Seafood Rice Congee

When I was younger, Chinese New Year holidays was exceptional, quite unlike the other festivals or public holidays that we knew. For one thing, we got to wear new clothes (yes, it was a big deal. We never used to buy new clothes all the time like the way we do now) , feast on goodies like barbequed minced meat, love letters and pineapple tarts which would only be available during Chinese New Year.  Of greater impact was the fact that all shops would be closed for almost 2 weeks. The whole city came to a standstill - roads were deserted, shop fronts were shut. Competent housewives, gripped by a sense of urgency and panic,  would have stocked up their fridge with enough food ingredients to feed the family for almost 2 weeks.

Things are markedly different now. Business earnings take precedence over traditional observation. Major supermarkets now remain opened throughout the holiday period. Hence there is less need to hoard over food stuff.... the disappearing sense of panic to some extent, diluted the buzzing excitement that we used to feel during the festival.

Despite today's convenience, food still remains abundant in households. In my family, we find ourselves staring at gargantuan portion of white rice, chicken, roast duck and various types of seafood like prawns, crab meat, fish maw and scallops.

Last year, I cooked this fish maw soup with the left overs in the fridge.  This year, I choose to throw these ingredients into a light and comforting rice soup.

Soupy and easily digested, this is a perfect one dish meal to atone for the gluttony we have been indulging in over the past few days.

Simple to make but still big on flavours.

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Seafood Rice Congee
Recipe :

4                   Diced scallops
4                   Prawns, shelled and deveined
1 tbsp           Oil
500ml           Chicken stock
200g             Cooked rice
Dash             Salt
Dash             Sugar
Dash             Sesame oil
Dash             Huatiao chinese cooking wine

100g             Cooked Crab meat
2 tsp             Chopped coriander stems
1                  Piece of fish maw, soaked and cut into strips
10                Thin slices of abalone

Marinade
1                   Egg white
1/4 tsp          Salt
1/4 tsp          Sugar
Dash            Sesame oil
3 tsp             Corn flour

Garnish
Chopped spring onion
Crisp fried shallots

Method :

1. Combine scallops, prawns together with Marinade and marinate for 1 hour.
2. In a pot, heat up some water and poach (1) for 20 seconds. Set aside.
3. Heat up a wok and add oil. Fry cooked rice for 1 minute and add chicken stock. Add seasoning.
4. Continue to heat rice and stock until soup starts to boil. Add coriander stem. Add (2) and heat until boiling.
5. Ladle rice soup into serving bowl and garnish with spring onion and fried shallots. 

Fish Head Bee Hoon - 鱼头米粉

I cooked Fish Head Bee Hoon for dinner today. It tasted so good that I am beginning to believe that I can actually cook....

Food bloggers like us - we cook at home, we have cookbooks, we watch cooking programs and we attend cooking classes - everyone of us, I suppose, fancy ourselves as a bit of a cook. When we see our own cooking captured on film, it brings us a little closer to the wishful notion that we could perhaps be more than 'a bit of a cook'.... and do I even need to mention that we, food bloggers, have mastered the ethereal art of eating with our eyes?  I remember when I told my friends how we would visit each others' blogs leaving comments on the food - they had asked me, quite matter of factly, ' but they have not tasted your food, how do they comment on your food? '  To that, I replied sagely : we eat with our eyes.

Indeed, perhaps, one of these days, when we do get to taste each others' fare, we could be grossly disappointed and disillusioned but what is also true is that our knowledge of food has become more astute, we have become more aware and informed about the different tastes, ingredients and preparation of food - leading to higher expectation and appreciation of what would perhaps be just lunch or dinner.

When I had told L that I made this for dinner tonight and quite ignorantly asked if they have Fish Head Bee Hoon in KL, he had replied with an almost audible snort, ' of course we do, where do you think Singaporeans copy from? '. Absolutely futile to talk to him about food commonalities between Malaysia and Singapore.

I used the recipe from local celebrity chef, Sam Leong's 'A Taste Of Home'. Sam Leong, who hails from KL (eyes rolling)  is the Corporate Chef and Director of Kitchens for the Tung Lok Group, which own more than 20 world-class restaurants in Singapore, Indonesia, China, Japan and India. 'A Taste Of Home' is his third cookbook and is less stylistic and less intimidating than the first 2 books. The dishes featured in this book are very homely and unpretentious - totally relevant for home cooking for family and friends.
I don't suppose this is the best Fish Head Bee Hoon recipe as it does not really calls for fish bone stock but I had found a total of 3 different recipes, and all of them were using normal chicken stock. I suppose for home preparation, this would be easier to work with - it doesn't quite require one to tackle the possible fishy smell of the stock. What I have done a little differently, is to boil the stock with dried anchovies and impart some flavour of the sea to it.





I had bought a mixture of  fish (with bones) and fish fillet from the market. The fish I bought was Shengyu, also commonly known as Snakehead fish - not cheap. The $4 portion will probably only be good for 2 servings... sometimes, you wonder, what is the point of cooking it by yourself. I probably can get it cheaper at the hawker stall or the food court. These are seasoned with a little salt and deep fried until golden yellow.

I like my soup base with lots of pepper, a discernible hint of Chinese rice wine and the refreshing tang of the fresh tomatoes - all served with the ferocious cut chilli padi. I definitely will be making this again and I hope you will get to try it too.... it may also make you feel like more than a bit of a cook ;).



Recipe (from Sam Leong's A Taste Of Home)

Fresh thick rice vermecilli (Bee Hoon)           400g
Cooking oil for deep frying
Snake head fish, chopped into pieces            200g
Pickled Mustard Cabbage (Harm Choy)       200g (cut into strips)
Ginger                                                          5 pieces
Spring onion                                                 2 cut into short lengths
Tomatoes                                                     2 cut into wedges
Lettuce                                                        A few leaves

Stock
Chicken stock                                             800ml
Salt                                                            1/2 tsp
Sugar                                                         1/2 tsp
Salted plum                                                1 (I omitted this.)
Ground white pepper                                  Dash
Chinese cooking wine                                 Dash
Sesame Oil                                                 Dash
Evaporated milk                                          3 tbsp

Method
1. Bring a pot of water to the boil and blanch Bee Hoon until soft. Drain and set aside and divided into large serving bowls.
2. Heat oil for deep-frying over high heat. Season fish with a little salt. Deep fry until golden brown. Drain and set aside.
3. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok and add ingredients for stock,except milk.Bring it to the boil, then add fish, pickled mustard cabbage, ginger, spring onions , tomatoes and milk.
4. Allow stock to return to the boil, then ladle into bowl over noodles.  Garnish with lettuce and serve immediately with red chillies.

1. Bring a pot of water to the boil and blanch Bee Hoon until soft. Drain and set aside and divided into large serving bowls.

2. Heat oil for deep-frying over high heat. Season fish with a little salt. Deep fry until golden brown. Drain and set aside.

3. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok and add ingredients for stock,except milk.Bring it to the boil, then add fish, pickled mustard cabbage, ginger, spring onions , tomatoes and milk.

4. Allow stock to return to the boil, then ladle into bowl over noodles. Garnish with lettuce and serve immediately with red chillies.

Fish Maw Soup - More CNY Leftovers

There is a conflict of interest, trying to go on a diet and clearing out the refrigerator.... It is sinful to waste but the digits on the weighing scale has to, has to go down! Keeping the carbs at bay, a simple option is to make a soup that is easy on the digestive system. Trying my best to finish off the last bit of crab meat, I decided to make some fish maw soup. I had once joked with a friend - if there is a war or a major disaster that confines me to my apartment, I probably can feed off my larder for one whole month!  I probably can start a blog project to 'cook my way through my larder' and would probably be able to come up with an interesting mix of western, asian dishes with chocolates and pastries to boot!

I don't think I will ever become a vegetarian but fish maw soup, is a more responsible alternative to shark's fin soup. I have cut down my intake of shark's fins and have made it a point to replace the shark's fin soup with other alternatives when I plan for business dinners at restuarants. Fish maw, for those who are not familiar,  is actually the air bladder in a fish. This internal organ helps the fish to control its bouyancy in water. In Asia, we can buy this easily in supermarkets and dry food provision stores. One of the most convenient form to use is the dried, deep fried version.


I used to have problem differentiating these with deep fried pork skin. They look very similar after deep fried but taste very different. The fish maw has a mild soft crunch and when cooked in soup or gravy, soaks up the flavour of the stock like a sponge. Deep fried pork skin, when cooked in soup, tends to be more rubbery and I can always still detect a porky smell.

The deep fried fish maw has to be soaked to soften before cooking and I would recommend to run it through some hot water to remove excess oil and the fishy smell.

A very simple soup that can be prepared in a jiffy and in my opinion, has more texture and crunch than the shark's fin. Oh, I forgot I also happen to have some cooked abalone from CNY which I cut into fine shreds for a more luxurious and tasty treat.




Recipe :
Cooked crab meat               1/2 bowl
Fish maw                             1 tube, soaked to soften and cut into fine strips
Young ginger                        2 slices
Garlic                                   2 cloves
Chicken stock                      2 bowls
Abalone                               Mid size, cut into strips

Salt                                       to taste
Pepper                                  dash
Chinese Rice wine                 1tbsp

Tapioca starch

Method:

1. Heat oil in a hot wok. Stir fry garlic and ginger quickly until fragrant. Add crab meat and fish maw.
2. Add 1 tbsp of Chinese Rice Wine and stir fry crab meat and fish maw for a minute.
3. Add chicken stock and bring to boil.
4. Lower heat to simmer for 2 minutes. Remove the slices of ginger and garlic. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Mix one 1/2 tbsp of starch flour with 1tbsp of water.  Add this a little at a time to the boiling soup and check for thickness. Do not over starch the soup.