Steamed Whole Snapper

July 23, 2014December 30, 2018 amcarmen5 Comments

Hello Everyone! My fridge (or should I say, my part of the fridge since I share a house with about 20 other people) has been looking a bit lonely for the past week. Nothing makes me happier than going to Paddy’s Market, and coming home with bags of fresh meat, seafood, and vegetables – and a bonus development of arm muscles from carrying heavy shopping bags, but probably not good for my back in the long run. My part of the fridge is looking happier now with all that food!

I probably bought more than 5 kilos of meat ranging from beef, chicken, and yummy pork ribs. I also got 2 whole snappers for $15, one of which will be featured in today’s post, and the other probably later in the week, as well as some prawns and salmon portions. I know that this sounds like a LOT of food for a tiny girl like me, but all this will probably last me a month or so. Paddy’s is not difficult to get to from where I live, but it is quite a bit of a trek and time consuming to go to every week to shop especially when there are a few other supermarkets close by. The reason why I go to Paddy’s at least once a month is because of their meat, seafood, and vegetables – cheaper and definitely fresher and of better quality than your local Coles or Woolies. I once got sick from meat that I got from Coles… That’s all I’m going to say.

Anyway, onto the recipe – this is a dish that my mom would always make for dinner, using a different fish of course and a different method of cooking. She usually cooks it over a charcoaled barbecue and I don’t know, there’s just something about it being cooked that way that made it so much more tastier. I obviously wasn’t going to start a barbecue for just one fish, plus, I don’t actually have a barbecue in the house (well I do but it runs on gas and I kind of blew it up towards the end of last year – don’t ask). So I stuck to steaming the fish today, but if you do want to give this a try, I highly recommend my mom’s way of cooking. Lip-smacking goodness I tell you!

PREP TIME 10 MINS | COOKING TIME 20 MINS | SERVES 2

INGREDIENTS

1 whole snapper, gutted, scaled, and cleaned
1 thumb-sized ginger, sliced
1 stalk green onion, sliced, green and white parts separated
1/2 red onion, sliced
1/2 tomato, sliced
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns
1/4 tsp rock salt
1 red bird’s eye chilli, sliced

METHOD

Nestle the snapper on a large piece of foil and scatter the red and white parts of the onions, ginger, tomatoes, peppercorns, and salt. Drizzle the lemon juice, soy sauce and sesame oil over the fish.
Loosely seal the foil to make a package, making sure that there is enough space at the top for the steam to circulate while the fish cooks.
Steam for 20 minutes. If you don’t have a steamer, you can place the parcel on a heatproof plate, or a stainless steel wire steamer rack, over a pan of gently simmering water, cover with a lid and steam.
Garnish with the remaining green onions and chilli slices. Serve with steamed rice.

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Homemade Lemon Curd

July 8, 2014December 30, 2018 amcarmen4 Comments

Hello Everyone! Yesterday afternoon I made some deliciously yummy lemon curd for today’s tea and scones party (which I will write about and post the recipe to basic scones tomorrow).

I decided to make it to go with the scones because I saw photographs of lemon curd being used as a spread with scones. I never knew the combination of the two go well together. It was heaven – scone, lemon curd, and whipped cream (and I’m not talking about the canned whipped cream; I find it very artificial-tasting to be honest). I followed the recipe from Taste, but I must say, it took me more than 10 minutes to get it at the desired consistency. I don’t know if it’s because I was doing it wrong, or the timing is a bit off in the recipe – but nonetheless it tasted SO good.

PREP TIME 5 MINS | COOKING TIME 45 MINS | MAKES 2 JARS

INGREDIENTS

2 whole large free range eggs
2 egg yolks
3/4 cup caster sugar
80g unsalted butter, chilled
Zest and juice of 2 lemons

METHOD

Whisk the whole eggs, yolks and sugar in a saucepan until smooth. Then place the saucepan over low heat.
Add the butter, lemon juice, and zest and whisk continuously until thickened (original recipe says about 10 minutes, but I took at least 45 minutes to get it really thick and to the right consistency, or at least the consistency I wanted it to be at).
Pour into a sterilised jar, cover, and keep in the fridge (lemon curd keeps for up to 2 weeks).

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Homemade Strawberry Jam

July 4, 2014December 30, 2018 amcarmen1 Comment

What do you do when you have a punnet or two of strawberries in the fridge that are on the verge of becoming overripe? – Make jam of course! I’m pretty sure you can do many other things with them, but today, I made jam.

I’ve actually had the strawberries in the fridge for almost 2 weeks before I decided to do something of them. I got them from my friend Pam; she was leaving to go back to Singapore that day. I wasn’t going to eat them only because I’m a bit sceptical of any fruit lasting beyond a week. The strawberries were actually still quite firm. They were very dark red in colour and the outside looked like it was starting to dry up. They were nonetheless still quite juicy when I cut them open.

PREP TIME 5 MINS | COOKING TIME 20 MINS | MAKES 2 JARS

INGREDIENTS

2 x 125g punnets of strawberries, hulled and halved
2/3 cups caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Zest and juice of one lemon

METHOD

Combine all the ingredients in a medium-sized saucepan and cook over very low heat for 20 minutes, until the strawberries release some of their juices and the mixture boils slowly. Cook until thickened.
Pour carefully into sterilised canning jars and either seal or keep refrigerated (see below on sterilising jars).

Sterilising Jars:

Jars should be made from glass with a metal lid that has a rubber seal. To sterilise the jars and lids, wash with hot, soapy water. Rinse well and arrange jars and lids open sides up, without touching, on a tray. Leave in a preheated 80C oven for 25 minutes, or boil the jars and lids in a large saucepan, covered with water, for 15 minutes.

Remember as a rule:

Hot preserves go into hot jars and cold preserves go into cold jars.

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Beetroot Gnocchi

May 1, 2014December 27, 2018 amcarmen5 Comments

Yesterday (30th April) was the 10-year anniversary of the iconic and always quotable click flick Mean Girls. I cannot even begin my obsession over this movie (okay, I’m not that obsessed, I just love it so much that I can quote it all day long). Leading up to this day, I planned a Mean Girls themed party and since its anniversary fell on a Wednesday, we had to bring in a pink dish to share, and of course wear pink as to quote Karen Smith, “On Wednesdays we wear pink”. If you want to skip ahead to the recipe, scroll down, otherwise enjoy reading about my DIY Mean Girls shirt:

I was initially going to buy a shirt off eBay but it was a bit too expensive – well that was one of the reasons, the other reasons were the font not being right, not the right shade of pink, etc. Yes, the designer in me kicked in. And then I thought, yeah I’m a designer, why not I just make my own t-shirt? And so I did! I bought a pink tank top from Esprit and can I just say what a snatch! Originally priced at $14.95 and was down to $7.95 – and then a further 50% off from that price! With the help of my lovely friend Tara who does textiles as one of her majors for her degree, she taught me how to screen print using the photo-emulsion technique. Yeap, making my own screen printed shirt was the way to go, literally costed me less than $5 but a bit of time and effort. At least it was something that I am happy with and it turned out so great! “YOU CAN’T SIT WITH US!”

So for the pink dish that I made to share with everyone, I made Beetroot Gnocchi. I’ve never made gnocchi before so I was a bit nervous as I didn’t want to screw up and have nothing for my guests to eat, but as always, beginner’s luck was on my side once again. They turned out really well and I would like to say that they taste really good (and I’m sure they do), I’m just not a very big fan of beetroot. It’s just something about the taste of it that I can’t really put my finger on. But as I said, I’m sure they would be so fetch for beetroot lovers.

PREP TIME 30 MINS | COOKING TIME 30 MINS | SERVES 5-6

INGREDIENTS

For the beetroot purée

1 bunch beetroot, cleaned and scrubbed (if the greens are still attached, cut them off, wash them, and reserve them for another use such as for salads)
Extra virgin olive oil
2 sprigs rosemary

For the beetroot gnocchi dough

3/4 cup roasted beetroot purée
2 cups plain flour, divided
1 cup ricotta cheese
3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 large egg
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

To garnish

Juice and zest of one lemon
Rosemary sprigs

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 250C. Place the beets in a large piece of aluminium foil. Coat the beets with the olive oil and sprinkle rosemary leaves over. Feel free to use plenty of olive oil as we will then use the beet-infused oil to dress the gnocchi. Fold the foil over and crimp the sides closed. This helps keep the beets moist, and also contains all the juices. Place in the oven and roast until tender. Smaller beets take about 25 minutes while larger and older beets can take up to an hour. You can check its tenderness by piercing a fork through them. Once done, remove the beets from the oven and set aside so that it is cool enough to handle. Once cool, you can use your fingers to to rub off the their peels. Transfer the beet-infused oil into a small bowl and reserve for later.
Cut the beets into chunks and place them into a blender. Blend until smooth. Take 3/4 cup of the beet purée and place it into a medium bowl. If you have any extra puréed beets, place them into a container and refrigerate. You can use them for other dishes. Stir in the ricotta and parmesan cheese, eggs, salt, and pepper. Then mix in 1 & 1/2 cups of flour (the dough can be made a day ahead, just keep it refridgerated).
Place the remaining 1/2 cup of flour in a bowl. Lightly dust a baking sheet with flour. Scoop the dough into rounds and transfer to the bowl with flour. Then with the tinges of a fork, press down into the dough and then transfer to baking sheet.
Working in batches, cook the gnocchi in a large pot of simmering salted water. Cook for about 2 minutes or until when the gnocchi starts to float to the surface. Cook the gnocchi for a further 1 & 1/2 minutes longer. Then, using a slotted spoon, transfer gnocchi to a serving dish. Drizzle with the beet-infused oil and top with lemon zest, a few squeezes of lemon juice and fresh rosemary leaves.