Salmon Mushroom Rice & Chawan Mushi

Cooking For a Lazy Day

There might be some days when you are tired and all you want to cook is something really simple and quick. These two recipes are perfect when I'm having a lazy day. The ingredients are simple and  it takes no time to prepare them. So, if any day you need something easy but still tasty, try these! It's so good and easy, you won't believe it.

Salmon Mushroom Rice

 

Ingredients (Please measure your ingredients accordingly):
- A handful of Shiitake mushroom (soaked and chopped into small sizes)
- IMPORTANT: keep the water used to soak the mushroom as we need it to cook the rice.
- 2-3 Salmon fillets
- Japanese soy sauce + sake (I actually replace with Teriyaki Sauce)
- Salt 

Method:
1) After soaking the mushroom, use the water to cook the rice.
2) Add in the mushrooms and some Teriyaki Sauce or soy sauce  and sake accordingly. Don't add too much, you can always add more sauce after the rice is cooked.
3) Cook the rice in rice cooker.
4) While the rice is cooking, prepare the salmon by placing it on baking tray.
5) Add the Teriyaki sauce or soy sauce
6) Bake the salmon for 10 mins or until cooked
7) Once salmon is cooked, pick out the bones and add the salmon into the cooked rice and mix well.
8) Add Teriyaki sauce/ soy sauce/ salt according to taste

Chawan Mushi

Ingredients (The measurement is enough for 4)
- 4 large eggs (lightly beaten)
-1 1/2 tsp Mirin
-1 1/2 tsp Japanese soy sauce
- 2 cups of dashi stock
- 4 Shiitake mushrooms (soaked until soft)
- Add any seafood that you like (like prawn, fish cake or scallop). I added prawn and scallop this time.

Method:
1) Mix the beaten eggs with mirin, soy sauce and the dashi stock.

2) Divide the rest of the ingredients into 4 small bowls and pour in the egg mixtures. Cover the bowl with aluminium foil.

3) Steam the egg mixture on a high heat for about 5 minutes. Then reduce the heat to low and steam for another 15 minutes or until they are set. Serve immediately.

 

 

Steamed Egg with Seafood

Finally, The Perfect Steamed Egg

I finally found the way to achieve the perfect smooth and silky steamed egg. After trying the steamed egg with seafood in Mas Thai, I've always wanted to try preparing it myself. Of course this is nothing compared to the one I had there, but I was pretty happy with the result. Instead of using only egg white like Mas Thai I used the whole egg (including egg yolk) to prepare this dish. It is the perfect dish to have with plain steamed rice, suitable for kids as the smooth egg is so easy to eat.

The secret behind the smooth and silky steamed egg (without the holes and the bubbles) is to cover the bowl/plate with cling wrap. This is the similar technique used to prepare the Japanese Chawan Mushi, except I usually use aluminium foil when preparing chawan mushi. I believe it shouldn't make much difference.

This dish is so easy to make, I think it only took me 20-25 minutes to prepare.

Ingredients:

- 4 eggs

- A handful of prawns (cut into small pieces)

- 2 fish fillet (cut into smaller pieces)

- 1 carrot (cut into small cubes).

- 1/4-1/2 cup of frozen green peas

- 2-3 cloves of garlic (minced)

- Cooking oil

- Water

For seasoning:

-Salt

-Sugar

-White pepper

-Sesame oil

-Cornstarch water

Method:

1) Beat the eggs and add some water (egg to water ratio 1:1).

2) Add a dash of salt and pepper into the beaten egg. Pour in the egg into a steaming bowl/plate. Cover with cling wrap and steam for 10 minutes. Set aside.

3) While steaming the egg, heat up the wok, add in some cooking oil. Add in garlic, add in the fish, give it a quick stir. Add in the prawns. Add in carrot and green peas. Stir fry until fish and prawns are cooked.

4) Add in some water (around 3/4 cup) and season with salt, sugar and white pepper. Stir well. 

5) Add in cornstarch water to thicken the sauce. Add in a dash of sesame oil and stir well.

6) Pour the seafood and sauce on top of the steamed egg.

7) Serve immediately while still hot with steamed rice and enjoy!

Fish with Salted Soy Beans Sauce (Fish Tauco)

"When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go by your own taste." (Laiko Bahrs)

This Fish with Salted Soy Beans sauce recipe is one of my favourite recipes from my mum. Salted Bean Sauce is known as Tauco in Indonesia. To get the best out of this recipe, I will recommend to use the Indonesian Salted Bean (Tauco) that can be found in most Asian grocery stores, as different country has different style of salted bean.

Indonesian Tauco is mostly made from yellow soy beans, fermented and made into paste. It is a strong aromatic sauce that has been used widely in Indonesian cuisine. This is one of the 'Must Have' condiments in my kitchen.

I used 4 fish fillets in this recipe, so please adjust your measurement accordingly.

Fish with Salted Soy Beans Sauce (Fish Tauco)

Ingredients:

- 4 fish fillet ( I cut one fillet into 4)

- 1 Tomato (cut to small wedges)

- 3 chopped garlics

- 1 onion 

- 3 slices of ginger (cut to thin strip)

- A handful of chopped chillies (optional)

- 1 carrot - thinly sliced (optional)

- Chopped spring onions (to garnish)

- Cooking oil

- Water

- 1 tbsp salted soy bean

- 2 tbsp sweet soya sauce

- 1 tbsp oyster sauce

Method:

1) Heat up the wok and add cooking oil. Add in carrot and onion. Toss around for one minute. Add in garlic and Ginger, keep tossing until fragrant and carrot is soften. Add in tomato.

2) Add in the salted soy bean, give it a quick stir.

3) Add in the fish fillets, toss for one minute, add in water (almost the same level as the ingredients).

  Add oyster sauce and sweet soya sauce. Stir carefully not to break the fish. 

4) Leave on low heat until fish is cooked.

5) Add in the chillis and half of the spring onions.

6) Optional is to add some cornstrach (corn flour mix with water) to thicken the sauce.

7) Turn off the heat, dish up onto serving plate/bowl and garnish with the rest of the spring onions.

8) Serve warm with steamed rice.

Yet another easy and low fat recipe. You can even try substituting the fish with prawns.

It tastes as good!

Steamed Chilli Fish

"Next to jazz music, there is nothing that lifts the spirit and strengthens the soul more than a good bowl of chili." (Harry James)

One of the good things about cooking at home is you know exactly what you are putting in your meal, where you are able to limit the amount of salt, sugar and fat. I always try to cook healthier at home. I think that's the whole point of cooking at home, is to eat healthier, but of course it gotta be tasty at the same time.

Today, I made chilli fish, this is a very common dish in Indonesia and Malaysia where the fish is deep fried/grilled first and chilli paste is added on top , but I instead of deep frying/grilling the fish, I actually steam it.

So the first thing you need to prepare is the chilli paste. This chilli paste is the similar one that I used in my "Thai Chilli Chicken Basil" recipe, the only difference is I added some fresh lemon grass. The lemongrass will freshen up the paste with citrus flavour.

Chilli Paste

Ingredients:

- A Hand full of red chillies (if you can't eat too spicy then it's better to use the big red chillies, but if you like spicy then you can add more small chillies)

- 1 tomato

- 1 red onion

- 5 garlic cloves

- 1 stem of lemongrass (use the pale part and cut into aprroximately 5 cm long and slice it thinner)

- Salt and sugar to taste

Method:

-Place chillies, tomato, red onion and garlic into blender/food processor and blend to paste.

-Heat up wok/stir fry pan, add cooking oil, add in the chilli paste and then add in the fresh lemon grass. Stir for a while. Add in sugar and salt according to taste. Stir the chilli paste in low heat until fragrant and turn off the heat.

 

 

Chilli Fish

Ingredients:

-1 whole fish ( I used Barramundi)

-Chilli Paste (As prepared above)

-A handful of fresh basil leaves

-Soya sauce and sweet soya sauce to taste

Method:

-Place the chilli paste at the centre of the steaming plate, place the fish on top of the chilli paste,  and spread the rest of the chilli on top of the fish evenly. 

-Spread some of the basil leaves on top of the fish some around the side of the plate.

-Place the plate into a wok with full of water, or how you usually do your steaming.

-Open the lid after 15 minutes, add sweet soya sauce and soya sauce to the fish and into the sauce.

(I added around 1 1/2 tablespoon of sweet soya sauce and 1/2 tablespoon of soya sauce)

-Continue steaming until fish is cooked.

This recipe is so simple but trust me, it is very tasty at the same time!

Best served with steamed rice.

Steamed Fish

"Happy and successful cooking doesn't rely only on know-how; it comes from the heart, makes great demands on the palate and needs enthusiasm and a deep love of food to bring it to life." (Georges Blanc)

I grow up eating my mum's homemade cooking. One of her great recipe is this steamed fish, it is so easy to cook and healthy at the same time. Actually this recipe is best with pomfret, but I just use fish fillet because is easier to eat and I was too lazy to go all the way to Chinatown to get it, but if you can, try cooking it with pomfret.

Ingredients:

- 800 grams fish fillet

- 1 red onion (chop to desired size)

- 2 tomato (deseed and slice into desired size)

- Fresh ginger (sliced thinly, approximately twice the amount of the garlic)

- 5 garlic (chop to small size)

- bird eye chilli ( sliced thinly, amount is up to you, even if you can't eat too spicy, at least put a little bit, it really add the aroma to the steamed fish) 

Sauce:

- 2 tablespoon soy bean paste (tauco)

- 2 tablespoon soya sauce

Method:

- Spread all the ingredients except the fish on a plate (make sure it's heatproof)

- Add the fish on top

- Add the sauce ingredients evenly

- Place the plate into a wok with full of water, or how you usually do your steaming.

- Steam until fish is cooked, the flesh should be white.

- Served with steamed rice.

Of course all the ingredients can be eaten, I didn't put it because I just want the dish to look more neat on photo.