cod fish recipes: July 2008

Nasi Goreng Pattaya

Nasi Goreng Pattaya is a Malaysian street food, name after Pattaya in Thailand but has nothing to do with Thai, a similar story like Singapore fried rice vermicelli. This is a Thai flavoured fried rice with an omelette blanket. Serve with tomato ketchup or chilli sauce over the omelette and cucumber on the side. For the recipe: (enough for 2) Ingredients:some cooking oil 1 fat clove

Sweet & Sour Tofu

It’s going to be tofu, tofu and tofu this week with the pile I have made. I had sweet and sour last night. It was colourful and totally vegetarian, very nice. Here is the result and what I did. Cut 2 big pieces of tofu into big bite chunks then lightly coat with seasoned plain flour and shallow fried till light golden and crispy all sides. Take out and drain on kitchen paper, keep warm in

Beef fried buns

I am in dim sum mood lately. Today lunch was some fried beef buns. Easy to make, soft and crunchy at the same time while they are still hot, very tasty. Cooking method is very similar to war tip dumplings. I have made enough for work lunch in the next couple of days.

Chinese: 牛肉水煎包Slide show, click here

Ingredients:

For the bread dough
150g strong white flour
150g plain flour
about 160 -

How to make tofu

I have not been making tofu for years. A very dear friend just made me a wooden mould and I have to give it a go. Took me few hours but it was worth it, not 100% perfect, still have to practise to refine the texture and look but I am happy for now. I now have a large box of tofu waiting for me to cook something. Tomorrow will be tofu cooking day. Making tofu may sound complicated but if you

Singapore Fried Rice Vermicelli

Singapore fried rice vermicelli or (xing zhou chow mai) is available in nearly all Chinese restaurants and takeaways all over the world. The funny thing is this dish is not traditional Singaporean. It was a creation by some Hong Kong chef. Thin rice vermicelli is normally the noodles used as the name ‘mai’ means rice Vermicelli, but I have seen so many variations including wheat noodles and

Cinnamon and Pecan Buns

Love the smell of hot cinnamon buns. I got some pecans that need using and thought of adding some for additional crunch. Tried it and it was lovely. Here is the recipe.Bread dough: 450g of white strong flour 1 egg1/2 tsp of lemon oil (optional) around 220 – 235 ml of milk (lukewarm) 75 g of softened butter 5 tbsp of sugar 2 tsp of quick yeast 1 tsp of salt For the cinnamon sugar and

My weekly loaf

Baking every Sunday morning has become a regular routine for me in the last few years, unless I was away from home. I just loved playing with flour in pastry, bread, cakes, dumplings, noodles etc…. The smell of bread and cakes in the morning is wonderful. For the basic I normally bake a white loaf and any other kind of bread and cakes that I fancied at the time. This week as usual a large

Breaded Prawn

Prawn toasts are so tasty but really bad for the waistline. I don’t make them as often as I like. Don’t use fancy bread, cheap white bread is fine. You can either use medium or thick slices.The prawn paste I use has very little egg white and some spring onion for flavour. 200g of raw prawn, minced 50 g of pork fat meat, chopped very fine (optional if you don’t like it. Pork fat keeps the

Kerabu Mee Hoon (Nyonya Rice Vermicelli Salad)

This is a popular Nyonya rice noodles salad, very pungent sharp and tasty. You will like it if you like shrimp paste. It is quite strong. Use less sambal belachan if you like. If you like to add chopped mint or coriander in the noodles that's up to you but not traditional.Here is the recipe: (enough for 3 people) Ingredients: 150 g dried rice vermicelli 12 – 15 raw king prawns 150 g of

Coconut Surprise

I had only bought fresh coconut once in England years ago and it was a waste of time, the coconut was off and it ended up in the bin. Had been thinking about fresh coconut again lately and how many recipes I can use it for. On Saturday, I saw some tiny coconuts in Morrisons, took the courage and bought one. Took it home and crack it, was really surprised to see it was really fresh and the coconut

Har Gau (prawn dumplings)

Har Gau is probably the most common dim sum beside siu mai all over the world. The translucent pastry and yummy prawn filling are so inviting and absolutely lovely to eat. Not too difficult to make all you need is the right flours, both available from any chinese supermarkets. See first picture on the following link.Chinese: 蝦餃Method of wrapping click here to view slide showPastry: 80g

Baked char siu bun with pineapple topping.

I have not made Chinese buns for a while now. Since I have some char siu sitting in the fridge I thought of making some char siu buns. I love the sweet crunchy topping on some of the buns in the chinese bakery called 'bo lo bau' or bun with a pineapple shape topping, though many have no added pineapple at all just the shape of the topping scored in diamond like this . I found this recipe with

Char Siu (Chinese roast pork)

When in China Town walking past the restaurants with strings of red glistening pork, it is quite hard to resist. Char Siu is so yummy, sweet and savoury. Commercial char siu always use red colouring. For homemade recipe I always avoid colouring and msg.This is my version of char siu recipe, I prefer to use char siu sauce with other ingredients as the marinate. I do use hoi sin when I run out of

Hot and Sour Soup

I always order hot and sour soup in restaurant eventhough I know it is so easy to make. Last time I had it in China Town the soup was loaded with chilli it was so hot it was nearly inedible. This soup is one of those comfort food that hit all the right spots, hot, sour, savoury and slip down really well. It is common to find blood jelly and pork rind in this soup. If you have this soup in

A taste of Nyonya

I love Nyonya food, always colourful and full of flavours. I was going to make some stuffed squids with minced prawns at the weekend, as it turned out my packet of squids wasn’t as good as I thought once defrosted, the size varied and they were far too thin. Got the squids and prawn defrosted so I decided to make Sambal Udang (prawn sambal) with added squids, kind of seafood sambal. It was very

Purple Seaweed and Tofu Soup

Ever heard of Chinese purple seaweed? It’s called 紫菜 ‘zi chai’ in mandarin or ‘jee choi’ in Cantonese, translated as ‘purple vegetable’. This seaweed is very similar to Wales laverbread or the seaweed for Japanese sushi wrapper. You can get this from any Chinese supermarkets like from here This seaweed is sold dried in round discs and the colour is jet black with a purplish sheen (how