didally.com
Of Food and perhaps a little about me
Archive for Recipes: Seafood
October 17, 2007 at 1:40 am · Filed under Recipes: Seafood
There are times where you just want to shop for a particular ingredient at the market, but ends up getting a whole lot more ingredients after some persistent persuasion by the stall uncles. So when I was buying the prawns, I couldn’t resist bringing some squids home.
I thought of making calamari but detest the idea of having to clean up the kitchen. A dual seafood combi stir-fry will be perfect. And I had better finish up the bottle of teriyaki sauce before it hits its expiry date. The end result is a simple and flavorful dish. I wish there was more rice. Haha..
Seafood tends to get cooked very fast, so try not to overcook them, as the flesh will get tough.
Stir-fry Squid & Prawns with Teriyaki Sauce
Serves 2
1 medium squid
6 prawns, medium-sized
1 tbsp teriyaki sauce
⅓ white onion, thickly sliced
3 chilli padi, sliced, seeds removed
1 tbsp soya sauce
½ tbsp hua teow wine
½ cooking oil
cornstarch water (for thickening gravy)
Preparing the prawns
Remove shells from the prawns. Butterfly them. To butterfly the prawns, turn each one on its back and, with the point of a sharp knife, make a cut down the centre of each prawn, but do not cut through. Pry open with your thumb like a book and remove the brownish-black vein, scraping it away with the point of the knife – it should also come away easily. Wash and pat them dry with kitchen towel.
Preparing the squid
Pull the head out. Remove the guts and soft bone. Peel the skin(thin purplish membrane). The skin should comes off easily as you pull them off. Cut open the body as it lays flat on the cutting board. At this stage, it might be visually gross because the squid ink will flow out. (You may reserve the squid ink, if you’re interested in making squid ink pasta. Lol)
Wash the squid thoroughly until it’s clean. Next, makes diagonal light cuts(do not cut through) on the squid, with each cuts 0.5cm apart. Then do the same in the opposite direction (intersecting with the previous cuts). This makes the squid looks nicer when cooked, as it will curled inwards and creating a nice pattern. I made mine too far apart, so it didn’t curled nicely. Wash and pat them dry with kitchen towel. Slice the squid into small pieces (approx. 4cm by 2cm).
However, if you prefer to have your squid rings, you do not need to cut open the body. Just slice them into rings. It’s just a different presentation.
- Marinate prawns and squids with teriyaki sauce, soya sauce and hua teow wine for about 1 hour in the fridge.
- To cook, heat pan with oil. Fry onions and chilli until the onions are slightly translucent.
- Add in the prawns and squids, together with the marinade. Keep frying for about 2 to 3 mins.
- Add the cornstarch water slowly while frying the prawns and squids. Approx. 2mins.
- Once the gravy thickens, remove pan from heat.
- Serve hot with rice.
Enjoy!
September 22, 2007 at 12:52 am · Filed under Recipes: Seafood
I LOVE crabs, cooked in any style. Chilli, black pepper, steamed, deep fried and cold crabs. And I love the nice soft creamy roe even more. Argh… I feel like having some right now.
When I was much younger, mum used to cook chilli crabs at home. The crabs were bought live, killed in the bathroom, chopped up into pieces and cooked immediately. As we grew older, mum didn’t cook live crabs anymore. She probably couldn’t bring herself to kill them. I won’t want to kill the crabs alive, thus I won’t attempt to make any chilli crabs or whatsoever at home. So when I spotted small tiny flower crabs in the market, I brought home half a kg for just $2. Yes, it’s that cheap cos they were small and already dead at the market. The intention was to steam them after dinner as a light supper.
Steamed Flower Crabs with Ginger and Wine
9 small flower crabs
1 to 2 tbsp hua teow wine (花雕酒)
4 to 5 slices of ginger, cut in thin strips
Wash and scrub the flower crabs clean. Prepare the wok for steaming. Bring water to boil. Meanwhile, place half the amount of ginger strips on a plate big enough to hold all the crabs. Then lay the flower crabs on the plate. Add the remaining ginger strips on top. Drizzle hua teow wine all over the crabs. When the water has boiled, put the plate of crabs into the wok and cover. Steam for 10 to 12 mins.
Add a splash of hua teow when you are feeling luxurious. In fact, I use them a lot in my cooking these days. I add some when I marinate my meat, or to add a more intense flavor to my eggs or prawns. You may have seen recipes calling for shaoxing wine(绍兴酒), which is in fact hua teow. Some get confused about which to buy without realizing that they are actually the same wine. Hua teow comes from a place in China, called Shao Xing. That’s precisely why people terms hua teow as shaoxing wine too.
While the flower crabs are steaming, I just stood by the wok, smelling the natural seafood sweetness that filled the whole kitchen. I couldn’t wait to dig in! Haha..
These crabs have thin shell and are easy to break them apart. Although they are small, with only tiny bit of flesh, I still enjoyed eating them cos they tasted really sweet. Other than the above method, you can also fry the flower crabs with chilli, just like the usual chilli crabs. They can also be cooked in soup. But just by simple steaming is really good cos you can taste the natural sweetness of the flesh. When I buy them again the next time, I will get the bigger ones. I’m sure they will have more flesh.
August 20, 2007 at 2:14 am · Filed under Recipes: Seafood, Recipes: Pasta
Lemon-flavored pasta? As promised, more pasta recipes. I was searching for a recipe for my garlic prawn pasta and it occurred to me that I ever saw recipes calling for lemon juice. I wonder if the pasta will turn out be a plate of salad instead. Curious and adventurous, I dared myself to try out the recipe I’ve found.
This yellow citrus fruit serves us wonders. Lemons are valued for their many uses in flavoring the food we eat, as a garnish, and for household purposes.
Selection
Choose lemons that are firm and have a bright yellow color. Avoid soft, wrinkled lemons with spots. One medium lemon has about 3 tablespoons of juice and 3 tablespoons of grated peel.
Storage
Store lemons at room temperature for about two weeks. They can keep for up to six weeks in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Use lemons as quickly as possible after cutting.
Some Quick Tips
Freeze lemon juice in ice cube trays for later use.
Add a twist of lemon to the water in ice cube trays for added zip to beverages.
Use juice on fruit or white vegetables to help them keep their color.
Remove odors, such as fish, onion, or bleach by rubbing with fresh lemon.
Lemon and salt can be used to treat rust spots, and to clean copper pots.
Get the most juice out of your lemon by warming it in the microwave for 15 seconds or rolling it with your hand on the counter if it is at room temperature.
Add a few drops of lemon juice to whipping cream if it doesn’t stiffen.
Use lemon to replace salt in your recipes….you’ll have less sodium.
Halved a lemon and place them in your new fridge before putting any other things in. It will remove the odor from the new fridge.
You can use lemons to marinate your food like what I did for my rosemary roast chicken, as well as fish and other meats. Toss your salad with some lemon juice instead of vinegar. Freshly grated lemon peels add that zest to your baked goods, fruit salads, desserts, and sauces. Or simply just drop a slice of lemon into your glass of water.
I made a mess when grating the lemon peel for this pasta and it took longer than I expect. Why? Because I grated it the wrong way, the peel went flying out from the grater and all over my work area. How embarrassing.
Pasta with Garlic Prawns and Lemon
Recipe from www.taste.com.au (serves 2)
180g dried pasta
1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra to toss
2 garlic cloves, crushed
12 medium-sized prawns, peeled, deveined, tails intact
½ bell pepper, medium sized
chilli flakes
1 tsp dried parsley or 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
Juice and zest of 1/2 large lemon
1/2 cup (125ml) white wine
50g unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small pieces
Cook the pasta in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain and toss with a little oil. Set aside to keep warm.
Place remaining oil and the garlic in a pan and heat gently over low heat. When the oil is hot, add bell pepper and saute for 2 - 3 minutes. Then add the prawns, chilli flakes and half the parsley, increase heat to high and cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove the prawns, bell pepper and set aside, then add the lemon juice and white wine to the pan and allow to bubble and reduce for 2 minutes.
Briefly stir in the cold butter and lemon zest until you have a smooth sauce. Return the prawns to the pan to heat through, then add the pasta. Toss together well and serve garnished with the remaining parsley.
I love this zesty prawn pasta! It’s surprising refreshing and tangy. I was afraid it might be too sour. But the lemon flavor blends really well with the prawns and pasta, at least for me. Something different from the usual savory style.
Lemon curd is in my list of to-make items. I’ll see when I can get some time to try my hand on this. I saw this Lemon Curd with Chocolate at Gastronomia. Everything there looks good and of course, sinful. I wish I can bring them all home. LOL. Meanwhile, stay tuned for the next post which will be related to lemons as well.
March 30, 2007 at 10:54 pm · Filed under Recipes: Seafood, Recipes: Pasta
Well, well, finally I’ve kicked my butt to write the first post that is long overdue since last year. I’ve taken many pictures of the food I’ve created, so I will post more as I go along. I will be sharing recipes of which some are sourced from the internet and cookbooks, and some of my own. The purpose of this blog is to share the simple and yet tasty recipes with my friends whom most of them have just started a new home or those just started out to learn cooking and baking.
I’ve yet to customise this blog. So stay tuned as I will change the look bit by bit.
Eat more mussels to flex my muscles? Yes? Of course not. But if it can really help build up more muscles, I’ll be glad to eat more. Hee. Ok, enough nonsense.
Mussels are one of the popular shellfish used in many seafood dishes due to it’s nutritional value and excellent taste. And best of all, they are relatively cheap. I bought a whole pack of some 2½ dozen for just $1.60. This feeds 2 person for 2 meals. Sounds economical right? You can either cook them simply by just steaming or boiling, or cook them with flavourful sauces like tomato-based tomato sauce. Eat them with pasta, or served them steamed as an appetizer with some crusty bread. They can also be included in pastas or just topped them on top of paella.
My first attempt of cooking mussels was a success and it tasted really good. And since it’s so delicious, I want to cook it more often but worried about eating too much and having a higher cholesterol. That’s what people always tell us, shellfish like prawns, cockles, clams and mussels are all high in cholesterol. So I surfed around to look at it’s nutritional value.
Upon some research, I found out that mussels are an extra-lean meat, low in sodium, low in fat and cholesterol free, high in protein and heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. And that when it comes to omega-3 fatty acids found in fish, mussels have more of it than any other shellfish. Mum visited the doctor recently and he said that mussels can lower our cholesterol blood level.
Fat Facts - the Cholesterol Dance from The Epicurean Table.
True: Crustaceans such as prawns, mussels and oysters have high flesh cholesterol. However, this does not raise your own cholesterol levels, and in fact can help lower it. Cholesterol in crustaceans is poorly absorbed anyway and the extreme low fat is a great advantage over other food choices.
False: Prawns, mussels and oysters must be avoided by persons who have high blood cholesterol.
True: What should be avoided are the hydrogenated polyunsaturated fats found in industry food such as margarine and animal fats. Hydrogenated polyunsaturated oil is an industry mask for what it really is - saturated fat created from vegetable oil.
So we can have our mussels and eat it!
Preparing Mussels
Inspect mussels to make sure they are tightly closed. Just before cooking, clean wild mussels by scrubbing with a stiff brush and pulling off the beard with a quick tug. Cultivated mussels need only be rinsed in cold water. To remove meat, either steam open or pry shells open and pick out meat. Those sold at the supermarket are already clean and ready to use.
Buying and Storing Mussels
Fresh mussels smell clean, like the ocean, and the shells of live mussels are tightly closed. If the mussel is slightly open, tap the shell, and a healthy mussel will close it within 30 seconds.
Refrigerate mussels in a bowl, and cover with a damp towel. Never store mussels in water or in an airtight container—either method will kill them. Mussels should be cooked as soon as possible, but keep for up to a week.
We had some prawns, so they goes into the pot with the mussels.
Garlic Steamed Mussels
1 dozen mussels
3 cloves garlic, chopped
½ tablespoon of fresh parsley (halved it if using dried parsley)
a pinch of chilli flakes or some chopped chilli (optional)
½ capsicum (bell pepper, any colour), diced
1 medium tomato, diced
30ml cooking white wine
½ cup of water
1 tbsp olive oil
- Heat olive oil in a saucepan or skillet, saute the garlic until it starts to brown a little.
- Add in the tomato, parsley and chilli flakes.
- Add in the mussels.
- Add water, and lastly the white wine.
- Cover the pan and steam for 5 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and remove the cover.
It was so good that we had it with pasta the next day. Simply just add them to the pasta, toss and serve.
