I love salmon, although it is a quite oily fish, every time we cook it, we end up eating quite a lot of it. So break it down to smaller portions, poaching rather than pan frying, is the way that we can try to be a bit more cautious with what we eat.
We have 2 big pieces of Atlantic salmon cutlets, around 700g. More salmon pieces can be used in the similar quantity of poaching liquid.
To prepare the poaching liquid, I put:
1 cup vegetable stock
1 cup white wine
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
3 bay leaves
7-8 whole black pepper
1 onion
1 lemon (without skin)
salt
parsley stems
and enough water to cover the fish.
Bring the poaching liquid to boil and then reduce the heat, poach the salmon in the lowest heat, for around 15-20 minutes, you shouldn't be able to see the liquid simmer. Once cooked, take the salmon out and break it down into chunks, take out of all the bones.
Creamy rice:
2 cup chicken stock
2 long grain rice (jasmine or basmati)
1 cup risoni
1 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
grated parmesan cheese
Olive oil
Heat up olive oil in the sauce pan to cook rice, then add rice and risoni, stir till a bit fragrant and rice change a bit of colour. Add warm stock, slowly and keep stirring. Add warm milk, and salt and pepper. The process is a bit like making risotto, add a bit more stock than 2 cup depending on the rice. When almost cooked, add parmesan cheese and take the sauce pan off stove, close lid and let it sit for 10 minutes.
White sauce:
A bit of something to add to salmon and rice, so it's not too dry. Just reduce some of the poaching liquid (it's already quite flavoursome) and add a bit of butter and cream.
My children are very fussy eaters and they are happy with this subtle flavoured dish.
I had some problem with the blog site yesterday, so this post is one day late, or two.
This was made on Mother's Day, for Mum.
The tradition of making mum mother's day breakfast? Mum's a simple person. She likes simple items, and most of the items from Yum Cha menu. The simple and tasty Cantonese turnip cake has always been one of her favourites.
There's no specific quantiy for making this cake although this has been in last year's Masterchef, and celebrity Chef Christine Mansfield made a celebrity version of this peasant yumcha dish, which eliminated one of the hot favourites at the time, Spice-Roasted Squab with Turnip Cake and Star Anise Broth.
However, mum never watched Masterchef, she's quite happy with my simple peasant style turnip cake.
It starts with a Chinese raddish - daikon cooked in clear broth with simple flavouring, just a bit of salt, I had some gravy beef so this time, it's cooked in beef broth.
The preferred method was thredded daikon, however since beef took a long time, I cooked the daikon in chunks and mashed them roughly, so there are still chunks of daikons in the cake for texture, and with broth just enough to cover it.
Next was to slice 3 lapchong (Chinese Sausages) and heat oil in wok, fry lapchong till fragrant together with dry shrimps (pre-soaked in water to make them tender).
Once cooked, put daikon in pot with the lapchong and shrimps, mix well and then mix in rice flour. I normally use the normal rice flour, not the glutenous one for this cake. It's hard to measure the flour amount as it all depends on how big is the daikon, how long it has been cooking and how juicy it is, a bit less or a bit more will change the flour quantity. So I'd say mix in enough flour so it will form a soft dough, not dry and still sticky, and the batter shouldn't be runny.
Press them into greased moulds (bowls or ceremic oven dishes or anything really that can survive the steamer), steam for 10-15 in high heat.
Slice and take out of mould. It can be eaten just steamed.
But it's best served slightly pan fried with a little bit of oil to brown sides.
