31 Jul 10 (Sat) - Poached Salmon Steak in White Wine & Pan-fried Salmon Steak with Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

Was given a few pieces of frozen salmon steaks by BIL and so thought of ways to prepare them. Found two recipes on the Internet and tested them out. The first one was Poached Salmon Steak in White Wine from Easy French Food and the second one was Pan-fried Salmon Steak with Homemade Teriyaki Sauce from World Foodie Guide. Made some modifications to them and ended up with creative fusion food. There was a lot of teriyaki sauce left and the recipe said that it could be kept for up to four weeks. So put them in a bottle and kept in the fridge for future use.

Poached Salmon Steak in White Wine & Fried Purple Wheat Noodle with Broccoli and Fries

(Salmon Steak, White Wine, Shallot, Lemon, Koka Purple Wheat Noodle, Broccoli and Potatoes)

Ingredients A:

1 piece salmon steak

1 packet purple wheat noodle

Broccoli

1 local potatoe, cut into strips

Poaching Ingredients:

1 shallots, thinly sliced

1-2 slices lemon

1/4 cup white wine

1/2 cup water

A dash of salt and pepper

Method:

1.  Combine all poaching ingredients in a pan

2.  Bring to boil and reduce heat

3.  Put the salmon steak so it is half covered

4.  After 3-4mins, turn the salmon steak over

5.  After 3-4mins, off the heat and set aside

6.  Boil broccoli till cooked and set aside

7.  Cook noodle and drain

8.  Toss noodle with some light soya sauce and oil

9.  Heat up frying pan with some oil and fry potato till golden brown

10.  Arrange all ingredients on plate and serve

Pan-fried Salmon Steak with Homemade Teriyaki Sauce, Broccoli, Fries and lots of fried Shallot & Garlic

(Salmon Steak, Broccolo, Potatoes, Shallot, Garlic, Soyu, Mirin, Sugar and Cooking Sake)

Ingredients A:

1 piece salmon steak

Broccoli

1 local potatoe, cut into strips

Ingredients B (Teriyaki sauce):

5 tbsp light soyu

5 tbsp mirin

3 tbsp cooking sake

3 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp rice vinegar (optional)

Method:

1.  Boil broccoli till cooked and set aside

2.  Heat up frying pan with some oil and fry potato till golden brown

3.  Combine all ingredients B in a pan

4.  Bring to boil over medium heat and stir constantly to prevent burning

5.  Reduce heat, simmer 15-20mins till liquid is reduced, turn syrupy, glossy looking and thick then off the heat

6.  Take a portion of the sauce and cook the salmon steak in a pan

7.  Arrange all ingredients on plate and serve

25 Jul 10 (Sun) - Sweet & Sour Fish

Spent the weekend at my sis’s place. She told me that her boy, Ry, was mentioning to her that he wanted to eat the fish dish that I cooked during one of the CNY lunches. Was surprised that he requested for it out of the blue. So asked my sis whether she prefers my version, which is the Fried Fish with Orange Sauce or the usual Sweet & Sour Fish. She asked for the latter and so cooked that with some modification.

Instead of the normal flour with egg as the batter, I used the leftover of my tempura flour as the batter to fry the fish and it turned out better than I thought. Then came the sauce, as the amount of fish that my BIL had prepared was more than I had expected and so I had to re-estimate the sauce to make. Initially the sauce was very watery, I was so worried and stressed coz my sis’s PIL were already over to her house waiting for dinner and her SIL was looking at my cooking. Frankly speaking, I don’t like people watching me when I cook, I feel very stressful while cooking. Fortunately, the sauce started to thicken to correct texture after adding the corn flour. The dish turned out pretty well and I was so glad.

Sweet &Sour Fish

(Fish, Capsicum, Tomato, Pineapple, Chili, Tempura Flour, Tomato Sauce and Vinegar)

Ingredients A:
500g fish fillet – sliced
1 capsicum – deseed and cut to bite size
2 small tomatoes – cut to quarter size each
1 big chili – deseed and sliced
1 stalk spring onion – cut to pinky finger length
1 piece pineapple
Tempura flour
Corn flour
Hua Tiao wine
Salt and Pepper

Ingredients B (Sauce):
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp vinegar
2 tbsp tomato sauce
1 tbsp oil

Method:
1.  Marinate sliced fish with Hua Tiao wine, salt and pepper for 20min
2.  Mix 120g tempura flour with 200ml water to make batter
3.  Heat up the wok with enough oil for shallow frying
4.  Coat the sliced fish with tempura batter and fried them till golden
5.  Heat up the wok with oil for the sauce
6.  Add all the ingredients for the sauce into the wok
7.  Add in capsicum first and bring to boil
8.  Add in the rest of the ingredients and boil for 3mins
9.  Scoop up some sauce to make corn starch and pour back in to thicken the sauce
10. Drizzle sauce over fish and top with spring onion

17 Jul 10 (Sat) - Tteokbokki

Finally got to know and taste Tteokbokki during the Food Festival in Ngee Ann City two weeks ago. M has been telling me about Tteokbokki since don’t know when. I never knew what it was exactly, only that it refers to rice cake. I thought I was some kind of rice crackers or something. After trying that once and I was hooked and I went back to the Food Festival again to eat that the second time. No wonder M always crave for Tteokbokki and anything ddok. She even said one can bribe her with ddok. Searched for the recipe on Tteokbokki on the Internet and found what I was looking for at the koreanrestaurantguide.com.

Hunted for the ingredients and finally able to cook it today with some modifications. Followed the steps closely and tried to get the taste right through my memory. Messaged M to come and collect her Tteokbokki and asked her for feedback. She said it was normal spiciness and sauce was not thick enough but it was still good overall. We then chatted for a few hours on things like her new school life; K-pop, etc.

Realized that we seem to have grown closer this year coz of all the cooking, food and interest in K-pop, K-variety and especially the group U-KISS. I would ask her to my place to get food and she in turn would pass me new songs, variety shows and stay to chat with me for hours. I was even surprised when she asked me along for U-KISS fansign and showcase and even introduced me to her friends. Initially felt that I was kind of too old for this but then after that, I realized it was quite an experience. Was glad I went and felt that it brought us closer still. Anyway, just some of my thoughts on top of the entry on Tteokbokki.

Korean Rice Cake (Tube-form)

Korean Red Pepper Paste

Tteokbokki

(Korean Rice Cake, Korean Red Pepper Paste, Nappa Cabbage and Fish Cake)

Ingredients:

8 ounces Korean Rice Cakes, tube shaped (ddeok bok ee ddeok)

2 tbsp korean red pepper paste (kochujang)
1 tsp chopped garlic
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp light soya sauce
A dash of pepper
1/4 napa cabbage, roughly chopped
1-2 sheet fish cake, cut into bite size

Method:
1.  Put rice cake in a pot, add water to cover, bring to a slow boil and cook until soft
2.  Add red pepper paste, garlic, sugar, soya sauce, and pepper and bring to a boil
3.  Reduce heat and simmer until the sauce thickens a bit
4.  Add cabbage and cook for 2-3mins
5.  Add fish cake, simmer for another 1-2mins and serve hot