Baked Fish with Sweet and Sour Sauce

Ingredients

2 (400 g) whole snapper
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon oil

Sweet and Sour Sauce

1 tablespoon oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
pinch chili powder
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 large tomato (250 g), sliced
1 small yellow bell pepper (150 g), chopped
4 baby carrots, sliced
1/4 cup water

Method

1. Make the sauce. Heat oil in pan, cook garlic, ginger and chili, stirring, 1 minute.
2. Add sugar, vinegar and sauce, stir over heat until sugar is dissolved.
3. Stir in remaining ingredients, bring to a boil. Turn down heat to simmer, covered, for about 3 minutes or until vegetables are just tender.
4. Cut 4 deep slits into each side of fish, pour fish sauce into slits.
5. Heat oil in heavy baking dish, cook fish on both sides to seal. Bake, covered, in moderate oven for about 30 minutes or until cooked through. Serve with hot sweet and sour sauce.

Makes 4 servings.

Source: Thai Cooking Class

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Today’s Comic

Veal Fricassee

Ingredients

600 g veal, cut in cubes
200 g root vegetables (carrots, parsnips, celery)
40 g onions, diced
1 bay leaf
5 black peppercorns
salt
40 g plain flour
40 g butter
100 g peas, precooked
150 g cauliflower
150 g white mushrooms
30 g butter
freshly grounded nutmeg
lemon juice
1/2 cup double cream
2 egg yolks

Method

1. Heat butter and fry the veal with root vegetables, onions, bay leave, peppercorns and salt until tender.
2. In a smaller pan whisk the flour in melted butter and add some water, stir until totally combined. Pass the liquid through a strainer. Add the meat, vegetables, peas and cauliflower.
3. Slice the white mushrooms, roast them in butter slightly and add to the meat. Adjust your seasoning with nutmeg and lemon juice.
4. Whisk the cream and the egg yolk and pour to the meat. Bring to a short boil and serve with cooked rice.

Makes 4 servings.

Source: Culinary Austria

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Today’s Comic

Chicken and Shrimp in Egg Crepe Parcels

Ingredients

8 egg
12 stalks green chive
2 tbsp Japanese crab roe

Egg Seasoning

1/2 tsp salt
dash sesame oil and ground white pepper
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp water

Filling

80 g chicken fillet
80 g shrimp meat
1/8 cup Chinese mushroom
1/8 cup water chestnut
1/8 cup finely chopped celery
1/8 cup finely chopped carrot
1 tsp chopped coriander
1 tsp minced garlic

Filling Seasoning

1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp light soy sauce
dash sesame oil and ground white pepper
2 tbsp water

Sauce

4 cups chicken broth
4 cups water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp cornstarch

Method

1. Beat eggs with seasonings, strain and divide into 12 portions.
2. Heat a non-stick frying pan, add one portion of the beaten egg into the pan, swirl round the base and cook over low heat until just set. (Makes 12 egg crepes.)
3. Rinse and wipe dry chicken fillet and shrimp meat, cut into small dices. Chop the rest of the filling ingredients.
4. Blanch green chives in boiling water for a while, remove and rinse with fresh water. Tear into long strings.
5. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in the wok, stir-fry chopped ingredients, mix in filling seasoning. Remove when ingredients are cooked. Divide into 12 equal portions.
6. Place a portion of the filling on each egg crepe, fold up the sides and tie up the top opening with a string of chive. Arrange onto a plate. Steam over boiling water for 4 minutes, remove from heat and add a teaspoon of crab roe in the centre.
7. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in the wok, cook sauce and pour over egg parcels to serve.

Makes 12 pieces.

Source: Towngas Millennium Cookbook

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Today’s Comic

Fried Rice with Seafood in Po Kok Sauce

Ingredients

2 cups cooked rice
1 egg, beaten
6 shelled shrimp
200 g squid
6 mussels
1/2 onion, cut into strips
2 tbsp green peas, blanched

Cooked Rice Seasoning

2 tbsp water
1/2 tsp salt

Seafood Marinade

1/3 tsp salt
1/8 tsp sesame oil
dash ground white pepper

Po Kok Sauce

2 tbsp chopped shallot
1 tbsp turmeric powder
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/4 cup evaporated milk
1/2 tsp each of salt, sugar and chicken broth mix
1 tbsp cornstarch

Method

1. Remove intestines from shrimp and rinse. Clean squid, cut criss-cross pattern, then cut into pieces. Rinse mussels, then mix seafood with marinade.
2. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok, lightly fry beaten egg until semi-set. Add rice and toss to combine. Sprinkle in seasonings and stir-fry to mix together. Transfer to the serving plate.
3. Heat 2 tbsp oil, stir-fry seafood. Add onion and green peas. Stir-fry together, remove and set aside.
4. Heat another 2 tbsp oil, sauté first three sauce ingredients until fragrant. Add the remaining ingredients and cook until the sauce thickens. Return seafood and vegetables to the sauce and mix to combine. Pour over fried rice to serve.

Source: Rice and Noodles

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Today’s Comic

Pigeon Breasts with Pine Nuts and Lemon

Ingredients

6 young pigeons
2 oz tritto (see recipe below)
2 oz pine nuts
4 tbsp olive oil
juice and rind of 1 lemon
2/3 cup marsala wine

Method

1. Remove the breasts from the pigeons. Keeping the blade very close to the high-ridged breast bone, a swift stroke of the knife from back to front will have the breast hanging on by the skin only. Cut through the skin.
2. Brown the tritto in a very large pan. Roughly chop the carcasses. As the tritto browns, add them, cover with water and bring to the boil. Allow to simmer.
3. In a frying pan (skillet) containing no oil, toast the pine nuts until they begin to brown. Remove them from the heat immediately – they will continue to cook a little of their own accord.
4. Heat the olive oil in a heavy pan and drop in each pigeon breast. Cook for no more than 10 seconds on each side. The breasts will puff up. Remove the skin then slice each breast through across the horizontal – i.e. flat – plane. Seal the raw sides of each breast for a further 2-3 seconds in the hot oil.
5. Pour away most of the oil and return the pan to a high heat. Add the lemon juice, rind and the marsala and reduce until you have a thick syrup, about 5 minutes.
6. Stir in 2/3 cup of the pigeon broth made from the carcasses and reduce again.
7. Toss the breasts into the sauce and re-heat for half a minute. Remove the breasts from the pan, pour the sauce over them, and sprinkle the browned pine nuts on top.

Makes 4 servings.

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Tritto

Ingredients

1 medium onion
1 carrot
1 glove garlic
1/2 stick celery
1 bay leaf
1 sprig rosemary
6 fresh sage leaves
enough olive oil to cover when the ingredients are packed

Method

1. Very finely dice all the ingredients into 1/8-inch dices with a food grinder or food processor. Sift the pieces together so they are thoroughly mixed.
2. Cover with olive oil. THe tritto should be packed quite tightly. Do not use for at least 12 hours.

Source: The Complete Italian Cookbook

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Today’s Comic