assam fish

why?

I was craving for curry since Sunday night!
I wanted to get my hands on some Maggi Curry noodles at about 8pm, then progressively by 10pm I was dreaming of dousing steam rice with spoonfuls of Fish Head curry gravy. I had to convince myself that going straight to bed would put a stop to my curry cravings.
However, suddenly, yesterday morning when I woke up, that curry craving began to plague me again!! Oh before you think I am carrying a baby and hence all these cravings, I would like to declare that I AM NOT PREGNANT! Just because a woman craves for something, does not mean she's pregnant! I have cravings all the time and thank God this came in the morning, so I could plan to satisfy my craving with cooking! I began to surf the net for recipes and decided to experiment and rely on agar-ration!

failure?

I could not find mackeral at the supermarket and had to settle for Song Fish (I really have no idea what type of fish this is). This fish was not firm like mackeral but instead pretty soft and bordering on mushy! Perhaps I should have gone for salmon instead :( Also, next time, I would cook the fish before throwing in the vegetables, they did get a little mushy as well.

success?

Yuummmmyyyyyy!!! Here's the recipe:

Assam Fish(serves 3)

INGREDIENTS:

600g of fish(mackeral)

1 small brinjal

10 lady's finger

1 can of sliced pineapple cut in quarters (save the syrup)

1 handful of laksa leaves

1 packet of assam/tamarind

(soaked in 300ml of water and throw away the seeds)

salt and sugar to taste

(A)

4 stalks of lemongrass(use only the white part)

1 medium white onion

1 bulb of garlic

10 red chilli deseeded

2.5cm tumeric/ 2 tsp tumeric powder

1cm ginger

METHOD:

1. Pound (A) into a paste
2. Fry the paste in 3 tbs of vegetable oil till fragrant
3. Add in the fish to coat with the paste and fry
4. Add in the laksa leaves, assam water and pineapple syrup
5. Bring to boil then add in all the vegetables
6. Bring to boil again and simmer for 20 min
7. Season with sugar and salt

Vietnamese pork chop rice

why?

LR just simply cannot live without pork and Vietnamese cuisine. It's the sweet and savoury combination that he adores. Whenever we visit Le Viet, we would both order the Grilled meat with vermicelli and douse the dish in the fish sauce without fail, unless on a really cold and rainy day (very unlikely in Singapore), I might go for the Beef Pho! So anyway, I wanted to do the 'exact' dish that we always order, but LR who is so particular about textures in food, insist that the usual beehoon is not the same as Vietnamese vermicelli *sigh* So to get around this, I will focus on the Grilled Meat and serve with rice!

success?

Yummmmyyyyy!!! LR gave his stamp of approval and even LR's mom who eats really little, finished up the 4 pieces given to her.

Here's the recipe:

Vietnamese Pork Chop (serves 3)

INGREDIENTS

400g of pork loin sliced 1/2 an inch thick

3 tomatoes, sliced

1 Japanese cucumber, sliced

(A)

3 stalks of lemongrass, use the bottom half and save the top part of the stalk

5 cloves of garlic

5 small shallots

(B)

2 tbs of brown sugar

1 tbs of fish sauce

1 tbs of light soya sauce

A dash of pepper

2 tbs sesame seeds

(C)

1 carrot, very thinly shredded

3 tbs of lemon juice

3 tbs of water

1 tbs of white vinegar

White sugar to taste

METHOD

1. Use the back of a cleaver, hammer gently the pork slices to tenderise them
2. Pound (A) together in a a mortar and pestle
3. Mix (B)
4. Marinate the pork slices thoroughly with (A) and (B)
5. Leave in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours
6. Cook rice with the top half of the lemongrass stalk for fragrant rice
7. Prepare the sauce with (C) and refrigerate.
8. Fry/ Grill the pork till slightly charred on each side
9. Serve with sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, rice and sauce at the side

failure?

My sauce still needs tweeking... maybe it's the fish sauce, I've been using the Thai fish sauce instead of the Vietnamese one. Don't know!

chicken sandwhich

traditional white bread

mushroom soup 2

frutti yogurt

chicken hamburg