Brinjal & Fishcake in Bean Sauce

Salt & Pepper Fish

Nobu's Signature Black Cod with Miso

Black Cod with Miso

A friend of mine posted a picture of his homecooked oven grilled cod fish on Facebook a couple of months back. Even from the confined screen of my Iphone, I could tell this fish is delicious! And when he explained further that it was Nobu's recipe, without hesitation, I ordered Nobu The Cookbook on Amazon! (Yes, I can be rather impulsive when it comes to food and recipes :p)

It still took me awhile to attempt the dish myself. I had to hunt for the right ingredients... Nobu's recipes are uncomplicated but without following the recipe to the dot, you'd probably end up with a slightly different version, like mine! Tasty but not as heavenly as the real thing itself! Looks good as a dish but certainly nothing compared to the presentation at Nobu!

Braised Fish Head with Leek,Tofu & Roast Pork (Hong Siew Yu Tao)

 

I bought a 1.6 kilo fivefinger threadfin fish (Cantonese: Soon Fong Yu) that some might say has sweeter flesh than the ordinary threadfin (Cantonese: Mah Yau Yu). It sure is more expensive though! I was more than happy to purchase such a fresh specimen from my regular fishmonger as it is hard to come by. This fish is usually snapped up by restaurants. 

Happy with my purchase, I quickly walked over to the vege seller to grab a couple of other ingredients. Now you know how I decide what to cook everyday! I, basically, hunt for the freshest core ingredient in the market (which in this case is a fish) and while the fishmonger is busy cleaning and chopping up the poor fella, I'd be working out my dish!

I chose to braise the fish because it was not necessary for me to serve it hot. The way I braise the fish is also quite a Malaysian Chinese style, not likely to be found elsewhere. My guests were after all from overseas. A combination of leek, tofu and roast pork were chosen to accompany the lovely fish. Leek because it is fragrant, the famous Bentong fried tofu balls because they soak up all that braising sauce and roast pork to give the fish that shine and saltiness!

 

Soon Fong Yu - split and chopped into smaller pieces

Deepfried till golden brown

Braised with vegetable, tofu and roast pork

Beancurd Roll with Fish Paste (Fu Chuk Roll)

Fu Chuk Roll

Beancurd roll with fish paste has become quite popular in small Chinese eateries serving fried noodles and rice. However, don't expect it to be filled with fish paste like the homemade ones though! If you've mastered making fish paste, do prepare the rolls and keep extras in the freezer. You'll never know when your drinking buddies or visiting relatives are dropping by! 

To prepare your own fish paste, you could try out my homemade fish paste recipe or purchase some from the Asian supermarkets.

Beancurd Roll with Fish Paste Recipe

Ingredients:
300gm fish paste
A packet of dried beancurd sheets
Oil for frying


Method:
1. First, soak the beancurd sheets in water until it has softened. I used 3 sheets of 10"x12" large sheets.

2. Then, carefully place the sheets flat on your working table. Pat the sheets dry with kitchen towel. If it's wet, the fish paste will not stick well.

3. Using a butter knife, spread a thin layer of fish paste from the bottom end of the beancurd sheet.

4. From the bottom end, roll the sheet upwards until the roll is about 3cm in diameter. The size of the roll depends on how thick you like it to be. I like it bite size.

5. There are two ways of cooking the rolls. If you plan to keep them for later use, steam the rolls for 10 minutes. Then let the rolls cool down before keeping them in the freezer.


6. Otherwise, fry them raw in oil until the skin is golden brown

Homemade Fish Paste

Fried Fish Cakes

There's really nothing fancy to making a good fish paste. It usually turns out fine if your fish is very fresh. The type of fish you use will also give different texture and flavour so it's good to experiment. I'm using Spanish Mackerel which is readily available in Malaysia. 

Fish Paste in Salted Vegetable Soup

My mum always had fish paste in the fridge for the "can't think of what to cook" nights. It can easily be made into a fish cake pattie and pan fried, similar the what I've done here. I've also dropped balls of fish paste into my vegetable soup to make fish balls. Just last night i fried what's left of my fish paste with egg....a yummy fish cake omelette!

Steps to Make Fish Paste:

The key to a good fish paste is the freshness of the fish. I'm using a 600gm spanish mackerel (the spotted kind)

You should have no trouble filleting this fish. There's very little bones.

Scrap the meat of the fish skin. Do run your finger through to ensure there's no bones.

  

For 600gm mackerel, I used 1 tablespoon of cornflour, 1 teaspoon of pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of salt. I added these in between chopping.

   

Prepare a bowl of iced salted water. The fish paste is initially very sticky so it's important that you sprinkle the water in between choppings. When the fish paste starts to feel springy, use the back of your chopping knife to hit the paste.

This is how it looks like after I took the ball of fish paste up and slap it down on my chopping board a couple of times.

Meehoon & Fish Slices in Salted Vegetable Soup

Ham Choy Yu Pien Mee Hoon Tong (11th Apr 2012)

Missing last weekend's cooking session as my hubby treated the family to a weekend getaway . We went to Port Dickson and had a most enjoyable time! We also found a wonderful family run restaurant which served up some pretty good Chinese dishes. So it was all play, eat, play, eat all day long....

The guilt has set in.... Subconsciously, my mind tells me I have to eat something light to counter all that previous gluttony (not like one meal can wash away the cholesterol) and noodle soup always makes me feel like I'm are eating diet food! Hahaha!

Noodle in salted vegetable broth is very common in Sabah. It is usually served with fish slices or you could add an assortment of fresh seafood as well. It has a sourish flavour (not unlike the Phillipino Sinigang) which comes from the salted mustard greens and salted plum.

Meehoon & Fish Slices in Salted Vegetable Soup Recipe

(Serves 4 person)

Ingredients:
600gm Mee hoon (roughly 150gm each but do add more if required)
400gm sliced white fish (garoupa, snapper, pomfret, etc) 
Salt & pepper to taste 
1 tbsp of Chinese wine

Soup Stock:
Fish bone
Pork/ Chicken Bones
2 litre of water
1/2 inch of ginger
2 shallot
300gm Salted mustard green, sliced
3 ripe tomatoes, cut into 4
4 wet salted plums

Garnish:
Freshly prepared garlic oil

Method:

1. Prepare the soup stock 2 hours in advance. First, blanch the bones to get rid of the scum. Then put all the ingredients and bring the stock to boil. Continue to boil on medium heat.
2. Slice your preferred fish and marinade with a little salt & pepper. Leave in refrigerator.
3. Soak the meehoon to soften it. When ready to serve, blanch in hot water and put in indivudual serving bowls.
4. Put fish slices into boiling hot soup for 1 minute. Remove and place in serving bowls.
5. Finally pour hot soup over your noodle and garnish with garlic oil. Ready to serve!

Cabbage Roll with Fish Paste

Chinese cabbage can be quite versatile. Some like it stirfried with dried prawns or as a garnishing for noodles, others like the sweetness it brings to clear chicken soup. I had a head of chinese cabbage which was a little wilted. Instead of throwing it away, I used it as a wrapper to roll a box of fish paste I bought from the wet market. I will blog about homemade fish paste shortly!

 

Cabbage Roll with Fish Paste Recipe
Ingredients:
1 head of chinese cabbage/ napa cabbage
250g fish paste (spanish mackerel)
1 tbsp of carrots, diced finely
1 tbsp of water chestnuts, diced finely
Spring onion, washed & cut into 15 cm long
Salt & pepper to taste
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 small egg, beaten

Method:

1. Cut out 10 cabbage leaves from its root. Wash & steam on a plate for 5 minutes. The leaves would have softened and turned slightly translucent. Let it cool before using.
2. While waitng remove fish paste from container and onto a chopping board. Prepare a small bowl of cold water on the side. Wet your hand with cold water and roll fish paste into a ball before smacking it back on the chopping board. Do this a few times while constantly wetting your hands. The fish paste will feel slightly "springy" after you've given it a good smacking. 
3. While smacking, gradually add the carrot and water chestnuts into the paste.
4. Take a cabbage leave and place it on a flat surface. Take a tablespoonful of fish paste and spread it on on the surface of the leave. Then start rolling the cabbage leave from its rootbase upwards. 
5. To hold the roll together, tie with a knot with a piece of spring onion.
6. Place all cabbage rolls on a plate. Steam for 10 minutes. You should see some liquid over on the plate.
7. Heat up a tbsp of cooking oil in a wok. Fry the garlic till fragrant, add oyster sauce and left over liquid from steaming plate. Take wok off heat and slowly stir in beaten egg.
8. Arrange cabbage roll on a serving plate and pour egg sauce over.