Seafood

Sutchi Fillet in Pesto Sauce

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I bought some more Melvados’ Basil Pesto. We’ve converted half of the EL department to love Melvados – their jalapeno cheese bagel in particular. I had bought some sutchi fillets – frozen – and decided to bake them. I spooned quite a bit of the basil pesto, topped with a few tomato slices and whole garlic pieces. And then voila! In just thirty minutes, you’ll have this lovely sauce over a rather unremarkable fish. It’s great, this pesto sauce.

Line tray with aluminium foil. Place fish fillets and spoon lots of basil pesto. Add tomatoes and garlic. Drizzle with olive oil. Oh, season fish with salt first.
Wrap the fish and bake. Open the parcel abou 20 minutes after. Fish may not be cooked so bake with foil uncovered till cooked.

Bread and Batter, Poultry

Chicken Macmuffins?

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Yesterday, I saw this at M&S…

This morning, I decided to make use of leftover roasted chicken to make a delicious sandwich. It beats buying from Macs. Cheaper and you can enjoy breakfast from the comforts of your own home.

Spread butter, add a slice of creamy cheese and a thick slice of tomato. Sprinkle black pepper. Put in the toaster till cheese and tomato are melted.
Top with leftover chicken strips...or ham...or even an egg.
A few dashes of hot sauce to add some kick.
And you're all set to go.

I just love breakfast. It’s definitely the best time of the day. And I love cooking breakfast. More breakfast ideas coming up soon…

Asian Dishes, Japanese/Korean, Rice

Bibimbap…Sorta

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Last Sunday as I was browsing along the aisles of a huge NTUC, I chanced upon this…

I read the ingredients, checked the label thoroughly and saw the tiny  halal logo but checked and re-checked the ingredients again…and then quick as lightning, I dumped it into my basket. It’s Korean bibimbap for goodness sakes! I was so excited that I couldn’t wait to go home and cook my version of bibimbap.

Why my version? I reckon what’s great about bibimbap are just three ingredients – the sweet chilli sauce,  fluffy Japanese white rice and a fried egg. The other thing is that there must be something crunchy and a protein. I had leftover roasted honey chicken so I cut them into slices. I had broccoli that I intended to stir-fry al dente. And I had bonito flakes…

I loved it! I will not crave for bibimbap anymore coz I can cook one at home! Granted, it’s not authentic what without the funny Korean seaweed etc but I can add whatever I want into the bowl, dump the chilli sauce and an egg and I will be satiated.:)

Asian Dishes, Malay, Seafood

Asam Pedas Version 1

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Asam Pedas – a perennial Malay favourite. My Mom claims she could eat this every single day and not get sick of it. There’s so many different variations but the basic ingredients are the same throughout – chilli paste and tamarind water.

One day, my Mom had to go to the market and so I asked her to buy for me some fish. She got for me two beautiful red snapper and cleaned them for me. How sweet, right?  Having to cook dinner one weekend, I decided to take the red snappers out from the fridge and cut them into three (OK I got the Help to do that) and proceeded to make the paste. Now, this chilli paste is actually very standard- dried chillies, onions, garlic, turmeric(fresh), belacan. However, that evening, I remembered watching an episode of Chef Wan and he threw in one lemongrass finely sliced and a couple of kaffir lime leaves in the blender! My Mom, my Guru of Malay home cooking, never did that. Feeling adventurous, I though what the hey, and did the same.

 

Add plenty (I know that sounds scary) of oil in a deep pot and fry the chilli paste till the oil separates from the chilli paste. Oh, throw in one lemongrass in too.
Use about a palm-sized amount of tamarind. Add water to make a paste.
Add the tamarind water into the pot. Bring to a slight boil. Add salt.
Asam Pedas Version 1

Oh, add in two kaffir lime leaves after putting in the fish. Make sure to do a taste test and season, use sugar if too sour etc. That night was the plain basic asam pedas, using kaffir lime leaves to flavour. Feeling rather proud of my effort (heh, how often do I cook ‘real’ Asian dishes?) I brought some over to the in-laws. FIL was cute, though it made me reflect on this dish.  Asking MIL to try my dish, he started by saying, “_ eat. You look at the colour like that but it’s actually good.” I wonder what went wrong? Maybe for Version 2, I’ll try using a combination of dried and fresh chillies so hopefully it’ll turn out more authentic. 🙂

 

Bread and Batter, Meat, South American/Mexican

Burritos? Tex-Mex Wrap Thingy

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I’m so tired but I refuse to let go of this blog. Ha ha. I don’t vet my writing when I update posts so bear with me with the countless typos and inconsistent grammar or vocabulary use.

Chop chop. Sunday, I had my trusty minced beef. Browned them in a pot, added one can of peeled Italian tomatoes and ready to mix Chilli Seasoning. I added in a can on kidney beans. I thought I’d make tacos you see. Rushed over to the NTUC only to discover, like duh, they didn’t have a Mexican section like the bigger supermarkets. Luckily for me, I found a packet of wraps.

In a frying pan, I put in one wrap. Spread the meat sauce over. Top that with shredded mozzarella. Sprinkled thin slices of yellow capsicum. Turned the wrap in half till toasty.Plated it. Spooned Greek yogurt over and a dash of Jalapeno Tabasco. The Hubster loved it. Fast to cook, messy to eat, delicious in the tummy.