Hello this is my first post in Food & Flavors!! I'm sure a lot of people have become good chef during MCO, and my wife started to learn more and more new recipes too...

So we have started this youtube channel thing and upload our recipes there.. and we want to share them here too. Please feel free to discuss or leave comments / feedback here about the recipes

I'm starting this first post with my all-time favorite steamed fish, hope you like it




Recipe for this simple home cook dish:

Preparation:
1. Clean the fish and pat dry
2. Chop garlic finely
3. Peel ginger and cut into thin strips
4. Cut spring onion into thin silken threads. Soak in ice water for 5 minutes to make it curl
5. Slice chilli padi

Cooking:
1. Heat 2 tbsp oil in wok and stir-fry garlic and ginger strips until fragrant
2. Heat up the wok with enough water for steaming. Wait for water to boil. As soon as it boils, place your fish into the wok. Cover your wok tightly and steam for 5 minutes
3. Discard the fishy and cloudy fish “water” after steaming
4. Pour the hot oil with fried ginger strips and garlic over the steamed fish. Add sliced chili. Pour 1.5 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tbsp of oyster sauce, 1 tbsp of seasoned soy sauce for seafood over the fish
5. Steam for another 5 minutes
6. Garnish curled spring onion on top of steamed fish

nice editing... but music too loud, I also hate these kind of music... normally I will skip and watch others

Thanks for the feedback, I’ll take note about music volume next time.

Just wanna check what type of music do you think is suitable for cooking videos?

imho... cooking is quite therapeutic, softer type Chinese instrumental music to go with Chinese cooking should be ok... no music is fine too, but you'll have to narate a bit .... I do prefer listening to the chopping board sound or water boiling sound or deep frying sound, etc... so I'm more connected to what I'm seeing... should try to mix them in...

on recipes and cooking steps, you should check out others, especially professional chefs, understand what they do and incorporate into your cooking/video... example on your lor mai kai, you don't have to steam the sweet rice separately, then mix with the sauce, and steam again... this is just extra unnecessary steps... obviously there are many ways to cook, and nothing wrong with your method...but you want to look at smarter methods so people will say "aha" and subscribe.... just some extra feedback

Great feedback ... thanks !

Recipe of Hakka Yam Abacus Seeds/Beads



Ingredients:
Yam 400g
Tapioca flour 300g
Minced Pork 250g
Mushroom 45g
Black fungus 30g
Dried cuttlefish x2
Dried shrimps 30g
Shallots x5

Seasoning:
Dark soy sauce 2 tbsp
Soy sauce 3 tbsp
Salt 0.5 tsp
Sugar 0.5 tsp
Ground white pepper 5 tsp
Water appropriate
Spring onions appropriate

Step 1: Preparation
1. Soak mushroom in water for 10 hours. Clean and cut into strips
2. Soak black fungus in water for 1 hour. Clean and cut into strips
3. Soak dried cuttlefish in water for 2 hours. Clean and cut into strips
4. Soak dried shrimps in water for 5 minutes. Clean and chop finely
5. Clean and chop shallots finely
6. Peel yam, clean and cut into thick slices

Step 2: Make Abacus seeds
1. Heat up 1 tbsp oil in wok and saute chopped shallots till aromatic. Add sliced yam, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tsp ground white pepper, 0.5 tsp salt. Stir fry till fragrant.
2. Add enough water to cover the tops of the sliced yam. Simmer it for 10 minutes ‎until the yam is fork-tender and can be mashed easily. Mash the cooked yam while it is still hot.
3. Add in tapioca flour, continue to mix till the dough comes together. (Slowly add more flour if it’s too sticky or more boiling water if it’s too dry). Knead until dough is smooth and of a nice soft consistency.
4. Roll dough into long logs and divide into small even pieces . Roll each piece in between your palms to form round balls. Use your index finger to press in the centre of the ball (make a slight depression) to form an abacus-like shape.
5. Boil water in wok. Add in Yam abacus seeds in batches. Once the seeds float, they are cooked. Scoop it out and immerse in cold water. This technique firms up the abacus seeds, and won't stick together.

Step 3 : Stir fry
1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in wok, add mushroom strips and fry for a short while with 0.5 tsp sugar. Set aside.
2. Heat 1 tbsp oil in wok, add dried cuttlefish strips and fry for a short while. Set aside.
3. Heat 1 tbsp oil in wok, add black fungus strips and fry for a short while. Set aside.
4. Heat 2 tbsp oil. Stir fry dried shrimps turns golden brown and fragrant. Add minced pork and fry for two minutes until minced pork is cooked. Add in 2 tbsp soy sauce, 3 tsp pepper to taste. Add in the yam abacus seeds, fried mushroom, fried black fungus, fried cuttlefish. Add 2 tbsp black soy sauce to color. Continue to fry and mix everything together until dries up.
5. Garnish spring onion. Serve hot.

Prawns in tomato sauce! Love it ! 😋

Recipe for this simple home cook dish


Preparation:
1. Peel and devein prawns
2. Chop the garlic and ginger

Cooking:
1.Heat 2 tbsp oil in wok and stir-fry chopped garlic and ginger until transparent.
2.Then add the prawns. Stir-fry for 2-3 minutes or until the prawns are cooked.
3.Pour in the 4 tbsp tomato sauce and 2 tbsp chili sauce, stir and cook until simmering for 2 minutes.

Stir Fry Beef with Ginger and Spring Onions (薑蔥牛肉🥩) , perfect match with white rice and fried egg 🍳😋





Recipe:

Beef marinating sauce
* 1.5 tbsp light soy sauce
* 1.5 tbsp oyster sauce
* 1 tbsp sesame oil
* 1 tbsp ShaoXing wine
* 0.5 tbsp dark soy sauce
* 1 tbsp ginger juice
* 0.5 tsp sugar
* appropriate ground pepper
* 1 tbsp cornflour
* 1 tbsp cooking oil

Ingredients :
1. 400g beef tenderloin, sliced
2. 2 stalks spring onion, cut into 2 inch length
3. 30g ginger
4. 1 tbsp ShaoXing wine

Steps:
1. Marinate beef with the marinating sauce, set aside for at least 1 hour.
2. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok, stir fry ginger and only the white portion of the spring onion
3. Add the meat, quickly stir.
4. Add 1 tbsp ShaoXing Wine and the green section of the spring onion. Quickly stir-fry for twenty seconds.

See liao feel hungry...

What can you cook in less than 5 minutes?😋🥬



清炒小芥蘭 Stir-Fried Chinese Vegetable (Baby Kai Lan) with Garlic

Ingredient:
1. 350g baby kailan
2. 30g ginger, slice
3. 4x garlic, finely minced
4. 1 tbsp light soy sauce
5. 1 tbsp Benedictine D.O.M
6. 2 tbsp water

Cooking:
1. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok, sauté garlic and ginger until fragrant
2. On high flame, put in the veg and stir fry
3. When veggie starts to soften, add 1 tbsp light soy sauce and 2 tbsp water. Stir-fry to combine well.
4. Add 1 tbsp Benedictine D.O.M in the last 1 minute.

For steam fish, I'd suggest adopting the less is more method. Going heavy on the aromatics like using browned garlic and seasonings will mask the natural sweetness of the fish. All you need is a good rub of salt on the fish, oil, a good light soy sauce, 2 slices of 20sen sized bentong ginger and spring onions. Sometimes ginger is not even required if the fish is good.

The reason why restaurants throw away "fish water" is because most of them steam the entire fish. The gut cavity and head portion contains alot of funky tasting substances which could ruin the final product. If you have a very beautiful cut of fish like your fillet or even a tail, this step is not necessary. It will be necessary however, if you have a steak of fish with bone in that could be contaminated with blood, then you might consider it. Truth be told, the liquid that you get from steaming a good cut of fish is fantastic. If the flesh tastes so good, why would fish water be unappetising? Right?

Good steam fish = the freshest cut of fish you can find (defo from wet market or a good fishmonger), no blood contamination, light seasoning and good soy sauce. Just my 2 cents.

imho the condiments are fine...not excessive

as for fishy water...this method is good if you have guests and for want of a better "cleaner" presentation, especially in this case for YouTube

Ahh well yes, your "eyes eat first", which can be rather subjective and can drastically affect the taste of the dish.
As for the condiments, it depends what flavours does the chef want to deliver and emphasize, strong and heavy or light and clean, whilst still maintaining a balance of flavours.
In the end, it is still the cook's and diners' preferences.

Omg this looks so good, my mouth is watering

yup... he showed just one of many methods... good starting point for people who have no idea how to cook or just starting

obviously once you improve should always adapt to your own repertoire

Wow it’s great to see such discussion going on here. We have been receiving suggestions like minimal condiment (apparently this seem to be common practice in Hong Kong), and also not needing to throw away the fish water.

The method that I show is what I have been liking and accustomed to but I’ll definitely try these other methods next time
.. thanks for all the suggestions

This post has been edited by wp.creativ: Nov 28 2020, 11:30 PM

I think throwing away fish water should be done only if the fish is not as fresh (fresh = translucent flesh with an iridescent sheen) or steamed whole fish (not all species, extremely fresh dao dai pomfret is amazing). Which is why the easiest way to steam would be to buy boneless/bone-in fillets of large fish. Bones provide great flavour but they spoil fast (due to blood contamination). Steamed fish is more about buying technique than cooking technique, emphasizing freshness. I cannot stress enough how fresh the fish must be to able steam it with minimal condiments and taste heavenly, without throwing water.

The Hong Kees can easily say minimal condiments for steamed fish, that is because in countries like China and Hong Kong, the fish are sold live, which is very different from here. Secondly, their climate is also different from ours which makes quality of dead fish sold here drop faster due to the higher temperature and humidity. Thirdly, we get most of our fish from the Straits of Melaka (farmed or caught), while Hong Kees probably get theirs from South China Sea, pollution in these two bodies of water are different, thus quality is different. (Most of the reef groupers, eg Red, Seven Star, Swalow are not caught in West Malaysia, they are shipped from East Malaysia, quality drops during shipping as well). My guess is, to enjoy steamed fish almost everyday, Malaysians changed the recipes of steam fish, which involved adding more of condiments and aromatics to make up for the reduced quality of fish and also, to suit our Malaysian Food palates which favour flavour intense and bold tasting foods. So yea, there are a few ways to steam fish and it might be your families' recipe, so you do yours. In no way did I do detailed research so these are just my thoughts, hope it helps I guess?

it's definitely helpful. Thanks

Preserved Radish Omelette😋

Recipe

Ingredients, cooking:
1. Rinse 3 tbsp preserved radish in running water.
2. Heat pan with oil. Stir fry over medium low heat till the preserved radish is dry and fragrant.
3. Crack 3 eggs and lightly beat them with appropriate pepper and 1 tsp salt
4. Spread the radish and spring onion evenly into the beaten eggs and mix well.
5. Heat pan with 3 tbsp oil. When wok is very hot, pour in the egg mixture and pan fry over medium high heat till aromatic. Let it golden brown on one side, the flip to the other side

Love shrimp 🦐 and Tofu!! Now how about putting them together?

STEAMED SHRIMP TOFU



Recipe:
Shrimp marinade
• 1 tbsp ShaoXing wine
• 0.5 tbsp ginger(finely chopped)
• 1 tbsp finely cut spring onion
• Dash of white pepper
• 1 tbsp egg white
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 0.5 tsp Salt
• 0.5 tsp Sugar

Ingredients
• 1 tubes tofu
• Appropriate parsley
• 1 tsp carrot (chopped)
• Appropriate spring onion curls
• 1 tsp oyster sauce
• 3 Shrimps

Preparation and Cooking :
1. Cut tofu into equal pieces. Absorb excess water with kitchen paper. Using a teaspoon and dig a small shallow hole in the center of the tofu and put some oyster sauce on it.
2. Peel and devein the shrimp
3. Place the Shrimps on a chopping board, chop it to turn it into mince. Mix the shrimp paste and the marinade together
4. Using wet hands, form mixture into ball and place it on top of tofu. Sprinkle some grated carrot on top. Garnish parsley.
5. Steam on high heat under boiling water for about 12 minutes or until shrimp paste is cooked through. Carefully discard excess water from the plate.
6. Garnish with spring onion curls

This post has been edited by wp.creativ: May 29 2021, 04:20 PM