Thai steam fish with lime

The only thing I complaint about cooking this awesome recipes is that it is so hard to get fresh fish in KL. I do not have this trouble back in home town. Whenever I see fresh fish in the supermarket (sometimes I do get lucky) I get excited and will buy for one month stock.

This recipes is easy and tasty, it also does not take a lot of my time. Fish and rice ready within 30 minutes.

I personally love to have steam fish on a cold rainy day. This recipes reminds me a lot of my mom cooking, my mom can have boiled fish every single day for lunch and dinner. Typical Bajau Ubian boil fresh fish most of the time, they usually add lemon grass and lime juice in her boiled fish, and sometimes they add young mango in it. This recipes has not much different from what we cook in Borneo.

Tips: Fresh fish eyes are clear and has not gone cloudy.

Let us see the ingredients:

Recipe type : Main meal, lunch or dinner
Cuisine :Thai
Yield / Serves : 2
Prep time : 25 mins

Ingredients:
Item A
Sea bass or any white fish - 500 gm and scaled for spices to penetrate

Item B - Sauce
Lemon grass - 2 nos
Chopped garlic - 3 tbsp
Eye bird chilies - 7 nos
Lime juice - 3/4 cup
Fish sauce - 3 tbsp
Palm sugar syrup/white sugar - 2 tbsp
Water - 3 tbsp
Cilantro/chinese celery - 2 stalks cut into 1-inch piece

Method:
1. Steam Item A for 5 minutes in a high heat. Add Item B and close the steamer. Leave for another 5 minutes and turn off the stove.
2. Garnish with cilantro. Serve with rice.

Singaporean Chili Crab

This recipe reminds me so much of my brother, he can have this for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The whole family love it, this recipe is a keeper. If you have tried this recipe do leave me your feedback.

I'm not good at following the recipes given to me. I usually amend it according to my taste bud. As you know typical Singaporean crab has chillies, tomato paste and shrimp paste in it. My recipe will be slightly different, I added curry paste and curry leaves to enhance the flavour. It is not as spicy as you think, it doesn't add spicyness in the gravy but this will only to leave you of wanting more. You can skip them from the recipes and it still taste awesome.

I didn't use crab this time but use lobster instead. I like to impress my guess with my culinary skill. I will cook something like this, something different, rare or authentic. I like people to remember me because of my awesome tasty food. This is the recipe you looking for to entertain you guess. You can mix crab, lobster, prawn or any shellfish in this recipe. Ganish chopped corriender or scallion on top. Chili crab best to eat with  jasmine rice or roti.

Recipe type : Main dish, dinner or lunch
Cuisine : Fusion
Yield / Serves : 2
Prep time : 40 mins

Ingredients :
Item A
Mud crab - 1 kg and clean

Item B
Cooking oil - 2 tbsp
Curry leaves - 15 nos

Item C - Blend in a blender in to  paste
Onion - 2 nos
Garlic - 2 nos
Bird eye chilies/dried chilies - 8 nos

Item D - Mix all in to a paste
Tomato puree - 3 tbsp
Chili sauce - 2 tbsp
Chili powder - 1 tsp
Soy bean sauce - 1 tsp
Chicken curry powder - 1 tsp
Shrimp paste - 1 tsp
Oyster sauce - 1 tsp

Item E
Water - 2 cups
Egg - 1 no
Salt - 1 tsp
Sugar - 2 tsp
Lemon - 1 tbsp

Method:
1. Heat saucepan and add cooking oil.
2. Add item C, saute and leave for 5 minutes in a slow flame until the onions caramelised or transparent.
3. Add item D. saute for 5 minutes.
4. Add water, salt and sugar and leave to boil in medium flame for 15 minutes.
5. Add crab and stir well. Leave for 5 minutes.
6. Add lemon, stir well, leave for 2 minutes and turn off the stove.

Kerapu masak tiga rasa recipe

Ingredients:
1) 1 medium size fish - I used grouper/kerapu

2) Fry with 2.5 tbsp of vegetable oil
1 big onion
2 peeps of garlic
1 cm ginger
1 cm turmeric
5 kaffer lime leaves
2 tomatoes

3) 3 cups of water

4) 1 tbsp curry powder
1big lemongrass

2 tbsp tomato sauce

1 tbsp oyster sauce
1tsp fish sauce
Half cup of tamarind juice
Half cup of pineapple
2 red chilies
1 tsp salt and brown sugar
Kaffer lime leaves/lemon/onions/tomato for garnishing

Method:
1.  Heat up the oil and add in Items No 2, stir until golden brown. 
2.  Add in water leave to boil for few minutes.
3.  Add in items No 4. Leave for few minutes until you can see the oil floats to the top. 
4.  Place fish into boiling sauce and leave for 10 to 15 minutes. 
5.  Then add salt and brown sugar.
6.  Your kerapu masak tiga rasa is ready, don't forget to put red chilies, tomato, lemon or kaffer lime for garnishing. Dig in!

Tom Yum Recipe. 2 in 1

Sometimes we have to make a decision to let go of people or things in our lives. Some people can't let go and get worst. I've faced people like this many times in my life. I've tried to help and I ended up realizing that I just should avoiding them in the first place. Most people have a negative perspective of the way they deal with some situation. One good thing about me is I am good at reading people facial expressions. It is relatively easy to identify these facial expression. Not gonna tell you how and maybe Mr Google can help you on this. I use this "gift" wisely to communicate with people around me and it helps me a lot and make my job easier. So guy that just a brief description about me. Will tell you more on the next post.

Today recipe is special because a close friend of mine asked me how to make tom yum step by step. FYI this tom yum is so tasty. Won't get anything like this anywhere. And don't forget, please read Step 10 carefully!

The ingredients and method :

1. Boil 4 cups of water. Add in 2 lemongrass, 1 chopped onion, 2 peeps of garlics, 1 tsp chopped ginger, 8 bird's eye chilies, 1/2 cup chopped potato. Let it boil for 5 minutes.

2. Add Chinese cabbage, 1 chopped large tomato and 1 chopped tomato. Stir well and leave for  1 minute.

3. Add the 1/2 cup mackerel fish fillet, 8 prawns, 1 chopped squid (not in the picture). Let it boil for  3 minutes.

4. Add the 2 1/2 tbsp Tom yum paste, 1 1/2 tbsp Thai chili paste and 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce. Leave to boil for another 3 minutes. Stir well until fragrant and the soup has thicken.

5.  And lastly add the 6 kaffir lime leaves, 1 tbsp brown sugar and 1/2 tbsp salt.. Stir well.

6. Soup is ready.

7. In a soup bowl add the mee hoon and pour tom yum soup on it.

8. Cut the calamondin into half. Squiz  onto the soup.

9. And now your tom yum is ready to be eaten. 

10. As an addition you can add in button mushroom, fish cake, bean curd puff and etc. But it's not gonna taste like Thai tom yum anymore! This what you call Chinese tom yum style. Which serves in Chinese Yong Tau Foo Restaurant. Tom yum originated in Thailand, so it gotta be Thai!!  Tom yum should just without this process foods. I included them in the picture so you can decide whether to make Thai tom yum or Chinese tom yum style! 2 in 1 recipe indeed!

Chilli mussels recipe

This is my most exotic favourite seafood. It smells so good and taste better. This is such a brilliant dish. Quick and easy to prepare. Have been making this for years and never dissappointed. Serve with bread or plain white rice. 

I've written the simpliest method for you to follow. 

Ingredients :
I kg mussels

Item A
5 peeps of garlics
1 large lemongrass
3 kaffir lime leaves, chopped

Item B
10 bird's eye chilies
6tbsp blended chilies
2 tbsp chili sauce
2 tbsp sweet soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1/3 cup of tamarind juice
1/2 tbsp of tomyam paste
2 cups water

Item C
A pinch of salt
Spring onion/pasrsley, chopped
6 kaffir lime leaves

Method : 
1. Heat up the cooking oil and add Item A. Stir until all ingredients caramelized.
2. Add Item B one by one. Leave to boil for 8 minutes. Stir well until fragrant and the sauce has thicken.
3. Add the muscles. At this point you will have to wait until the oil floats up.

4. And lastly sprinkle Item C and stir well.

5. Serve immediately.

Nasi lemak and squid sambal (Sambal sotong)

Last night I cooked nasi lemak and squid sambal and it was delicious.. been trying to look for a perfect sambal recipe but failed. After one experiment after another, I think I just nailed it this time. If you like it hot add more chili paste, it won't spoil the taste. Absolutely simple recipe and easy to make..you wont spend so much time in the kitchen.

SERVING SUGGESTION : Serve nasi lemak together with small chunks of cucumber, peanuts, fried dried anchovies and fried chicken or rendang chicken. Its better to serve your nasi lemak and sambal in a banana leave! The aroma of banana leaves will give extra fragrance and taste to the rice! And for your information sambal tastes much better the next day! 


Nasi lemak :

Ingredients : Put below ingredients together in a rice cooker
2 cups rice (washed)
2 inches ginger
6 kaffir lime leaves
2 pandan leaves
1 cup water

When rice almost cook or dry, add in below items and stir well. Leave to cook.
1 or 1/2 cup coconut milk
A pinch of salt

Squid sambal :

Ingredients :
Item A
500 gms squids

Item B
Cooking oil
1 red onion (cut into small chunks)

Item C : Blend
1 big onion
1 inch fresh tumeric
1 cup water
1 cup dried chili paste
1/4 cup of dried anchovies
4 red onions
2 garlics

Item D
1/2 cup tamarind juice
1 tsp shrimp paste (Belacan)
A pinch of sugar and salt

Method :
1.  Heat up cooking oil  into a pan and fry onion  If you wants to keep sambal for few days, its better to put extra cooking oil, it will helps fermented the sambal.
2. Add in blended items and stir well until you can see the oil floats to the top (when oil separates)
3. And its time to add in squids, stir well until fragrant. At this time you will have to wait until the oil floats up again and add in Item B. Stir for 1 minute and you are done!

Pulut Udang/Grilled sticky rice with prawn and coconut filling

Back in my hometown, I used to ask my Aunt to make this for me, but she ended up selling it for profit instead.. hehehe.  Pulut udang is one of my favourite for tea time.  Seating down in front of the TV and eating it with tea or coffee.. NICE! Three days ago I had some spare time so I decided to do my own.  Lots of blogger were blogging this recipe.. so I "edited" the recipe to my own liking. It's damn delicious!

Ingredients:
1) Rice : 300 gm glutinous rice
200ml cocounut milk
A little bit of water

2) Sambal : Blend
Half cup of dried prawns
3 peeps of garlics
6 red onions
2 cm ginger
9 dried chilies
2 lemongrass
Half tsp fenel

3) 2 tbsp cooking oil
200 gm grated coconut
Banana leaves
Lidi ( middle stick of coconut leaves) or skewer

Method :
1.  Soak rice for 10 hours.  
2.  Steam rice until half cook then add in coconut milk leave until cook
3.  Heat up cooking oil and add in blended ingredients until fragrant and add in grated coconut.  Fry until its turn reddish and dry up.
4. Place rice in the middle of banana leave (9' X 11').  Add in sambal on top of the rice and roll/wrap them together.  
5. Put stick into the banana leaves wrapper. This step will stop rice from coming out from the banana leaves wrapper.
6. Bake/grill in the oven at 170C for 10 minutes.

Crab curry recipe

This the most expensive dish I have ever cooked in my life.  But trust me it's really satisfying when it tastes dammmn marvellous! A friend of mine helped me to cook and I've got this recipe from him! My mom and brother liked it so much. I couldn't stop licking my finger.. heheh. Follow the simple method below and your crab should taste the same...yummy!

Ingredients :

1 kg crabs or lobster
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 onion sliced
1 spring curry leaves
2 inch cinnamon stick
2 onions, blend

2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin powder

4 cups water
500 ml coconut milk
3 coriander leaves 
1 tsp vinegar
2  medium size eggs
10 pieces dried chillies
1 tsp salt

Method :
1. Clean crabs. 
2. Fry onions and curry leaves  and cinnamon on hot wok till fragrant. Add in blended onions and fry until brownish. Add in the chilli powder, curry powder and cumin powder, stir for 5 minutes. Add in water and let it boil for 5 minutes.
3. And add in crabs and stir until crabs covered with the spices. 
4. Add the coconut milk, coriander leaves and vinegar. Stir and leave for 10 minutes.
5. Add the eggs, dried chillies and salt. 
6. Off stove right after you see oil floats to the top.

Sweet sour fish recipe

Last month my brother came for a visit and he brought me some fresh fish from Sabah (Borneo). This is one of the last fish we had left in the  fridge. Actually I have never eaten sweet sour garupa here in KL/Selangor,  So I came up with the recipe below to suit my taste buds and as usual it turned out nicely... hehehe (smug face).  Loveee the natural colouring in it, the lemongrass smell and the sweet pineapple, nyum nyummy! Worth trying!

Ingredients:
1) 2 medium size white fish (Fry with flour)

2) Blend:
4 pieces asam gelugor
1 big onion
2 peeps of garlic
1 cm ginger
1 big lemongrass
2cm turmeric

3) 1 onion (cut into small pieces)
1 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp tomata sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1tsp fish sauce
Half cup of tamarind juice
Half cup of pineapple
Tomato
2 red chilies
Kaffer lime leaves/lemon/onions for garnishing

Method:
1.  Heat up the oil and add in onion, stir until golden brown.
2.  Add the blended items and stir until fragrant.
3.  Add in all the sauces, then tamarind juice, pineapple, and tomato. Leave for few minute until you can see the oil floats to the top.
4.  Your sauce is ready, pour sauce onto the fish, but don't forget to put red chilies and kaffer lime for garnishing.

Sekincan Ikan Bakar Recipe (Grilled fish my style)

Can't get my eyes off this fish.. hahaha. My brother brought this fish all the way from Sabah. It weighed almost 2 kgs! When I'm thinking of how to cook fish, the first thing that comes to mind is I will grill it. I like anything with lemongrass in my recipes, love the lemon mint taste, like very fragrant with light hint of a ginger taste . Without wasting anytime I decided to grill.

I went to Sekinchan Ikan Bakar Restaurant to have their popular (ikan bakar)/grilled cheap fish and had to pay an unbelievable price. I was a little bit upset  to pay my hard-earned money for that cheap fish, so I told myself not to go there anymore.  I'm not a stingy person, but I want something that is  worth for paying for, feel guilty though. Money does not come from the drain alright! Well I'm not going to complaint how good or nasty their grilled fish was, but I have designed a recipe which is slightly like the Sekinchan Ikan Bakar Restaurant has! Bye bye Sekinchan, I am going to cook at home for good!

Ingredients :
1 red/white fish (I used white fish)
3 tbsp cooking oil
2 lemongrass
Kaffir lime leaves
Half cup of tamarind juice
2 tbsp of tomyam paste
Banana leaves or aluminium foil

Blend :
8 dried chililes
5 red onions
5 garlics
2 lemongrass
1/2 tsp belacan/shrimp paste
1/2 tsp dried shrimp
Salt and brown sugar


Grill Temperature : 200 C
Grill Time : 45 minutes


Method :
1.  Heat up cooking oil and add the blended items. Stir well until fragrant or lightly brown.
2. And when you can see the cooking oil floats to the top add in lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, tamarind juice and tomyam paste and leave for 5 minutes.
4. Put sauce over fish and wrap it in aluminium foil.
3. Leave fish in the oven for 45 minutes.

Crab with soy sauce

Most people love mud crabs but I loveee blue crabs which are sweeter and cleaner. You can easily get big fat blue crabs in Sabah off the South China Sea and they are a lot cheaper there too!

Back in my hometown in Sabah (Borneo) my brother used to bring giant crabs for me almost every morning! And am happy to say I kinda got addicted to it. I remember he used to advise me not to eat crab everyday because he said if I ate crab everyday, my body will feel weak... it's kinda weird to say something like that but I never asked him why he said so..  And I told him that he was wrong because crab always makes me excited, I feel energized and excited whenever I am eating crab! Hahaha.

He is my younger brother. I've got 2 more younger brothers after him and I am the only girl in the family. When he was in secondary school he loved to go fishing with friends.  Once he came back home in the middle of the night.  The next day a friend of mine told me that my brother fell asleep in class. Back then I often worried about him and his studies as he liked to spend time talking about fishing all the time with his friends at the jetty. My dad worried too that he would not be getting anywhere in life.

Today, everything has changed. He proved me and everyone at home wrong! He transformed his interest to a career and now he is supplying fresh seafood to restaurants, hotels and wet markets around Kota Kinabalu and also receiving some orders from suppliers in Peninsular Malaysia. I'm proud of him.

So when he came to visit last month, I cooked these especially for him and I am glad he loved it to the max! I think this is the most delicious crab dish I ever cooked. You may as well try this recipe. Served best during special occasions such as family gathering.


Ingredients:
10 boiled crabs

1) Heat up cooking oil and add in below:

2 holland onions (blend)
6 shallot (blend)
6 pips garlic (blend)
2 inches galangal (blend)
2 inches ginger (blend)
2 lemon grass (blend)

2) wait until above ingredients caramelized, and add in below until fragrant and the sauce has thicken

6 tbsp chili paste
2 tbsp thick soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp chili sauce

3) and lastly add in below wait for 3 mins, pour onto the crabs and you are done!
salt and brown sugar
2 tbsp tamarind paste