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!

Superior Soup Yin Choy

One of my Hubby's favourite vegetable is the leafy 'yin choy' or Chinese spinach (I've just looked it up on wiki and it's called Amaranth Green). The rich vegetable mineral taste is absolutely addictive when stirfried or boiled in soup.

You will find this dish quite common in Chinese restaurants as it is not only delicious but good for your health with the combination of 'dang kuei' (angelica sinesis) and 'kei chi' (wolfberry). The richness of anchovy/ chicken broth combined with Chinese herbs gives you that appetizing golden hue you see.

Superior Soup Yin Choy Recipe

A bunch of Yin Choy (wash thoroughly as yin choy tends to hold more sand particles)
1/2 a bowl of anchovies (soaked in water)
1 cup of chicken broth/soup
2 slices of ginger
1 clove of garlic (lightly bruised)
1 tbsp of kei chi
10 gm dang kuei
Deep fried baby silver fish (Ngan Yu Chai)
1/2 cup water

Method:

1. Firstly, heat up a non-stick pan and fry (without oil) the anchovies that have been soaked until you can smell the fragrance. Remove aside.
2. Heat up wok. Add ginger & garlic and fry for a few seconds before adding the chicken broth & early fried anchovies. Bring to boil and add the kei chi & dang kuei. Turn down the heat to allow soup to simmer for 10 min or until you smell and taste the herbal fragrance. Add water if necessary.
3. Bring the soup to a boil again and add in the yin choy. Boil for 2 min before dishing into a soup bowl.
4. Place deep fried baby silver fish on top of the yin choy.

Note:
Some restaurant like to serve this dish with century egg. You do not need to boil the egg with the soup. Just clean and cut the egg into small sections and place them into the soup when serving.

Pork Porridge

Every now and again, I have craving for a really simple yet satisfying bowl of pork porridge. Like a good bowl of chicken soup, rice porridge is one of those comfort food that most Asian families turn  to when we are feeling a little under the weather.

It really is so easy. You could cook porridge with leftover rice or you could cook it from scratch, either way, it takes less than 1 hour from preparation to serving. All you need is a little ginger, shallot and parsley for garnishing.

Pork Porridge Recipe 

Ingredients:
2 cups of cooked rice
or
1/2 cup of uncooked rice, soaked in hot water and a few drops of cooking oil for 15 min
50gm pork (minced or sliced)

Pork Marinade:
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp cornflour
Few drops of garlic oil (alternatively sesame oil)

Braised Pork Trotter

Braised Pork Trotter

Pork trotters are basically the feet of a pig. Chinese love serving trotters as a dish on its own rather than use it to make stock (We eat anything...). I'm very bias when it comes to choosing the right trotter for braising. I prefer the front trotters rather than the hind ones. I don't know why but meat on the hind seems coarser, less tender even after hours of braising.

Lucky for me, my neighbourhood butcher displays the whole pig and will only cut the sections up when customer request for a part. Now that's what you call fresh meat!

This particular recipe that I am sharing with you, belongs to my Granny. The seasonings are simple but all the flavours are in there ~ salty, sweet, spicy, sour! I personally go for the cucumber slices at the bottom of the dish first because of how they soak up all that lovely sticky braising sauce. Yumyum....

Braised Pork Trotter Recipe

Ingredients:
1 pork trotter, chopped into 1 1/2 inch chunks
1 whole garlic, peeled
1 inch ginger, sliced
2-3 tomato, sectioned
2-3 dried chilli, soak & remove seed (optional)
1 litre of water

Seasoning:
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
30g rock sugar
Salt & pepper to taste

Garnishing:
Chinese parsley
1 cucumber, sliced


Method:

1. Boil a pot of water and blanch the pork trotter chunks for 2 minutes to remove scum.
2. Heat up 2 tbsp cooking oil in wok. Fry ginger & garlic slices till fragrant and add pork trotter & dried chilli. Add dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and sesame oil. Fry till fragrant.
3. Add water and bring to boil. then turn down to low heat and cover lid for 45 minutes. 
4. Add tomatoess and rock sugar. Cook for another 15-20 until the meat is tender. Lastly add salt & pepper to taste
5. For garnishing, place sliced cucumber on bottom of serving plate. Place pork trotter on top and garnish with parsley.  

Salted Egg Squid

Salted Egg Deepfried Squid

Like my previous entry, the Salted Egg Chicken, the Salted Egg Squid is appetizing and makes a great snack for parties.

This time, I used one of those curry flavoured fried chicken flour mix which actually gave me a lovely crisp and crunchy layer that is crucial when serving this dish. You don't want to serve soggy squid by the time it reaches your guests!

The other question I always get is how not to serve tough rubbery squid? I have a 20 second rule when it comes to cooking squid. Regardless of the size of the squid, how I cut it or what cooking method I use, I do not cook the squid for more than 20 seconds... unless of course your squid body is larger than your head  :)

So far, the squids I served, whether in salads, noodles or like this recipe, have been quite tender!

Salted Egg Squid Recipe

Ingredient:-

300gm squid

Any crispy fry batter ( spicy flavour if you like the ommph!)

or you could just use an egg dip followed by a seasoned (salt & pepper) flour dip
2 salted egg yolk

1 tbsp butter

A sprig of curry leaves

 Salt & sugar to taste

Method:

1. First, clean the squid thoroughly, ensuring that you remove the ink sac, cartilage, beak and eyes. Cut the squid into 1/2 inch thick rings for the body and 2 inches length for the tentacles.
2. Steam egg yolk for 10 minutes. Remove from steamer and mash immediately. Leave aside to cool. 
3. Heat up frying oil till smoking hot. Have your batter and cut squid ready. 
4. Drop the battered squid into the oil gentle and fry on high heat for 20 seconds. Remove and drain.
5. Melt butter in a separate wok on low heat (you don't want to burn the butter) add the mashed steamed egg yolk. Stirfry egg yolk until the mixture becomes bubbly. Add salt & sugar to taste. 
6. Finally, add curry leaves and fried squid. Give it a quick toss until all the squid pieces are coated with the mixture.

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