Salmon With Passionfruit Sauce

Cooking with Passion fruit is never to come across my thought as I don't really have passion with this fruit. But after hearing good comments from my friend Tracy on this fruit, I decided to give it a try and at one go I have whipped up a main course and a dessert to pair with it. So today's Menu will be Salmon With Passion fruit Sauce served with Passion fruit Salad and PassionMisu(recipe) here for dessert.

The passion fruit is round to oval, yellow or dark purple at maturity, with a soft to firm, juicy interior filled with numerous seeds. The fruit can be grown to eat or for its juice, which is often added to other fruit juices to enhance aroma. Fresh Passion Fruit is known to be high in vitamin A, Potassium and dietary fibre. Passion fruit juice is also a good source of ascorbic acid (vitamin C).


For this dish I used the passion fruit to make the serving sauce for the salmon and sweet potato as well as the passion fruit salad. I made use of the empty shell of the passion fruit as a serving plate for the salad to the overall dish more presentable. You can make use of any kind of vegetables or fruits that you can find in your fridge compartment. For my Passion fruit Salad the ingredients used are as follow:-

Salad Ingredients : (serves 2)
2 Tablespoons of Cucumber Cubes
2 Tablespoons of Apple Cubes
1 Tablespoons of Tomato Cubes
1 Tablespoon of Passion fruit Pulps
1 Tablespoon of Pomegranate

Methods:
1. Cut all the items into similar shape and sizes then mixed them together and set aside in the fridge.
2. Scoop the salad into the reserved passion fruit shell.

Note:
a) You can use whatever fruits and vegetables that is in your fridge but try to choose those with mild favour to compromise with the passion fruit taste.

As for the main course, I used salmon fillet to accompany the fragrant of the passion fruit sauce and it really blend well with this combination. This salmon dish consists of 3 portion of preparing method for the fish, sauce and side dish. You can use any side dish you prefer, eg. fresh salad greens, mash potato, potato wedges or etc. For my case, I served it with pan-fry sweet potato slices.

Sauce Ingredients:
2 Medium Passion fruits
1/2 Teaspoon Butter
3 Shallots, sliced & roughly chopped
1/2 Teaspoon Honey
1 Tablespoon Cooking Wine

Methods:
1. Halves the passion fruit, scrape flesh into strainer and push it through the stainer and get about 80 - 100ml of juice. Set aside.
2. After frying the salmon, use the kitchen paper towel to wipe the pan then add in the butter and saute the shallot till fragrant, about 1 minutes or less.
3. Add in cooking wine, passion fruit juice and honey then simmer on medium low heat till thickened, about 30 seconds then remove and set aside.

Note:
a) The use of honey is for seasoning purpose as in sweeten and enhance the favour of the passionfruit and it also act as a caramelised agent to thicken the sauce.

Main Ingredients: (serves 2)
2 Pieces of Salmon Fillet, about 200g each
Salt & Pepper
1/2 Tablespoon passion fruit juice
1/2 Tablespoon Cornflour
1 Teaspoon Olive Oil
1 Teaspoon Butter

Methods:
1. Season the salmon with salt, pepper and passion fruit juice then coat it with some cornflour on both side then set aside for about 1 minute.
2. Heat up the pan with olive oil and butter then pan-fry the salmon, skin-side down for about 4 minutes on each side until cooked through. the timing will depending on the thickness of the fillet.
3. Removed the fillet and arranged on serving plate together with the side dish, salad and drizzle some passion fruit sauce on the fillet and served extra sauce on the side.

PassionMisu

I guess you have either heard or tried making or eating Tiramisu before. It is actually one of the most popular Italian desserts which is made of savoiardi (lady fingers) dipped in coffee and mascarpone cream. But for our this week menu, I am trying something new which I called it PassionMisu. The key ingredient use it Passionfruit as this weekend my blogging is base on cookign with FRESH FRUIT. This PassionMisu is to serve with the main course known as Salmon with Passionfruit Sauce.

For this PassionMisu dessert, I used mini sponge cake (kueh Bolu) instead of the traditional savoiardi (lady fingers). I dipped it in Mango juice and spread it with layers of Passionfruit yogurt cream. This is indeed one of the Quick and Easy way to make an easy and impressive dessert for guest.

If you are not keen with passionfruit, you can always replaced it with the traditional Tiramisu ingredients like coffee and mascarpone cream. Or you can use this method by changing the type of fruits to either strawberries, mango or even durian and you can get a wonderful and easy dessert in no time.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
80ml Fresh Mango/Passionfruit Juice
10 - 15 Mini Sponge Cake(kueh bolu)
1/2 or more Tablespoon of Cocoa Powder, dusting

Methods:
1. Cut the passionfruits into halves and remove the pulps and set aside.
2. Cut the sponge cake into halves (side-way) then gently dip the cut side in the juice and arranged it in base of the serving cups or container.
3. Spread a layer of the passionfruit yogurt cream on top and top with another layer of sponge cake dipped with juice.
4. Repeat the top with another layer of the yogurt cream.
5. Wrap the top with clear wrap and put in the freezer for about 10 minutes to get the top almost firm to touch.
6. Dust with generous amount of cocoa powder and decorate with some fruits or extra passionfruit pulp if desire.

Ingredients for Passionfruit Yogurt Cream:
2 Fresh Passionfruits, collect about 3 1/2 tablespoons of pulps
150g Mango/Plain Yogurt
1/2 Teaspoon of Sugar
30ml Mango Juice/Plain Water
1 1/2 Teaspoons of Gelatin Powder

Methods:
1. Dissolve the gelatin powder in the mango juice over simmering water or microwave on medium heat for 30 seconds(stop in between 10 second and stir till dissolve).
2. Next, mix the yogurt and passionfruit pulp together till well combine then stir in sugar and melted gelatin solution.
3. Set aside the mixture for spreading on the sponge cake.

Notes:
a) I arranged mine in a 2 oval baking dish which is 12cm by 8cm in measurement.

Lavender-Cointreau Baked Seafood

Lavender is a genus of about 25–30 species of flowering plants in the mint family. The plant is also grown commercially for extraction of lavender oil from the flowers. This oil is used as an antiseptic and for aromatherapy. Lavender flowers can be candied and are used as cake decoration. Lavender is also used as a herb, either alone or as an ingredient it is also used to flavour sugar, the product being called "lavender sugar", and the flowers are occasionally sold in a blend with black, green, or herbal tea, adding a fresh, relaxing scent and flavour.


You can use this Lavender-Cointreau Dressing for baking other seafood like Prawn or Scallop. Since I still have some frozen scallop in the freezer, I took one of it to bake with the reminding sauce.

Ingredients:
1 Large Scallop
1 Tablespoon of Lavender-Cointreau Dressing
Some Fresh Lemon Rinds
Pinch Of Chilli Flakes

Methods:
1. Rinse and clean the scallop well, pad dry and place it on a big of aluminum foil, fold the sides up to form a parcel so that the sauce will be within the foil when baking.
2. Top the scallop with lemon rind, Lavender-Cointreau Dressing and chilli flakes and baked in the toaster oven for about 3-5 minutes depending on the thickness.
3. Remove it from foil and place it on serving plate.

Lavender + Cointreau + Blueberry + Lemon Rinds + Cod Fillet = Lavender & Blueberry Baked Cod Fillet. What do you think of these combination? Do you dare to give it a try? It's really a combination of favour, fragrant and taste. If you have these ingredients in your pantry, do give it a try and you will be surprised with the outcome :)

Ingredients:
1 Piece of Cod Fillet, about 150g
6 Fresh Blueberries
Some Fresh Lemon Rinds
2 - 3 Cherry Tomato, halves
2 Tablespoons of Lavender-Cointreau Dressing

Methods:
1. Wash and pad dry the cod fillet then place in on the middle of an rectangle aluminum foil, fold the four sides up to form a rectangle parcel so that the sauce will be within the foil when baking.
2. Top the cod fillet with blueberries, lemon rind, cherry tomato and the Lavender-Cointreau Dressing and baked in the toaster oven for about 7 - 10 minutes depending on the thickness of the fillet.
3. When the fillet is cooked, remove it and place it on serving plate and drizzle the sauce from the fish parcel to the fillet.

To make the Lavender-Cointreau Dressing, it's not necessary that you must have Cointreau. You can replace it with Grand Marnier or Orange Juice if this dish is to serve to kid.

Ingredients: (makes about 150ml dressing)
1 Teaspoon of Honey
3 Tablespoon of Olive Oil
1/2 Teaspoon Dried Lavender
1 Tablespoon of Lemon Juice
1 Tablespoon of Cointreau

Methods:
1. Place all the ingredients in a small saucepan or frying pan over moderate heat, stirring with a spoon at all time, until ingredients caramelised into a sticky sauce. (it will be about 3 - 4 minutes)
2. Remove from heat and allow to cool then use it for drizzle over the seafood before baking.

Steam Corn Kernels Dumplings

I believed most of us will fancy on Sweet Corn which is sweet and full of favour. You can either steam it and eat with a touch of butter or you can use it for making desserts or even salad. Corn contains beta-carotene, small amounts of B vitamins and vitamin C. It is a useful source of protein and is rich in fiber.


This afternoon, we will be having this cute and nutritious finger food to serve together with rice. I made these using Pork and Prawn minces with shredded carrot, water chestnuts and some seasonings. From the usual dumpling skin which used to wrap the filling and steam as we called it Shao Mai (click link to read more) or Siew Mai in more of the Chinese dim sum restaurants. I replace the dumpling skin with corn kernels which will give it a new look and also increase the texture and favour of this dish.

I am sure most of the kids will love this dish because of the corn kernels and it's colourful appearance. This is also another good method to put vegetables and meat together for kids to consume.

Ingredients: (make about 10 dumplings, ping pong ball size)
150g Pork Mince
150g Prawn Mince
20g Shredded Carrot
3 Water Chestnuts, finely chopped
1 Tablespoons of Chopped Spring Onion
1 Teaspoons of Grated Ginger
1/2 Tablespoons of Shallot Slices
Seasonings:
1 Tablespoon of Light Soy Sauce
1/2 Tablespoon of Sesame Oil
1/2 Tablespoon of Cooking Wine
1 Teaspoon of Cornflour
1/2 Teaspoon of Pepper
Coating:
1 cup of corn kernels, either frozen or fresh

Methods:
1. Mixed all the ingredients(except the corn kernels) and seasonings together till well combine and set aside in the fridge to marinate for at least 1 hours or overnight.
2. Put the corn kernels on a flat plate, roll about 1 tablespoon for filling into a round shape then coat with the corn kernels. (You might need to use your finger to stick the corn kernels to the filling.)
3. Set aside on a steam plate and continue with the rest of the rolling and sticking.
4. Steam the corn dumplings on medium heat heat for about 7 - 10 minutes depending on the size.
5. Slowly remove it from the steaming plate and arrange them on the serving plate and prepare the drizzling egg sauce.
6. To prepare the egg sauce, preheat a small frying pan or sausage with some oil, add 1 teaspoon of oyster sauce and let it bubble for a few second then add in 60ml of water, and stir till the oyster sauce is mixed through.
7. Next, slowly add in one tablespoon of beaten egg white and stir until it change colour then add in some cornstarch water to thicken the sauce.
8. Use a spoon to drizzle the sauce on top of each arranged corn dumplings, top with extra chopped spring onions and chillie and serve.

Tips:
a) You can replace the chopped chillies to Chopped Carrot for the topping if this is to serve for kids.
b) To make the prawn mince, you can either chopped the shelled prawn using the back of the knife or you can put it in the food process and blend it together with the pork mince and seasonings.
c) To make an easy egg sauce, you can used ready stock pack and just pour the chicken stock into a small saucepan and then before it begin to boil, stir in the egg white and thicken with corn starch.