Post Christmas Feasts

After some Christmas Feasting at my mother's house - a yearly tradition for Christmas Day Turkey lunch and Boxing Day Chinese Feast (lobster/crab in Spring Onion and Ginger, Chinese Roast Duck, Roast Crispy Pork are definite contenders), we were lucky enough to be invited to two other feasts over the weekend.

I recently learned that one of my cousins will be going away to work in February and it's been long talked of having a Steamboat Feast.  One of our other cousins hosted the meal at their place and as I like to bring a little something along, I baked a Green Tea Chiffon for dessert.  Post for that one is here.  I have discovered that I omitted to take photos of our feast :(   But I will tease you by telling you that we had three different kinds of noodles; 3 different greens (pak choi/cos lettuce/chrysanthemum greens); 3 different meat balls (fish/pork and beef); thinly sliced beef rolls; fresh prawns; fresh clams; mushrooms (brown chestnut and golden needle-enoki).  The Steamboat pot was split in two compartments and we had two types of broth, one was a herbal tonic, the other plain.  The herbal one was delicately flavoured with nutmeg, cardamon, and dong quai.  It was a delicious and filling feast indeed!

Sunday, we went to visit Mr Leaf's family.  We went out for lunch at a Vietnamese Restaurant, Loong Kee on Kingsland Road, Hackney.  It's one of the few places that serve Steamed Rice Rolls Bánh cuốn which is a favourite with Mr Leaf.  They are similar to Cheung Fun but the rice skins are thinner, more translucent and not as soft.  The filling was a scarce scattering of minced pork and minced black wood ear fungus.  Was not very flavourful on its own and needed the Nước chấm sauce to give it some life.

Mr Leaf's brother likes Frog's Legs so we ordered a starter of Fried Frog's Leg's with Salt and Chilli.  The frog meat tastes between fish and chicken.  

Mr Leaf and his brother always eat this noodle salad dish Bún Thịt Nướng which is topped with grilled pork.  It's rice vermicelli with shredded salad, herbs and whatever topping you select and sprinkled with roasted crushed peanuts (which they did not have in this place.) You moisten it with Nước chấm  mix it up and chomp away.  This is not where we usually go for our Vietnamese meals and Mr Leaf reported the pork not the same cut and taste as his usual choice of restaurant.

I opted for stir-fried rice noodles with mixed meat.  Expecting Ho Fun wide, flat rice noodles like I would in a Chinese Restaurant I was surprised to get very thin rehydrated noodles.  It had a pleasant chew to them and I had all manner of different vegetables stir fried with it (no bad thing in my book).  Son managed to eat a few mouthfuls too so that was a bonus as he is a very discernible diner.

Sister in Law (Mrs Leaf) had Beef Phở.  Noodle Soup in a beef broth with sliced onion, herbs, thinly sliced beef.  It's served with a plate of accompaniments, herbs, raw beansprouts and a lemon wedge.  

In the evening we went to my SiL cousin's house for a pre-New Year Dinner.  We had Coquille St Jacques to start (oops - no photo) which is a French dish of scallops in a white wine sauce served in the half shell topped with mashed potato and grilled. Mains were Steak or Thai Chicken Curry.

Here are a few photos I did remember to take!

Pan-Fried Steak with mixed salad and mashed potato.

 

I had the Thai Curry, there was Red and Green Curry and I had a little of both.  The Green Curry was particularly fiery hot but wonderfully fragranced with kaffir lime leaves, I couldn't tell you how the Red Curry tasted as my mouth was on fire after that!

We had Christmas Cake for dessert (which I had made and decorated) as well as Strawberry Gateau (I believe it was a shop-bought frozen dessert).


I hope you all had a lovely time celebrating the festivities with your nearest and dearest!  

The hostess pictured with my son and his cousin. 

(Apologies for poor photo quality - my camera phone does not perform well.)

Paella

The great thing about going on holiday is sampling the local fare.  No, haven't been on hols recently, neither likely to in near future  :0(  We like to recreate our favourite dishes at home - I guess it's to relive the fun had in sunnier climes when there was nothing more important than, "What shall I wear today?" or "Where shall we eat?"

Paella packed with squid, scallops, prawns and chorizo

Our first holiday together was almost six years ago when hubbs took me away to Spain for a week.  Neither of us had visited Spain so it was a first on many counts.  A popular dish is Paella.  It has several variants; true Valencian Paella (where dish originates) includes rabbit, chicken, beans, seafood or snails.  Seafood is just a mix of prawns, mussels, clams, langoustine and crab.  There is even one made with squid ink!  At home, I make a mixed paella which contains, chorizo (cured, smoked pork sausage which contains spices and paprika), chicken and seafood.

This is how I make mine at home - although I may change the seafood each time I make it the basis is the same.

Scallops halved and squid cut into rings.

Paella


1 onion, chopped
3 chicken wings, jointed then each joint cut in half, tips discarded
150 g chorizo, 1cm cubes, or 0.5cm slices cut in half
paella rice (I measure in a jug up to the 8fl oz mark)

Cooked Tiger Prawns that I used as garnish instead of mussels

1 pepper, red for colour but not essential, cut in small strips
handful of peas
few saffron threads
1 fish stock cube
raw seafood: scallops, prawns, squid, mussels - any mix of your choice,

Chorizo is richly flavoured with paprika which gives it wonderful colour and flavour

The bright sunny colour from just a few strands of saffron

Soak the saffron threads in a little hot water to infuse.  Leave aside for later.

Keep close eye on the chorizo - don't let it frazzle like I did!

Put the chicken pieces and chorizo in a deep frying pan (I use a non-stick pan so I don't even worry about heating it up first and make sure pan is large enough as everything is cooked in it).  I don't add oil as there will be oil from the chicken wings and the chorizo is fatty too.  Fry lightly so the chicken begins to go golden and the chorizo browns lightly.  Remove the chorizo and keep aside for later.  I take it out now because I don't like it to get too hard and crispy.


Add the chopped onion and continue to fry gently until beginning to soften, about 3 minutes.  Tip in the rice and stir to coat all the rice grains in the fragrant chorizo-infused oil.  Keep stirring and frying over a low heat for 1-2 minutes

Dissolve the fish stock cube in 1 pint of water and add to the pan.  Pour in the saffron threads and water.  Turn the flame up to bring the liquid to boil, then turn down to simmer. 
Return the chorizo to the pan and simmer gently for 5 minutes then scatter the pepper strips and peas over the top.  Continue to simmer for another 5 minutes or so until the water begins to fall below the level of the rice. 
If the rice grains are not plump enough,  add a little more water to the pan - they won't be fully cooked at this point as it will continue to absorb liquid and will steam through later.

Add the seafood to the pan.  I nestle the halved scallops into the rice and mussels if I'm using them.  The squid and prawns cook easily so these are just sprinkled on top.

Cover the pan with a lid and continue to cook for a further 5 minutes on a low heat.  It doesn't matter if you get a little golden brown toasty rice on the bottom as it's made like that (bit like clay-pot rice you get in Hong Kong Dai-Pai Dong.).  The steaming should make the rice lift off the bottom of the pan.

If you don't have a large enough lid, cover with square of foil and twist corners - it makes the foil tighten and form to shape of pan

Turn off fire and leave covered to steam through for 5-10 minutes and serve.  It's usually served with lemon wedges but we don't find that necessary.

Taa-Daa!  Looks good with mussels too!

This is a polite sized serving - I ate more than this! :0)

This amount makes enough for three hungry people sized portions (that's me, hubby and his lunchbox) or four polite appetites.

Cod Fish Cakes & Crab Cakes

Fish is good for you and we should aim to eat 2-3 portions a week.  That's what is drummed to into us and so I have tried to lead a healthier lifestyle - after all, it means you can treat yourself and be naughty once in a while!  As I see my mum most Mondays, we get our first fish portion then.  Mid-week I need to make sure we have something  seafoody and Friday is another fish-day.  (Tonight hubby will be buying fish and chips on his way home!  Yum!  Yum!)  Wednesday, I attempted to make both crab & fish cakes.

My mother in law was a good cook.  Or so I gather.  I never had the opportunity to meet her as I didn't meet my husband until she had passed away some years previously.  My husband tells me about the things she used to make and cook from scratch, however, when I ask him how it was made he often hasn't any idea.  He was too busy playing to be helping his mum in the kitchen and sadly all her recipes are gone too.
One of the things she would make was cuttlefish cakes - like the ones you eat at dim-sum (we always order those - hubbs favourite).  Hubbs tells me he'll make them for me.  Am still waiting.

Anyway, I had a large fish fillet of cod to use (500 g) and if I still lived at home, I'd make a fish pie.  Hubbs isn't a fan - so scratch that idea.  I thought I'd try making fish cakes - not the western style which is cooked flaked fish mixed with mashed potato, but the bouncy Chinese ones. 
Fish cakes I did make, bouncy?  No.  Maybe its the wrong type of fish, maybe it doesn't have a gluey past- like quality to it that is needed for the bounce.  Maybe it wasn't beaten enough.

Not having a food processor, I skinned the fish fillet, then realised I should've just scraped the flesh off the skin and muscle with a spoon.  I did as best I could to break up the meat before mincing it with a large cook's knife.  I then placed the fish into the bowl of my mixer and added 4 Chinese soup spoons of water, some salt, white pepper and 1 tablespoon of cornflour.  I turned the mixer on to beat it for 10 minutes.  It turned into a smooth looking paste.  Next was 2 tablespoons of chopped dill and another mix.  The mixture was formed into small patties and fried in shallow oil until golden on both sides.  It wasn't too mushy, but it wasn't bouncy either.

For the crab cakes, I had a vague idea of what I was doing from a Rick Stein episode (I can't recall which series) where he was making Maryland Crab Cakes.  Basically it's crab meat, crushed crumbs, lemon juice mayonnaise and seasoning.  I had a tin of crab meat, drained it (100 g) and to it, added 3 crushed cream crackers.  I seasoned and squirted about 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and a tablespoon of mayonnaise.  To make it more interesting I chopped up some spring onions and threw them in too.  A good ol' mix before leaving in fridge for 30 minutes to firm up.  Then they were simple formed into patties and gently fried until golden.

We ate our fish & crab cakes with new potatoes and salad.  Simple and that was our fish quota for the day.

Fish Friday

Past couple of weeks I've been a little naughty!  Only in the fact that I've not been at home to cook the evening meal for hubby and me.  Rather than letting hubby fend for himself in the kitchen (although I don't know why not as he had to cook for himself for a couple of years before I came on the scene!)  Instead, I've nipped to the local chippy and got us a fish'n'chip supper!  (Where have I been instead of cooking dinner and being a good wifey I hear you ask?  I have been attending Card-Making Classes that I enjoy at a local craft shop!)

Today, I have carried out my dutiful wife duties and made a home cooked dinner.  We had a chinese-style dinner of steamed jasmine rice, fish fillets in with lemon sauce and stir-fried prawns with flat beans. 

I love sweet and sour dishes and would be happy to eat them more often but my hubby is not a fan.  So I do not indulge very often.  I also don't like deep frying as I hate having to deal with the left-over oil afterwards.  I occasionally shallow fry - but again not too frequent as I don't like clearing the oil splatters around the hob.

I have fried these fish fillets before and served them with sweet chilli sauce.  I was amazed how delicious the fish was!  I was a little dubious as I had never heard or tried the fish before.  The fish is 'responsibly farmed' and comes from Vietnam (not very green-mile friendly given that it must have a 12 hr plane flight to get to the UK!).  It's packaged as River Cobbler (I believe the name is Pangasius hypophthalmus and one supermarket calls it Basa).  It comes as 2 skinless and boneless white fish fillets and has a very delicate taste to it.  First time I ate it, I squeezed the juice of half a lemon on it, sprinkled with white pepper before coating in flour and frying.  It was light and crispy and delicious!



Fried Fish Fillets with Lemon Sauce
265 g (2) fish fillets (I used River Cobbler, but I guess any white fish of your choice will be good)
white pepper
salt
1 teaspoon soy sauce
3 tablespoons of cornflour
a little egg white (I used about 2 teaspoons although have omitted this in the past)

150ml cold water
50ml fresh lemon juice (this was one small lemon)
lemon zest from one lemon
2-3 tablespoons of sugar
1/4 teaspoon of chicken stock powder
3 teaspoons of corn flour mixed with a little cold water


I sliced the fish lengthwise (as it seems to have a natural split down the middle) then cut it into diagonal strips around 2 finger widths wide.  I like it this way as I have a fear that it may not cook properly if too thick and also won't have a crispy coating.
When sliced, I added a shake of white pepper and a light sprinkling of salt before adding a teaspoon of soy sauce (light soy).  I then dribbled some egg white onto the fish (to make it moist so the seasonings would mix more evenly).  I mixed this gently until everything was lightly marinated.
Taking each piece of fish individually, I pressed both sides into a plate of cornflour so it had a light coating, shook off the excess and placed to the side of the plate and continued until all pieces were coated.
I heated some oil (sunflower) in a small frying pan and placed each fish fillet in one at a time until the pan was full.  After a minute or two (when the bottom looked set and crispy - but not brown) I flipped the fish over and cooked for another minute or so.  I let the fish drain on kitchen paper before frying the next batch.

For the sauce, I put the water, lemon juice and zest in a saucepan along with the chicken powder and heated gently.  When hot, I added the sugar (I added 1 tablespoon first and added the rest later after tasting).  Mixing the cornflour liquid to a milky water, I poured half in the pan, stirring all the time until it boiled and thickened.  I tasted the sauce for sweetness.  I eventually added 2 1/2 tablespoons until it was to my palate.  Again, with the cornflour liquid, add as much/little as you like for thickness.

Just before serving, I heated the oil again and quickly re-fried the fish fillets so they would still be hot and crispy.  I drained again on kitchen paper before plating the fish and drizzling with some lemon sauce.

I'm sure this dish would be equally nice with sweet and sour sauce or served with a sweetcorn sauce.

Stir-Fried Prawns with Flat Beans
12 raw king prawns, peeled, de-veined
handful of flat beans (about 8)
1 shallot, sliced
white pepper
soy sauce
oyster sauce
cornflour liquid (1 teaspoon of corn flour mixed with a little cold water - optional)


I washed, top and tailed the beans before slicing into 1inch diamonds.
I heated 1 tablespoon on oil in a wok and when hot, I added the beans and sliced shallot.  I stir-fried these for about 1-2 minutes before adding about 1/4 cup of water to the wok, added a shake of white pepper, splash of soy (1 teaspoon) and a blob of oyster sauce (about 2 teaspoons).  I placed a lid on and let this cook for about 2-3 minutes so the beans would cook. 

I tasted the sauce - mine was a little salty so I added a pinch of sugar before adding the prawns and stir-frying them until they were pink. 

When they have just turned pink on both sides I add a little cornflour liquid (1 teaspoon) to the wok to lightly thicken the sauce. 

When stir-frying prawns, my mum would marinate the prawns first in a little pepper, soy and cornflour before flashing them in a hot wok lightly, then removing them and adding them back to the dish at the end.  I prefer my prawns to be au naturel so I can taste the delicate sweet prawn and I always overcook them if I do it her way and stir fry them first!  Each to their own!