Salt grilled salmon head

 烤鲑鱼头

Yes, you can have a decent Japanese meal at home. Buy a  salmon fish head from the market (they are cheap - I got one head for S$5!), grill it and serve with Japanese rice, miso soup and chawanmushi (steamed egg).

Ingredients

1 salmon head

1/2 teaspoon salt

Method

1. Ask the fishmonger to cut the head into two and remove gills. 

2. Wash and clean the fish heads and dab dry. Make sure scales on the fish head are removed.

3. Line a baking pan with aluminium foil. Put the fish head, cut side facing up, and sprinkle half of the salt.

4. Grill the salmon at 250 degree celcius for 8 to 10 minutes. 

5. Take the salmon from the oven, flip the salmon over and sprinkle the remaining half of the salt. Return the salmon to the oven and grill until the salmon head is a bit charred, around 15minutes.

6. Take salmon out from the oven and serve hot.

Sourdough Crackers

天然酵母葱饼

Revived my sourdough starter that was kept in the fridge for more than a year. Fed the starter with equal amounts of water and flour every 24 hours until it doubled in size on consequent days. Luckily, the starter was strong and it slowly sprung back to life. It became bubbly and tripled in size after 5 hours on the third day. In the feeding process, I collected a lot of sourdough discards, and a good way to use them up was to make crackers. So glad I found below recipe from King Arthur Baking. 

These crackers have a slight tangy taste due to the use of sourdough starter. But they are still very tasty!

Ingredients

227g sourdough discard (cold, straight from fridge)

113g Plain flour 

1/2 tsp sea salt flakes

2 tbsp dried herbs (oregano, thyme or basil)

57g butter (melted and warm)

Half portion

113.5g sourdough discard

56.5g plain flour

1/4 tsp 

1 tbsp dried herbs (I replaced with 12g fresh scallions/spring onions from my garden)

28.5g butter (melted and warm)

Method

1. Sieve flour into mixing bowl. Mix in the salt. 

2. Add butter and use the dough scrapper to quickly mix into the flour. Butter will coat the flour with fat which makes for a more tender cracker.

3. Add the starter and mix in using your fingers/dough scrapper. Then add the scallions and continue to mix until the dough almost comes together. If necessary, cover and refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes for easier rolling.

4. Divide the dough into two pieces (for easier handling) while it is in the mixing bowl. 

5. Preheat oven to 170 degree celcius.

6. Take one piece of dough from the mixing bowl and cover the other piece with a cloth/cling wrap (to prevent drying) and place on benchtop/rolling mat (lightly floured with rice flour). Lightly dust the top of the dough with rice flour and shape the dough into a rectangular slab. Roll the dough to about 2 to 3cm thick and cut the dough into desired shapes. Prick each cut dough with the tines of a fork (to prevent the dough from puffing up). Transfer the cut dough into a baking tray (lined with parchment paper) and bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until the crackers are lightly browned. Note: to save some effort and time, the shaping/rolling/cutting can be done on a parchment paper. Then the dough and parchment paper transferred wholesale to the baking pan for baking. No need to separate the cut dough at all as the crackers will separate themselves as they bake.

7. Remove the crackers from oven and transfer to wire rack to cool. Once cooled, store in air tight container.

Roasted Bone Marrow

 烤牛骨髓

Bone marrow is the soft, fatty tissue found inside a bone. It is loaded with good saturated fats, minerals and proteins like collagen. Once cooked, the bone marrow can be eaten straight out of the bone, spread on bread like butter (it is also known as "butter of the gods"). 

Recipe credit: Sous Vide Everything

Ingredients

3-4 beef bone marrows

Herb mix (grated/miced garlic, herbs e.g. rosemary, parsley, olive oil) - 1 garlic, 1 tablespoon olive oil and 1/4 tsp herbs for two bone marrows.

Baguette

Method

1. Remove excess meat and fat, if any, from the bones. This step is optional.

2. Place the bones in salted water overnight in the fridge. This step bleaches and removes the blood and impurities from the marrow. 

2. On day 2, drain the bone marrows and dab dry with kitchen towel. Place them on a pan (lined with parchment paper). Drizzle herb mix over the bones and roast in oven @ 180 deg celcius. It is done when garlic is golden brown, and the marrow is slightly pulled away from the bones. Remove from oven,  sprinkle with a bit of sea salt flakes and let it cool down.

3. Meanwhile, slice and toast a few pieces of baguette until nice and crispy. Scoop out the marrow and spread it on toasted baguette. Enjoy!

Duck Confit

 

Who doesn't love crispy duck skin with succulent duck meat? This is go-to dish to impress my family and guests at home. 

Ingredients:

3 duck drumsticks

1 tablespoon salt

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

a few springs of fresh rosemary / thyme (or two teaspoons of dried herbs)

3 cloves of garlic (1 per duck), cut into halves, skinned on

a few slices of ginger

Method:

1. Clean the duck drumsticks and pluck duck hairs (if any). Dab dry.

2. Use the sharp end of knife to poke the skin of the duck drumsticks, including the fats on the meat side of the drumsticks. This is to help to release the duck fat during roasting. Avoid poking the meat beneath the skin. 

3. Place the drumsticks in a single layer (no overlapping) in baking/roasting dish. Rub the duck drumsticks with salt, black pepper and herbs (optional at this stage) , cover the dish in clingwrap and chill in fridge for at least one hour.

4. Gently rinse away the salt, black pepper and herbs (if using) from the drumsticks. Dab dry and place the drumsticks, skin side facing down, back into the baking/roasting dish. Place the garlic and ginger around and between the drumsticks. Sprinkle herbs on the drumsticks. Add some duck fat (if available) into the dish. Alternatively, add 100ml water into the dish to prevent the skin from sticking to the dish during baking.

5. Place baking paper over the drumsticks to trap the heat in the drumsticks. Then cover the baking/roasting dish with aluminum foil. Roast at 120 degree celcius for 4 hours. At the 2 hour mark, remove the dish from oven and flip the drumsticks around so that the meat side is facing down. Return the dish to oven and continue to roast for 2 more hours until the duck drumsticks are tender.

6. After 4 hours, remove the drumsticks from the dish and let it cool down until the drumsticks are sturdy.

7. Heat up a cast iron pan and some duck fat (from the baking/roasting dish) into the pan. Pan fry the drumsticks with the skin side down, over medium to low heat for 5 minutes. Gently press the drumstick flat so that more skin will be in contact with the hot pan, and therefore you will have more crispy duck skin! You can remove the thigh bone too in this step, for easier pan frying. Pan fry each side of the drumstick for 5 minutes or until the skin is crisp.

8. Serve hot with a plate of salad, or mashed potatoes.

9. You can reserve the duck fat for your next duck confit. Just strain the oil in the baking/roasting dish through a filter/strainer. If you had added water into your baking/roasting dish, follow this simple trick to separate the duck fat from water. Then store the bottle of duck fat in the fridge.

Oven Roasted Chicken Wings

烧烤鸡翅

Ingredients

15 chicken wings (mid joint)

1.5 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1.5 tablespoon unsalted butter (melted)*

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

4 garlic cloves (minced)*

* alternatively, can use garlic butter

Method

1. Rub salt all over the chicken wings and wash away the salt. Dab the wings dry with kitchen towel.

2. Prepare the seasoning by mixing olive oil, butter, salt, garlic and black pepper in a mixing bowl. 

3. Rub the wings with the oil mixture (step 2 above). Keep the remaining oil mixture for use later.

4. Preheat the oven to 175 deg cel. Line an oven tray with aluminium foil for easy cleaning later. Put a roasting rack on the tray and the wings on the roasting rack.

5. Roast the wings for 20mins on one side. Flip the wings and brush with oil mixture (step 2 and 3 above). Roast for another 10 minutes.

The wings are best eaten hot as they are crispy.

Korean Roast Chicken

韩式烤鸡

I adapted this recipe from Korean Chef Maangchi.

Ingredients

1 chicken (about 1.3kg)

1.5 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1.5 tablespoon unsalted butter (melted)

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 garlic cloves (minced)

Method

1. Clean chicken, rub salt all over the skin and wash away the salt. Dab chicken dry with kitchen towel.

2. Prepare the chicken rub by mixing olive oil, butter, salt, garlic and black pepper in a bowl. 

3. Rub the chicken (including the cavity) with the oil mixture (step 2 above). Keep the remaining oil mixture for use later.

4. Preheat the oven to 175 deg cel. Line an oven tray with aluminium foil for easy cleaning later. Put a roasting rack on the tray and the chicken on the roasting rack.

5. Roast the chicken, breast side facing up) for 40mins. 

6. Remove chicken from oven and brush the chicken with oil mixture. Flip the chicken (back of chicken facing up) and brush with oil mixture. Roast for another 20 minutes.

7. Remove chicken from oven and brush with more oil. Flip the chicken over (breast side facing up) and brush with more oil. Roast for 20 minutes.

8. Rest chicken for 15 minutes before serving.

Baked Seabass in Butter and Garlic

 烘烤鲈鱼

Enjoy restaurant quality baked sea bass in the comfort of your home. This delectable dish is very easy to cook. Do give it a try if you love garlic and butter. This recipe serves two. 

Ingredients

1 fresh seabass fillet, about 170g to 200g  (do not buy farm-bred ones which carry a mud taste)

4 cloves of garlic (peeled)

2 tablespoon olive oil (I use cold press extra virgin olive oil)

20g unsalted butter (cut into thin slides)

1/4 teaspoon salt

Dashes of freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon white wine

1 spoonful of love

Method

1. Place garlic cloves in a small pot and add olive oil. Cook the garlic cloves over very low heat in the stove until the garlic cloves are tender and cooked through and lightly caramelized. Takes about 15 to 20 mins. Remove from heat and let the garlic cloves cool down to room temperature.

2. Rub both sides of the seabass with olive oil (from cooking the garlic cloves), salt and black pepper.

3. Place the sea bass in a baking dish with the skin side facing up.

4. Place the butter slices on the skin.

5. Mash each garlic clove by pressing them between your thumb and index finger, and spread it on top of the butter.

6. Drizzle white wine into the dish and bake the sea bass in the pre-heated oven at 190 deg cel for 10 mins.

7. Remove from oven and baste the sea bass with the liquid (from the fish, white wine and butter) in the baking dish. Drizzle a bit of lemon juice over the sea bass, top with parsley / micro greens (if available) and serve hot.

Enjoy!

Char Siu

 叉烧

I have made countless char siu using this recipe and am pretty sure you will love it, just like my family. 

The ingredients for the marinade, while it looks long, are readily available in my kitchen. I don't have to buy bottles/tubs of red fermented beancurd specifically for this dish! Most importantly, this recipe does not use food colouring, oyster or hoisin sauce (which contains MSG monosodium glutamate, food flavoring and preservatives).

There are two ways to make this dish: roasting/grilling in oven and cooking over the stove.

Ingredients

1.2kg pork (I requested butcher for 不见天, a cut of meat around the pig's armpit which has good amount of fat. Slab of pork belly will do too)

2 teaspoon molasses

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon dark soy sauce

2 tablespoon honey

2 tablespoon sugar (I use jaggery)

1 tablespoon chinese wine (I use 绍兴花彫酒)

1/4 teaspoon five spice powder

4 cloves of garlic (chopped finely or minced/grated)

1 teaspoon paprika (optional)

2 tablespoon warm water

1/2 piece fermented tofu (optional)

1 tablespoon fermented tofu juice (optional)

1 spoonful of love

Method (Roasting/Grilling in Oven)

1. Slice the pork into strips of 1.5 to 2 inch wide.

2. Use the sharp tip of the knife to poke the meat lightly to help the meat absorb the marinade.

3. Combine all the ingredients with the pork and marinade overnight in fridge.

4. The next day, take the pork out from fridge half hour before roasting*. Preheat oven to 200 degree celsius. Keep the remaining marinade to baste the pork during roasting later.

5. Line baking pan with aluminum foil and place a wire rack (I use two steaming racks) on the pan. Then lay the pork on the wire rack and pour some water to the bottom of tray. 

6. Roast (fan mode) at 200 degree celsius for 15 minutes. Then flip the pork over, baste marinade and roast for another 15 minutes. Try: 200C for 20mins, flip and baste every 5 minutes.

7. Add 1 tablespoon maltose (substitute: honey) to the leftover marinade and mix until dissolve. Once the pork has been roasted for 30minutes, brush the marinade all over the pork and grill for 5 minutes. Repeat the basting and roasting (for 5 minutes) until the char siu is charred to your liking. 

8. Rest the char siu for 15 minutes before slicing them and serving.

  

Method (Cooking Over Stove)

1. Heat up wok with 2 tablespoons of cooking oil. Then place the pork into the wok including all the marinade. Simmer for 40-45minutes until the pork is tender. The marinade should thicken.

2. Remove the marinade from the wok, raise the stove heat to medium and sear the sides of the pork until they are nicely charred. This should take not more than 5 minutes.

3. Add 1 tablespoon maltose (substitute: honey) to the leftover marinade and mix until dissolve. Brush the marinade all over the pork.

4. Rest the char siu for 15 minutes before slicing them and serving.

Char Siu Baby Pork Ribs

叉烧小排骨

I cook char siu (叉烧), a type of cantonese roast meat very often. Saw a nice slab of pork ribs in the supermarket and decided to try cooking it with my homemade char siu sauce. The result is very tender pork ribs that are finger licking good!

Ingredients

1 slab of baby pork ribs (approximately 500g)

Homemade char siu sauce:

1 tsp maltose + 1 tbsp hot water (stir until maltose has dissolved)

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp dark soy sauce

1/2 tbsp honey

1/2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tbsp chinese cookjng wine

1/4 tsp five spice powder

2 cloves of garlic (grated)

1/2 tsp paprika

1 spoonful of love

Method

1. Wash the pork ribs and tear the membrane on the back of the ribs. Dab dry the ribs with kitchen towel. On the back of ribs, cut shallow slits between the bones. This helps the marinade to penetrate the meat.

2. Mix the char siu sauce and marinate the ribs with the sauce for at least 4 hours or overnight (in fridge). 

3. Remove from fridge half hour before roasting to bring it to room temperature. Wrap the ribs - first with a baking parchment paper, then with aluminum foil. Reserve the marinade for coating of the ribs in step 5 below.

4. Lined an oven tray with aluminum foil for easy cleaning later. Place the ribs, with the meat side facing down, on an oven tray and roast at 120 deg cel for 1 hour. 

5. After one hour of roasting, open the wraps and flip the ribs with the meaty side facing upwards. Do not pour away the juices from 1st roasting. 

6. Turn the oven up to 200 deg cel. Brush the ribs evenly with the marinade and grill at 200 deg cel for 7 minutes. Repeat the brushing and grilling for 1 or two times until you get the nicely charred appearance. 

7. Rest the ribs for 10 minutes before serving.

Roast Garlic Butter Chicken

 

Ingredients

1 chicken

25g garlic butter (I use store bought one)

1 spoonful of love

Method

1. Clean chicken, rub salt all over the skin and wash away the salt. 

2. Pat dry the chicken with kitchen towel.

3. Use a spoon to separate the chicken skin from the meat. Insert garlic butter under the skin.

4. Massage a bit of garlic butter, salt and black pepper over the skin. Lightly drizzle olive oil all over the chicken.

5. Preheat the oven to 220 deg cel. Line an oven tray with aluminium foil for easy cleaning later. Put a roasting rack on the tray and the chicken on the roasting rack.

6. Roast the chicken @ 220 deg cel for 10mins. Lower oven temperature to 180 deg cel and roast for another 1 hour. Baste the chicken with its liquid dripped from roasting every 30 minutes.

7. Rest chicken for 15mins before serving.

Crackling Skin Roast Pork / Siu Yuk

 脆皮烧肉

Ingredients

1kg fresh Indonesian pork belly

Spice rub: 1 tsp five spice powder, half tsp salt, dashes of white pepper, pinch of tumeric powder (optional)

1 spoonful of love 

Method:

1. Boil the slab of meat for 10 minutes, put into ice bath to bring temperature down as fast as possible, remove and pad dry, and use meat tenderiser to poke holes (as many as possible) on the skin. Do not poke too deep as otherwise, meat juices will flow up into the skin during roasting and affect the crispiness of the skin (step 9)

2. Make small slashes or slits on meat side to get more seasoning into the meat (also prevents the meat from curling up ).

3. Apply the spice rub evenly all over the meat (not the skin).

4. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp Salt and 1 Tbsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) on the skin and spread it evenly. Let sit for about 20 mins until you see lots of water drawn up out of the skin. Dab it dry with kitchen towel, and brush off any remaining grains of salt.

5. Place pork into a container, cover loosely with baking paper (so that air can circulate and dry the skin) and place in refrigerator, overnight or for at least 18 hours.

6. Remove the meat from fridge at least one hour before roasting.

7. Brush a thin layer of white/rice vinegar on the skin and repeat this half hour later. This will neutralise the baking soda. This step is optional.

8. Insert one/two skewers crosswise into the meat. This will prevent it from curling during the roasting process.

9.  Cover the skin with a thin layer of salt (to further draw out moisture during roasting). 

Roast the meat in oven (2nd rack from bottom, fan mode) at 150°C for 30mins. Place a tray of water under the rack. After 30mins, remove tray of water and the meat from the oven. Note: Do adjust the roasting time based on the type and accuracy of your oven.

10. Switch the oven to grilling mode at 250°C. 

11. Scrap off the salt from the skin and dab the skin with kitchen towel dry as moisture (including fats). Grill the meat until skin is puffy, bubbly and golden brown. Keep a close eye on the grilling. There may be uneven browning of the skin if there are hot spots in the oven. In this case, rotate the tray and/or use aluminum foil to cover those part of the skin which has already puffed up.

12. Let the meat rest for at least 15 minutes before slicing.

Enjoy the crispy roast pork belly! Sometimes, we make sandwich with them.