Coconut Curry Fish

Spicy food is enjoyed all over the world because spices add an incredible amount of flavour to what you eat. Adding spices to your meal can provide health benefit. This include weight loss, improve blood circulation, improved digestion, mood swing and prevent cancer.

 Hot and spicy food are stimulants. They stimulate your circulation and raise your body temperature.

Coconut curry fish

If you like your curry with a kick, add 1/2 tbsp dried chilli paste.

For those who can't take spicy food, this fish curry will not burn your mouth. 

Wash and pat dry the fish, marinate with salt and pepper. Steam for 5 mins, discard the water and add the fish to the curry gravy and let it boil for 2 to 3 mins.

Spices will have better flavor and a longer shelf life if you buy them whole as berries, seeds or quills. Best to lightly toast the spice and grind it just before using them.

When baking, follow the direction. When cooking, follow by your own taste. You can garnish the curry fish with some chopped spring onion.

Hot pepper chilli does not contain calories, it increase your metabolic rate. If you add more to your cooking, you will jump about and burn off more calories.

Cook, serve and eat.....with the capacity to enjoy.
To capture the mood of love,
To savor communication,
To enjoy with your loved ones.

The often-quoted theory of cooking fish for 10 minutes per inch of thickness may be a good guideline, but in reality 8 minutes is a better time frame. Fish will continue to cook for a minute or two off the heat. Be sure to stop cooking when the fish is just shy of done; otherwise, it will overcook by the time you serve it.

What to do when the fire is too hot for the little mouth?
Milk, yogurt, ice cream and peanut butter are the best to cool down burning sensation.

This curry will not burn and numb your mouth, so you can eat more... preferably add more fragrant rice.

Don't waste, best to mop up the rich creamy curry gravy with bread.

Fiery hot curry might make you feel like the top of your head is about to explode.

Is there anything better than spicy food?

After a satisfying curry meal, let's see what's for dessert .....
Today I cook dinosaur eggs. Oppss...dinosaur extinct already, can't find.

Sesame balls is also named Jin Deui. This Chinese fried pastry is made from glutinous rice flour. The pastry is filled with mung bean paste and coat the outside with sesame seeds. The pastry is crisp on the outside and chewy inside.

The origin of Jin Deui can be traced back to Tang Dynasty as a palace food in Chang'an. This food item was recalled in a poem by the Tang poet Wang FanZhi. With the Southward migration was brought along and hence became part of Southern Chinese cuisine.

Sesame Balls
Pastry Ingredients
5 oz glutinous rice flour
1 tbsp rice flour
70 mls water
1/2 cup sugar
100 gm orange sweet potato
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tbsp oil

1/  Boil the sweet potato until soft. Peel off the skin and mash with a fork.
2/  Boil the water and sugar. Add the sweet potato and mix well. Smash the mixture thru a strainer.
3/  Add the rice flour, glutinous rice flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla and oil. Knead the dough till smooth. ( About 10 mins )
4/  Cover the dough with damp kitchen towel for 20 mins.

5/  Divide the dough into 12 to 14 balls. Flatten the dough and wrap with filling, seal tight to prevent explosion.

6/  Roll the sweet potato balls with sesame seed.
7/  Heat up the oil in the wok. ( Enough oil to cover the sesame balls.)
8/  Deep fry the sesame balls using low medium heat until golden colour.
9/  Drain on kitchen towel to absorb the excess oil.
  

Mung Bean Filling Ingredients.
3/4 cup mung bean
1 1/2 cup water
1/2  cup sugar
1 cup grated coconut
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp salt
1 to 2 tbsp flour

1/  Rinse the mung bean several times and soak for 2 hours.
2/  Boil the mung bean with water until mushy. Keep an eyes and stir occasionally to prevent burn. Top up with water if it evaporate.
3/  When the mung bean is very soft and mushy, add sugar, salt and grated coconut. Cook till slightly thicken, add vanilla extract and 1 tbsp flour, mix well. If the mung bean filling is too soft add another 1 tbsp of flour.
4/  Leave to cool, roll into round balls.
 

The pastry didn't puffed cos too much filling and I made the pastry a bit too thick.

Have a wonderful week ahead. Cheers.

How to wow your MIL and hubby.....

MIL coming for dinner, no idea what to cook? Why not try this simple wonton noodle and wonton appetizer to wow your MIL and your hubby.

A Wonton is a type of dumpling commonly found in a number of Chinese cuisine.
Each region of China has its own variations of wonton, examples include Beijing, Sichuan, Hubei, Jiangnan, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, etc.... 

Deep Fried wonton, best to serve immediately.

Wonton Ingredients
200gm chicken meat or meat ( 猪肉 )
5 water chestnuts
1 packet wonton skin

 You can buy this ready made wonton skin from supermarket.

Seasoning ingredients
2 cloves garlic - chopped finely
1 tsp salt
1 tsp oyster sauce
2 tsp soya sauce
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp corn flour
A dash of sesame oil
1/4 tsp white pepper
2 tsp Chinese rice wine

1/  Peel the water chestnut,wash and chopped coarsely.
2/  Mince or chopped the meat finely.
3/  Add the chopped garlic and all the seasoning ingredients. Mix till well blend.

4/  Place 3/4 tsp wonton filling in the centre, moisten the wonton skin edges with water and fold into a triangle. Press firmly to seal the edges.

5/ Another way of wrapping wonton, place 3/4 tsp of the filling in the centre of the wonton skin and twist to seal. It should resemble money bag or drawstring purse.

 As part of the sealing process, air is pressed out of the interior to avoid rupturing the wonton from interior pressure when cooked. 

6/  Another fun way to wrap the wonton. Fold into a triangle, bring two end together so that they overlap. Moisten with a bit of water, press to seal. It should resemble a nurse's cap.

7/  Prepare the steamer. Put the wonton on the stainless steel plate and steam for 5mins. Remove from steamer and let it cool.

8/ Cool the steamed wonton completely and deep fried until slightly brown and crisp. Serve immediately with chilli sauce.

Adding water chestnuts to the filling will give some light crunch to the wonton filling. Very addictive appetizer, hard to stop eating.

Another way to cook wonton is bring a pot of water to boil, put in the wonton slowly and let it boil for 5 to 6 mins. Remove from stove and drain off the hot water. Don't cook too many wonton at the same time, make sure there is enough room for them to move about freely.

Marble size wonton....

Serve the boil wonton with wonton noodle soup. Add a dash of pepper before serving.

Chinese noodles is the ancestor of all noodles. They are not only world-renowned but also exert far-reaching impact on noodle culture round the globe. Spaghetti was the example of a transformation of Chinese noodles: it was Marco Polo, an Italian diplomatic agent, who learnt the techniques from China in Yuan Dynasty and let the people evolve and thus had the new type of noodle created in the country.

Another example in 1912, the traditional techniques of making Chinese noodles were brought to Yokohama, Japan, from China and Japanese ramen was then introduced. Japanese ramen was initially called "Dragon Noodle" implying it was a food eaten by Chinese people-The people who are descendant of Dragon

PRAWN DUMPLING

Ingredients
200gm prawns - shelled and dice coarsely
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp soya sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tsp Chinese rice wine or 1 tsp rum
1 tsp corn flour
A dash of sesame oil
5 water chestnuts - peel and dice coarsely

1/  Mixed all the ingredients together.
2/  Wrap the prawn dumplings into a triangle shape.
3/  Bring 1/2 a pot of water to boil. Add the prawn dumpling and let it boil for 5 mins.
4/  Drain off the water and serve prawn dumpling with wonton noodle soup or soya sauce wonton noodle.

For MIL serve a generous amount of prawn wonton in the noodle.

Among all special Chinese noodles, the most unique type ought to be "E-fu Noodle" (or "Yi Noodle"). Yi Noodle can be served dry or with soup. It is a creation of Scholar Yi Bingshou's chef during Ganlong time in Qung Dynasty. Yi Noodle is made in both southern and northern China with Fujian and Jiangxi provinces doing it most impressively.

The noodle is special because it does not require mixing of flour with water but with beaten eggs. After a process of boiling, cooling, drying and frying, it becomes the semi-finished product. Due to its unique making techniques, Yi Noodle can be served in a variety of ways, making it superior among other noodles and become one of the must-haves in banquets.

CHICKEN BROTH FOR WONTON NOODLE SOUP

1/  Wash the chicken carcass and remove the fat.
2/  Boil 1 chicken carcass with enough water, bunch of spring onion, few cloves of garlic, 1 piece of chicken stock cube for 30 mins. In between skim off the foam.
3/  Add salt, sugar, pepper and sesame oil to taste.

Chicken broth

Raw wonton Noodle

In Hong Kong, the popular "Wonton Noodle" is made with raw noodle, which was originated in Guangdong. Hen eggs or duck eggs are the major ingredients of raw noodle. Hen eggs can make the noodle more crispy while duck eggs can add flavor to the finished product. Good raw noodle is called rice thread vermicelli, which is thin and turns yellow when it is cooked. In addition to being pliable but not too hard or too soft, it is most important that the noodle does not carry the taste of lye.

Bring a pot of water to boil, then put in the wonton noodle. Let it boil for 2 mins, keep stirring with a chopsticks.

Remove the noodle from stove and rinse noodle with tap water for 30 seconds. Put back the noodle into pot of hot water and let it boil for 1 mins or until cook.

SOYA SAUCE WONTON NOODLE

For each serving of soya sauce noodle add 2 tsp light soya sauce, 1 tsp black caramel sauce, dash of sesame oil, 1/2 tsp oyster sauce.

Mixed the boil noodle with the sauce mixture.

Traditional noodles are delicately hand-made. From flour mixing, beating, pulling and cutting, every step is done manually. But interestingly, noodle making techniques are uniquely different in the north and south. Ramen, a kind of hand-pulled noodle, is famous in the north. To make it soft and pliable is not an easy task: one does not only need to have a pair of strong arms but also have good skill to control the force to press on the dough.

Serve the soya sauce noodle with generous amount of wonton and lettuce. Sprinkle with chopped spring onion. Blanch the lettuce in boiling water for 5 seconds. Remove and drain dry.

To the contrast, making of southern noodles requires gentle yet firm forces so that the finished products are crisp but not fragile. The critical part is the ‘bouncing' bouncing. The noodle maker's bouncing on the bamboo by using his body weight to evenly flatten the dough. The dough can then be cut into thin strips.

WONTON APPETIZER

Trim the wonton skin to fit the mini muffin tray.

Peel and shelled the prawns. Wash and pat dry, season with light soya sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, sesame oil, rum and pepper for 2 to 3 hours. Put 3 prawns in each wonton mini cup.

Bake at 180 deg c for 15 to 20 mins or until wonton skin is golden brown and crispy. Serve with plum sauce.

For varieties, before baking sprinkle some chopped mozzarella cheese and cheddar cheese on top the prawns.

After a scrumptious meal, still got room for dessert? Let's join me.

SWEET CORN DESSERT

400 gm corn kernels
400mls thick coconut milk
150 mls water
Sugar to taste
Pinch of salt
Pandan leaves
3 tbsp sago

Sago is a starch extracted in the spongy centre, or pith, of various tropical palm stems, especially Metroxylon sagu. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Moluccas, where it is called saksak, rabia and sagu.

1/  Blend 200gm corn kernels with 150gm water until fine.
2/  Mix the balance corn kernels with blended corn, coconut milk, salt, sugar, pandan leave and bring to boil.
3/  Once boil, remove from stove immediately, do not over boil the coconut milk.
4/  Wash and soak the sago for 30 mins. Bring a pot of water to boil, add sago and cook until transparent. Rinse the sago until running tap to remove the starch.
5/  Drain dry and add the sago to the corn dessert.

COCONUT CREAM FOR TOPPING

100mls thick coconut milk
50mls water
2 tsp corn flour
pinch of salt

1/  Mix the corn flour with water.
2/  Boil the coconut milk till simmering only, add pinch of salt and corn flour mixture slowly, keep stirring to prevent burn. Cook for 2 mins and remove from stove.

3/  Serve corn dessert hot or cold with coconut topping cream.

Enjoy and cheers!
Amelia