Pan fried Salmon Fillets with tomatoes and sage butter sauce

Can you think of even one Chinese dish that uses olive oil?  I can't !!  i cook everyday and not necessary chinese and i do not cook with Olive Oil until as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received Crisco Olive Oil. and the Light Tasting Olive Oil which was recommended for frying caught my attention. It's about time that i have to think of my family's health and according to a well known chinese chef, that when cooking with Olive oil , the ingredients don’t absorb large amounts of olive oil as they do with other types of oil, thus will help reduce calories.

Eclair

I have made eclairs and i have made eclairs, also i have made cream puffs but what is the difference between a cream puff and an eclair?  Both are made with choux pastry, so, shape is only essential difference.  Every time i make a batch of choux pastry, i will pipe some round and some long.  To my grand kids, don't ask if they want cream puffs or eclairs.  Renee will say she wants the round ones and Alexander prefers the long ones - no name calling.  To me, somehow the round ones - cream puffs are more photogenic but eclair is the ugly duckling.  I could never get a good shot and strangely, when i think it looked good, it was out of focus.  I think i got a lucky break when i found this éclair à la vanille from this cookbook - Laduree: The Sweet Recipes.  The recipe started with making a vanilla pâte sablée which is rolled onto a thin layer and place on top of each éclair.  When you bake  them, the sablée melts into the choux and gets mostly incorporated, making a perfect éclair, with a thin crunchy layer on top.  You would not have guessed that this thin layer could kick up the eclair with pronouced butter and vanilla flavor.  I have changed the recipe but the idea was adapted from this cookbook.

Twice Baked Potatoes

Potatoes need no introduction and bla bla bla about how good and bad they are.  I just would like to let you all know about toxicity in potatoes. I am sure many of us did not realise that potato plant poisoning occurs when someone eats the green tubers or new sprouts of the potato plant. The poison is found throughout the plant, but especially in green potatoes and new sprouts. Never eat potatoes that are spoiled or green below the skin, always throw away the sprouts  (the green is due to a high concentration of the glycoalkaloid poison).  Potatoes that are not green and have had any sprouts removed are safe to eat.  Read more from Snopes.com

I had the most embarassing moment showing my ignorance of my cantonese language.  I have always known the Potato in cantonese is 'Shi Chai' and i also know that there is a vegetable which is called  'Shi Chai Choy'.  If i translate 'Shi Chai Choy'  into english, it would be 'The leaves or shoots of the potato plant'.  OK, here is the embarassing moment - when a friend in Los Angeles told me that he was able to plant 'Shi Chai Choy' and the plant thrived very well in his garden, i was excited and asked if he ever got any potatoes from the root.  He laughed his head off and i did not know how stupid i was.  Then he told me - aunty lily, 'shi chai' is 'small tree' - shi for tree and chai for small/baby.  See, you never cease to learn no matter how old you are but i still do not know why potato is called 'shi chai'.  Calling it 'holland shi' made more sense - the dutch could have introduced it when they were in Malacca.

Now back to the recipe that i am sharing, Twice Baked Potatoes.  It is a very popular side dish that goes well with any meat or poultry and is healthier than fries.

Fish Maw Soup

In Cantonese culinary, 鲍参翅肚 (abalone, sea cucumber, shark fin, and fish stomach) are considered the top four gourmet items from the sea. The fish stomach referenced here is the fish maw.


For those who don’t know, fish maw is the air bladder (also called swim bladder) that is found in all fish except sharks and rays. The maws served in restaurants are usually from the conger pikes. The cleaned maw is dried and then deep fried to make it puffy. In this state it will keep indefinitely. . The maw in itself is a texture ingredient only, it has no fishy taste, and is usually cooked with other strongly flavoured ingredients.it takes on the flavor of surrounding ingredients it is cooked with like a sponge.


Like a lot of ingredients in Chinese culinary traditions, the fish maw is an excellent source of collagen and is
regarded as a nourishing tonic that helps blood circulation and beneficial to the general health. 


Now we know what they are, how can we prepare them for cooking? 


Fish maws are sold dried in two forms – deep fried or non-deep fried. Deep fried fish maws are puffy, light and look like a yellow sponge or pork rind. Whereas the other type is in stiff, cream-colored sheet. For the deep fried ones, all you have to do is to soak them in cold water or simmer to reconstitute to rid of some of the oil.  For the non-deep fried ones,  deep fry them in moderately hot oil until it puffs up and become white. Then soak it until pliable and also to remove some of the oil.  Repeat the soaking if necessary.  The fish maw is now ready and good to go, just cut them into slices of desired size.

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Yau Yee Cheng Chee Yoke/Steamed Ground Pork With Dried Squid

This dish is without a doubt in any MOM's repertoire, asian moms that is.  Steaming ground pork and adding whatever to enhance the ground pork has been cooked and served since time immemorial.  This  was classified as homecooking but no more, it has appeared in the menu of chinese restaurants and has no dimarcation, the rich, poor, young or old, at some point of their lives must have encountered tasting this dish.  Busy MOMs love cooking this dish as it takes a very short time to prepare especially nowadays when pork comes already ground and there is no need to start a steamer to steam, just leave the uncooked prepared dish on top of the rice while it is on its last stage of cooking.

Buttermilk Scones

Using buttermilk, instead of heavy cream, makes a lighter, more bread-like scone. They are baked at a higher than normal oven temperature which gives them a darker, crispier crust. Buttermilk has a nice thick creamy texture with a rich tangy buttery taste that makes baked goods tender. It is now commercially made by adding a bacteria to whole, skim, or low fat milk. However, in the past it was the liquid left over after churning butter. You can make your own by adding 1 tablespoon of white distilled vinegar, cider vinegar, or lemon juice to 1 cup of milk. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes before using.

Plain scones are traditionally served warm, split open, and topped with butter, jam or preserves, clotted cream, and/or lemon curd. However, many of the scone recipes today that are flavored with fruits, spices, nuts, zests are best eaten plain.

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Coconut Milk Egg White Tart

Julie, a reader of my blog, requested if i have a recipe for this egg tart. She said that she does not know how to call this tart, so do I !!!.   I have not heard of it, she said she ate them in Hong Kong and  I regreted that she did not ask me a year ago cos i was in Hong Kong last year and would have gone to get some.  Julie, thank you for introducing me to this tart and have the confidence in me to try and build up a recipe from looking at a picture.  i don't know if i got it right but this is my first try and i should say, it was tremendously delicious.  Julie, i hope you will try to make them and give me a feedback. 

The first few tarts i baked, it was just coconut milk, water, cornstarch, sugar and egg white, it set beautifully but the white color is not prominent, so i added a tbsp of milk powder to the custard mixture and the second batch turned out more appealing and the taste had more depth.