Homemade fish finger(s)

After Alicia showed signs of getting sick of her usual baked cod, I decided to add something new to her menu - something which my hubby has been stopping me from adding since a long time ago: breaded cod. :P He's always saying that it's too heaty etc. and since she was very young back then, I also thought it wise to keep fried food to a minimum. Now that she's reached the 30months mark this month, I felt that it was time. :)

I didn't photograph the fish fingers, but here's Alicia eating it on one occasion (scroll down for recipe):

Getting ready to eat! AHHHHH!!

Picking the crumbs to eat first...

Posing with her fish finger :)

Homemade fish finger 

serves 1 tot

Ingredients:

• 1 slice of cod (about 60g)
• 1 egg, beaten
• breadcrumbs (probably about 2 tbsp - I didn't measure)
• a teeny weeny pinch of salt
• a little ground white pepper
• cornflour
• oil

Method:

1. Mix the breadcrumbs with the salt and pepper evenly.
2. Place the slice of cod into the beaten egg, then coat it with cornflour.
3. Return the cod into the egg then coat it with breadcrumbs.
4. Add some oil into a non-stick pan and shallow fry the fish finger till golden brown before turning over to brown the other side.
5. Place the fish on a sheet of kitchen towel to remove any excess oil.
6. Let it cool before serving to prevent burns.
7. (You can fry an omelette for yourself/ your tot with the remaining egg.)

You can repeat the breading process for more fish fingers before frying them.

1 beaten egg can be used to coat 8-10 fish fingers.

Hongkong style steamed fish

I must really thank homeladychef for sharing her recipe for this Hongkong style steamed fish. It really tastes like what we get at restaurants and I was sooo over the moon for being able to replicate that!

I'd wanted to get seabass to cook this dish but I wasn't able to get it at the market the other day so I got this other fish called boon tong. I have no idea what's that called in English or Mandarin since the fishmonger wasn't able to provide me with the chinese name of the fish. :)

It's quite cheap - I got these three fishes for a mere $6! ok, it was supposed to be $6.50 but the uncle was nice and gave me a discount since I'm always buying seafood from him.

I modified the way I prepared the oil for drizzling over the fish and the ginger that's served together with the fish. I didn't measure the amount of seasoning and ingredients used either... hee.

Hongkong style steamed fish

Ingredients:

• 500-600g fish
• ginger, skinned, slice some and julien some
• a couple bunches of scallions
• sesame oil
• olive oil

Sauce:

• light soy sauce
• rock sugar
• water/ stock

Method:

1. Clean the fish.
2. Place some sliced ginger and scallions on the plate used for steaming. Place the fish on top and top it with more ginger and scallions. 
3. When the water is boiling hot, place the fish into the steamer and steam for about 10min. (Max 10min for 600g fish, add 1min for every 100g more)
4. Meanwhile, prepare the sauce and heat it up using the microwave or on stovetop.
5. When fish is steamed, transfer the fish carefully to a serving plate (only the fish!) and discard all the ginger, scallion and water from the steaming plate.
6. Pour the prepared sauce over the fish.
7. Heat some oil (olive and sesame oil mixed) in the wok and fry the julienned ginger till golden brown. Remove the ginger and scatter it on top of the fish together with scallions.
8. Continue to heat the oil left in the wok till it's smoking hot. Pour this oil over the fish and you're done! :)

Papaya fish soup (木瓜鱼片汤)

I found a really small papaya today at the vegetable stall - it was supposed to be a green papaya (unripe) but since most of it looked almost ripe, when I expressed interest in it, the stall holder gave it to me. :P Hee. 

And so, I changed the menu for dinner immediately... papaya fish soup was definitely gonna be on the menu for the night! I couldn't get sheng yu however since it was all sold out so I decided to just use the red snapper fillet I just bought from my usual fish stall. 

Green papaya fish soup is believed to increase breast milk supply so it's usually drunk by women who have just given birth (during confinement month - I drank this soup twice during confinement but didn't really like the cooking.. haha) or those who need that extra boost in breast milk supply. Normal papaya can also be used for this soup, just that you would need to cut down the time for simmering the soup so that the papaya will not disintegrate in the process of cooking. I don't think I need that boost in milk supply but I just enjoy drinking the soup... lol. Come to think about it, I've been breastfeeding for almost 30months! :P

Papaya fish soup (木瓜鱼片汤)

Ingredients:

• fish bones from 3 red snapper tails (I think it should be at least 500g) - you can use other fish bones such as threadfin
• 1 slab of red snapper fillet (costs about $5 at the market) - usually present in this soup is shengyu 
• 1 small (green) papaya
• 5 slices ginger
• 6 cloves garlic (skin on), rinse
• 2 bunches of scallions (cut into 2" segments)
• 6 seedless red dates
• 2L water
• 1-2 teaspoons hua diao jiu
• sesame oil

Seasoning for soup:

• salt/ fish sauce (I used fish sauce)
• ground white pepper to taste

Marinate fish with:

• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• a couple of dashes of pepper
• 1/2- 1 teaspoon cornflour or potato starch

Method:

1. Skin the papaya, remove the seeds and cut into chunks. 
2. Scald the papaya briefly with boiling water to remove the sap. Drain and set aside.
3. Add some sesame oil into the claypot and stir-fry the ginger till fragrant. Add the fish bones and fry for a short while. Remove from pot and place in a cloth soup bag - this is to ensure that there will be no bones in the soup and hence safe for consumption, especially for young children. Double check that there are no bones in the claypot after removing the fish bones.
4. Add water into the claypot which you have just used and bring it to a boil.
5. Add the garlic, scallions, red dates, hua diao jiu, papaya and the bag of fish bones and bring the soup to a boil again.
6. Simmer for about 1.5hours.
7. Meanwhile, remove the skin from the fish fillet and slice the meat very thinly.
8. Marinate the fish slices with salt, pepper and cornflour (prevents the fish from disintegrating). Set aside in the fridge.
9. When soup is ready, remove the bag of bones, red dates, garlic, scallions and ginger, leaving only the papaya in the soup.
10. Add seasoning to taste.
11. Bring the soup to a boil again. Add the fish slices into the soup and turn off the fire. Cover the claypot and let the heat in the soup do the cooking.
12. Dish and serve after a couple of minutes.

Although I didn't use sheng yu today, the red snapper slices were wonderfully tender! Actually I thought they tasted even better than sheng yu slices! :) Hubby was full of praises for the soup - usually he complains about the fishy soups his mum cooks or those from coffeeshops but he actually liked this fish soup and asked me to cook it more often! hee.

Tip: To make this a one-dish meal, you can blanch some bee hoon or other noodle of your choice and add it into the soup.

Stir-fried fish slices

I haven't blogged about food in ages! teehee.. well, here's a simple stir-fried fish dish that's healthy and yummy  and one that pleases tots as well! I cooked this some time back... hopefully I got the ingredients right in this recipe... lol. My memory fails me sometimes...

Alright, the real reason why I fried my fish this time was because the slab of red snapper had been sitting in my freezer for ages so I decided I'd better not serve it steamed... :P

Stir-fried fish slices 

 

Ingredients:

• 1 slab of red snapper meat, sliced (not more than 1cm thick)
• a couple of bunches of scallions, washed, cut into 1-2" segments
• thumb-size ginger, shred finely
• 2 cloves garlic, minced

Marinate fish slices with:

• ground white pepper
• light soy sauce
• hua diao jiu
• sesame oil
• 1-2tsp cornflour (so that the fish will not disintegrate when frying)

Sauce:

• oyster sauce
• soy sauce
• sugar (optional)
• ground white pepper
• sesame oil
• water

*Add sauces and condiments according to your own tastes*

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients needed for the sauce in a bowl and set aside.
2. Heat oil in wok. Add the garlic, ginger and scallion and fry till fragrant.
3. Add the marinated fish slices and stir-fry quickly for a couple of minutes (be gentle with the fish).
4. Add the sauce prepared earlier into the wok and bring to a boil.
5. Add cornflour solution if preferred.
6. Dish and serve hot with rice.

Stir-fried baby spinach with crispy whitebait

Mmmm.... tender bites of baby spinach with crispy whitebait!

The highlight of the dish... :)

Stir-fried baby spinach with crispy whitebait

Ingredients:

• 1-2 bunches of baby spinach
• 1 big handful of Japanese (dried) whitebait
• 100ml stock/water
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• shallot and garlic oil (made by frying shallot and garlic in oil till they brown)

Method:

1. In a wok, heat some shallot and garlic oil then add the whitebait and pan-fry till they turn golden brown and crisp.
2. Set aside the whitebait on a kitchen towel to remove any excess oil.
3. With the remaining oil in the wok, fry the garlic till fragrant.
4. Add the baby spinach and stir-fry for about half a minute.
5. Add the stock/water and simmer till the spinach is cooked.
6. Add fish sauce to taste.
7. Dish and top with crispy whitebait.

Alicia loves the crispy whitebait and she ate them neat. :)

For toddler's consumption:

• The whitebait from Japan is not salty and I highly recommend it for toddlers' consumption!
• Make sure the spinach is of appropriate length/size before serving to prevent choking.
• Serve the spinach and whitebait separately if preferred.

Sardines!!!

Sardines are more often than not overlooked when it comes to menu planning, especially in my home as hubby isn't a great fan of sardines. He's always complaining that sardines have a 'fishy' smell and taste. Come to think of it, I think this is the first time I've cooked sardines for him since we got married! It's only because I said that I think it's good to introduce sardines to Alicia that he relented the other day. :P

Anyway, sardines are jam-packed with goodness so really, there's no reason not to eat them. And with my home-made sauce to go along with the sardines (there's a pathetic amount of sauce that comes together with the sardines so I have to make my own), the sardines aren't 'fishy' at all! :) Even hubby had to agree! :) and he finished up the sauce together with the rice...

Alicia's response?

Well, she ate one whole sardine (including the bones of course) as one of the courses of her dinner that day! *happy mummy* The last time she had sardines was when I made sandwiches for myself and that was a super long time ago!

Goodness of sardines:

• high concentration of omega-3-fatty acid (sardines are considered to be one of the best sources of omega 3’s around, surpassed by only a few other fish such as Salmon).
• a naturally good source of vitamin D
• high in calcium which can work with the vitamin D to help promote stronger bones
• contains Vitamin B12, Vitamin D, Vitamin B3, protein, tryptophan, selenium and phosphorus.
• The fish is considered to be one of the healthiest of the world’s foods, especially with its high concentration of Vitamin D which is found in few foods in such amounts.
• There are no carbohydrates in sardine, yet high in protein

(Sources: healthandnutritiontips.net and healthmad.com)

For more info, you can read this.

Sardines in tomato sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 can of sardines (I use Ayam brand)
• 1 red onion (sliced)
• 3-4 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1 chilli (cut into pieces, deseed)
• about 4 tablespoons tomato sauce (I use Maggi)
• 1 tablespoon assam (mix with a bit of water) or use lime to taste
• 100-200ml water

Method:

1. Heat oil in a wok. Add the onion and chilli and fry till fragrant. Add the garlic.
2. Add the sauce from the can of sardines (but don't place the sardines into the wok just yet).
3. Add some water (gauge for yourself, depends on how thick you want the sauce to be) and the tomato sauce.
4. Add the assam water (without the seeds of course - use a sieve).
5. Let the sauce simmer for at least 10min. (By then, the onions would have softened and the sauce would have been sweetened by the onion so there's no need for extra sugar)
6. Add the sardines and simmer for another 5min or so.
7. Dish and serve with hot fluffy rice.

Teriyaki salmon

This was extremely scrumptious! Even my picky Alicia wolved up two pieces of salmon though she's not a fan of salmon at all. And as she ate every mouth of it, she kept 'talking' to me super expressively, as if trying to tell me to cook this more often for her... super cute. lol. I asked her, 'Are you trying to tell mummy to cook this more often?' and she nodded her head and continued with her baby talk. :D

Honestly, if you've made your own teriyaki sauce, you'd never settle for those sold commercially because those don't taste anything like the real stuff!

Teriyaki salmon

Ingredients:

• 340g salmon, skin removed (I bought 1 slab from the fishmonger, costs $8.80 but I got it at $8)
• 1 bunch green onion (slice finely)

Teriyaki sauce:

• 2T cooking sake
• 4T mirin
• 1.5T light soy sauce
• 2T brown sugar

Method:

1. Rinse the slab of salmon and cut into chunks.
2. Marinate the salmon chunks in the teriyaki sauce for about 1/2 hour.
3. Heat up a non-stick pan and sear the salmon chunks, reserve the rest of the teriyaki sauce. The surface of the salmon should turn brownish before you flip it over to the other side for browning. Because the salmon was soaked in the teriyaki marinade, it will brown quite quickly.
4. Once both sides of the salmon are done, remove them from the pan and place on a plate.
5. In a small saucepan, bring the rest of the teriyaki sauce to a boil. By the process of reduction, simmer the teriyaki sauce till it becomes thick.
6. Drizzle the sauce over the salmon.
7. Garnish with finely sliced green onion.

The lazy way out...

I was lazy to get the foil and rub the butter onto the cod (butter shouldn't be consumed so often by toddlers anyway...) last night so I just placed the fish on a metal plate, sprinkled it with herbs and steamed it for 5 min on high heat on the stove instead. When it was ready, I just poured the orange (juice) sauce over. Alicia loved it much more than the baked version - she not only ate very fast and kept coming back for more, she decided that she would plonk into bumbo next to me so that she could have access to the fish faster! And she even tried to drink up the remaining sauce... :D

The fusion

Alicia, like any other toddler, has her whims and fancies. One day she decides that she loves eating a particular food and the next day, the same thing is poison to her. So today, I decided why not be adventurous and combine the herbs with the orange (juice) sauce and set the cod to bake? Well, I've got nothing to lose, except maybe that piece of cod that was used for the experiment... :)

Anyway, she decided that this way of flavouring her cod suits her tastebuds and so she finished the whole piece of fish. Even the last mouth of it.

Baked Cod with herbs drizzled with orange (juice) sauce

Ingredients:

• 30g cod
• unsalted all-purpose herbs
• 1/3tsp of unsalted butter
• 25ml freshly squeezed orange juice
• sugar to taste (if necessary)
• cornflour

Method:

1. Bring the orange juice to a boil in a small saucepan.
2. Add sugar to taste if the juice is too sour. We're looking at achieving a sauce that is both sweet and tangy.
3. Add a bit of cornflour water to thicken the juice slightly. Set aside.
4. Rub cod with the butter and the herbs.
5. Place the piece of cod on a piece of aluminium foil.
6. Pour the orange sauce over the cod and wrap the piece of cod up in the foil.
7. Preheat oven to 180degC.
8. Bake the cod at 180degC for 10min.

The newest topping for Alicia's cod

I've been thinking about this for ages. Just that somehow oranges just always didn't seem to make their way into the grocery trolley. Finally, two oranges found their way into my fridge yesterday and so I made this sauce for my darling today.

Don't ask me where I got such an idea, or inspiration, if you may want to call it. I don't know. Wild ideas like these pop into my mind all the time - and I actually entertain them. :D Whatever it is, what's most important to me is that Alicia loves it. At least till the infamous "last mouth of cod (or substitute this with any other food)" - she always seems to leave 1 mouth of food behind. The reason why she does so simply eludes me.

Anyway, here's her newest topping. You may find it unfathomable. :)

Orange (juice) sauce (yields enough sauce for 2 servings of 30g cod - you can keep the other half for use later in the day or the next day)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 orange (mine's one of those big navel oranges)
• a bit of cornflour
• sugar to taste (if desired - if the juice happens to be very sour)

Method:

1. Squeeze the juice from the slice of orange. Be sure to sieve out all the seeds. Remove any lumps of pulp so that the sauce will be a smooth one.
2. Bring the juice to a slight boil in a small saucepan.
3. Add sugar to taste if needed (The sauce should be one that has a sweet and tangy taste - not just sweet or sour).
4. Add in cornflour to thicken the juice so that it becomes like a sauce.
5. Drizzle sauce on top of the slice of steamed cod.

Baked Cod with Herbs

I decided to try a new way of cooking Alicia's cod tonight since she has been showing signs of getting sick of the pan-fried cod with one side marinated with a bit of oyster sauce.

Well, it was a success! :)

Here's how I did it. Bear in mind that this is for Alicia so it may taste rather fishy still for an adult.

Baked Cod with herbs (for my darling)

Ingredients:

• 60g cod
• unsalted all-purpose herbs
• a teeny weeny dash of ground black pepper (optional)
• 1/3 tsp unsalted butter, melted / olive oil

Method:

1. Melt the butter and add the herbs and pepper to it. If using olive oil, just add the herbs and pepper in and mix well.
2. Coat the cod with the prepared oil/butter.
3. Preheat oven to 230degC.
4. Place cod on aluminium foil and wrap it up before placing it in the oven.
5. Bake at 230degC for 8min.

Recipe modified in Dec 2010