Baked garlicky, cheesy salmon

Look at the cheese!!! :D

I'm not a fan of salmon but when baked in this manner, the salmon's fishy smell is, I can say, almost fully eliminated! Most of the time, I force myself to eat salmon because I know it's good for me and also, it is believed that eating oily fish like salmon will improve the quality of breast milk for lactating mummies - so for the sake of my little Alicia, I eat it. :) But really, this baked salmon's so nice that there is no need to force myself to eat it... in fact, today the slice of salmon I bought wasn't enough for hubby and I!

Baked garlicky, cheesy salmon

Ingredients

• 200g salmon (skin removed - you may want to retain the skin if you like it - i know the skin's nutritious but I don't eat fish skin... all types)
• shredded mozarella cheese (amt depending on preference)
• 2-3 cloves garlic (minced)

Seasoning:

• a dash of teriyaki marinade
• hua diao jiu
• ground black pepper
• a dash of sesame oil
• all-purpose unsalted herbs

Method:

1. Slice salmon thinly.
2. Marinate salmon with the seasoning.
3. Mix the minced garlic and mozarella cheese thoroughly with the salmon pieces.
4. Place the marinated salmon mixture onto a piece of aluminium foil and top with more mozarella cheese (as shown below).
5. Wrap the salmon up in the foil.
6. Preheat oven to 180degC.
7. Bake the salmon at 180degC for 15min.
8. Remove the salmon from the oven, unwrap the foil and sprinkle more herbs on top of the cheese.
9. Serve hot.

Stir-fried mixed mushrooms

For this dish, I used Eryngii mushrooms and fresh chinese mushrooms. Eryngii mushrooms share similar nutritional and medicinal properties with members of the oyster (mushroom) family:

The oyster mushroom is high in protein (15-27 % per dry mass), contains 85-100 mg of vitamin C per 100 g and is a good source of niacin, folic acid and potassium. Clinical studies have shown that the oyster mushroom naturally produces Lovastatin, a drug commonly used in the treatment of high blood cholesterol. It has also demonstrated strong anti-tumoral [Ying(1987)]activity specifically for the intestinal tract[Zusman et al.(1997)].


Here's the pic of the mushrooms:



Stir-fried mixed mushrooms

Ingredients:

• 1/2 packet of eryngii mushrooms
• 4 fresh chinese mushrooms
• minced garlic
• cornflour

Seasoning:

• about 1/2 tablespoon oyster sauce
• dash of ground black pepper
• 1 tsp hua diao jiu

Method:

1. Wash and cut the fresh chinese mushrooms into slices.
2. Wash and trim the end of the eryngii mushrooms and cut into slices diagonally.
3. Marinate the mushrooms with the seasoning.
4. Fry the garlic till fragrant.
5. Add the mushrooms and fry for about 5min - they cook really quickly!
6. Thicken the gravy with cornflour solution.
7. Dish and serve.
   

Watercress soup

Watercress is well-known for its high nutritional values and you can read more about it here. Fortunately for me, I've always loved watercress soup and hence, it is a soup that makes its way to my dining table every now and then.

Watercress soup

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of watercress
• 250g pork ribs
• 3 chicken breast bones
• 1 handful red dates (rinse)
• 1 soup pot of water
• Fish sauce/ salt to taste

Method:

1. Wash watercress thoroughly as leafy veggies tend to trap a lot of dirt.
2. Blanch pork ribs and chicken bones.
3. Add all the ingredients except the condiments to the soup pot and bring the soup to a boil.
4. Simmer for 2 hours on low-medium heat.
5. Add fish sauce/ salt to taste.

If you prefer the watercress to be green and crunchy, you may want to reserve half the bunch of watercress for adding into the soup about 15min before serving.

Alicia loves this soup and she eats the watercress too!

For toddler's consumption:

• Make sure that you cut the watercress to a suitable size for the tot before serving to prevent choking.

Stir-fried Endives in Hoisin Sauce

Actually I've never really liked endives and I think my mum knew so so she kinda stopped cooking it for me for a long long while such that I've actually forgotten how it tastes like. After cooking it today, I've come to the conclusion that I still don't really like it. :D I mean, I'm quite a vegetable lover and if you do serve me endives, I'd still eat it; it's just that I'm not particularly fond of it... hehe...

Usually my mum cooks it without hoisin sauce but I just bought a bottle of hoisin sauce today so I thought I'd just add a little to the veggies. :)

Stir-fried Endives in Hoisin Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of organic endives (washed and plucked)
• 1/2 handful of dried shrimps
• 1tsp hoisin sauce
• garlic (minced)

Method:

1. Rinse then soak the dried shrimps in 1/3 bowl of water. Remove from water before cooking and retain the water that the dried shrimps were soaked in for cooking.
2. Fry the garlic and dried shrimps till fragrant.
3. Add the endives (stalks first, followed by leaves).
4. Fry the endives for awhile then add in the hoisin sauce and the dried shrimp water and simmer till endives are cooked.
5. Dish and serve.

Note: The quantity of cooked endives is really little compared to the uncooked ones so you may need more than 1 bunch of endives if you need more veggies! :) Luckily I cooked watercress soup today so I could get some more veggies from that!