Asian Style Steamed Salmon & Veg

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I made this for dinner yesterday. Martin liked it so much, he wanted it for dinner today! Its such an unassuming dish. Often when I tell people I’m having steamed fish for dinner, they give me a weird look. I’m guessing its conjuring up some pretty unpleasant experiences for them. That isn’t the case for me. I love steamed fish!! My mom makes the best steam fish ever! I know how she makes it and I have followed her recipe to the letter, but it never turns out as nice as hers :) This isn’t my mom’s top secret recipe. Its something I made up a few days ago. I really felt like steam fish but wanted something with lemongrass and lime leaves. Something reminiscent of Thai food (Thanks Shang!). This recipe is definitely a keeper. Its quick and easy AND so tastey! Oh and did I meantion its healthy. I know right, its so not like me at all lol!

I’m going to apologise in advance for the awful pictures, I will try and do better next time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients: 2 Salmon fillets, ½ tsp ginger & garlic paste, ¼ tsp lemongrass paste,1 tsp Black Vinegar, 1 tsp Fish Sauce, 2 tsp Rice Wine, 3Tbp Light Soy Sauce, ½ Red chili sliced, 4-6 Kaffir Lime Leaves, 2 Spring Onions sliced,

VEG – broccoli, asparagus, baby corn, kai lan etc Use whatever veg you have/want.

Method: Mix everything in a bowl. (Make sure the bowl is big enough to hold everything including the salmon and veg. AND make sure the bowl fits in your steamer.) Once the salmon and veg are coated, lay them down evenly. Steam for 15-25 mins, depending on the thickness of the salmon. Serve with freshly boiled rice. Easy Peasy!

 

Martin devouring his dinner. He practically inhaled it!

 

 

 

Tiramisu Cupcake

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I haven’t made these in ages! I love tiramisu, not just the cupcake but the actual dessert itself. Not only the way it tastes but also how easy it is to make. Click here for tiramisu recipe. The cupcake uses the same creamy mascarpone ‘filling’ as the dessert. For the actual cupcake itself, I made a coffee sponge.

Its just a basic sponge recipe with 2tsp of instant coffee added to the batter. I just added it to the butter and sugar and creamed everything together. I know this isn’t the traditional way to do it but I don’t care. Normally the instant coffee gets mixed with some hot water and that gets added to the batter but that means that I’ve got one extra mug and spoon to wash lol. Yes, I am that lazy!!

That’s it really. Bake the cupcake as you would normally, leave it to cool, make the frosting, frost the cupcake and its ready to eat :) Normally I just grate some chocolate over the frosting but I had some mini eggs left over from easter so I decided to top the cupcakes with them instead. Those little cupcakes are just what I needed to perk the day up :)

Poinsettia Cake

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This was the cake I made at Christmas for Martin’s Mum’s birthday. I love the deep colour of the poinsettia. It makes a great centre piece for any table. But I think all cakes make great center pieces lol. I’m sure everyone’s noticed the silver pot in the background. I really need a bigger kitchen. I don’t think there was one table in the house that didnt have a cake/cake related thing on it! I know, I could have at least cropped the photo….I’m just too lazy to bother.

The cake itself was really easy to make. It was a lemon and raspberry cake (alternating layers) with lemon curd and raspberry jam filling, covered completely with vanilla buttercream and surrounded with white chocolate cigarellos.

Just a basic sponge cake. One with lemon zest and extract the other with pureed raspberries.

I very rarely make my own lemon curd because I just love this Sainbury’s one. Its so zingy :)      I did make my own raspberry jam! 100g Fruit to 40g Sugar. That’s the ratio I normally use. There’s really no need for it to be too sweet especially since there’s going to be buttercream on the cake as well.

And Finally, the Vanilla Buttercream.

Equal quantities butter and sugar. Instead of vanilla extract, I used some vanilla paste. I just loooovvvveee it! Not only does it give that wonderful vanilla flavour/smell it also has those pretty little flecks of vanilla seeds.

That’s really it. Once you’ve got all your components done, its just a matter of assembling everything. You don’t have to use poinsettias. Roses would work just as well. Maybe some gerbera daisies for an easter cake?

 

 

Longustine Soup Base

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This soup did not turn out the way I expected it to. But that’s not always a bad thing. It tasted like a lighter version of Prawn Mee. The only thing I would change is the spice. It just wasnt spicy enough! Alot more chillies next time :)

   I froze all the heads and claws(raw) from the last longustine dish I made. Just because I wasn’t using it for that dish doesn’t mean it should go to waste. Alot of people just bin the heads of prawns and longustines, which is a crime against gastronomy! The heads hold sooo much flavour and makes the most amazing soup base.

Heat a little oil and throw in the frozen heads and claws. Then I added some spring onions, 1 large onion cut in half, 1 whole head of garlic, 5 whole chillies, a thumb size piece of ginger, 1 tbp whole black peppercorns  and cranked the heat up to high.

I kept the heat high for about 10 mins, making sure to stir every now and then. The smell from the pot was just amazing!

Now add enough hot water to cover the langoustines. Throw in one chicken stock cube. I used an organic, unsalted stock cube. Now comes my secret ingredient……

Kimchi!! Just to add a different dimension to the soup.

And that’s it. Just leave it to bubble away for at least an hour. I made this base in the morning and re-heated it for dinner.

You can add anything to the soup; prawns, squid, salmon, wantons, fishball, toufu, veg etc etc. Just make sure to strain it first. I strained the base and then decanted it to a smaller pot before adding an assortment of fish/cuttlefish/prawnballs :)

Salmon & Haloumi Salad

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There’s nothing quite like a salad on a warm day. Its the only time I like salads! If the weather isn’t hot, then there’s no reason for a salad. I’d rather have some veg stir fry with freshly boiled rice on a cold day. Although…. I ate a lot more stir fry than salad growing up. Kinda strange considering I grew up in sunny Singapore! lol

This salad has, surprise surpise, haloumi in it. Martin’s new favourite lol with he’s old favourite, Salmon. I’m not a big fan of salmon. I would rather have bass or bream but, salmon is extremely good for you. So, once in a while, I have a little salmon. This time, I really enjoyed it.

I bought two fresh fillets and spread some harissa paste on top.

I put both the fillets on a bed of spring onions (I love spring onions!) and 1/2 a lemon on each side of the dish.  Then in the oven for 15-20mins(depending on the thickness of your fish) and its ready!

While your fish is cooking, you can fry up the haloumi.

I cut the haloumi into wee squares and coated it with a bit of plain flour before frying it. This gives it a lovely crispy brown exterior. Don’t over cook the haloumi, it’ll end up being squeaky lol. Yes, that is a technical term.It’s also best not the cut the haloumi on the same board and with the same knife as the one you used for the beetroot lol.

Now all that’s left to do is to assemble the dish! A base of mixed salad leaves, some fresh spring onions, some haloumi and a lovely piece of salmon.

Now I know what you’re thinking. This is going to be a dry salad. No. Once you take the salmon out of the dish, squeeze the warm lemon over the cooked bed of spring onions. Add a bit of olive oil, some dried dill(you can use fresh if you have it) and a bit of black pepper. Give everything a good mix and drizzle over the salad. YUM!

Chicken Mushroom & Haloumi Pasta

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It has been a looooooong time since my last post. I’m terrible at keeping this site up to date! Needless to say, I have a HUGE backlog of photos and recipes. So I’m just going to start with today’s dinner. It was something easy and quick. Took me 20 mins to make it from start to finish :) I just love quick, easy recipes that tastes great!

For most quick recipes, there needs to be a cheat. This recipe is no different. I used my store cupboard staple. If you’re a fan of tomatoey sauce for your pasta that isn’t filled with artifical crap, then this is a must! I must admit, I don’t particularly like sauces that come out of a jar. Most of the time it tends to be really salty, sweet or (worst of all!) plastic! Yes that’s right, plastic! *cough dolmio cough* lol it just tastes like plastic to me lol. I know there’ll be lots of people who disagree but hey, this is my blog and I’ll say whatever I want!

Anyway, coming back to my favourite cheat product. It’s…..

If you are in a rush for time and want a really rich tomatoey pasta sauce that packs a punch, it just has to be Dress Italian. And no, I’m not getting paid to say that lol.

The recipe is really easy and as usual, its a mash up lol. I can’t quite give you exact quantities, just go with your gut. And if you’re wondering why haloumi? Its Martin’s new favourite lol. You’ll probably be seeing quite alot of haloumi recipes in the next few weeks. I’ll be adding it to just about everything Martin wants!

INGREDIENTS:

1 small Red onion chopped

1 tsp garlic paste

1/2 pack of haloumi diced

5 mushrooms sliced

5 mini chicken fillets

Fresh Pasta

Dress Italian Sauce

Pepper and mixed dried herbs

METHOD:

-Cook the fresh pasta according to the instructions on the pack. (The sauce will be ready in round about the same amount of time it takes the pasta to cook.)

-Heat a little oil in another pan.

-Add the chopped onions and cook for about 1 min on medium heat.

-Throw in the chicken, mushrooms, haloumi, garlic and 1 tsp of mixed dried herbs.

-Once the chicken is about 3/4 cooked, add the Dress Italian sauce and cook for another 2 mins on medium heat.

-By this time, the pasta should be cooked.

-Drain the pasta(reserve about a mug full of the pasta’s cooking liquid) and add to the sauce.

-Mix the pasta and the sauce making sure its well coated. If it’s a bit dry, add a little of the reserved cooking liquid.

-Season to taste and its ready!

Fluffy Pancakes

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I’ve got a new blog!! Finally, after much persuasion from Martin, I’ve decided to start my own blog. I’ve still got the Live Journal account but this will be my main blog from today :) There’s a lot of work still to be done to the layout etc and I’m so excited!!! I just can’t wait to start blogging again. This is my version of therapy lol.

Anyway, lets not get too side tracked. I made some fluffy pancakes for supper today. I was actually supposed to have made them for breakfast but I was distracted. Too busy watching Man vs Food lol. I love that show! Its totally awesome!!  …and I’m getting side tracked again lol. Back to pancakes. I love pancakes, especially if they are thick, fluffy and smothered in butter and maple syrup :) Yummy!

I got this recipe from the BBC Food website and it is a definite keeper. The pancakes were ready to eat in 30 mins (from start to finish). The recipe was really easy to follow and I actually kept to the recipe…well I made one minor change but that doesn’t really count lol.

RECIPE:

  • 135g self-rising flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 tbp caster sugar
  • 130ml milk
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 tbp oil (sunflower)

 

METHOD:

  • Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl.
  • Whisk the wet ingredients together.
  • Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and whisk till smooth.
  • Leave to stand for a few mins.
  • Heat pan with a little oil (Medium heat).
  • Pour out one ladle of batter. It will be very thick, which is how it should be.
  • Once the top of the pancake starts to bubble, turn it over and cook until golden brown.

I made 4 large pancakes. You could quite easily get 6 medium or 8 small pancakes. The longer you let the batter stand, the thicker it will get. If you’re not really into thick pancakes,just thin the batter out with a little milk. And all that’s left to do now, is eat! :)