Seabass Mediterranean Way

Ingredients:Sea Bass - medium sizeCherry tomatoes, detterino tomatoes - all cut into halvesOlives - a few pc and cut into halveShallots - cut into halvesGarlic - a bunch and pressedLemon slicesdill/parsleyMethod:1. Preheat oven at 200'C.2. Heat up a frying pan and add virgin oil, pan fry pressed garlic and shallots until fragrant but dont burn the garlic. Remove garlic. Keep the cooked .shallots and oil to a bowl 3. Mix tomatoes and olives with salt, black pepper and extra virgin olive oil evenly,  place half of this mixture to bottom of the skillet which you will place the fish on top.4. add some of the cooked shallots to the bottom of the skillet too.5. After cleaning and wipe dry the sea bass, make a few shallow cuts on both sides of the fish. marinate the outside of the fish and stomach with some sea salt and black pepper. Place the parsley and dill bunch to the stomach of the fish together with a few lemon slices. Then place fish on top of the tomatoes, olives and shallots mixture.6. Add the rest of the tomatoes, olive and shallots surrounding the fish. Drizzle the cooked garlic virgin oil all over the fish.7. Place the skillet to oven and cook for 30 minutes. Test with a skewer to see if fish wholly cooked. Once its' fully cooked. can serve immediately with a squeeze of lemon juice on top and drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Enjoy!

Salmon in spinach mushroom cream sauce

 

Ingredients:

Wild Salmon fillets

Spinach 

Cherry tomatoes - cut into halves

Mushrooms - cut into halves

Single Cream x 200ml

Chicken Stock x 100ml

Flour x 2 tbsp

Butter x 2 tbsp

How To Make:

1. Rinse the salmon and wipe dry. Marinate with salt and black pepper and coat with a drizzle of olive oil.

2. Heat up a flat pan, when hot enough, add olive oil, then salmon skin down. shake the pan a bit to avoid salmon sticking to pan. Once the salmon skin is crispy, flip and cook the meat side for 1-3 min depending on how thick the fillet is. Salmon best to cook medium instead of fully cooked. Then set aside salmon.

3.  Add some olive oil to the frying pan and stir fry the mushrooms, tomatoes and spinach. (In case the pan becomes oily or black after pan frying the salmon, then use a new frying pan).

4. Heat up a new pan, add butter and the flour and make a rouge. Then add single cream, stir and mix well. Add chicken stock little by little to ensure you get the thickness and consistency you like. Pour this cream sauce to the other frying pan with the mushrooms, tomatoes and spinach. Add back the salmon to cook in the sauce a bit, then ready to serve.

Best to go with pasta or white rice. Enjoy together with a glass of white wine too!

Spanish Red Prawn Hot Dog

 

Ingredients:

Spanish Red Prawns (frozen type)

Garlic 

Basil - thin shreds/slices

Mayonnaise of your choice

Hot Dog Bun

How to Make:

1. Rinse the prawns well. Separate head from body. 

2. For the head, cut away all sharp things. Keep aside.

3. For the body, remove the legs and shells (can keep shells to make sauce or soup). Pull out the intestine from connecting area between head and body with a toothpick but dont cut open the back.

4. Slice garlic thinly. Rinse under running water a few times or soak in water for a while, then change water, a few times. Drain water, wipe dry.

5. Heat up a frying pan with olive oil, medium fry pan fry the garlic slices until golden. Remove and drain oil.

6. Toast your hot dog buns. -Cut into half.

7. Pan fried the prawn heads with the garlic oil on both sides until shell looks crispy. Set aside. Continue to use the pan and the garlic oil to cook the prawn body until all cooked.

8. Place prawn body in the middle of the hot dog bun, back facing upwards. Place some crispy garlic around and basil shreds. Place on serving plate with the prawn head next to it. Squeeze mayo on top of hot dog bun and prawn.

Served immediately. Guest can squeeze juice from prawn head to the hotdog directly.

Enjoy!

Crispy Amadai with clam and seaweed soup

 Ingredients:

Amadai (a kind of fish the scales of which are edible)

Clams - 20pc approx

Dried Seaweed - rehydrate with drinking water.

Baby Carrots - blanched in salted water

Minced garlic/ white wine/ butter/ olive oil

How to Make:

1. Clean and fillet the fish, so that each fillet piece is in a nice squarish or rectangular shape. Keep the scale intact. Wipe dry and marinate with salt and black pepper.

2. Clams after rubbing out dirt and rinse, soak in water for a while (best with a metal knife inside). Then remove and drain the water.

3. Heat up a pan which can hold up all clams, add some butter, then minced garlic, then add the clams, 1/3 glass of white wine, stirred fry the clams a bit, then add 1/2 cup of water. Cook the steam until the clams are all opened. Remove the clams, cool them down and take the meat out, For the soup, pass through a sieve. Add the soften dried seaweed. Check the taste and adjust accordingly with salt and pepper.

4. Heat up a frying pan, add some butter+olive oil, place fish to pan, scale down until the scale become crispy and golden. Then flip and cook the meat side until it's cooked. Remove from pan.

5. Pour soup to a shallow soup bowl.  Put some clam meats to soup. Place carrots to the bowl followed by the pan fried fish on top of bowl. 

Serve immediately and enjoy together with a glass of white wine!

Uni & Caviar Quiche

 

Ingredients:

Hokkaido Uni

Caviar 

Short Crust Pastry (make your own pastry dough or buy ready made ones, both one. But make sure blind bake first)

Eggs x 4 

300ml single cream

100ml milk

50g cheddar cheese - grated

Edible Flowers (to decorate and garnish)

How to Make:

Blind bake pastry:

1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Clean a surface top, sprinkle lightly with flour, roll the dough with rolling pin to a size which can fit your baking tin (could be round or rectangular or square) with extra hanging from the sides of the tin. Lift up the dough and draped over the rolling pin and lay it across your baking tin. Press the dough into the corners of the tin using your fingers. Trim the excess with a small knife but leaving some portion outside the sides of the tin (as during baking, the dough will shrink).

3. Put a baking paper on top of your dough. Pour red beans or any other beans on top of baking paper - aim is to have even weight on top of the dough.

4. Put to oven for 15 mins. Then take out, carefully and gently remove the baking paper with the beans on top and discard them. Put the pastry back to oven for another 5 min. Then take out to cool down.

Baking the egg tart:

1. Preheat oven to 200C.

2. Beat eggs in a large jug, then mix together with cheddar cheese, milk and cream. Season lightly with salt and black pepper.

3. Put the blind baked pastry shell (still in the baking tin) onto a baking tray first. Pour egg mixture to the pastry shell and place to oven and bake for 30 min until the filling is set and golden.

4. Take out from oven and cool down in room temperature.

5. Once you can feel the egg tart on quiche is not hot, you can gently spoon uni on top, then caviar on top and garnish with edible flowers.

Enjoy with a glass of champagne or sake!

Avocado and Crabmeat Salad with Caviar

 Ingredients:

Avocado

Crabmeat, cooked and drained of water

Lemon juice

Caviar

Crispy bread

Edible flowers

Green salad

Method:

1. Half the avocado. Scoop out avocado and retain the shell of the avocado nicely.

2. Mash the avocado and add a dash of lemon juice. Then add cooked crabmeat. Mix well and season with salt and pepper to your liking.

3. Fill the avocado shell with this avocado and crabmeat mixture and level on top. Place in fridge for a while.

4. When ready to serve, arrange salad (mixed with extra virgin oil or salad dressing of your choice) on bottom of serving plate. Place stuffed avocado on top. Then spoon caviar on top of avocado. Decorate with edible flowers and crispy bread on top of avocado. Can prepare some sour cream on the side too.

Enjoy!

Summer Mango and Crab Salad

 

Ingredients:

Crabmeat using crab of your choice

Mango (prefer Philippines mango)

Avocado

Cucumber

Lemon juice

Sesame dressing

Kewpi Mayonnaise

Basil or minced chives

Salt & pepper

Method:

1. Cooked crab and take out crab meat. Mindful of the soft shells be all removed. put in a sieve to drain out excess water.

2. Cut mango into dices and put to sieve in a while to drain out excess juice.

3. Avocado cut in dices and squeeze some lemon juice to prevent it from getting black.

3. Cucumber clean and rinse clean. Add some salt and put aside for a while so as to remove excess water. Then thinly slice it.

4. Mix the diced avocado with some sesame dressing.

5. Mix the crabmeat with a dash of lemon juice, some salt and pepper and a little bit of mayo. These are to add some flavour but main goal is to retain fresh taste of the crab meat.

Plating:

1. Lightly oil the inside of a plating ring with olive oil. Cover the bottom and side with a cling wrap.

2. Place sliced cucumber on top of the cling wrap -as bottom layer inside the ring.

3. Then spoon diced mango on top of cucumber slices.

4. Then spoon diced avocado on top of mango. Gently push down.

5. Then spoon crabmeat on top of avocado and gently push down.

6. Keep in fridge for a while.

7. When ready to serve, hold plating ring with the cling wrap and place it on top of a serving plate. Gently slide away the cling wrap, then take up the plating ring.

8. If using king crab, you can put a long size of crab meat on top and garnish with basil or minced chives.

Enjoy with a glass of white wine or champagne!

Lobster Thermidor

 

Ingredients:

Cooked Lobster 

Minced Shallots

Butter

Milk

Flour

White Wine

Honey Mustard

Gruyere cheese - grated

Minced parsley

How to Make:

1. Preheat oven at 200'C.

2. Preparing the White Sauce (Bechamel Sauce):

Add butter to a frying pan in medium heat, add equal parts of flour (eg. 2 tbsp of butter, then 2 tbsp of flour). Keep mixing until you have a light roux. Add milk gradually and keep whisking until the bechamel sauce reaches a consistency and thickness you like. Whenever it's too thick, add some milk. Season with salt and black pepper. Set aside.

3. Cut the cooked lobster in half lengthwise. Remove the stomach sack and dark intestines. Take the meat out of the shell and cut them up into bite size.

4. Rinse the lobster shell again in clean water and wipe dry.

5. Add butter to a frying pan, then add minced shallots, once fragrant, add a splash of white wine. Then add the bechamel sauce, mix well. Add the lobster meat and mix well. Add a spoonful of mustard. Mix well. Then add handfuls of grated Gruyere cheese. Check taste and adjust seasoning. Remove from heat.

6. Spoon the lobster mixture to the shell carefully. Sprinkle more grated Gruyere cheese on top.

7. Bake lobster at 200'C for around 10 min or until it's golden. Garnish with some minced parsley on top and serve immediately.

Enjoy with your favourite white wine!

Fresh Abalone

 

Ingredients:

Fresh Abalone of your choice (personally I like Japanese Black Abalones)

Ginger/ spring onion

For the Chicken Stock: old chicken, chinese ham, carrot and onion

Konbu

For the sauce: butter, minced onion, flour

How to Make:

1. First, make your chicken stock overnight. Blanch old chicken and ham. Place blanched chicken and ham to a big pot together with a carrot roughly cut and an onion roughly cut. After boil, turn to medium heat and cook for about 3 hours. Drain. After cool down, skim oil on top, then place at fridge overnight.

2. On the day of cooking. Take out chicken stock, further skim the fat on top. Reheat soup.

3. Clean abalone. Remove all seaweeds or dirt from shells. Then use toothbrush to clean all skirts of the abalone. Boil a pot of water, add ginger slices and spring onion, blanch the abalone in this pot of water for about 5-10min (abalone with the shell)

4. After blanching, some abalones maybe removed from the shell. Its ok. Rinse abalone with water. Further clean the abalone by removing the guts as shown in picture above. But do it gently in order not to tear or break the abalone.

5. Using a pressure cooker, put abalones together with a few shells (NOTE: the abalone shells can add to saltiness, so a few will do), together with a piece of konbu to the pressure cooker, then add the reheat chicken stock so that all abalones are slightly submerged under the stock. Bring to a boil, then close the cover of the pressure cooker, reduce to medium to medium low heat and cook for 1 hour. After cooking time is completed, turn off heat and let everything settled inside the pot. I think about 1 hour after cooking, the cover of the pressure cooker is ready to be released. Take out abalone gently, then sieve the soup inside. Use a skewer to test if the softness of the abalone is to your liking.

*** Pressure cooker uses 1/3 of your normal cooking time*** so if you normally need to use 3 hours to braise a kind of food, you need only 1 hour in the pressure cooker. But most important to note is right after cooking time at the pressure cooker is completed, dont try to release the cover or else accident will happen!

6. Use the soup sieved from the pressure cooker to make your abalone sauce. In a separate frying pan, heat up some butter in medium fire, then add some minced onion, then sprinkle some flour on top. Mix well, then add the soup, check taste and season accordingly. Cook until the sauce reaches the consistency you like.

you can plate your abalone with rice, pasta, risotto however you like.

Enjoy!

Drunken Abalone and Chicken Wings

* this dish is inspired by my photographer friend Ann Choi during the COVID19 home quarantine and home cooking peak season! You can substitute/add chicken wings, ducks tongue etc as you like  :)

Ingredients

Fresh abalones - 10-20pc 
Sliced Ginger and some spring onion
Chicken Wings and/or Ducks' Tongue - qty you like
Gooseberries 紀子- a bunch 
Dried Longan 龍眼- a bunch
Huadiao wine 花雕酒 or 太雕酒- 200-250ml
Zaolu 糟滷- 100-150ml (this is salty so beware not to add ,more than this)
hot water - 150ml
Rock Sugar or brown sugar  - 2-3tsp

How to Make:

1. Wash and rinse the gooseberries and longan and soak them in water for 10-15 min. Drain water.

2. Now the DRUNKEN MARINATE  - Melt the sugar with 150ml hot water. Then add the soften gooseberries and longan + Huadiao, Zaolu. Taste first and adjust accordingly. Put this marinate to an airtight box big enough to hold all the abalones, chicken wings and/or ducks tongue!

3. Remove abalones from shells and wash under tap. Use toothbrush to brush all the sides/skirt. Remove guts.

4. Wash and wipe clean chicken wings and marinate with Dark Soy Sauce for around 15 min.

5. Boil a pot of water with ginger slice and spring onion. Once boil, put the cleaned abalones to the pot and cook for 5-10 min.

6. Then remove all abalones and put them to a bowl of ice and ice water immediately to avoid it from further cooking and meat becomes tough. 

7. Once abalones cool down, put the abalones to the air tight box with the Drunken Marinate. Leave overnight in fridge.

8. For chicken wings, blanch them in boiling water for 8-10 min. Then remove them to a bowl of ice water with ice immediately to avoid them from further cooking and meat becomes tough. Add to the air tight box with the Drunken Marinate.

Enjoy it as a cold appertizer with a glass of sake or beer! In winter times, this dish can be served hot by steaming it for 5-10 minutes.

Abalone Pasta

* Top bottom was 2nd attempt but bottom photo 1st attempt. Difference in black truffle quality affects the look and aroma of the dish. But the abalone itself won't go wrong. All in all, a great dish to try cooking if you are a fan of abalone.

Ingredients:

Fresh Black Abalone (those from Japan is amazing. But those from Australia also good) - around 600-800g per piece will be a good size.

Chicken and Chinese Ham stock (as the abalone will absorb all the flavour of this stock, make sure you cook this stock yourself instead of buying pre-made ones. see below how to do this) 

Black Truffle 

Black Truffle Oil

Italian parsley - minced

Chicken and Chinese ham stock:

blanch whole chicken, then blanch chinese ham with some puer leaves. Place them in a big pot fill with water, 1 pc of carrot, 1 pc of onion, bring to boil, then remove to medium heat and cook for 3-4 hours. Remove oil on top and filter out cooking ingredients.

Abalone Pasta Sauce:

Stock left in pressure cooker

Additional Chicken and Chinese Ham stock

salt and black pepper

cornflour solution

How to Make:

1. Better reserve fresh abalone from your fishmonger in advance.

2. Prepare your abalone in day in advance of your cooking day. After removing from shell and removing the guts, wash thoroughly under tap water. Can use a toothbrush to clean the side of the abalone to avoid dirt sticking inside.

2.  Pour chicken stock into a pressure cooker and bring it to a boil. Then add the abalone inside, make sure the abalone is under water level. Close the pressure securely, then lower heat to medium low heat and cook for 1.5 hour. If you are cooking 3 pc of more, can cook longer like 2 hours. Pressure cooker cooking time is 3 times of normal cooking. So if normal cooking requires 3 hours, then you only need 1 hour using pressure cooker, etc.

3. After cooking time is up, switch off fire. Turn the pressure cooker cool down itself until it shows you you are ready to release the lid. Don't rush removing the lid or else everything will blast!

4. Once lid is removed, use a skewer to poke inside of abalone to see if it's soft enough for your liking. If it's not tender enough, you will have to add some cooking time again, but make sure you have sufficient stock inside the cooker.

5. If it's tender enough, remove abalone from the stock which should be thickened a bit by now. After cooling down, put abalone in air tight box in fridge. So next day when you do  the dish, it will be much easier to slice it very thin.

6. Save the stock left inside the pressure cooker to make your abalone pasta sauce - the abalone sauce!

7. On the day you cook your dish, take out abalone from fridge and make thin slices.

8. Cook the abalone sauce in a pan, if qty is not enough for your pasta, then add some chicken and ham stock. Bring to boil, check taste and adjust accordingly with salt and pepper. Add cornflour solution to adjust thickness of sauce. Use tongs or a laddle to gentle heat up the thinly sliced abalone in the above abalone pasta sauce. Remove abalone to a plate. 

9. Cook pasta (I prefer using fresh pasta for this dish and cooking time should be 2-3 min only) as per packet's instructions) less 1 min. Put cooked pasta to the abalone sauce and coat the pasta.

10. Place pasta nicely on a serving plate, then put the heated abalone slice on top of the pasta nicely. Drizzle with black truffle oil, then shaved black trufffle on top. Garnish with some minced parsley to add color and flavour.

Enjoy this dish with your fav champagne or white wine!

Shrimp Spring Roll

* recipe adopted from justonecook

Ingredients:

Fresh Shrimps - remove head and shell but keep tail intact. Remove intestines too.

Spring Roll Wrapper

Negi (long spring onion) - thin slices

Japanese cooking sake

Sea salt

Miso paste of your choice but choose one which is not salty (optional, can omit)

Thai sweet and spicy sauce (optional)

Glue:
1 tsp flour mix with 1 tsp water

How to Make:

1. After remove head and shell of prawns and cleaning up intestines, you now have to tend to the tail. Press tail flat down on chopping board and use tip of knife to cut some away. So the tail when pressed can become butterfly like. You can also remove some excess water during this process.

2. Make a couple of slits diagonally on the underside of the shrimp.

3. Hold the shrimp with both hands and straighten it as s much as possible in order to get the shape as straight as possible.

4.  Marinate shrimps with sake and salt.

5. Cut the spring roll wrapper from square shape into 2 triangles in the middle.

6. Spoon some miso paste right across the middle of the triangle wrapper, then place one straightened shrimp on top of the miso paste, with the tail of the shrimp being outside of the wrapper. Then place some sliced negi on top of shrimp.

7. Pull one side of the wrapper to the other side. Wrap roll up.

8. Upon the end, use finger tip to apply the self-made glue on the wrapper to "seal" it.

9. Heat up a pot with oil then deep fried until both sides are golden. Drain oil on a tray and use kitchen towel to remove excess oil before serving.

You can serve like this direct or with some Thai  sweet and spicy sauce. Enjoy together with your fav champagne or white wine!

Tamarind Prawns

Ingredients:

Fresh giant tiger prawns x 500g
Onion x 1/2 -minced
Garlic x 2-3pc - pressed
Red chilli x 1 - shredded removing seeds
Shallot x 2 to 3pc - thinly sliced
Dried hot chillies x 6-7pc, crisp fried
Palm sugar (buy fresh one if possible) x 2 tbsp
Fish sauce x 1 tbsp
Tamarind juice x 1/3 cup
Chicken stock x 2 tbsp
Crispy fried garlic and shallots for garnish

How to cook:

1. Wash prawns, remove shell and head and keep tail intact and remove intestines.

2. Marinate prawn with sea salt, then pan fried with pressed garlic until outside of prawn turned white color. Remove from pan.

3. Cook onion until fragrant and soft. Add palm sugar, chicken stock, tamarind juice and fish sauce, stir well until sauce thickens. Add the prawns back and mix well until done.

4. Arrange on a serving dish and garnish with fried garlic and fried shallots. 

Enjoy!

Baked Black Cod in Miso Paste 銀雪魚西京燒

Ingredients:
Black Cod x 2 slices 
West Kyoto White Miso Paste 350g
Cooking Sake 1/4 cup
Mirin 1/2 cup
egg yolk x 1
Brown Sugar 55-60g

How to Make:

1. Marinate the cod fish at least 1 night in advance. Best to marinate 2-3 days in advance.

2. Mix the miso paste in a container with sugar then the egg yolk with a fork until combined, then add the sake and mirin (in a few times) until they are mixed well like a wet paste.

3. Wash and wipe dry fish slices and put them in the marinate container and cover with lid or cling wrap. Make sure the fish slices are submerged underneath the marinate paste. Place in fridge for at least 1 night before cooking.

4. On the day of cooking, preheat Grill at your Oven to  230'C. 

5. Remove fish slices from marinate container and use finger to wipe away the marinate.

6. Place the fish slices to a grid on top of a baking tray and grill for 7-8 minutes. Then turn the fish slices upside down for another 7-8 minutes until golden.

Serve piping hot with mayo on the side.

Enjoy with hot rice and your favourite sake!

Baked Stuffed Crab Shell

Ingredients:
Fresh Flower Crab
Onion - thin slices
Mushrooms - slices (optional. If you want to add this, small amount will do)
Evaporated Milk
Flour
Eggwash (egg yolk + a few drops of water)
Cheddar or Mozarella Cheese




How to Make:
1. Steam whole crab. Once cool down, separate all crab meat from the shells. Check for shells bits in the crab meat.

2. Cut the crab shells nicely and blanch in hot water with a bit of salt. Drain and wipe dry.

3. Stir fry the sliced onion in a frying pan until soft and fragrant, then add the mushroom slices. remove from the pan to a dish first.

4. Add crab meat to the frying pan and stir fry till fragrant. Add the onion mixture to the crab meat, mix well and add seasonings like salt and sugar. Check tasting, then add evaporated milk, then flour. Check consistency. You wont want it too thick or too watery.

5. Remove the crab mixture from frying pan to a dish to cool down.

6. Preheat oven to 250'C.

7. Stuffed the crab mixture to the crab shell nicely. Brush some eggwash on top first. Then sprinkle some cheese on top.

8. Baked in oven for 7-8 min until top is golden.

Serve piping hot! Enjoy!

Cod with Tomato Salsa

* recipe adopted from Gordon Ramsay

Ingredients:

Cod Fish of your choice, with skin on
Cherry tomatoes
shallots - cut into rings
Basil  
Sliced Garlic - a few pieces
Stale Bread, if not fresh also ok
Parmesan cheese
parsley


How to Make:

1. Preheat oven to 200'C.

2. Clean and wipe dry fish and season with salt and pepper.

3. Cherry Tomatoes rinse and wipe dry and cut into halves.

4. Blend your bread in a blender with some grated parmesan cheese and parsley until it becomes breadcrumb like mixture.

5. Heat up a hot pan with olive oil, pan fry cod 1 min per side. Make sure the skin side is more browned. 

6. Remove the fish to an oven tray skin side down and place the bread mixture on top of the fish, pressing it down a little bit. Bake in oven for 6 min until bread mixture becomes golden.

7. Heat up a new pan with olive oil, pan fry sliced garlic, shallots until fragrant. Add cherry tomatoes and basil. Season with sugar, salt and pepper. Until the tomatoes are softened, then the tomato salsa is ready to be served on the side of the dish.

Enjoy with your favourite white wine!

Baked Conch

Ingredients:

Fresh Conch - reserve in advance from your seafood store in wet market and ask them to help remove guts from the main body.

Minced pork *

Minced onion *

Carrots-diced into small cubes *

Button Mushrooms-diced into small cubes *

* I will say if the conch meat weighs say 300g, your minced pork, carrot, onion and mushrooms should be 1/3 to 2/3 of your conch weight, ie around 100-200g each. It's realyl flexible. Depends if you want it to taste more meaty or more seafood. You can add diced water chestnuts too to give it a crunchy feel.

Butter

Flour

Grated Cheddar/Morzarella cheese

Tumeric Powder

Coconut Milk

How to Make:

1. Wash and wipe dry the conch meat and blend in blender to small pieces.

2. Marinate minced pork with say sauce, sugar, sesame oil, corn flour and chinese wine.

3. Preheat oven to 240C.

4. Heat up a wok, add oil and pan fry the onion till soft and fragrant. Then add minced pork, carrot, mushrooms and mix them well.

5. Fry the minced conch in another pan until some juice is released from the meat. Remove meat and add to the pan at para 3 above and mix well/

6. Arrange some space on the wok at para 3, then add butter and flour and mix it up to become a roux. Then mix everything together. Add Tumeric powder, coconut milk and adjust tasting.

7. Stuff the mixture to the conch shell, add grated cheese on top and bake at oven for 5 min.

Serve and Enjoy while it's piping hot!

Baked Salmon in Puff Pastry

From: Tastemade Japan at 
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh-34VnBRzv/


Ingredients:

Salmon Fillet x 1
Salt & Black pepper
Spinach - wash and drain
Frozen Puff Pastry x 2 packs - defrost in fridge the night before you plan to cook
Flour
Egg Yolk x 1, mix with 1 tsp of water or milk

Cream Cheese Sauce:
Cream Cheese 100g
Mayonnaise 10g
Lemon Juice - a dash
Dill - minced

How to Make:

1. Preheat oven to 200'C.

2. Clean and trim salmon fillet to a size right for your party and your oven tray and wipe dry!

3. Season salmon with sea salt and black pepper.

4. Make Cream Cheese Sauce by mixing well the ingredients listed under Cream Cheese Sauce above.

5. Sprinkle a bit of flour on counter top. Roll 1 pack of puff pastry on top of the flour-counter top to the right thickness and size for your salmon and the oven tray. Repeat the same for the other pack of puff pastry.

6. Place 1 piece of the rolled pastry onto the oven tray. Put spinach first, then lay the salmon on top of the spinach, then the cream cheese sauce on top of the salmon. 

7. Brush egg yolk solution on the pastry along the edge of the salmon.

8. Place the other pastry on top of the salmon layers softly, using a fork to press along the edge of the salmon where you have brushed the egg yolk solution. Trim along the forked edges to come to a fish shape! Use the cut away pastry to make eyes, mouth, tail and fins for the fish! Then use a knife to gently score on top of the pastry to make scales for the fish. 

9. Lastly, brush egg yolk solution on top pastry evenly. Then put into oven for 25 to 30 min until golden.

Serve immediately and enjoy!

Clams in White Wine Tomato Sauce

Ingredients (for 6 persons portion):
Fresh Clams of your choice x approx 50-60pc (as some clams might have cracked shells or do not open up while cooking and you will need to discard them, so better make provision for more than less)
Plum Tomato x 2 - remove skins and seeds and cut into cubes
Onion x 1 - diced
Minced garlic x 2 tbsp
White wine - 1 cup (Select one which you like to drink yourself!)
Minced Parsley for garnish
Butter x 1 tbsp
Whipping Cream

How to Make:
1. Wash the clams one by one under running water using a tooth brush. Then put them into a big bowl fill with water and some salt. Then add a steel knife inside the bowl. This will help the clams to release the sands inside them. Soak them for at least 3 hours if possible.

2. When ready to cook, pour away all water in the clams bowl and rinse the clams again under running water and drain.

3. Heat up a wok, add the butter and some olive oil, then the minced garlic. Once fragrant, add the onion, once onion becomes soft, then add the tomato. Once all is quite mixed well, add the clams, mix them well. Then add the wine. Let it evaporate for a short while like 1-2 minute, then cover the wok with a glass cover which you can see through.

4. Around 5-6 minutes later, you will start see clams opening their shells. Immediately remove those opened clams into serving plates, one by one. Some at the bottom will take longer to cook and open. But those opened shall be moved to serving plates immediately to avoid it over-cooked.

5. After all clams are opened and moved to serving plates, you will see the soup/sauce remaining on the wok. Check taste and season as you like, then add a round/dash of whipping cream, no need too much. Usually, no need any more salt. If you like, maybe some pepper or a little bit of sugar. Spoon the soup to each serving plate and then garnish with minced parsley and serve!

Best to enjoy this dish with some bread and nice white wine! Enjoy!

Claypot Rice with Fish and Onsen egg

 Ingredients:

Dashi stock

Fish Fillet

Rice Crispies

Eggs (preferably Italian eggs)

How to Make:

Dashi stock:

1. wipe Konbu with a set cloth, then soak it in a pot of water for at least 30 minutes.

2. Boil the above pot of water. Once you see air bubbles around the konbu, remove them. Then add a big bunch of bonito flakes. Once the water is boiled, turn off heat and let bonito flakes all dropped to the bottom of the pot. 

3. Drain bonito flakes away and you will have a clear dashi soup stock!

Claypot Rice:

1. Wash rice under tap until the water is no more milky but clear.

2. Put rice to the claypot. For every 1 cup of rice, add 1 cup + a little bit more dashi stock into the claypot. Soak the rice in the dashi stock for at least 30 minutes.

3. Put rice pot to stove and heat it up. Once water is boiled, put the fish fillet on top of the rice and cover the pot and turn heat to medium to medium low and cook for 15 minutes.

4. Then switch off heat and keep it covered and do not open it for at least 15-30 minutes. Then the rice is ready to be served by mixing fish fillet with the rice and adding rice crispies on top.

* Time when you should start cook the rice as the claypot cannot keep the rice forever hot. 

Onsen Egg:

cook eggs in slow cooker at 65'C for 30 minutes. Once done, remove eggs from water and keep in a bowl. Crack it on top of rice. Yum!