When Don from Simplybest From Food and Life posted Gravlax, i told her that i have not tasted Gravlax before and she gave me a lengthy tutorial on how to cure the salmon. Don and I chat on skype ever so often and it does not necessary the both of us, when we see Peng online, she will be added to the conference and the three of us will chat until the cows come home, that is 'the cows in Germany'. I knew Don from way back when food forums were very popular, we were very active members and we met many other members who were just as passionate in cooking and baking. Although most food forums died naturally, our friendship continued to another level, we chat on skype.
Nothing new or exciting ever happen in Aurora(this is my opinion only) but when IKEA officially opened its store, almost all coloradans had to visit it and that included yours truly. It caused massive congestion, not only the traffic was affected, the queue in the food court was more than a mile long. My daughter, Sandra and i had ample time to choose what we would like to eat as the line was long.....and while we were nearing the dish that we like, the lady in front of us, pointing to the dish and saying out loud - How digusting !!!!!. Sandra looked at me and i returned eye contact with her and wondered???? What is wrong with the Gravlax Salad that we wanted to eat so badly? We looked at all the plates of Gravlax Salad on display, they looked perfectly fine. They turned out to be the best salad i have ever eaten.(i am not a salad fan). After tasting that delicious cured salmon, i thought of Don's tutorial and i must get some salmon fillets for curing. I have always mentioned to friends that if you wish hard enough, you will get your wish granted. I wished i had salmon fillets and i had a box of freshly caught salmon from Alaska, frozen and perfectly packed. Thank you Andy for fulfilling my wish, now i can make Gravlax . i did cure 2 pieces of salmon and they were better than what i had for lunch at IKEA. Thank you Don and Andy , i hope you will cure some following this recipe. This recipe is for one pound of salmon fillet and you would have to calculate the other ingredients according to the weight of the salmon fillets.
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.
This dish is simple to prepare and it is considered as Mom's cooking. I don't know about other Moms but i do know that my Mom love to cook this and the whole family loved the dish. After the family laid my Mom to rest last year, my brother took us out for lunch and he ordered this dish. It was then that he told me the name of this dish - Lo Sui Ping On. Wow, what a befitting name!! "Lo" in cantonese means elderly; "Siu" means the young; "Ping On" means safe and sound. Thus, this dish is safe and sound for both the young and elderly. The two main ingredients, tofu and fish paste, prove themselves to be safe without a doubt. The elderly can enjoy this dish without much chewing or getting choked, while the moms can confidently feed this dish to their young ones, without having to worry about fish bones.. Hence, both are both safe and sound.
What is Whitebait? Read about it in Wiki. I have always known it to be called "Ngan Yee Chai" translated literally from cantonese will be "Silver Fish". and when i googled for more info, i was horrified that the 'paramites' that we find in our old forgotten books are also called 'Silver Fish' - i have totally forgotten about these, perhaps at this age of computers, who goes to look for any info amongst the old books? These Whitebaits are soft and tasty when fried or steamed with eggs but they can be scary, talking about westerners being afraid of fish eyes when served a whole cooked fish. In this platter, there were hundreds and more, but they were so tiny, they were like specks and i told a lie by saying that they were cracked black pepper. I got away with this lie and the dish was received with no complains, they licked the platter clean.
This Squirrel Fish is the most well-known fish dish in Jiangsu cuisine and in chinese, 松鼠鱖魚. Animal lovers please do not be alarmed, there are no actual squirrels involved.
In making this dish, a whole fish is deboned with the fillet still attached to the tail, the fillet is then cut in a cross-hatch pattern and when deep fried, will look like a squirrel in flight. The sauce served with it, is a sweet, slightly tangy and pleasantly red, of which the main ingredient is tomato ketchup. Red is the auspicious color for the chinese, so this sauce is most appropriate for the Chinese New Year.
Like a lot of Chinese dishes, there is a story behind the dish "Squirrel Fish."
Apparently, a long time ago, an Emperor wanted to eat carp, but carp was verboten, forbidden by his own laws. Of course, being the Emperor, he wanted to get his waym and told his chef that his head would be on the ground if he was not served carp.. His chef then had to devise a way to make the carp un-carplike and using his kitchen techniques , made the fish to look like a flying squirrel instead. Good job, Chef, I bet you kept your head and a higher hat bestowed by the Emperor to put on it.
As part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program, I received 2 bottles of Pace Picante sauce and both bottles were 'medium' and would have loved them more if i had 'HOT'
