Red Snapper Fillet In Thymato Sauce

I bought a small pack of Arrowroot powder sometime ago but it's not been used as much as I planned. I used it in soups but haven't test it in stir-fries. My house helper bought me some nice and fresh Red Snapper fillets and large prawns last week from a fisherman, selling by the road side :-D She's really good at sourcing such produce and I'm really happy with her service :-P I even told her that I mentioned about her in my blog... she's so happy :-)

I decided to use the arrowroot for this recipe that used tomatoes before it's due date :-P I read that arrowroot is works very well with acidic liquid (example; tomatoes in this recipe or maybe pasta sauce?). It's neutral tasting it's the best among the starch thickeners besides surviving the freezer with no effects of odd taste or spongy. It also gives high gloss to your dishes ( I think it's fabulous with pie fillings!). One thing of caution though, arrowroot doesn't work well with milk based sauces as I found out when I use it to make ice cream when I ran out of cornstarch :-(

Here's a recipe that I wanted to share. You must be wondering what's this 'Thymato Sauce' :-P It's the combination of 'Thyme' and 'Tomato'. You see, when I upload my recipe and picts to food sites, they have this word/title limits to certain count. So, to shorten the process (actually, my laziness :-P), I decided to call the fish's sauce/gravy as 'Thymato'. I think it sounds better than 'Thymemato'. Hmmm... sounds like one of those weird science projects, huh? Well, If you can have 'Tamarillo', why not 'Thymato'? Hee heee heeee... :-P

Red Snapper Fillet In Thymato Sauce

Serves 2-4

300 g Red Snapper Fillet (or any white fish fillet) ~ skin on

400 g Tomato ~ skinned and seeded

2 pcs Lebanese Cucumbers

1 Tbl Fresh Thyme ~ fully packed/1 tsp dried Thyme

1 clove Garlic ~ minced

10 g Arrowroot Powder **

Some oil for shallow frying

For Fish Marinate:

2.5 g Salt (approx. ½ tsp)

3o ml Ginger Wine (I'd posted a recipe if you don't have ready-made wine)

Some Ground White Pepper to taste

For Seasoning:

60 ml Water

30 g Raw Sugar

2 g Salt (approx. ⅓ tsp)

20 ml Tomato Sauce (Tomato Ketchup)

10 ml Rice Vinegar

Thickener Glaze:

30 ml Water

12 g Arrowroot Powder**

* Unless stated otherwise all cup & spoon measurements are level.

** For this recipe you can use other starches as thickener or glaze like Cornstarch, Kudzu, Potato Starch, Tapioca or Water Caltrop Starch.

Method:

1. Rinse fish fillet and pat dry with kitchen paper. Cut into pieces (depends on the size of fillet, you can have about 3 or more portions). Mix gently the pieces with marinade for 10± minutes.

2. Slice the skinned and seeded tomatoes into wedges. Cut the cucumbers into quarters lengthwise and then dice coarsely. You can cut into rounds as well ~ as long as the cucumbers cook evenly.

3. Add the Kudzu powder to the pieces of fish and mix well (it's easier to mix with fingers).

4. Heat some oil in a deep pan. Fry the fish pieces on both sides until medium-well done (62.8°C/145°F degrees core temp). Dish out and set aside. Remove the used oil.

5. In the same pan, heat some oil. Stir-fry the minced garlic until fragrant. Add in tomato wedges. Stir for awhile. Add in the seasoning and fried fish pieces. Let it cook for few minutes.

6. Add in the diced cucumbers and fresh thyme. Gently mix the ingredients so that the fish pieces are not break apart.

7. Add in the thickener mixture and gently stir until it thickens. Dish out and serve.

Enjoy!

Spicy Chilli-Garlic Prawns

It's been more than 5 months, I had a part-time assistant or helper to do some chores at home. What amazed me was she managed to get very good (and cheaper too) some of my favourites from the local fresh market. I bet she's very good at haggling the prices! Frankly, I used to spend a lot buying food from supermarkets, which has little or no choice at all except imported produces which doubled the price (sometimes ridiculously) and such items had short shelf-life by the time they reached their destinations. Since I employed her, my expenditure for food reduced :-) but I still spend some hefty sums for quality wine or cheeses :-(

Few days ago she bought for me some fresh medium Tiger Prawns for only 3.10 € which made me grinned and thinking of ways how to eat these prawns. Btw, that price is for 1 kg and varies from day to day. Sometimes, when it's heavy rain, seafood are slightly more expensive. When the price is good, she would buy some for me to freeze, so that I could cook on other days when she's not working for me. No wonder, some of my neighbors seek her help to buy vegetables and particularly seafood! :-D

For this dish, it's important to know that a very high heat is used to avoid over cooking of seafood yet maintain its succulent and firm shape. Some foodies called it as springy, bouncy or 'QQ' texture that when you bite into these prawns, you can taste the bursting sweetness of fresh prawns and the marinades. You need to practice 'mise en place' if you're going to cook this stir-fry method which worth the effort. Now, let's wok away with this recipe...

Spicy Chilli-Garlic Prawns

Serves 2-3

500 g Large Prawns (like King Prawn or Tiger Prawn)

For the Sauce/Gravy:

50 ml Soy Sauce

30 ml Rice Vinegar

2 tsp Sesame Oil

30 g Tomato Ketchup

2 tsp Raw Sugar

1 tsp Cornflour

Some Water

2 Tbl Cooking Oil (like Corn, Peanut, Palm or Canola)

2 cloves Garlic - minced

1 Tbl Fresh Ginger - minced

1 nos Fresh Red Chilli seeded and minced (you can also use Jalapeño or Bird's Eye Chilli)

1 stalk Spring Onion - sliced thinly

Method:

1. For the Sauce: Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl and stir until sugar and cornflour dissolve.

2. Heat a pan or wok over high heat until you see some smoke coming out. Add 1 Tbl of the cooking oil. Add in the prawns and sear until browned on both sides (about 1 minute or so on both sides). Remove the prawns from the pan. Set aside.

3. With the same pan, turn up the heat on high and add in the rest of the cooking oil. Add in the garlic, ginger, chilli and half of the sliced spring onion. Stir for awhile until fragrant.

4. Add in the sauce mixture and give a quick stir until it starts to bubble.

5. Add the seared prawns and continue to stir-fry until cooked and the sauce thickens slightly. Dish out into a platter and garnish with the remaining sliced spring onion. Serve with hot steamed rice!

Tip: Before start cooking, prepare the other stir-fry ingredients mise en place because you will cook in very high heat and fast. The ingredients for stir-fry have to be within your reach so that the dish not only cooks fast but not over done. This method ensures your seafood stays firm and succulent. If using vegetables, stays crunchy and maintain its color and taste.

Enjoy!

Easy Crispy Garlic Coriander Rice

I missed eating Garlic Rice for unknown reason but with sore throat, my family advised me not to take too much fried food. I'm getting better now... thank you for all your get well wishes! I hope I won't get this problem for awhile since more festive seasons coming soon. I don't want to be left out... ;-) So, I thought why not using my pre-fried garlic crisps and add into boiled rice instead of frying the rice. I always fried some extra garlic or onion crisps and keep that for later use. The addition of coriander gives extra fragrant to this rice dish. Since, it's just add-on dish, I even mixed 2 extra types of herbs - Basil and Tumeric leaves :-) For the Tumeric version, I julienned fresh tumeric root and chiffonade the leaves. Just before serving, I add in the herbs and stir the rice well. Then I served the rice with Stir-fry Gai Choi with Shiitake Mushrooms and Salted Fish (as in the pic).

Easy Crispy Garlic Coriander Rice

Serves 2

1 cup Rice, washed & drained

2 tbl Olive Oil

1-2 tbl Minced Garlic

2-3 tbl chopped fresh Coriander Leaves

Method:

1. Cook the rice according to manufacturer's instructions. Keep warm.

2. Heat olive oil in another pan in medium heat. When hot, add garlic and stir fry until fragrant and golden brown - about 1 minute.

3. Remove pan from heat and stir in chopped coriander leaves.

4. Pour the garlic -coriander mixture into the freshly cooked white rice. Stir to mix well.

5. Serve garlic-coriander rice on it's own or as accompaniment to meat and other fish dishes.

Notes:

If you want even faster, you can pre-fry the certain amount garlic crips in advance and bottled with the oil as well. When you need it, just add into rice or any dishes that you want. Besides Coriander, you can also use other herbs like Basil or Italian Parsley.

In this recipe, I used Basmathi rice. You can use Jasmine rice.

♪Enjoy♬