Asam Pedas Melaka

I love asam pedas. It's so appetizing. I have guests coming for dinner and it's perfect! Dishes like this is hard to cook with just 2 adults eating. Lots of work involved.

I went to chat with my colleague who married a Malaccan and cooks Malacaan food quite often. She told me, Asam Pedas Melaka is spiced, and if I were to cook Merlimau style, there has to be burnt coconut, as taught to her by her mother in law. As she is not staying with her in laws, she just played with the dish, adding anything she fancies. Yeah, that's what I will do too, if I'm not blogging about heritage dishes.

Vietnamese Claypot Caramelised Fish~ Cá Kho Tộ

I got to know about this dish when I watched Masterchef US back in 2012. Christine Ha, a blind cook of Vietnamese descent served this homey dish to the judges and won their hearts. Sounded delicious!

And so, I tried to cook this myself. I found Christine's recipe here on Doctor's TV. The featured recipe wasn't the full version, and I changed it based on how she said she added coconut soda and some recipes call for birds eye chilli, but other than that, I just tried to follow her method and the recipe.

Squid Curry

Bought a nice thick squid from the night market and I love squid.

I went through my kitchen to see what I have and cooked this. I'm not sure what to call it, taste is a bit like Thai Red Curry, but I didn't put in coriander root, nor did I use any kaffir lime rind, but just the leaf. There are no spices in it like an Indian curry.

Fresh Tuna Purple Potato Salad

Tuna is a common fish in Malaysian cuisine. The local tuna is smaller in size than the ones we eat in Japanese restaurants or those found in colder waters. The local tuna is known as ikan tongkol and it's not an expensive fish to consume. There is another fish that looks almost the same, known as ikan kayu, and I wasn't able to distinguish between the two, until the fish monger placed them side by side. The local tuna, ikan tongkol's skin is actually bluish, looks pretty when the sun shines on it.

Ikan kayu has a much larger bloody area when cooked, tastes more fishy and has a drier texture.

Teriyaki Prawns 笑哈哈 - CNY Spread #5

After making a few tedious dishes... maybe a 5 minute dish will be a good choice.

It's quite a no brainer.. with just prawns, some salt and teriyaki sauce.... oh yeah, oil as well.

Peacock Steamed Fish 绰绰有余 - CNY spread #2

I didn't hunt down any peacock for this dish. Nor peahen. Nor its chicks or egg.
It's just the method of arrangement that resembles a peacock. The auspicious Chinese name I gave this dish 绰绰有余, means, more than enough. And the 绰 (cheok), sounds like the Cantonese pronunciation for peacock.

Starfish Sea Coconut Soup 海底金星- CNY spread #1

海底金星... sea coconut, carrot and starfish 海底椰，金笋，海星.

My kids squealed when they saw the starfish in the soup. Haha! Such a delight.
And my girl asked me to cook it again. She likes the taste.

I made this soup some time ago when I had guests for dinner. No one ever tasted starfish in anything before. No one said no to this bowl of soup. I'm glad everyone didn't feel disgusted.

Fish Head Casserole

My mom shoved me this fish head. Simply because she bought one whole big fish, had the fishmonger to cut them into steaks and she didn’t know what to do with the head.

Well, haha, it’s not hard for me to find a way to cook it. I just flipped the cookbook she passed to me. There it is, almost at the end of this book is the “Fish head casserole”.

Squids in Soy Sauce ~ Sotong Masak Kicap @ My Fav Ala-Thai #1

Ala-Thai restaurants are a common sight in Malaysia. Some people prefer calling them TomYam shops. These restaurants serve dishes that is popular in southern Thailand and with some local fusion as well. The best ones were said to employ Thai cooks instead of locals. I can hardly get a good Ala-Thai restaurant in KK, but I had happy times in Johor Bahru. It seemed that every Ala-Thai restaurant that I go to, it's delicious.

But no matter where I am in Malaysia, my favourite Ala-thai dishes never changes and it's with these dishes, I make that yardstick whether I like the restaurant or not. They have to cook my favourite dishes well. People around me love to go for Padprik or Pattaya fried rice, or even masak merah. But I seem to love those that they don't think of ordering. And oh yeah.. I love those small plates of ulam with sambal belacan that is on the house. Not because they are free, but I love the crunch of the raw vege dipped into the pungent spicy sambal. Goes very well with the dishes I love.

Amok Trey @ Cambodian Fish Mousse - AFF Indochina~ Cambodian #3

Amok Trey is freshwater fish in a spiced egg mousse.
It is not too foreign to us, as it is similar to the local nyonya otak-otak, but quite different in many ways.

One of the important ingredients in amok trey is again, prahok. You can substitute it with other ingredients like fish sauce or shrimp paste, but I personally find the flavour profile to be quite different. The other special ingredients used is fingerroot (krachai, temu kunci).

Creamy Prawn Curry @ Chingri Malaikari @ - AFF Indian Subcontinent #10

I love love love this prawn dish! And I'm going to repeat this dish quite often in the future. It's very nice.

After I cooked this dish, I realized why this is a dish that Bongs will serve whenever they have guests. It's because it is easy and delicious!

Frying the prawns before adding to the gravy is a lovely step to add flavour. Just like Cantonese way of cooking prawns, we like to give the prawns a high heat searing or a quick deep fry to enhance the flavour. And don't leave out the shells. That's where the flavour is. If you sear it with or without the shells, the fragrance will be obviously different. And to see this technique applied to this prawn curry is really an eye opener.

In Bangladeshi restaurants, it's usually cooked with large prawns or lobsters, shell on. But since I have some medium prawns, I just used that. Some recipes didn't mind using smaller prawns and some even use the prawn flesh only, without any shells at all.

I cooked this dish with reference to two recipes, taking some part from this and some part from that. I prefer cumin over coriander and I prefer red chilli powder over fresh green chilli. The rest pretty much remains for both recipes.

Mustard oil is an important ingredient when it comes to cooking seafood in Bangladesh, and I substituted it with oil flavoured with mustard seeds. I know it could be different, but that's the best that I can do.

I'm really glad I tried out this dish.

Creamy Prawn Curry Bangladeshi Style
Reference: Food Punch and My Saffron Kitchen 

300gm prawns
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of turmeric

1 tsp mustard seeds
3 Tbsp oil
1cm ginger
1 small onion

1 inch cinnamon
3 cloves
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 small Indian bay leaf
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder

150ml coconut milk
100 ml water

1. Clean prawns and marinate with salt and turmeric.
2. Grate or grind ginger and onion to a paste.
3. Heat wok/pan and put in 3 Tbsp oil. Put in mustard seeds and let them cook until they sputter. Turn off the heat and remove the seeds*.
4. On high heat, sear the prawns until they curl up. Push them to the side, and let excess oil drip down into the wok.
5. With the same oil and wok , on medium low heat, saute cinnamon, cumin and cloves first, for a few seconds. Add in ginger and onion, and saute until it looks glossy. Add in chilli powder and turmeric powder and cook for around 10 seconds.
6. Add in water and coconut milk. Stir it gently all the while. Add in some salt to taste and cook until the gravy reaches your preferred consistency
7. Add in the prawns and bring it back to a boil. Turn off the heat and dish up.

* I sprinkled the fried mustard seeds onto some stir fried cabbage. No wastage.

I am submitting this to Asian Food Fest Indian Subcontinent Month, 

hosted by Alvin of Chef and Sommelier

Claypot Lemongrass Fish - Fish #3

A recipe that I got from a restaurant's cookbook of which I highly doubt the chefs tell you the real story.
The recipe just called for the fish to be simmered.. but the pictures tell another story.

A fried fish and boiled fish don't look the same.

Fish Pie - Fish Week #2

Fish pie is a traditional British dish. Read more about it here. If I were to make this again with more seafood, I'll name it as Fisherman's pie.

During that time, my brother in law dines with us on week days.I thought this pie was huge and when my BIL said he won’t be coming for dinner, I was worried it won’t be finished, but I was wrong. My hubby and I ate it all with pleasure. LOL.

So good!

Pesmol Fish - Fish Week #1

Creamy fried fish from Indonesia.
The creaminess came from the candlenut and the coconut milk. Very rich.

I saw that there are Betawi versions and Javanese versions. I don't know which version mine belong to. Kindly enlighten me.
I also saw some uses carp, Tilapia and some used Indian mackerel, so I made a guess that the type of fish is not critical for this dish.

Indonesian Curry Prawns 印尼咖喱虾- Hee Hee Ha Ha #3

I am not sure of the origins of this dish. But it's a popular prawn dish in Malaysia's Chinese restaurants.
Maybe due to the use of shrimp paste in this curry dish, I am not sure. It could just be a name for this dish.
So, if you know of the origins, do let me know.

Drunken Herbal Prawns 药材醉虾 - Hee Hee Ha Ha #2

A very easy to do dish that doesn’t need much cooking skills. But ingredient is very important here.
The prawns must be fresh, if not, it won’t be nice.

So for newbies, don’t worry too much if you need to cook prawns. It’s just about boiling, no splattering, no stir frying, no knife skills to employ. Most of all, it keeps the kitchen clean

Gon Jin Ha Look @ Cantonese Pan Fried Prawns 干煎虾碌 - Hee Hee Ha Ha #1

I learnt to cook this dish from my late 3rd uncle.
Every year he will cook this dish for us on the first day of Chinese New Year. It's been 5 years since I last had it from him.

Men from my family had good cooking skills. My brother can cook too, but he doesn't do it often. Whenever my grandpa steps into the kitchen, all the women only becomes assistants. Same goes to my great grandpa who was a traditional baker who also roasts his own coffee.

Shark and Pumpkin Thai Red Curry - Thai Curries AFF #4

When I saw this recipe.. the slices of chicken looked sooo enticing, and the pumpkin just sends my Ooo-Lala siren going off.

But I wanted to try something different, and changed the chicken to shark as I happened to have it. Red curry is very versatile and you can use any type of protein.

Crab Curry with Pineapple - Pineapples #1

I happened to see some crabs at the wet market near my mom's place and so I bought some.

I learnt during MFF Kedah and Perlis that seafood can be cooked with pineapple. So I tried it out myself.
The pineapples added a lovely flavour dimension to the curry. We loved it.

Saba Shio @ Salt Grilled Mackerel - Easy Japanese Fare #2

I love grilled saba and I do order this quite often whenever I eat at Japanese restaurants.

It's actually a lot cheaper if you grill this at home. When I dine at the restaurant, I get 1/4 of  the fish, but if I cook at home I get one whole fish for the same price. Wow, isn't that very "dai" (means worth it in Cantonese)