Steam blue crabs with wine

I usually go to the market very early about 6.30 am.  I used to be the first customer of my usual fishmonger(Ah Tiong).  I will be at his stall before he could arrange  and display all his seafood on the stall.  Early birds catch the worms.  This morning I was able to catch 3 very fresh blue crabs and a big barramundi (2.3kg, the only one among those smaller barramundi which were farmed at the sea). According to Ah Tiong, his brother(a fisherman) caught this only barramundi and some of the blue crabs.  I was lucky then to choose the best before the others shoppers arrive.

 The fish was chopped into a few slices.  I will steam the head and keep the rest in the freezer.

 For these crabs , I am going to steam for lunch with my son.
Peel the shells and discard the guts, wash the crabs and rinse well, remove claws and use knife back to smash the hard parts of the legs, set aside and drain.

The ingredients for steaming the crabs are,

4 egg whites,
1/2 tsp sugar,
3 tbs cooking wine,
1/3 cup of water,
some spring onions, chopped,
1 red chili ,sliced,
1 tsp sesame oil,
a few slices of ginger,
salt to taste.

Place the ginger slices on the plate and arrange the crabs on top of the ginger.  Put in a boiling water pot or wok and steam for 7 minutes.

While steaming, I prepare the sauce for second half of the steaming.  Oh no, forgot to take the photo of the egg white mixture.  Here, I have to explain the steps to make the egg white sauce.  Separate the egg yokes from the egg whites.  Pour in the water, cooking and add in the sugar into the egg whites and mix well, set aside.
After steaming for 7 minutes, remove from the pot and pour the steam crab sauce in to the egg white sauce.  Mix well.
Next, pour the well mixed sauce into the steamed crab and steam for another 6 minutes.  This is to make sure that the egg whites are not over steam .

After 6 minutes, mmmm the smell of the wine and the egg whites so white and soft.  Sprinkle the sesame oil and spring onion, chili and serve hot.
The aromatic and fragrant smell of the sesame oil and the wine was so attractive when place on the table.

Very delicious, the crabs are fresh and very meaty too.  Yummy  yum

Sweet and sour Prawns

Nowadays big prawns are not as costly as during Chinese New Year that falls between the end of January and Mid February.  Now we in the month of march, I manage to buy big prawns half of the price of those during Chinese New Year.  They are also very fresh.

I bought 500 grams of the big prawns and I am going to share this simple but delicious recipe which our family used to had during only festive seasons especially during Chinese New Year.

Ingredients,

500 gram big prawns,
4 tbs oil,
1-2 red chili,
2 in piece ginger,
4 cloves garlic,
4-5 onions,
1 tbs vinegar,
1 tbs tomato sauce,
1 tbs chili sauce,
1 tbs sugar,
1 tbs water,
1 tsp corn flour mix with 1 tbs of water,
1 tbs corn flour,
salt to taste.
spring onion for garnish.

Wash and trim the heads of the prawns but keep the shell intact, set aside and let dry.
Slice the onions, red chili and chop the garlic, ginger and spring onion  for later use.
In a small bowl, mix together tomato sauce, chili sauce, vinegar,water and sugar.

Heat up oil in a pan.  Sprinkle the corn flour onto the drained prawns.  Pour into pan and pan fry for a minute or until the shell turn light red color.

Turn to the other side of the prawns and fry for another minute or two.

Dish out all the prawns and set aside.

With the oil in the frying pan, put in the chopped garlic, ginger,sliced onions and chili and stir fry until aromatic.

 Pour in the fried prawns, keep stirring. Add in the well mixed sauces, mix well until the prawns are cooked.  When the prawns all turn red in color.

Lastly to make the sauce thick, add in the mixture corn flour and water , pouring a little at a time. Mix well.  Dish our and garnish with chopped spring onions and serve hot with rice.

This is our (ko cha be)delicious sweet and sour prawns.

Fry Fresh Scallops

This morning as usual go to the fishmonger,I was so surprised to see fresh scallops with the shells intact.  this is the first time I ever see this in the wet market since I started doing marketing as young as 12 years old.  I was so excited, me and my whole family like scallops. Its  very cheap too.  It cost me only RM 8 for a kg.  The fishmonger helps me to choose the bigger the  possible for me. 

These are the fresh scallops that I got from the market.  I peel off the shells.  Remove the intestines and drain well.  After peeling and removing all the unwanted parts, it remained about 400 grams in weight.

Anyway, the scallops look so beautiful and fresh.  I decided to stir fry just like the way I used to stir fry la la, another type of shells seafood from the sea.
I gather all the ingredients as bellow,

1 tbs taucu(fermented bean paste),
2 shallots,
 3 pips of garlic,
1 red chili,
1 inch ginger
1 tsp sugar,
1 tbs sesame oil,
1 tbs oyster sauce,
2 tbs cooking wine.
2 tbs cooking oil,
Chopped basil/spring onion(garnish)

Chop the garlic, slice the shallots, cut the ginger and chop into fine pieces, cut the chili into small slices and set aside.

 In a small bowl, put in sugar, sesame oil,oyster sauce and wine and mix well , set aside.

Heat up the oil in a wok, put in shallots, garlic, ginger and chili.  Stir fry until aromatic.

Add in taucu and continue frying for a while.  Add in the seasoning and it has a quick boil.
Lastly stir in the scallops, stir fry until the scallops are cooked, about 2 minutes. Off the fire and add in the basil and have a quick stir. Scoop out and serve hot with rice.

Oh  the scallops are so fresh and so sweet, taste yummy.

Soy sauce Fresh Water Prawns

We have been eating fresh water prawns in Tanjung Taulang (town of fresh water prawn) for many years. My husband and me love fresh water prawns a lot because of the texture, the juicylicious and rich taste in the head,and the crunchiness of the flesh can come close to those of the lobsters.  The most popular style of cooking here is fried prawns in soy sauce. Today I manage to buy 8medium size fresh water prawns from the fish monger.  though they are not swimming alive but still very fresh.

I washed and trimmed the long whiskers and legs, halved all of them diagonally and drained.  Sprinkle a pinch  of salt and dash of corn flour over the prawns.

 

This is a delicious yet simple recipe.

6 to 8 medium size fresh water prawns,
2 tbs. oil,
2  tbs.  good taste soy sauce,
2 tbs. chopped garlic,
1/2 tsp. sugar,
1 tbs. cooking wine/ shaoxing wine,
some chopped spring onion(garnishing)

Heat up wok with the oil, saute the chopped garlic until light brown. Add in the prawns, let fry for a while, about 1 minute.  Turn up the other sides of the prawns.  Fry for about another minute.  Add in soy sauce, sugar and the wine.  Have a few quick stir and try to use the wok turner press down each of the prawns.

 

 

Fry the first sides of the prawns.

 

turn the other side of the prawns

Garnish with chopped spring onions and chili.

You can try this recipe with regular prawns. 

Kong Poa Squid

This morning went to the wet market and saw the squids were very fresh and big . I bought 1/2  a kg home to cook Kong Poa Squid. Its been quite a long time since I last cook this dish.  To cook this dish, I have to prepare the following ingredients,

500g squids
1 tsp ginger juice
dash of pepper
1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp bean paste
1 red chili
6 dried chili
2 stalk spring onions
Handful of toasted cashew nuts(optional)

Sauce   1 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
             1 tsp thick soy sauce
             1 tsp oyster sauce
             1 tsp wine
             1 tsp sugar
             dash of pepper
             1 tsp corn flour

Peel the skins off the squids, remove the intestines and the eyes as well.  Wash with some salt and drained and cut into 3 cm in lenghts.  Marinate with salt, ginger juice and pepper for at least 15 minutes.

Cut the spring onions into 3cm lenghts, half the dried chili and soak in water, slice the red chili and set aside. Combine all the sauce in a bowl and leave a side for later use.

Heat oil and add in garlic and bean paste fry till fragrant.  Add in dried chili.  Stir in squid and red chili.  Pour in combined sauce.  When mixture boils and thickens, stir in spring onions and cashew nuts . dish out and serve. Squids cannot cook for too long as it will turn rubberise and will be very tough to bite .

Salted egg fry prawns

I remembered the 1 kg of big prawns that I bought from Pantai Remis that have been deep free zed with some sugar water(to keep fresh).  Today to steam or what??  Most of the time I like to steam as long as the prawns are still fresh.  Anyway I like to try other way of cooking .  I will try to stir fry the prawns with salted egg yolks. 

the ingredients
500g prawns
2 salted eggs
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp corn flour
30 g butter
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp chopped red chili

seasoning
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp light soy sauce
3 tbsp chicken stock/water

Trim the legs and the sharp parts and clean the intestine of the prawns, drained. Season with the pepper.  Meanwhile boil the salted eggs.  Lightly smash the egg yolks when the eggs were cooked.

Heat enough oil  in a wok. Sprinkle corn flour over the prawns and deep fry for about 30 seconds.  Remove from the wok and drain.

The prawns after quick deep frying

Heat butter and oil in a wok. Add in the chopped garlic and chopped chili and fry until fragrant. Blend in the smashed salted egg yolks and prawns.  Add in the seasoning and toss briefly until prawns are cooked through.  Remove and garnish with chopped spring onion.  Serve hot.

Mmmm, look good, and taste good too. I like the salted egg yolks that stick to the shell of the prawns.  Its really finger licking good .

Yong Tau Foo

Yong tau foo (stuff tofu and other vegetables with fish paste) is a very famous and delicious hawker food in Ipoh.  Today I am going to make this dish by my home made fish paste that I had prepared a few days ago.

the ingredients

300 g of fish paste(can get from wet market)
1 bitter guard
8 lady fingers
4 white tofu
1 medium egg plant
( can use other veggies that you like red and green chili)
1tsp bean paste
1tsp chopped garlic
1tsp chopped red chili
2 tbs cooking oil
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1tsp light soy sauce
1tsp corn flour
1/2 bowl water
1 stalk of spring onion(chopped)

These are the veggies and tofu that I had bought this morning.

As usual, wash the vegetables then soak in home made garbage enzyme for about 40 minutes. Cut the bitter guard and the egg plant in such way that we can stuff in the fish paste . Split open the lady fingers and scrape out the seeds.  Halved the tofu and use a spoon to scrape out the internal of the tofu, the residue can be added in to the fish paste, mix well.

These tofu and vegetables are ready for the fish paste stuffing

Use a butter knife to take some of the fish paste and fill up the tofu, lady fingers, bitter guard and the egg plant slices.

Place the stuffed veggies into a plate and steam for 8 minutes. You may also like to deep fry all these, but I prefer the steaming and serve with a bean paste sauce.

Heat up a wok then fry the chopped garlic and the bean paste until fragrant.  Pour in half of the water, let it boil. Slowly put in the stuffed veggies into to  the wok.  Simmer for about 3 minutes. Add  in the dark soy sauce and sugar.  Mix the corn flour, light soy sauce in the remaining  water, pour into the wok slowly and mix well and off the fire. Serve hot with the sprinkle of chopped spring onion and chopped red chili.

This is my home made yong tau foo.

Mackerel fish paste

Get up early this morning, with the help of my maid, we started to work out the 2 kg of Spanish mackerel to turn them into fish paste.
First, I had to separate the flesh from the bone by splitting both sides of all the fish. I did the splitting while the maid will scrape off the fresh that stick both on the bones and the skin of the fish by spoon.

The Spanish mackerel before cutting

The flash separated from the bone of the fish

The head and the bone of the fish with some flesh attached on.

ingredients for the fish paste

2 kg fresh Spanish mackerel

300g shrimps or pork(optional)

2 tsp salt

4 tbs corn flour

1/2 bowl of water

1 tsp pepper

 In a bowl, put in the salt, corn flour, pepper and the water, mix well and leave aside.  I use my food processor to grind the fish flesh by adding the corn flour mixture slowly. (traditional way will use the knife to chop the fish flesh until fine).  Pour the well blended fish mixture onto the chopping board.  Using both hand to roll up the fish mixture into round ball, then smash hard on the board.,continue doing this until the mixture become sticky and have a bouncing effect. This take about ten times of smashing and rolling.

The smashing of the fish flesh on the chopping board

The final stage of the fish paste

I can have many ways of cooking from my home made fish paste.  First of all, the bones and heads can make a very good fish stock, I will share the recipe in the next blog. I cook porridge by the fish stock and add some of the fish paste for my father-in-law.

I keep the rest of the fish paste in food containers for future cooking. I will make some (yong tau foo) ,stuff fish paste in tofu, chili,lady fingers and other vegetables, I will cook fish ball noodle, make fish cake and so on.

Pantai Remis

Cecilia, Celine and a Japanese couple and me started our journey to Pantai Remis at 11.15am from Ipoh.  We had my durian cake in the car on the way to our destination. It took us 1 hour and half to reach the fishing village, we reached there at about 12.45pm.  Cecilia took us to her usual station but we were disappointed because the fishermen did not go out to the sea as they were celebrating the Ghost Festival.  So turn to other stations but most of them also doing the same thing.  Finally we spotted a smaller station and saw the fishermen were busy unloading plastic boxes from a fishing boat, we stop our car and went down to what we can get..

The workers are sorting out the catch of the day.  When we went near we got disappointed again, only kembong fish(slimy mackerel) ,a few Spanish mackerel and prawns.  Finally I decided to buy 2 kg of slimy mackerel and the only 6 medium sized Spanish mackerel.  Cecilia bought 3 kg of Slimy mackerel . We agreed to buy 1 kg of slimy mackerel and 1 kg of prawn for our lunch later in the restaurant.

1 kg of slimy mackerel

1 kg of fresh big prawns

The lady boss of this station saw our disappointment, she was so kind that she advice us to go further in to another few station, we might be lucky that we can get what we wanted. We followed her instruction and direction we finally came to quite a big station, we saw 2 Malay lady sitting at a table, after chatting with them and one of the worker, we were advised to wait for 1/2 an hour for the fishing boat to come back. All of us were alright for the suggestion but all were hungry.  We lucky that we had some of my durian cake then.

Finally, the fishing boat has arrived, we were so excited, we got to wait for the workers to unload the catch then to sort them out from the prawns and the fishes ,next they have to separate the bigger fishes from the smaller fishes. All of us including the 2 Malay ladies and other customers were waiting eagerly and excitedly to get the limited catch.

A catch load of fresh fishes and prawns from a fishing boat just arrive from the sea. Finally I bought 1 kg of big prawns, some more Spanish mackerel.

The Spanish mackerel

 My friends also bought happily whatever they can get from this boat.  Satisfied with our shopping then adjourned to Cecilia's popular village restaurant.We wanted them to deep fry our slimy mackerel and steam the prawns. 

deep fried slimy mackerel

Simple steamed prawns

This is the most popular dish of this restaurant, the (fan sa wu) yam with sugar. Really good, the yam ,yummy.....

The second most popular dish is the fry prawn cake, you can see the numbers of shrimp in the cake, deep in chili sauce, soooo good.. All of us were so hungry that we snatched up all in just seconds, don't even have time to snap the picture of it.  Anyway I bought some half -cook (none fry) prawn cakes back home.

                                                                                                   

None-cook or none fry prawn cakes

When these are deep fried, they will be very crispy and crunchy with the shrimps on them, deep in chili sauce and go into the mouth, oh...so nice, never have these type of food for so long since our childhood days.

The fried crispy shrimp cake

We also ordered some sea crabs, steamed , but the  way of steaming was not so good, anyway the crabs was fresh and sweet.

Simple steamed sea crabs.

We had an enjoyable trip to the fishing village and came home with full loads of fishes and prawns though not of our expectations.  It was 7pm when I reached home.  My maid and I took almost 1 and half hour to clean up all the fishes and prawns.  I will make the Spanish mackerel into fish paste on the next day.