Steamed Salmon in Cabbage

My last dish for the month of April! Wow, I've been cooking the whole month and I think I'm gaining weight too! After buying those bilingual cookbook, I'm in my cute little kitchen almost everyday. I think I found a comfort zone that would keep me busy instead of playing those games in FB. Not only I'm learning how to cook but also learning how to shoot my food. I can't wait to buy a new camera. Ever since I started snapping food photos, I'm only using Sony T7 (5 year now, if I will not use flash the color is all blue) and iphone for the food presentation. Although I can't still decide which one I'll buy... I'm planning to have DSLR, just waiting for the right time.

Anyways, my posting is scheduled in advance for a week because I cooked like 2-4 dishes a day, but took me sometime to post. I had  unsuccessful dish "home-made crispy tofu".  I followed the same procedure even the exact ingredients, unfortunately the tofu didn't get hard  after I steamed. I tried again by adding 2 more eggs, still not working... I'll figure it out what's wrong next time!

Steamed Salmon in Cabbage Roll is really tasty and healthy too! I found this recipe in Taiwan's Fish Recipe written in Chinese. I just looked at the pictures and followed, whew! I made it! Here are the ingredients needed:

1 salmon, sliced
1 bunch of string mushroom

1 small onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1 head cabbage
butter or olive oil
salt and pepper to taste


Blanch cabbage in boiling water for a minute, remove and tear off the cabbage leaves,
then immerse in cold water. Trim the thick stem portion to make it thinner.
Heat butter in saucepan, saute garlic, onion, and string mushroom.
Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

Roll up string mushroom and salmon in cabbage leaves, place on a dish.

Boil water, place the steamer and steam the fish for 6-8 minutes.

Remove and transfer to a serving dish.

Soybean Residue Cake

When I make soya bean milk, I don't know what to do with the residue so I tried browsing in the internet and I found one site suggesting what to do with the soybean residue. I tried the recipe "soya cake" but I added curry powder, salt and pepper.

3 cloves garlic, crushed

2 spring onion, finely chopped

1 egg, beaten

bread crumbs

flour

soya residue

In a pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil or butter, saute onion, garlic, and spring onion until fragrance. Set aside.Heat butter in a pan, add flour, milk and the fried ingredients. Transfer the mixture into a mixing bowl, add soya residue and mix well. Shape the cake in your palm, dip in the egg, coat with bread crumbs. Deep fry for a few seconds until golden brown. Serve with any sauce of your choice.

I baked half of the mixture, it's kind of dry (maybe I have to add more oil in the mixture).

Chicken and Baby Corn

The dish name should be Chicken and Baby Corn with Knotted Seaweed, seaweed is optional. I found this recipe in one of the magazine here in Taipei. I'm not into this kind of seaweed, the taste is too strong for me. Well, just to give it a try!
1 chicken breast
100g baby corn
some knotted seaweed
2 cloves garlic
1 red chili pepper
1 egg

Seasoning:
salt, cornstarch
sugar, oyster sauce

1. Wash and blanch the baby corn in boiling water,
     rinse with cold water and cut in diagonal pieces.
2. Clean the knotted seaweeds, slice the red chili, mince the garlic,
    crack the egg and separate the yolk from white.
3. Cut the chicken meat into strips, mix it with egg white, add salt and cornstarch.
     Set aside for 15 minutes.
4. Fry the chicken, remove and drain off the oil.
5. Heat  1 tablespoon , saute garlic, add other ingredients.
    Season with oyster sauce and sugar. Stir well and serve.

Squash and String Beans in Coconut Milk

 I bought this cookbook back home, "Pagkaing Pinoy" (Filipino Food) - The Most Famous Recipes of the Philippines by Christie Lee. From this cookbook, I tried her dish, Squash Cook in Coconut Milk "Ginataang Kalabasa", one of the famous dish in the Philippines. I live alone, so I can't exactly follow the ingredients in the cookbook, otherwise nobody will eat it! Here's what I did:

1/2 small squash (about 300g), cut into bite size
8 string beans stalks, cut into 1-2 inch
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion
1 cup shrimp meat (or cubed pork)
1 cup coconut milk (in can)
salt and pepper to taste
chilly or chilly powder
oil for sauteing

In a pan, heat 2 tablespoon oil, saute garlic until light brown.

Add onion and shrimp (or pork). Mix well

Pour in thin coconut milk. (1/2 cup of coconut milk + 1/2 cup of water.

Add squash and string beans. Season with salt and pepper + chilly powder.

Simmer until vegetables are done but not overcooked.

Pour in thick coconut milk (1/2 cup), then remove from heat.

Thai's Basil Eggplant

Basil Eggplant is another vegetarian side dish or appetizer. It's similar to Garlic Eggplant, the only difference this one has fresh basil.
1 eggplant
bunch of fresh basil
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 red chili pepper
sugar and salt (optional)

In a pan, heat oil and sautee garlic, chili, and eggplant.
Add a little water, cover for few minutes until the eggplant is cooked.
Add soy sauce and sugar to taste.
Add basil, turn off the heat.

Serve with rice.

Eggplant

Thai's Basil Eggplant

Sweet Potato Balls

I saw this recipe in my cookbook "Taiwan Night Market Snacks", and I thought to give it a try. I couldn't find sweet potato starch in the supermarket, instead I used tapioca starch. I don't know if I did it right, the outcome is sort of chewy (knowing tapioca is one of the ingredients in making bubble tea).

Here's the recipe:
sweet potato 500 g (2 pieces)
sweet potato starch 400 g ( I used tapioca)
brown sugar (I used 1 cup)

Cut sweet potato into cubes. Steam until soft and pound it in puree.

Add sugar and sweet potato starch, whisk well to blend. Knead into long cylinder; cut for about 1.5 cm cubes.

Deep fried sweet potato cubes in oil for about 30 seconds; stir rapidly and press cubes lightly to make cubes into balls. Transfer to plate and ready to serve.

Spicy Tofu and Dried Fish

Originally this recipe is Spicy Tofu with Anchovy, in replacement of anchovy I used unsalted dried fish that I bought in Kin men Island. Taiwanese eat this dish as an appetizer or side dish. I also ran out of red chili pepper, instead I put some chili powder as substitute.

Ingredients:
5 slices dried tofu
3 green chillies
4 red chillies (I used powder)
1 cup unsalted dried fish
2 stalks spring onion
1 tablespoon ginger shreds
Seasoning:
2 tablespoon soy sauce
pinch of salt (optional)
3 tablespoon water

Cut dried tofu and spring onions.
Remove seeds from chillies and cut into slant slices.

Heat oil,  fry dried fish until crispy, remove and discard oil

Heat 2 tablespoon of oil, stir fry tofu, spring onion and
ginger. Add chillies and seasonings, briefly stir-fry over
high heat.

 

Toss dried fish and serve.