Steamed fish fillets, surimi with glass noodles

Happy Lunar New Year!
I have this carp fillets sitting in the freezer and since I'm unfamiliar with this fish, I was wondering what to cook with it. My thought process was, ok nothing too complicated like frying and too much effort since I'm not sure ..hahaa. So, let's just steam it in garlic, soy, shaosing wine and oil. Simple enough

Steamed carp fish fillets , surimi with glass noodles
Inspired by Thai steamed prawns like this one by The Woks of Life

Ingredients
350gm fish fillets
100gm glass noodles, soaked in warm water for 10-15 mins. until softened
Surimi sticks, imitation crab meat

seasoning
salt, to taste
2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
oil for sauté
soy sauce, to taste
sugar, to taste
water, not too much
a dash of shaoxing wine (I've substitute with white wine)

Garnishing
Spring onions, green only
Coriander / Parsley leaves

Preparations:-
1) First prep. glass noodles as mentioned above. Set aside. You can do this in advance and keep in the fridge until you need it.
2) Start by heating water in your steamer. Meanwhile, on a plate, big enough for steamer. Lay the soaked glass noodles evenly. Then place the fish fillets/surimi sticks on top. Sprinkle salt over the fish, to taste
3) In a jar, mix together soy sauce, sugar, water and dash of shaoxing wine. Pour over the fish and glass noodles.
4) Sauté finely chopped garlic in oil, don't burn it.When ready pour all over fish and glass noodles.
5) When water is boiling in steamer, place the fish platter into steamer and steam for 10 mins. After 10 mins. check for doneness. If not continue to steam for another 5 and check again until it is ready.
6) Serve immediately garnished with spring onions and coriander/parsley.

Homemade Yee Sang / Yusheng

To understand what this is all about , please visit wiki

Homemade Yee Sang / Yusheng

Ingredients
carrots, julienned
daikon, julienned (I've used local white radish)
cucumber, julienned
pomelo segments then into pieces (I've substitute with grapefruits) 
+ and other crispy vegetables to your liking
raw salmon (I've used smoked)
friend wonton skin (I've homemade based on this recipe by kitchen simplicity  )

Garnish
pinch of 5-spice powder
pince of white pepper


pickled Japanese ginger (I've made my own by shred ginger finely+water+brown sugar+salt+vinegar)

Salad dressing
Plum sauce (I've used apricot jam)
sesame oil
1 lime juice
pickling juice from ginger

Methods :-
1) Prep. the ingredients the vegetables and fruit. Put the prepped veg., pomelo, fried wonton skin and salmon in a bowl or arrange nicely on a plate. Sprinkle on the seasoning. Mix all the salad dressing ingredients together. Drizzle salad dressing all over the bowl/plate. Check seasoning, adjust if need to. Mix well and serve.

Hungarian Fish Soup { Halászlé}

 
Hungarian fish soup is a must during Christmas time; however, we love our fish soup, so I try to cook it as often as possible. The recipe that I am about to share might not be from scratch as most Hungarian would cook it, but this is how my late father-in-law did his. And this version is so easy that it is ready in just an hour!

Hungarian Fish Soup
Serves : 4-5 pax

Ingredients
1 whole carp, filleted or 3 frozen fillets of white wish (defrosted)
1 medium-size Onion, sliced or minced
1 medium-size tomato, quartered
1 Hungarian green pepper, halved
3 tsp of smoked paprika powder (spicy or sweet) - you can also mix, eg. 1/3 sweet + 2/3 spicy
1 ltr of water
fish paste concentrate,
fish stock cubes, to taste

To serve : Match stick pasta

Method
1) Sauté onion with some oil in a pot. When onion is soften, remove from heat and put in the smoked paprika. Stir it a bit , add a little cold water and return it to the stove, let it come to a boil.
2) When the liquid boils, you can add in the green pepper,  tomtato and salt. Cook until pepper and tomato are almost done. Then add in fish paste and fish stock cube and simmer further for 20 mins.
3) Add in the fish fillets and cook until done. Do not over cook fish.
4) Serve very hot with match stick pasta.

If you wish to try cooking the soup from scratch, this link may be helpful.

Canned sardines fish curry

I love sardines! Fresh sardines are of course better than canned but I have been eating canned sardines since I remember. Anyway, canned sardines can be very versatile. You can use them as filling for sandwich or empanadas, serve them with rice and make into curry like I did recently.


Canned Sardines Fish Curry
serves : 2-3 pax

Ingredients
2 cans x 90 gm sardines in tomato sauce
1 medium onion, slice
3 cloves garlic, mince
cooking oil
red or green chilli, slice, to taste
1 dried bay leaf
salt & pepper
lemon or lime

spice paste
2 tsps ground paparika powder, spicy
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 dash of fennel seeds
a little water

Optional2 medium potatoes, diced
Hard boiled eggs

Method
1) Mix ingredients for spice paste together with a little water. Set aside.
2) Heat a little oil, sauté sliced onion until translucent and then add in the minced garlic. Cook until garlic is fragrant. Next pour in the spice paste and bring it to a boil. Be careful not to burnt it.
3) If you're using potatoes, add in now, and pour in tomato sauce from canned sardine (not incl. the sardines) , if the liquid is not enough to barely cover the potatoes, add in some stock or water. Throw in the red / green chillies and dried bay leaf. Let this cook for a bit until potato is ready.
4) Once potatoes is ready add in the sardines and simmer for 10 mins. and it is ready.
5) You can add hard boiled eggs into the gravy before serving with your choice of carbs.

Instant Fish soup

Instant Fish soup
serves 4-6 pax

6 white fish fillets
2 Tbsp Paprika oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp ground corriander
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
about 250ml water
about 250ml milk *
2 Tbsp sour cream *
1 Tbsp flour *
1 fish stock cube
salt & pepper, to taste
chopped parsley or dill, to garnish
vermicelli or any kind of pasta / noodles, to serve

* you may substitute milk with coconut milk. if coconut milk is being used, sour cream and flour can be eliminated

Steps
1) In a pot, heat paprika oil, sauté onions until translucent. Stir-in the spices and minced garlic, fry until fragrant, be careful not to burn spices. add a little water to the pot and let it come to a boil. Once boiling, you can add remaining water and heat until the liquid come to a boil again.
2) Once the liquid starts to boil, put in the fish stock cube you can add in milk and meanwhile mix together sour cream and flour until smooth, add this mixture in as well. Let it come to a boil.
3) Finally, add in the fish fillets and cook for a few minute or until fish is cooked through.
4) Serve hot with your favourite pasta or noodles, garnish with parsley or dill.

Baked fish with spicy stuffing

Seafood is rather expensive here as Hungary is a landlock country. On top of that the current economy only result in even higher prices for "fresh" sea fish. So I've opted for frozen fish from the hyper mart to sooth my craving for sea fish. Last week, I tried this "HEKK" brand and it tasted fine; unlike some of the frozen fish on sale, this doesn't smell and taste too fishy. Sorry I couldn't recognise and name the type of fish that I ate (!) because I just realised that it only says tengeri hal (sea fish) on the packet ... hmm..

If you can find fresh mackerel in your market, this recipe would work well with it! If not, you can always trial on other fish available to you.

Baked fish with spicy "salsa" stuffing
Serves : 2

Ingredients
450gm Fish, washed and cleaned
salt & white pepper, to taste
rice flour (or plain flour) , for coating
oil for frying

Spicy "salsa" stuffing
1/2 red onion, chopped
1/2 tomato, chopped
parsley, chopped
salt & pepper, to taste
soya sauce, to taste
sugar, to taste
erős pista (or sambal oelek), to taste

1) Pre-heat oven
2) Blend together ingredients for salsa.
3) Pat dry fish after washing and cleaning. Slit the top part of fish for stuffing.
4) With high heat, heat oil in a non-stick pan or wok. *oil must be hot otherwise fish will soaked up oil*
5) Season fish with salt and white pepper to taste
6) Stuff the salsa into the slit, keeping aside some for topping *do not over stuffed as it would result in stuffing spill out during frying*
7) Lightly coat fish with rice flour (or plain flour)
8) When oil is hot, carefully place fish in pan/wok and fry until lightly golden
7) Remove lightly golden fish from frying pan/wok, drain away access oil and place fish in baking dish. Top remaining salsa on fish. Bake until salsa is browned and crispy.
8) Serve immediately with rice.

** You can also grill fish in banana leaf. Even more YUMMY!