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Sweet and Sour Fish Recipe (Black Pomfret) 甜酸熏鲳鱼

Tuesday, July 27, 2010 | Labels: , | 8 Comments »

Although the name of this dish is simply 'sweet and sour' - the dimension of taste far exceeds just sweet and sour, the essential chilli peppers give the dish some heat (spiciness) while a little bit of soy blends in some saltiness.  I suppose the flavour missing in the traditional five flavours is bitterness! This is a family favourite of mine and apart from being absolutely delicious, the dish is also very colourful (red actually!) and hence auspicious looking. Check out my sweet and spicy prawns recipe for another auspicious looking and sounding dish.  This recipe differs from most sweet and sour fishes offered by restaurants as the latter usually serve up battered fishes in sweet and sour sauces.  Pan-frying requires a bit more patience and in my opinion is tastier as it soaks up the sauce better and will not have the sogginess factor.  This sauce is delicious with other seafood as well like squid, crabs (add an egg) and shrimp, just to name a few.  I believe that most of the sweet and sour Chinese dishes originated from the province of Guangdong as Cantonese cuisine has always been famous for its' sweet and sour recipes, amongst others.

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Note however that this dish differs from another popular variety of sweet and sour fish which is usually cooked with carp in China (糖醋鱼) which literally translates to 'sugar vinegar fish'.  As for the fish of choice today, I used black pomfret for this dish as this fish is highly suitable for pan-frying as the skin does not come off easily - the black pomfret or 熏鲳鱼 is a highly sought after fish for many dishes due to its' firm flesh and relatively non-fishy flavour.  Its' more expensive cousin, the silver or white pomfret is more suitable for steaming mainly due to the 'sweeter' flavour of its' flesh.

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Pan-fried Steak with Mushroom Onion Sauce Recipe

Friday, July 23, 2010 | Labels: , | 9 Comments »

This recipe is something I created on the fly as I really felt like having steak - I was lucky as I had mushrooms and fresh onions in the fridge. This steak is great served on top of pasta or just simply on its' own. This is a quick and easy sauce that goes well with chicken as well - I think cleaning or tidying up the fridge always gives me good ideas when it comes to creating quick recipes as there is a dual objective - apart from cooking tasty food, the other objective is to maximise the usage of the ingredients left in the fridge before they go bad! Garnish with some chopped chives or green onions.

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If you don't have onions handy, you can substitute with shallots, where the latter will have a slightly stronger flavour.

Preserved Chinese Vegetables (Mustard Green) with Pork Stir-fry Recipe

Sunday, July 18, 2010 | Labels: , , , , | 4 Comments »

The preserved mustard green or zha cai (榨菜) which is often spicy is definitely my favourite among the plethora of Chinese preserved vegetables available. For the uninitiated however, Chinese preserved vegetables may be too pungent in scent and appear rather unpalatable. The preserved vegetable of choice today is often marinated in salt and chilli peppers, this variety of preserved vegetables is also known as Sichuan preserved vegetables. Preserved vegetables are also conveniently sold in packets in slices or for the more inclined, one can also purchase the vegetables 'loose' which is what I prefer due to the richer flavours of the latter form.

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Zha cai can be cooked in many ways - a popular recipe using zha cai (榨菜) is noodles with zha cai and pork slices (榨菜肉絲麵), zha chai also perfectly complements plain white congee. Today I decided to simply stir-fry this flavourful vegetable with pork slices. I like to add a pinch of sugar to bring out the soury and spicy flavours in the zha cai.




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