Vietnamese-Style Fried Fish With Lemon Grass

This is a popular dish in South Vietnamese Seaside resorts. You can use either fillet fillets or whole fish for this dish and the seasoning goes well with Salmon Fillets too....


As from the name of this dish, you will know the main spice ingredient used will be Lemon grass. Lemon grass is widely used as an herb in Asian (particularly Thai, Lao, Sri Lankan, Khmer and Vietnamese) and Caribbean cooking. It has a lemon flavour and can be dried and powdered, or used fresh. The stalk itself is too hard to be eaten, except for the soft inner part. However, it can be finely sliced and added to recipes. It may also be bruised and added whole as this releases the aromatic oils from the juice sacs in the stalk.

For this dish, I bought a Yellow Croaker(黄花鱼) which is mainly used for steaming. But it do fixed well in this pan-fried dish and the meat is very tender and fine.

Ingredients:
1 Medium Size Fish or Fish Fillet, about 250g
2 Stalks Lemon Grass Thinly Sliced, white parts only
3 Cloves Garlic, lightly pound
4-5 Shallots, peeled and sliced
1 Large Red Chilli or 2 Small Thai Chillies, deseeded and sliced
1 Tablespoon Sugar
2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
3 Tablespoons Oil
1/4 Green Lime

Methods:
1. Clean, wash and pat dry the fish. Cut shallow, diagonal slits on both sides of the fish body and place on a large plate.
2. Using a mortar or food processor, pound or blend the lemon grass, garlic, shallots, chilli and sugar to a paste.
3. Add fish sauce and season to taste. Stuffed some of the paste into the stomach of the fish then rub the remaining on both side of the fish and let it marinate for about 1 hour or more.
4. Pour the oil in a large non-stick frying pan on medium heat. Place fish in the pan, cover fried for 1 minutes until skin slightly brown then remove cover and turn to the other side for another 1 minute.
5. Reduce heat to low and carefully turn fish over to cook for another 2 minutes on each other until the skin is golden and crisp and fish is cooked through.
6. Dish and place on plate. Drizzle the pan oil over the fish and square some lime juice over it and serve immediately with rice.

Notes: You can used any kind of fish to your preference, Cod Fish works well with this too.

Kong Ba Bao/Kou Rou Bao(扣肉包)

Kou Rou Bao(扣肉包) or Kong Bao Bao... that's what we usually called this Chinese snacks. I love this especially the stew pork belly which is so soft, tender and juicy when you bite it off from the bun. I had also tried a similar stew pork belly dish in the previous post on Dong Po Rou. But this taste and methods are abit different from this.


This stew Kong Ba is towards the dried type of meat where you don't really add water to stew but rather pan-fry it on very very low heat and simmer on it's very own natural juice from the meat. I got to learn this method from one of the mummy from my son's playgroup.

Ingredients:
1 Piece Of Pork Belly(三层肉 ), about 200g
1 Small Cinnamon Stick(桂皮 ), about 5cm long
1 Star Anise,八角
6-8 Cloves,丁香
4 Cloves Garlics,蒜头
4 Shallots,小葱头
1 Small Pieces Rock Sugar(冰糖), 10g
Seasoning:
1 Tablespoon Oyster Sauce
1 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Dark Soy Sauce
1/2 Tablespoon Cooking Wine

Methods:
1. Wash, clean and trim the pork belly then marinate it with the seasoning, cinnamon stick, star anise, cloves, garlic and shallot for at least 2 hours or overnight.
2. Preheat a small claypot with some 1 tablespoon of oil and saute 3 cloves of garlic and rock sugar to fragrant then add in pork belly and the marinade juice and saute on medium heat for 1 minute then turn it over.
3. Add in 1 - 2 tablespoons of water and let it simmer on very low heat for 30 - 45 minutes, check occasionally to see with if the sauce dried out before the meat is tender, add in extra tablespoons of water and continue to simmer.
4. When done, dish up and cut into serving size and serve together with steam plain bun and lettuce.

Fresh Peanut Roots & Mushroom Pork Ribs Soup

There is this saying that "Chinese made soup from roots of peanut to help youngsters to grow taller" especially when given to them during their teen years. Some also believed that boiling fresh peanut leaves in water and drinking the before bedtime can ensure a good night sleep. But all other than these believed, you still can whip out some nice and fragrant soup using this Peanut Roots which can be found is most vegetables stall in the local wet market.

To me, I found it very time consuming to wash these peanut roots. Because they are filled with dirts that you need to wash, scrap and soak it in water until clean before you can proceed in making the soup.


For this soup, I also add in some extra dried soup peanuts and Dried Brazil Mushrooms(click on link for more info) to enhance the flavour. I boiled all the ingredients with some pork ribs and chicken bone to hope that it will make the soup morenutritionn and sweet. This is my first time using Brazil Mushrooms which is introduce by Edith from Precious Moments.

Ingredients:
1 Bunch of Peanut Roots(花生根), about 200g
300g Pork Ribs(排骨)
1 Chicken Bone(鸡骨)
50-80g Soup Peanuts(花生), soaked in hot water
6 Red Dates(红枣)
1 Tablespoon Gou Qizi(枸杞子)
8-10 Stalks Of Dried Brazil Mushrooms,姬松茸(巴西蘑菇)

Methods:
1. Trim, wash, scrap and soak the peanut roots in water until the water is clear without dirts.(you need to soak in water for at least 2 hrs)
2. Soaked the peanuts andBrazill mushrooms in hot water for a while, rinse, drained then set aside.
3. Blanched the pork ribs and chicken bone in boiling water, rinse, drained and set aside.
4. Bring a pot of 1.5 litres of water to boil, add in all the ingredients and bring to boil again.
5. Transfer all to a slow cooker and simmer on Auto-Heat for 3 - 4 hrs, season with salt and served.

Mix Vegetables & Chicken On Deep-fried Yam

Actually this dish is not suppose to look as what it is shown here. From the site that tracy show me, it supposed to call Savoury Bird Nests. She used grated yam to deep-fry into individual nest then top with some stir-fry ingredients.

I did not get it successful in making the "Yam Nests" as mine grated yam kept sticking on to the metal sieves while frying. But the "Nests" filling, I used the following vegetables and seasonings:


Ingredients:
1/2 Portion Of Chicken Breast, 150g
4 Medium Dried Shitake Mushroom, soaked till soften
6-8 Canned Button Mushroom
6 Water Chestnuts, peeled and cut into quarters
1 Small Carrots, peeled and cut into small cubes
100g Pumpkin/Potato, peeled and cut into small cubes
6 Small Dried Chilli, soaked till soften, cut into thick slices
1/2 Green Capsicum, cut into small cubes
Some Spring Onion, sliced thinly in diagonal shapes
1 - 2 Small Fried Chilli, sliced thinly
3 Cloves Garlic, finely chopped
50g Roasted Cashew Nuts
1 Teaspoon Cornstarch mix with 30ml water
Marinade:
1 Teaspoon Cooking Wine
1 Teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce
2 Teaspoon Light Soy Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
1 Teaspoon Cornstarch
Dash Of Pepper

Methods:
1. Wash, trim and cut the chicken into small cubes then marinate it with the marinade for at least 30 minutes or more.
2. Cut the soften shitake mushroom into quarter then blanched in hot oil for a few seconds, drained and set aside.
3. Deep-fry both the carrots and pumpkin in hot oil for 1 minute, drained and set aside.
4. Preheat the pan with 1 tablespoon of oil, saute the dried chilli until fragrant(about 30 sec), then add in minced garlic and continue to saute until slightly golden.
5. Next add in the marinated chicken and stir-fry for 1 minute, then add in the water chestnut, capsicum, pumpkin, carrot, shitake and button mushroom and some of the spring onion.
6. Continue to fry until chicken is cooked through then add in some cornstarch water and stir till sauce almost thicken then add in the cashew nut.
7. Dish up the mixture and place it in the "Yam Nests"(refer to the link for making it) and serve with extra garnish of the spring onion and chilli slices.

Notes: You can replace the chicken by either pork slices or prawns.