Salmon Gravlax

I love salmon in any form except when it's overcooked. Finally got hold of fresh salmon to make this. This makes a great finger food too.

The basic of curing fish is to remember the sugar and salt amount. It is 1 part sugar and 1 part salt. Mix them together and add chopped fresh herbs. For this, I used dill.

Ingredients
2 pcs fresh salmon fillet
1 part salt } eg. if you are using 1/4 cup salt,
1 part sugar } use 1/4 cup sugar
bunch of fresh dill, chopped
2-3 tbps freshly ground black pepper
lemon zest
cling wrap/aluminium foil for wrapping fish

Method
1. Clean and pat dry the fish
2. Mix salt and sugar till well incorporated
3. Add chopped dill, black pepper and lemon zest into the salt/sugar mix
4. Mix all them till well combined
5. Place one fish, skin side down on a cling wrap/foil
6. Cover the top and the sides with the curing mixture
7. Take the second fish with skin side up and cover the first fish
8. Wrap the fish tightly and place it on a tray
9. Place a chopping board or anything heavy on top of the wrapped fish
10.Keep in the fridge for at least 24 hrs
11.To serve, clean the fish by removing all the salt/sugar mixture
12.Remove skin and slice thinly
13.Serve on it's own or with salad

Kiam Chye & Chicken Soup

Had this during the later stage of my confinement. I needed something that is light and slight salty, so made this easy soup. Surprising, my daughters love it too.

As usual, an 'agaration' recipe.

Ingredients
1-2 pcs skinned chicken breast, cut into cubes
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 slice of ginger, slivered
chicken stock
1-2 tomatoes, chopped with seeds removed
kiam chye, washed and sliced
Enough water to boil
Salt & pepper to taste
Oil

Method
1. Heat oil in pot and stir fry garlic and ginger slices till fragrant
2. Add water and add chicken stock
3. Add chicken and kiam chye
4. Leave it to simmer till the chicken is cooked then add the tomatoes and further simmer for about 10mins
5. Add salt & pepper to taste and serve it hot

Marble Sourcream Pound Cake

I have been wanting to bake a rich buttery cake before my delivery but it didn't materialise. Finally after delaying for soo long, I had no choice but to get my butt to the kitchen and baked this, simply because the tub of sourcream was expiring soon.

The original recipe was shared by an online friend quite sometime back and I made it into a marble version. It came out perfect.

Ingredients
8oz butter
2 1/2 C sugar (original is 3 cups, I still find 2 1/2 c still sweet. You may want to reduce to 2 - 2 1/4 c instead)
250g sour cream (original is 1 cup)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups all-purpose flour
6 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 heapful tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

Method
1. Preheat oven to 170C
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter and sugar and beat till fluffy
3. Add the sourcream and mix until well incorporated
4. Sift baking soda and flour together and add to the creamed mixture alternating with eggs, beating each egg 1 at a time
5. Add vanilla and scoop out about 1/4 of the batter
6. Sift cocoa powder into the 1/4 batter and mix till well incorporated
7. Pour the original and chocolate batter alternately into a greased and floured tube pan
9. Use a knife to swirl the cake batter
10.Bake for 1 hour 20 minutes or till skewer comes out clean

Sroto

I would like to apologize from the bottom of my heart for not updating my blog for a very long time. With my new addition to the family is growing big, I managed to find some time to resume my baking and cooking.

So over the weekend, made this simple and less spicy version of a soto called Sroto. Don't ask me where it came from or why it's called Sroto because I don't have the answer for you .. heh But I do believe it could be an Indonesian dish but I have not idea where.

The recipe is taken off the local malay paper Berita Harian dated 22nd Jan by a well know chef/cooking instructor Aini Salim

Ingredients A
500 g beef (cut into 4)
3 bay leave
2 cm galangal/blue ginger (bruised)
1 tsp salt
4000 ml water

Ground Ingredients
8 cloves garlic
8 candlenut
1 tsp white pepper
2 slices fresh tumeric
6 tbsp oil for frying

Garnish
300g beansprouts
100g vermicilli (soaked in hot water and drained)
2 potatoes (sliced and then fried)
3 hardboiled eggs (sliced) - I also added quail eggs
1 cup toasted peanuts
fried shallots, spring onion and chinese celery for garnishing
lontong or ketupat


Method
1. Boil A till the meat is tender
2. Take the meat out and slice them thinly and strain the stock, put aside
3. Fry the ground ingredients till fragrant and pour it into the stock together with the beef slices
4. Simmer the soup till it boils, turn off fire
5. To serve, prepare a bowl with ketupat/longtong, vermicilli, beansprouts, beef slices, fried potatoes. Pour soup and garnish with fried shallots, chopped spring onions, chinese parsley and toasted peanuts. Top it with enough sambal.


Sambal Ingredients
30 chilli paid (steam and then pound)
40 g toasted peanut (finely ground)
6 tbsp kicap manis
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt (optional)

Method
1. Mixed all the ingredients till well blended

Note: You can replace it with chicken, but you only need half chicken and reduce water to 3500ml.