Soya sauce sea bass

Better known as ikan masak kicap, simply translated as fish cooked in soya sauce. If you ask me it's the garnishes that make this dish. The trio of coriander leaves, spring onions and sliced chillies brings this dish to life. Served with steamed rice it's all I need to make a satisfying dinner and I don't have anything more to say, it's simpliticity at its best!

 

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Ikan masak asam

I'm not sure what the name of the fish is that we normally make this dish with at home but easiest for me to get here is salmon without having to worry too much about it being fresh. My Vietnamese coriander has been growing on the window ledge and it has got to the point where it normally keels over and starts to wilt. I don't know why but this is probably the 6th plant I have and this one was given to me by a friend so I really want to keep it going. I figured maybe the previous ones died from under pruning so I needed to take the top leaves off. But of course I didn't want to just throw the leaves away, the whole point of having the plant is to eat it! Anyway long story short, one of my favourite dish with this daun kesom is masak asam. So plant pruned, tummy satisfied!

Daun kesom or vietnamese coriander

 

 

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Kedgeree simplified

This is my take on Kedgeree, which is a fish, spices, rice and eggs all in one dish from colonial India which is popular here. My take on this dish simply means to remove all the time consuming steps and use only the main ingredients! I used smoked mackerel instead of haddock as that's what I had. Instead of poaching the fish in bay infused milk, I pan fried the fish before flaking. Then in the style of the typical Asian fried rice, I fried the dish up then topped with sliced boiled egg...oh, and I added spinach to top up the vege/fibre content of the dish. It kinds of remains me of a Malay dish but can't think which!

 

Tuna meatball pasta

Pasta with a twist, this is tuna meatballs in a simple tomato sauce with pasta. First fresh tuna is minced in the blender with breadcrumbs, season then form into balls and baked in the oven. The recipe said to fry them in the pan but I opted to bake them as I normally do for meatballs. Then the sauce is made with chopped tomatoes but because its fish, there's some sweet pointed pepper mixed in then blended together. Cook your choice of pasta then mix in the tuna balls, sauce and sprinkle with grated Parmesan... Dinner is served, enjoy!

 

Sweet and sour sea bass

I was looking for alternatives to the usual meat dishes but I was not keen on vegetarian so opted to try this sweet and sour fish dish. Instead of using vinegar, the sourness came from limes which gave the dish a refreshing taste. And as it was garbage collection day tomorrow, it was ideal to have fish and have the cutoffs taken away the next day instead of festering in the warmer weather. Served with boiled rice, it made a lovely light dinner on a nice spring evening...Yumms!

 

Assam Pedas Fish

I have made Assam Pedas fish a few times now, though the taste is passable, the fish is not. What I mean is I'm not used to the type of fish found in this region and is fast discovering the most of them don't cook well in curries, most disintegrate into the curry so I end up with fish flavoured curry rather than curry with pieces of fish in it! However, my search for the perfect fish to curry here seems to be over as the plaice that I used seemed to hold together pretty well and tastes quite similar to the ray or pari which goes really well with the assam sauce. This time round, I also have my daun kesom or Vietnamese coriander which makes it a truly fragrant dish...Yumms!

 

Dried Prawn Sambal Buns

When the ladies agreed to a picnic, it was time to get cooking but because it was a picnic I had to think of something that was easily portable and won't require too many eating utensils. Since I was baking bread again recently, I decided to go with buns filled with something.... the something took a long time to materialise, at one point it was sambal ikan bilis, another, it was chicken curry then it was sambal udang kering (dried prawns). These 3 were going round and round in my head. I had no clue where I'd stashed the ikan bilis and was not up to rumaging around my larder, so that was out. I was too lazy to get to town to buy dried prawns so that was 50/50 ... chicken curry, I can get all ingredients from the local super market so it was looking like a winner. However, come the day before the picnic, I found myself going in and out of asian grocery stores hunting for dried prawns...it is was to be sambal udang kering!

6:00 am goes the alarm on picnic day and I was up and the dough of the bun got going in no time. Next the sambal, with the help of my processer, in goes all the ingredients, a couple of whizzies later, all was fried up and ready for the buns... all was going like clockwork except for the fact that it turned out to be quite a cold morning so the dough was taking its time to rise...oh oh! The buns were baked down to the wire, car engine was already revving when they were still in the oven! Needless to say, we made it to the picnic and had a lovely time!



The buns on display

Makan Makan

Vinegar Fish (Ikan Masak Cuka)

Come lunch time today, the rumblings of my tummy signals fish. The choice of the day then is vinegar fish. This is another of the numerous dishes that my late grandmother used to cook, crispy fried fish in yellow tangy sweet, sour and spicy sauce. With fingers crossed that the mackerel found here is not vastly different from the spanish mackerel from home, into the car I jumped and off to purchase my fish.

The verdict, the mackerel worked perfectly fine and the lunch I had was comfortingly filled with memories of my late grandmother.

Smoked Salmon and Fennel Sandwich

Not asian but really yummy so I decided to post it. This is an open sandwich of fennel with smoked salmon on toasted ciabatta. Very simple and easy supper for lazy days. I don't normally eat smoked salmon as I deemed it not quite cooked! Yes, I'm one of those who wouldn't touch sashimi with a barge pole. But this one, I can eat if I keep distracting my mind with happy thoughts!

Fish Curry (Malay Style)

This fish curry contains santan and is not the usual asam fish curry that I'm used to. Unfortunately I think my dish should be called okra or ladies fingers curry instead of fish curry as the fish 'melted' into the curry. This has happened mainly because I chose the wrong type of fish being unfamiliar with the fish found in this region...'ang moh' fish!