Cook with Ken: Steam Fish with LaLa

Date:  Nov 19, 2011

Wife just came back from US few days ago.. So, better cook some nice dishes for her.

1.  Steam Fish (清蒸老鼠斑）

You need a very fresh fish.  It happens that I was at Tiong Bahru, so, I got myself this S$30 老鼠斑 (Mouse Grouper).  Since it is not until evening time then I will cook it, so, what I do is to clean it, and then put it into the Freezer for half an hour, and then, place it into the fridge until the time I need to cook it.  This is how you can keep it fresh.

You will need some Tofu.

I also bought some fresh LaLa.  So, let's use it.  So, you nicely place the LaLa on your steam plate.  OK.  The LaLa is a sea LaLa.  So, when you place it in your steam fish, it will gives you a very nice sweet LaLa taste with lots of salty hint.

Don't forget to pre-heat your wok, or your steamer.

Then, you place the Mouse Grouper on top of your shells (LaLa).

Hey, I got a new toy today.  i.e. Ceramic Knife.

Its a knife that is made of Ceramic.  I used it to cut my gingers, and then, I put it aside. I still llike my stainless stell knife.

You will need some gingers for the steam fish.

Place those ginger slices on top of the fish.

And then, cut the Tofu, and then place it nicely surrounding the fish.  I tried to be funny here.  And call itGreat Tofu Wall Steam Fish.

Put some salt and soya sauce onto the fish.  Remember, you have the sea water LaLa which is a bit salty already.

OK, it is done, you can place this into the steamer.

OK.  On the way you go into the steamer.  Set it to steam for 15 min.

Don't worry Kay.  It is not smoke.  It is steam.  The fish is steaming.

After 15 minutes, you take out your fish, and then but the Chinese Parsley on top of the fish, and then, put a few tea spoon of Chinese Wine, i.e. 花雕酒.

Put some parsley.  Chinese Wine in.

 

And then, close the steamer door, and turn off power (or fire) and let the remaining heat to steam the Chinese Wine into the steam fish.  After 5 minutes, then you can serve this fantastic dish.

The verdict is ... the fish is fresh, sweet, I didn't put too much salt in it, as I want to taste the original sweetness.  i.e. 原汁原味 with hint of Clams (i.e. LaLa).  Look at that, the meat looks very tasty and sweet.  And I love it a lot.

10 minutes later...

15 minutes later....  It's all cleaned up.  Excellent dish!

 

2.  Ginger Green Onion Stir Fried LaLa (姜葱啦啦）

When I reached home, I transfer the LaLa (i.e. Clams) into the steel bowl, and add in some water, then, I place it into the fridge.  All these are live clams.  These clams, 1KG cost me about S$8.  It is much much cheaper than those I bought from Cold Storage.

Again, we need Ginger.

And the green onions...

Heat the wok.   And then once heated, throw in the gingers, stir fry it for 1min.  then, add in all the LaLa (i.e. clams) followed by the green onion.  Stir fry it for 5 min.  And then, put in a few teaspoon of Chinese Cooking Wine, i.e. 花雕酒.  Immediately cover it.  Turn of the fire.  Let it simmer for about 5 minutes before serving.  Take note that you do not have to add salt or soya sauce.  This is because, the LaLa itself came from the sea, and by nature it is salty.

This is the final presentation.

If you know Jay Jay, my son, and if you see him not talking too much during dinner/lunch, and he simply keeps on eating.  That means the food is great, and nice, and delicious.  Hahahaha...

Even Kay Kay eats a lot tonight.  He loves the Tofu in the steam fish.  原汁原味.

 

3.  Simple Fried Egg with Little Silver Fish

Simple la.  This dish.  3x eggs.  put a lot of little silver fish.  And then cut some green onions.

Batter it.

Cut some onions.  Heat the wok.  Put oil in.  Heat it.  Put onions it, stif fry.  Put the egg with silver fish into the wok.  Small fire.  Turn the egg, and then cover it.  Make sure small fire.

This is the final product!

And finally, to pair with the steam fish, and ginger green onion fried lala, I pair it with this Organic Wine - Domaine Saint Andre de figuiere 2010.  This is the wine I bought from Little Provence (i.e. Tanglin Mall) when I saw them at the Farmer's market.  The White is very crisp, a bit sweet, a bit dry, simply nice to go with any seafood.  It is a very young white wine too.

Of course, we do need some entertainment... Mommy put the fish tail in her mouth and perform the eating without hand trick...

From what I can see the left over, they definitely love all the three dishes...  This is what is left from the Ginger Green Onion LaLa...

And look at Little Kay... He dip his finger inside my wine...

And finger taste it...

And he loves it!

And he keeps on asking for it... Oh no.. we habe an alcoholic in the make... hahahaha

OK.  The wine is so good that we (me and my wife) finish every single drip of it.  Don't worry, we still have 5 bottles in the wine celler.  hahahahaha...

Ken has master steam fish cooking tonight.  It's been 10 years he last steam a fish.  hahaha