The Occasional Cook

Baked Seabass

March 30, 2011March 31, 2011 7shasha7

A new market had just opened near my place. Well, not a conventional market. It’s our island’s first indoor wet market. Anyway, when I went there, the fish that were sold were super fresh. I mean, the prawns were scooped alive from a tank and plonked rather unceremoniously on the selling tray. I saw one Chinese elderly man literally jump with excitement and he quickly bought a kilo of the super fresh still jumping prawns. Poor prawns.

I didn’t buy the prawns then. I bought 2 pieces of very fresh seabass. I love seabass. It doesn’t have a fishy smell and although the ones in the market here are very small with not much flesh, I love the fact that it’s still flaky enough when cooked for me to enjoy. Of course, one piece of fish is just nice for one person.

This was how I cooked the fish. Line bottom of baking tray with thinly cut pieces of lemon. And then on top of that the two fish. In their cavity, cilantro or coriander leaves. And I spooned sundried tomatoes, olive oil and salt/black pepper over the fish. Bake till done. Serve with rice and stir-fried vegetables. Oh, and a plain omelette. That was dinner a fortnight ago!

Lasagne

March 5, 2011March 5, 2011 7shasha7

This is getting to be very bad. Again for lunch this weekend, something creamy and fattening. What is wrong with me?

Anyway, this is how I made my lasagne this time round. The basic meat sauce is like how I always do – sautee garlic in olive oil, add meat, add bottled tomato sauce (I used the half that I had left over from last week’s cottage pie). I also added to small tins of tomato puree (not paste) and, this is the killer difference, chipotle peppers. Remember I used chipotle peppers to make my sweet potato mash? I had leftovers and this is the perfect time to make use of it (read: get rid of leftovers!) I did not make a bechamel sauce for my lasagne. In fact, a lot of recipes for lasagne do not use bechamel sauce. They call for layering of cheese, pasta and meatballs. So … I got rid of the mozzarella cheese and extra tasty cheddar cheese that were close to the expiration date. The end result of ‘want not and waste not’ motto I’m trying to live by? Tasty, creamy, cheesy lunch special at home!

IMG01035-20110305-1225 — Chop some chipotle peppers. Chipotle peppers are simply smoked dried jalapeno peppers so they aren't spicy at all. However, they have loads of smoky flavour.

IMG01036-20110305-1241 — Make the meat sauce. Make sure it's very saucy - lots of tomato sauce because you do not want a dry lasagne.

IMG01039-20110305-1242 — Soften pasta sheets. They don't have to be thoroughly cooked. If you read at the back of the boxes, they always always say not to boil them. Hah! I tried many times raw and my pasta were always not properly cooked. Especially the edges. So this time round, no way am I going to bite into undercooked pasta. Boil them in boiling water till they are just pliable.

Cheese and meat sauce for the first layer. — First layer is cheese and meat sauce.

IMG01041-20110305-1249 — And then the pasta sheets.

IMG01043-20110305-1256 — Do as may layers as you can. I only always do two. And then top with sauce and cheese. Make sure to tuck in any defiant pasta sheets back into the sauce.

IMG01044-20110305-1406 — Bake till golden and bubbly.

Asian Dishes, Chinese, Snack

Tea Eggs

March 5, 2011March 3, 2021 7shasha7

Sometimes when I pass through neighbourhood shopping malls, I’d smell this wonderful rather strong herbal smell of pushcart sellers boiling Chinese tea eggs. They smell wonderful. I’m not particularly fond of eggs but I am game to try anything new – within my religious restrictions, however.

So one day at my friendly neighbourhood ‘senseh’ shop, I chanced upon this…

After verifying with the man in the shop that the ingredients are all plant-based, I bought this packet and for weeks it has been sitting in my cupboard. Until this morning…

There are two sachets in each pack. When I read the instructions at the back, it called for twenty eggs. I did some very elementary math and decided to use ten eggs for one sachet. Ha ha. The smell that wafted as I was steeping the eggs in were divine. The Hubby thought that I was cooking chicken! Well, close enough – chicken eggs.

IMG01033-20110305-1112 — Steeping the eggs in over extremely low fire. It takes a minimum of 2 hours. Add a tablesppon each of light and dark soy sauce and salt.

Just follow the instructions at the back of the packet and you've got tea eggs for the whole family and more!

Product Recommendation, Salads and Vegetables

Chipotle Sweet Potatoes

February 20, 2011 7shasha7

Chipotle in adobo sauce. I heard Alton Brown use this product once and that was enough to pique my interest. I’ve been hearing chipotle everywhere and I doubted I could get my hands on any in our little red dot.

Then one day while browsing through the aisles at Cold Storage Kovan, I saw a can of chipotle in adobo sauce! The very same thing that Alton Brown mentioned and used. I was mighty excited and so bought a can without even looking at the price! (It turned out to be almost four dollar 😦 )

Before using this can, I surfed the net for the best possible way to use it. Alton Brown’s sweet potatoes with chipotle in adobo sauce seemed to be my best bet. His recipe called for steaming two sweet potatoes and then adding butter and one whole can of the chipotle peppers with one teaspoon of the sauce that comes with it. I chose to bake my sweet potatoes since I was baking chicken anyway but when it came to whizzing the potatoes, I was very scared to put in one whole can. I mean, a whole can for two potatoes seemed crazy but I had 5 potatoes and I was already scared to put in a whole can. So, I took out three chilli peppers and followed his recipe of adding one teaspoon of the adobo sauce. Whizz with butter, salt and serve warm.

The result? It was all right but I did’nt quite like the vinegary taste that was the result of adding that teaspoon of adobo sauce. Anyway, when paired with my roasted chicken, it was of course good. It’s worth trying if you want something different that regular mashed potatoes.

IMG00890-20110219-1911 — Read the reviews online and decide if you want to buy. I think it's worth experimenting with.

IMG00893-20110219-1921 — What's in that adobo sauce?

IMG00891-20110219-1915 — This is how a chipotle pepper looks like.

IMG00892-20110219-1920 — Alton Brown's Chipotle Sweet Potatoes

IMG00898-20110219-1927 — Chipotle Sweet Potatoes with Roasted Chicken and Side of Vegetables.

IMG00899-20110219-1927 — Use it in place of mashed potatoes...for a change.

Meat

Cottage Pie

February 19, 2011October 16, 2011 7shasha7

I only recently learnt that one of my favourite satisfying dishes which is essentially just meat and potatoes is not called shephard’s pie (unless the meat part is made of lamb) but cottage pie. Seriously, almost everybody likes potatoes, especially when pulverised into a creamy consistency, and I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like meat in tomato sauce.

With this knowledge, and the fact that I have minced beef in the freezer waiting for me to get an inspiration to cook it, I made cottage pie last Saturday. For the potatoes part, I boiled them till tender and then mashed them with cream, salt, black pepper. The meat part, I used my handy bottled pasta tomato sauce, added mixed vegetables (for the childrens’ sake) and when the meat sauce is cooked, poured them into a baking dish and topped that with my creamy potatoes. Oh, I forgot to mention that when I boiled the potatoes in salted water, I also added two bay leaves for flavour. ;p My key word when I’m cooking now is ‘flavour’. Anyway, before putting the dish into the oven, I laced the dish with breadcrumbs first.