Teriyaki Salmon 日式照烧汁煎三文鱼

Another udon meal but with teriyaki salmon. A set meal! Now you can see I have been eating fish meat regularly? Hehe... 

I love how I can control the sweetness of the homemade teriyaki sauce, in fact I read that Japanese hardly or never use teriyaki sauce from the bottles. 

Keeping it short here. Be back soon!

Teriyaki Salmon
Recipe by just One cookbook

2 salmon fillets with skin (3/4 inch thickness; skin will hold the flesh together while cooking.)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbsp. flour (* see the note below for why using flour)
½ Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. sake (or dry sherry)

Seasonings
1 Tbsp. sake (or dry sherry)
1 Tbsp. mirin (or 1 Tbsp. sake + 1 tsp. sugar)
1 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. soy sauce

1. Combine the ingredients for Seasonings and mix well until the sugar is mostly dissolved (or you can microwave for seconds). Rinse the salmon and pat dry. Season the salmon with salt and black pepper on both sides.
2. Sprinkle ½ Tbsp. of flour on one side of salmon and spread evenly. Flip over and sprinkle the rest of flour on the other side. Gently remove the excess flour.
3. In a frying pan, add the olive oil and melt the butter over medium heat. Don’t burn the butter. If the flying pan gets too hot, reduce heat or remove from the heat temporally.

4. Add the salmon fillets, skin side on the bottom. Cook the salmon for 3 minutes, or until the bottom side is nicely browned.
5. Add sake and cover with lid. Steam the salmon for 3 minutes, or until it's cooked through. Remove the salmon to a plate.

6. Add the Seasonings to the pan and heat up. When the sauce starts to boil, add salmon back in the pan and spoon the sauce over the salmon.
7. When the sauce thickens, turn off the heat. Plate the salmon e on warmed plate and serve immediately.

Notes

* By coating the fish with flour, we keep nice umami and juice inside. Also, the texture will get crispy and the sauce will be nicely coated.

White Bunashimeji & Vege Udon Soup

4 cups Quick dashi stock
2 packages udon
1 pack white bunashimeji (white beech mushrooms)
Few slices of leeks
Half a carrot, sliced thin

Seasonings
2 Tbsp soy sauce (I used only 1 tbsp)
2 Tbsp mirin (I used only 1 tbsp)
2 tsp sugar
¼ tsp salt

1. In a medium saucepan, add dashi and the seasonings and bring to a boil.

2. Add carrot, white bunashimeji, leeks.
3. Add the udon and cook for 3-5 minutes.
4. Serve udon and soup in bowls and top with green onion and additional toppings of your choice.

Stir Fry Udon 干炒乌冬

Yet another dish whipped up with just a few simple ingredients. I am starting this Goat year on a slow and relaxing note. Nothing too fanciful for our tummies. I wanted to give my kitchen a longer break before it gets busy again this weekend.

and so... I stir fried some udon.

I love udon. Soupy ones. Stir fried ones. I love them all.  

Homecooked food are the best.

Stir fry Udon

Serves 2

2 individual packs of udon noodled

4 pcs of garlic, minced

2 tbsp canola oil

3 dried mushrooms, soaked and thinly sliced (keep aside mushroom water)

1 small carrot, julienned

4 black fungus, soaked and hard portion removed, thinly sliced

4 big tiger prawns, deshelled, deveined and cut into 4 or 5 pcs

1 onion, thinly sliced 

Seasonings

1 tbsp light soy sauce 

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp mirin

1 to 2 tbsp water (more if you prefer a wetter based udon)

*Mix all seasonings in a bowl and set aside. 

1. Heat oil in pan.

2. Stir fry garlic till fragrant. Add onions and saute for about a minute before adding prawns and stir fry till prawns turn half cooked.
3. Add in mushrooms, black fungus and carrot and stir fry all ingredients till well mixed and fragrant.
4. Add in udon noodles, stir noodles well to mix with the ingredients evenly.
5. Stir in seasonings and mix well till noodles are done. Serve.

Bak Kwa Fried Rice 肉干炒饭

After the 1.5 months of in depth spring cleaning of my house plus baking of CNY goodies, this annual Lunar New Year holiday is over just like that. Back to work today with utmost reluctance! Gosh... I am missing the temporary break from office and work already!

So with the many rounds of steamboat feastings, I guess it is a norm for households to have leftovers for a meal the next day.

Since I have a substantial amount of bak kwa (given to us by my SIL and a colleague), plus some prawns and leftover rice, I decided that bak kwa fried rice will be the one dish I can whip up with the few ingredients.

Easy peasy and our one meal is then settled.

Bak Kwa Fried Rice
Recipe by Noob Cook

• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 4 cloves garlic peeled and minced
• 4 shallots peeled and finely chopped (I did not use shallots)
• 400 grams cooked rice (1 cup uncooked rice cooked in 1 cup of water) refrigerated overnight
• 3/4 cup frozen vegetables thawed
• 2 eggs beaten and seasoned with 1/4 tsp light soy sauce and white pepper powder
• 50 grams cooked frozen prawns (shrimps) thawed
• 80 grams bak kwa cut with scissors to small bite-sized squares
• 1/4 cup chopped spring onions
• 1/4 tsp salt to taste
• white pepper to taste

1. Heat oil in wok, stir fry shallots and garlic until shallots turn translucent.
2. Add rice and thawed vegetables. Stir fry for a minute until well mixed.
3. Pour egg evenly over rice. Stir fry on high heat until the egg is semi dry. Add shrimps and bak kwa; stir fry briefly until the egg is just cooked.
4. Add spring onions and stir though to mix evenly. Season the fried rice with salt and white pepper.

Durian Lapis 榴莲千层糕

Am I crazy or what?? I actually did a 2nd lapis. This is not me because I have never attempted doing 2 lapis in 1 CNY haha! The effort and time put in for a lapis could allow me to get so much things done at home, but I willingly give the time up for this sinful yet decadent cake that to me, is the must-have for every CNYs. 

This time I tried my hand at making a durian lapis since Hubby "replenished" my Mao Shan Wang puree stock some months back when the durian season was back for that short period. This durian lapis was quite good I must say. 

About 2 tablespoon heapful of MSW durian puree went into the already-sinful-enough lapis cake. Diet plans can always be shelved to another day, right? Hehe~

Oh I need to add that I do not always have good baking days, I do have my fair share of lousy bakes too. Like this time, the lazy me decided to skip greaseproof paper lining part and just brush on some butter on the tin base. 

All was good till the unmoulding part! The cake base somehow stuck on to the tin, with only the sides released with the help of my sharp knife. Only after some knockings on the base that my durian lapis finally got dislodged from tin, and it was not a pretty sight because the bottom centre part came right off, about like 2 layers of my lapis centre got stuck to the tin. Ah well, I learnt never to be lazy and skip the lining part. Life's a never ending learning journey :)

6 days countdown to the Lunar CNY! 1st round of reunion dinner with my family tomorrow and I cannot wait to feast on Mummy's cooking! Seems like lots of families are gathering to have reunion dinners like me on Saturday, which also happens to be Valentine's Day. Truly a period to be merry, with the season of love as well as festive celebrations. Have fun and huat ah!!!

Durian Lapis
Recipe by Jane's Corner

300g butter (I used 100g margerine and 200g unsalted butter)

(I used 300g President brand salted butter)
80g sugar
90g condensed milk
150g durian pulp (blend) (I used durian puree)
300g egg yolks (I used 19 yolks that weighed around 310g)
35g low protein flour 
15g milk powder
2 egg white

1. Cream butter until creamy. Add in condensed milk and durian pulp. Continue beating until light and fluffy. Leave aside.

I was lazy to wash the beaters so I did the whites first, then the yolks and finally the butter. I saved washing up and could beat and mix the different ingredients one after another hehe!

2. In a clean mixing bowl, beat egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy (about 15mins).

3. Sieve flour and milk powder and fold into egg mixture. Continue mixing until well combined.
4. Add in butter mixture and mix well.
5. In a clean mixing bowl, beat egg whites until light and stiff peak.
6. Add (5) into (4). Mixed well.
7. Grease a 7" cake tin and bake each layer 70g for 7 mins on top fire 160C (I make 13 layers: 5 layers original colour, 3 red, 5 original)

The blops of browned top made the lapis looked yucky, but heng ah, it tasted yummy. Moist and flavourful.

8. For last layer, turn oven to top and bottom heat and bake the whole cake at 180C for further 15 minutes.

Sliced a portion for photography...

... and wrapped the rest in clingwraps to be given away to Dad, Sis and MIL.

And so, this sums up my CNY bakes. Nothing adventurous like many other wonderful foodie bloggers. I really salute you all!!! 

This durian lapis is a good bake. A recipe which is here to stay! 

Honey Glazed Salmon 低卡路里蜜汁三文鱼

Looking back at the number of posts I have kept up to date, I realised I do not have much of fish dishes. Since this is gonna be a year that I would like pay extra attention to our health (not that I normally neglect our health hor!), more fish dishes will be appearing here. 

I am not one who loves eating fish. I am afraid of choking on the bones, which I did many times and got too scared from those incidents, so I might as well keep away from eating them. I know I cannot do this for long! starting to buy more fish from the wet markets now for our meals.

How do you like your salmon fish to be cooked? Eh... I actually prefer to eat raw salmon slices, but if to eat it cooked, I like it panfried or baked. 

Came across this really yummy and healthy salmon dish. I like that the ingredients are easily found in all, if not most households. Gather them and make this dish quick!

Hubby kept nodding his head in satisfaction with each scoop of the salmon meat into his mouth. I instantly knew this recipe is here to stay and a must-share!

Honey Glazed Salmon
Recipe adapted from Low Calorie Cooking

4 5 oz. salmon fillets
1 Tbsp canola oil
1 Tbsp honey
2 garlic cloves, chopped fine
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F

2. Place the salmon fillets, skin side down, on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. In a small dish, whisk together the oil, honey, and garlic and set aside. Sprinkle the salmon fillets evenly with the salt and black pepper.Using a basting brush, spread the honey mixture evenly over the salmon fillets. (I sprinkled some dried parsley flakes over the salmon fillets)

3. Bake the salmon for 20 minutes, or until the fish flakes easily with a fork. (I squeezed some lemon juice over the salmon pieces and serve immediately)

Ginseng Bak Kut Teh 人参肉骨茶

Weather is still quite good now with the strong cooling wind blowing. Gotta enjoy these breezy days before the hot humid period comes back up again!

Making use of this nice weather, I cooked a pot of bak kut teh for dinner. Yums! A little spicy peppery feel but not too much and easy on my weak tummy. Got 1 meal settled :)

If you have bak kut teh soup leftover, do not dump it. Put the balance into a smaller pot, reboil it and leave it to cool, before leaving in the fridge. Actually I just left it out on my stove, bring to boil the next day, threw in 2 bundles of mee sua into the boiling soup. Let the mee sua cook till done and there you are, your homecooked bak kut teh mee sua! I love that the soup had a richer and more flavourful taste after being left overnight!

1 week plus countdown to the Chinese Lunar New Year! Lots of good food to enjoy soon! Time to be gather with your loved ones, be jolly and celebrate!

Be back soon!



Ginseng Bak Kut Teh
Recipe found on the overleaf of Pearling Brand instant Ginseng Bak Kut Teh spices pack

600g pork ribs (I used prime pork ribs)
6 bowls of water (I used 1.8l)
5 pcs garlics or more if you like (I crushed it slightly with the back of a knife)
1 packet of Ginseng Bak Kut Teh Spices
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
Salt to taste

1. Put water in main soup pot, add in garlics, bak kut teh spices pack and dark soy sauce and bring to boil.

2. While waiting for main soup pot to boil, fill a small pot with some water (enough to cover pork ribs) and bring to boil. Add in prime pork ribs and let it blanch for about 5 min. Pour away water and rinse pork ribs under running water, drain and set aside.

3. When main soup pot has come to a rolling boil, add in prime pork ribs. Cover and let simmer for 40 min. (I let it simmer for 1.5 hour and set the soup pot into my thermal pot holder.)
4. When ready to consume, bring soup to boil once more, add salt to taste and serve with rice and dark soy sauce with cut red chillies.

Notes:
You may add other ingredients into the soup, e.g. dried chinese mushrooms, buttom mushrooms, vege, pig stomach, pig liver, kidney, chicken, beef and mutton.

Kueh Lapis 千层糕

Time of the year for lapis baking again! And I certainly enjoy baking these cakes. Crazy? Yup, you may say that. Difficult cake to make? No. It is the steps that builds up to baking this whole cake that truly test one's patience. not forgetting that you need to set aside at least 3 hours for baking this cake.

A challenging cake to make. A cake sooooo sinful yet many are willing to put aside diet plans temporarily just for a few slices of them. Look at the numbers of egg yolks that goes into this 1 cake!

I was on a lucky strike to have got no burst yolks and I was secretly celebrating inside! This recipe calls for 20 egg yolks but because the plate of eggs which I got were so small, with each whole egg weighing only between 52g to 54g each (with shells on), I decided to use 23 yolks instead. No change for whites - 4 whites, because too much of them makes a dry lapis.

Have these ready, with some nice brandy, the usual sugar, flour and vanilla essence and you are ready for Lapis baking!

I had wanted to try out new lapis recipes but could not decide on one. Every one I found on the net seems good, hence I decided to just stick to my usual. I did not want to risk trying new recipes since I was giving these to my Dad! He loves lapis! 

Nicely wrapped in clingwrap and ready to be delivered to Dad!

No more long winded story. Here you are for the recipe :)

I wish you all an advanced Lunar New Year!!!

May this new year brings about good health, happiness and prosperity to Everyone! Huat ah!!!

Kueh Lapis
(Recipe by Mad Baker)

20 egg yolks (I used 23 egg yolks as the eggs I bought were small)
4 egg whites
500g salted butter
3 tbsp condensed milk
340g sugar 
200g plain flour
2 tsp ground mixed spices 
2 tsp vanilla essence
3 tbsp rum or brandy
90g pitted prunes, sliced into thin strips (optional) - I did not add 
Extra butter, about 70g for brushing

1. Butter the base of an 8″ X 8″ X 2.5″ pan and line with baking parchment.
2. Pre-heat your oven, selecting the grill function. I left the lined tin in the oven to be preheated together so that the lapis batter will melt and spread when spooned in it.
3. Sift the plain flour and mixed spices together.

4. Beat the egg yolks and sugar together until pale yellow, thick and creamy.

5. Cream the butter and condensed milk together until soft and fluffy. Add the creamed butter to the egg yolk mixture and mix until combined.

 Cream butter and condensed milk till soft and fluffy?

Combined creamed butter with yolk mixture.

6. Beat the egg whites until medium firm peaks.

7. Fold in the egg whites, followed by the flour mixture into the rest of the batter.

Fold in whites in yolk and cream batter.

Then fold in flour mixture.

 8. Stir in the vanilla essence and rum until well-combined. 

9. Spread a thin layer of batter onto the parchment paper. (Mix sure that lined tin has been left in oven to be preheated together prior to  spreading layer over it.)
10. Grill for 7 - 8 minute on the lowest rack in your oven or until lightly golden brown.
11. Remove cake pan from oven and press the baked layer down lightly with a metal fondant smoother. Prick all over the layer of cake with a toothpick. Brush some butter all over grilled layer (to keep cake moist).

12. Repeat steps 9 to 11 for each layer. (Optional: Add prunes on every second or third layer). (Spoon each layer of batter from side and top, do not stir and scoop out batter for layering. Over time, there might be a layer of oil oozing out from butter which will be left at bottom of batter, if used, would make a dry and hardened layer.)

Repeat the steps of layering, grilling, pricking with toothpick, pressing down with a smoother, layering and grill till you finish up your batter.

13. For the last layer, turn the oven down to 180 degrees C and bake on middle rack for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

14. Remove from oven and run a paring knife along the edges of the cake pan.
15. Turn the kueh lapis out of the pan and remove the baking parchment.

16. Flip cake back upright and let cool. 

 Notes:
1. You may use a ladle to scoop out your batter and even out top with a spatula. This ensures even amount for each lapis layer.
2. I personally prefer getting an exact amount of batter for each layer, hence I weigh them, and used 95g for each layer, for this 8 inch tin.
3. Kueh lapis cakes keep well because of liquor in it. You can simply wrap them up in clingwrap and place in ziplock bag before leaving in the freezer. Thaw before cutting and serving. Keeps well in freezer for up to a month or more!