Tuna Buns

I like making this kind of buns with savory filling as this is something that Carlos will eat. I usually baked a big batch as this way he can warm it up and eat it whenever he wants. It can be for his lunch or snacks. I gave a few to Nini’s and she likes it too. I used the same dough recipe as the Spam buns as I find the dough is very easy to work with and also the buns stays soft even the next day. With this basic dough you can put any filling in it. It can be sweet like red bean paste or kaya.

Ingredients for the dough:

3 ½ cups flour
½ tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
2 tsp dried yeast
1 cup milk
80 gram butter
1 egg

Salmon Fish Curry

I have 2 pieces of salmon fish in the freezer for quite some time and I don’t think fresh enough to grill it so I decided to used it to cook curry with whatever vegetable I had in my fridge. So for this curry dish I added some cabbage, carrots, brussels sprouts and potato. This is a very simple version of fish curry like how my mom used to make.

Salted Fish and Chicken Fried Rice

A friend of mine gave me a piece of salted fish and it has been sitting in the freezer since last year. I thought of using it to make Laksa Johor but change my mind and used it for fried rice. It has been the longest time since I have salted fish. I cook this fried rice for lunch on weekdays as I don’t think my husband can stand the stinky smell of the salted fish. I am sure he will ‘pengsan’ (faint) ha ha.. gosh they taste so good in fried rice. I still have half of it and maybe used it for claypot chicken rice.

Salmon Onigiri/Japanese Salmon Rice Balls

Onigiri is Japanese rice balls. In Japan you’ll find onigiri in supermarkets and convenience stores. Usually shape in round or triangle with finely chopped pickles, fish, meat, vegetables in it. Packed into a lunch bag, they are filling, nourishing and easy to eat on the go, whether you're on the road headed out of town or packing for a picnic. I usually make this when I have leftover sushi rice or fish or whatever I have in hand. You can basically put anything in it…. The sky’s the limit.

Salmon with Turmeric Pumpkin Rice

This is an easy one pot meal to prepare especially for busy weeknights. Just serve it with a vegetable alongside and dinner is done. I added some leftover pumpkins and turmeric powder to the rice as it gives some color to the boring white rice.

Fish in Fermented Black Bean Sauce

My mom and grandma hardly cook anything with fermented black beans so I am not familiar with this ingredient at all. We only used bean paste/tau cheong in our cooking. I only start using it after seeing some of my friend here cooking with it. They will use it to cook pork, fish or vegetable. As for me I like to cook fish with it. I just love how the fish soak up all the wonderful flavor of the fermented black beans. I will steam the fish if I can get them real fresh but since this tilapia came frozen I decided to pan fried it first before cooking it in the sauce.

Miso Maple Glazed Salmon Rice Bowl

We were having some pretty hot summer here in Northern CA and during days like this I like to prepare meals that are quick and easy so I don’t have to spend too much time at the hot stove. This particular meal is one of our favorite and I will prepare it at least once a week. It tasted so light and substantial at the same time and it was a wonderful meal in a bowl!

Malaysian Food Fest Kelantan Month Round-Up

When the hosting date of the Malaysian Food Fest for the state of Kelantan drew near I was very worried as I knew that it would be a very busy and crazy month for me. A new chapter in my life is starting as I am back into working world again. I know I will be crazy trying to juggle everything at once, my new daily routine and having to blog as well. As I had already said 'Yes' to hosting the Kelantan month, I would just do it and I intended to do it well.

Throughout my blogging years, I have come across some not so nice characters but for each of that, I have encountered the good ones that come tenfold. For that, I am very blessed indeed, as these good people come to my rescue when I needed them the most. I was very worried that I would not have enough time to do research, the write ups and not forgetting the cooking itself which is the very essence of this whole scheme. The cooking is relatively easy but finding an authentic recipe and the ingredients is a bit of a challenge as living far away from home means I have to do without so many ingredients that are essential in many of the Kelantanese recipes.

Throughout the MFF events I’ve learned many things and dishes from other states. One thing that stands out for me is authenticity of a dish. It cannot be determined per se as who is to say the dish originally came from one states. It is not uncommon in Malaysia for dishes to be begged or borrowed from other states, modified to suit local tastes and then claimed as their own. So let’s not be too critical or harsh if any of the dishes featured during this Kelantan MFF are not truly authentic. The whole idea of this feature is to introduce a specific region's food and encourage readers to try new and different foods outside their normal comfort zone.

I am glad that so many of you accepted the challenge and joined in the fun. A special thank you to Nor of Secubit Garam for spreading the word amongst the blogger community and to get so many of you to participate, and also going the extra mile of providing me many of the pictures that appeared in the introduction posting. Also a special thank you to Cik Manggis of Jom Masak Jom Makan Makan for being my number one supporter... cooking a Kelantan based dish almost on a daily basis and also my good friend Shereen for being there for me. Also thank you to those of you who have let me use your photos and recipes, and who answered my many questions. Once again, a big, big thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you who participate and made Kelantan MFF a huge success with 99 entries and if I left out any of your dish in the round up please let me know and I will put them up. So without further ado here are all the dishes that I received.

Appetizer/Salad

Kerabu Sotong Kering by Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippets

Somtam/Papaya Salad by Vivian of Vivian Pang Kitchen

Somtam by Peng of Peng's Kitchen

Chicken Kerabu by Lena of Frozen Wings

Kerabu Taugeh Bersantan by Sheila of Nshafearee

Solok Lada - Kelantan Dish 8

I have always felt that without Solok Lada as one of the accompaniment for Nasi kerabu, the meal is incomplete. I've often found whenever I have bought Nasi Kerabu, the seller would not make Solok Lada because not many people like to eat it, and if they do, they don't make much and it sells out very quickly. This time when I made Nasi kerabu , I made sure I included Solok Lada and I was surprised at just how easy it was to prepare.

Ingredients:
Adapted from: FZMenu

10 – 12 large green / red chilies
180 gm Spanish mackerel / ikan tenggiri, meat only, cut into large cubes (I used Indian Mackerel / kembung)
150 gm grated fresh coconut
6 shallots, peeled
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
190 ml coconut milk, squeezed from 3/4 grated coconut with sufficient water added + a pinch of salt

1. Slit chilies lengthways with a sharp knife for stuffing. Carefully remove seeds and membranes. Soak in water for 15 minutes.
2. Into a blender (processor), put fish cubes, grated coconut and shallots. Blend until fine, and then stir in sugar and salt. Mix well.
3. Stuff each chili with 1 tbsp of fish mixture. Into a pot, put stuffed chilies, slit side up. Then, carefully pour in coconut milk mixed with a pinch of salt.
4. Cover pot and simmer gently for 15 minutes or until cooked and almost dry. 5. Serve with either rice or Nasi kerabu.

I am submitting this post to Malaysian Food Fest, Kelantan Month hosted by My Kitchen Snippets.

Nasi Kerabu - Kelantan Dish 1

Nasi Kerabu happens to be my most favorite rice dish ever. I have this ex-colleague of mine name Jeff who used to live in Kampung Baru and I will get him to tapau (take out) for me every week. I've always wanted to make nasi kerabu but when I look at the long list of ingredients and the amount of afford putting into making a dish I tend to forgo it. Being overseas doesn’t help either as it can be quite difficult for me to get some of the ingredients but because of this MFF event I don't mind spending a few hours in the kitchen to cooked this meal as it is all worth it. The meal turns out great.

 

One of the key ingredients in Nasi Kerabu is the fish, specifically Mackerel. I was so confident I could head down to the Asian supermarket and buy some Mackerel, little did I know there is no such thing as a simple Mackeral here in the USA! I was confronted with Atlantic Mackeral, Pacific Mackerel, Indian Mackerel etc. I had no idea which one to buy as none looked familiar to me as they were huge..almost as long as my arm, I kid you not! The fish that I'm familiar with that normally accompanies my Nasi kerabu were all cute looking and petite. That’s just the first problem I faced. The second problem was that I could not find any budu (salted / fermented anchovy sauce). Nasi kerabu without budu is like Nasi Lemak without the Sambal or teh Tarik without the froth. You can do it but it's just not the same. These all changed when my good friend gave me half a bottle of budu brought all the way back from Terengganu. I just had to make this Nasi Kerabu by hook or by crook. No more excuses!

Not many people know that Nasi Kerabu comes in a few colors other than blue although blue is the most popular color. Variations can be white (normal white rice), yellow (turmeric and cekur / sand ginger) which is called Nasi Kerabu Tumis and grey (from Mengkudu leaves / noni / Morinda Citrifolia ) which is known as Nasi Kerabu Hitam although blue is also known by the same name. In reality, there are so many different combinations of accompaniments and styles of cooking that it is quite impossible to list them all here. If you are interested, remember 'Google' is your best friend.

Chili Fish/Ikan Berlada

I don’t normally fried fish at home because of the smell especially during winter where it is too cold for me to open up all the windows and sliding doors to give it some ventilation. Lucky the Asian supermarkets here in California do provide the service of frying fish for you. I will only do that on certain Monday as it is the day where they use new oil for frying (inside secret ha ha) Anyway, I bought two pieces of mackerel or something that look like mackerel to me and had them fried it. When I get home all I have to do is cook the sauce and add in the fried fish. I always like mackerel as it has less bone in it. I adapted this recipe from Sajian Tradisional Negeri Sembilan by Chef Ismail

Ikan Balado/Fried Fish in Tangy Chili Sauce

Balado is one of the sambal from West Sumatra (a.k.a Minang) Most Indonesian know how to make balado. The basic ingredients are shallots, chilies, tomato, lime juice, salt and sugar. I learned this version of balado from our Indonesian helper in Malaysia many years ago. I like it on blanch vegetables or just simple fried fish like this. The fish tasted so perfect with the tangy sweet balado.

Lempiang Ikan/Fried Fish Cake

I am missing out quite a bit on the MFF for the past 2 months because of my travelling and being sick so for this month I will tried my best to participate and submit more than one dish. Let’s start off with this fish cake. This fish cake is one of the many dishes from the Northern part of Malaysia. I am not familiar at all with the food for the state Perlis and Kedah but since they so near to Thai I presume there are some Thai influence in their cooking. Like this particular dish it has Kaffir Lime leave in it and as your know Thai love using Kaffir lime in their cooking.

I actually feature a dish called Thai Fish Cake which is very similar to this in 2008 and you can check it out the recipe here . Taste wise I find them pretty similar.

Fresh Salmon and Spinach with Parsley Pastry Lattice Tart

I am a very simple when come to cooking and baking. I don’t like complicated recipes that requires a lot of work or ingredients. But once a while when my crazy mood strike I will attempt something that requires a bit more work especially in baking. Like this tart, the pastry requires an extra step of chopping the parsley and also doing the lattice for the top. Since I have some leftover cheeses in my fridge it is a great way to finish them up too as I used both Ricotta and Parmesan cheese for the filling. Well it turns out pretty good and we had this tart for our dinner accompanied by a green salad and for the other tart I gave it to my neighbor.

Ginger Miso Glazed Salmon with Mango Salsa

I am able to get very fresh salmon from Ranch 99 here in CA and I will serve it for dinner at least once a week. Carlos loves this fish and I usually serve it with some light salad and savory rice. With a few minutes under the broiler the miso gives the salmon a nice browning but remains juicy and succulent beneath. Miso is a fermented soybean product and you can read more about it here .

Ingredients:

2 pieces of salmon fillet – about 6 ounces each

Marinate:

2 tbsp light miso
1 tsp grated ginger
1 1/2 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp rice vinegar

Salt and Pepper Stuffed Lotus Root

I love lotus root especially in my soup. I usually boil them with pork ribs and peanuts. Beside that I sometimes do add them into stir-fry. I like the sweetness of this root vegetable and also adding extra crunch to a dish. The lotus root is a root vegetable that is indigenous to Asia, and is found underwater. Similar in shape to a long squash, it is not uncommon for lotus roots to grow to a length of four feet. The exterior of this root is covered with a peel that is a reddish brown color in appearance, with a white interior that has the appearance of lace. The meat of the lotus root has a texture that is slightly crunchy, and mildly sweet.

When I saw Messy Witchen prepared the lotus root in a different way I knew I have to try it out. She adapted the recipe from Flavor Magazine. Inspired by her dish, I came up with this. Instead of cooking the fried stuff lotus in sauce I just give it a quick toss in salt and pepper.

Smoked Salmon Terrine - Day 5

Carlos and I celebrated our wedding anniversary last week and I prepared a special dinner for the both of us. I prepared this appetizer for the very special day. Many people like to add cream cheese with smoked salmon but I prefer using roasted peppers, green olives, hard boiled eggs etc. It gives the terrine a contrast of colors. So if you are having a party or celebration a special occasion, maybe you can prepare this as it only takes a few minutes to prepare but it will never fails to impress your guest.

A few days into the challenge and I am totally enjoying it. Tried out a couple jellies today and by now I am very comfortable using the Jelly moulds. No problem unmolding it :)

Grilled Salmon with Ginger Sesame Glazed

My friend Janice and I went to New York two weeks ago to watch Tyler Florence doing cooking demo but we arrived pretty late because of the traffics. We didn’t get to see the demo but we managed to take some pictures with him and got his autograph too. He is so sweet, handsome and friendly and yes he talk fast just like he was on TV. It was so hot that day and the poor guy uniform were soaking wet but he bear it all and signed autographs for his fan.

After that we proceed to Manhattan Chinatown for lunch and some groceries shopping. I saw some beautiful, thick salmon from a fishmonger and bought some home. Thank God we brought the cooler with us to store all the stuffs we bought.

Unagi and Tamagoyaki Sushi Rice Bowl

This is my youngest nephew Eu-Xin absolutely favorite thing to eat. Each time he steps into a Sushi place of Japanese restaurant he will order this. He will be very happy if he get to eat this. I have to make it a point to prepare this for him when I go home. Making this rice bowl is so easy. You can find vacuumed packed pre-cooked unagi at the Asian store frozen section. All you have to do is take it out, bake or broil and serve it with some sushi rice. We will usually have this with some avocado or steamed broccoli but since I don’t have any in hand I just made some Tamagoyaki (Japanese rolled omelet) to go with it.

Tuna Rolls

It has been a long while since I last made these. I’ve been thinking of it for the past few weeks and finally made some for our afternoon tea. I used to made sardine rolls often during my teen years as that was the first kind pastry I learned to made in school. Since Carlos is not a fan of Sardines I change it to can tuna. As for the pastry, I just use my favorite shortcrust pastry recipe. This pastry is light and very flaky and it will be great for pies too.

Pastry:

2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup/1 1/2 stick/170 gram cold butter – cut into small cubes
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
2-3 tbsp cold water
1 egg – beaten (for egg wash)