaha! Good deal!

The original recipe ask for normal Chinese dried mushrooms. But I used dried pearl mushrooms instead. I got it in Hong Kong. But some shops in Singapore do sell too. I'm just plain lazy. I don't have to slice them as pearl mushrooms are petite in size.

The original recipe is not really accurate. Especially the seasoning part. The ratio doesn't really work. Especially when the cookbook indicated 1 tablespoon of salt. I was like.... "OMG! You serious about this?" Hahaha... So, I did modification to make it taste right.

Ingredients
(Source : Choong Su Yin's Harvest Rich cookbook, with modification)

• 1 pc Cod Fish 鳕鱼 (Mine is about 220g)
• 2 slices Ginger 姜
• 2 stalks Spring Onions 葱 (the bottom part will do)
• 1 tbsp Shao Xing Wine 绍兴酒 / Hua Diao Wine 花雕酒
• 200ml Water 水 (or more if you want)
• ½ tbsp Wolfberries 枸杞子
• 4 Red Dates 红枣, shredded
• 2 slices Angelica Root 当归
• 10g Dried Pearl Mushrooms 珍珠菇 or 3 slices of Dried Mushrooms 香菇

Seasonings

• ½ tsp Salt 盐
• 1 tsp Sugar 糖
• 1 tsp Sesame Oil 麻油
• Some corn starch (2 tsp Corn Flour 玉米粉 + 4 tbsp water 水)
• Coriander for garnishing.

Method

1. Clean fish, pat dry using kitchen towel. 
2. Heat up a tablespoon of oil, fry ginger and spring onion till fragrant. Add in Shao Xing wine and water, bring to boil over low heat. 
3. Once water is boiled, discard ginger and spring onions. Add in wolferries, red dates, angelica root, mushrooms and seasonings. Under low fire, let it simmer until fragrant. Set the sauce aside.
4. Steam cod fish under high heat for 5 minutes (mine is just 220grams, 5 minutes is really good enough). 
5. Once fish steamed, pour away excess water. 
6. Reheat the sauce, once it's boiled, add in some corn starch mixture, teaspoon by teaspoon. Until it achieve the ideal thickness that you wanted. 
7. Garnish with coriander and serve immediately with rice. 

The original recipe ask for normal Chinese dried mushrooms. But I used dried pearl mushrooms instead. I got it in Hong Kong. But some shops in Singapore do sell too. I'm just plain lazy. I don't have to slice them as pearl mushrooms are petite in size. You just go ahead to use normal Chinese mushrooms. Slice it before use. It's fine.

The thing about cooking is that, you find the taste right, but it might not suit others. When the recipe ask for ½ tsp of salt, but to others, they might think that it is too salty or it is not salty enough. So, I always emphasize to all my readers to adjust the saltiness / sweetness to suit your own preferred taste.

I looooove the umami sauce! Woohhhh!!

Happy cooking!



Do visit my other steamed fish recipes too :)

Hong Kong Style Steamed Cod Fish (港蒸鳕鱼)

Canto Style Steamed Red Grouper (清蒸红石斑）

TeowChew Style Steamed Pomfret (潮州式清蒸鲳鱼)

MFF Johor Round Up

Last month has been hectic for me. Picking up the new task at work, my prof is giving us really hard time on our assignments and I really didn't get to spent much time to monitor the whole process of MFF Johor. I'd like to apologize for that.

Even though I'm really busy with my work and study, it is always encouraging when I sees people email me and submit their Johor dish cooking. It keeps me motivated. I'm so glad that the entries this month is indeed encouraging :)

Here's all the participation from all the fellow supporters who'd replicate Johor dishes at home. 

* * * *

Noodles

Mee Bandung

Vivian Pang of Vivian Pang Kitchen

Mi Bandung Muar

Queenie of Semalam berlalu esok menanti

Mee Racun@ Poisionous Noodles

WendyinKK of Table for 2.....or More

Soto Johor / Mee Soto

Annie of Annielicious Food

Soto Muar

Queenie of Semalam berlalu esok menanti

Johor Style Kwayteow Soup

Alice of I Love. I Cook. I Bake

Pork Kuey Teow Soup (Johor style)

Sonia of Nasi Lemak Lover

Mee Rebus Johor 

Annie of Annielicious Food

Mee Rebus

Adeline of Lite Home Bake

* * * *

Chicken Dishes

Ayam Masak Merah

Mui of My Little Favorite DIY

Ayam Masak Merah

Ivy Sew of Simply Beautiful and Healthy Living

Ayam Masak Merah

Cass Tan of 揾到食

Ayam Masak Merah

Cindy of yummylittlecooks

Assam Pedas Ayam

Queenie of Semalam berlalu esok menanti

* * * *

Fish Dishes

Sting Ray Assam Pedas

WendyinKK of Table for 2.....or More

Assam Pedas Ikan Kembong

Mel Lee of Through The Kitchen Door

Asam Rebus Ikan Johor

Queenie of Semalam berlalu esok menanti

Pindang / Singgang Serani

Queenie of Semalam berlalu esok menanti

Stingray Assam Pedas

Lena of Frozen Wings

Asam Pedas Ikan Pari Johor

Hody Loh of Cook 4 you & me

* * * *

Roti Jala

Roti Jala / Roti Kirai

Annie of Annielicious Food

Roti Jala / Roti Kirai

Queenie of Semalam berlalu esok menanti

Roti Jala with Vegetable Curry

Kelly Siew of Kelly Siew Cooks

Roti Jala

Hippomamalai of Hippomama's Kitchen

Roti Jala

Bee Bee of HoneyBeeSweets

Roti Jala/ Roti Kirai

Cindy of yummylittlecooks

* * * * 

Ogura Cake

Ogura Cake 斑兰相思蛋糕 

Joceline of Butter, Flour and Me

Pandan Ogura Cake

Christine Choy of Food@home sweet home

Irresistible Coffee Ogura Cake

Christine Choy of Food@home sweet home

Ogura Cake

Angeline of Angeline's Side of Story

* * * * 

Kacang Phool / Pool

Kacang Phool

WendyinKK of Table for 2.....or More

Kacang Phool

Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippets

Kacang Phool / Kacang Pool

Shannon Lim of Just As Delish

* * * * 

Acar Darat

Acar Darat

Lena of Frozen Wings

Acar Darat/Acar Rampai Orang Johor

Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippets

* * * * 

Johor Snacks / Side Dishes

Begedil (Deep fried potato patty)

Annie of Annielicious Food

Begedil Daging

Queenie of Semalam berlalu esok menanti

Crispy Banana and Sweet Potato Fritters with Spicy Soy Dipping Sauce

Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippets

Telur Pindang @ Leaf Braised Eggs

WendyinKK of Table for 2.....or More

Talam Tokyo

Annie of Annielicious Food

Kuih Talam Tokyo

Cindy of yummylittlecooks

Kuih Kole Kacang

Rozita of Cerita Ita

It is indeed quite hectic for hosting Johor MFF last month. But I learnt alot through the process. I'm glad that I'd given the opportunity. See you all this month in Kelantan Month, hosted by Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippets.

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