Chinese Spinach Soup with Tofu & Fish

This dish is simple to cook, and my hubby likes to eat chinese spinach. The only thing I don't like is removing the fibre from the stalks of the chinese spinach. To counter this problem, the chinese spinach can sometimes be replaced with other green leafy vegetables that are not so fibrous.

Ingredients:

• one packet of chinese spinach or other green leafy vegetables, about 200gm
• fish fillet (I like to use red grouper or ikan kurau threadfin), about 180gm
• one box of tofu (beancurd), about 300gm
• about 500ml of water or soup stock
• a few thin slices of ginger
• one teaspoon salt
• one teaspoon sesame oil

Marinade sauce:

• one teaspoon salt
• one teaspoon sugar
• one teaspoon soya sauce
• one tablespoon sesame oil
• a dash of pepper

Method:

• clean, slice & marinate the fish
• wash & remove fibre from vegetables, pluck into about 6cm length
• cut beancurd into cubes
• boil water, add salt
• add beancurd, cook for about 10 minutes
• add ginger slices and sesame oil
• when water is boiling again, add fish, add vegetables, and cook for another 5 minutes

If you want the dish to look more appealing, consider adding carrot for colour. Cut into thin slices & cook with the tofu or cook a little while before adding the tofu. Continue with the other steps. Again, play around with your imagination or ingredients & seasoning. The recipe provided here is just a basic one which aims to save time & effort while serving something palatable.

Delicious Steamboat

This is an all-in-one dish that my mum usually cooks for Chinese New Year or at times when she doesn't feel like cooking so many dishes. It's versatile as any ingredients can be used, though I usually use cabbage & seafood. The amount of food can also be adjusted according to the number of persons. And you don't need to cook all ingredients, you can just prepare the raw ingredients and serve them on plates for guests to choose & cook for themselves. Of course you have to provide the necessary "tools" for them like colanders etc. I like its flexibility in variety & quantity. Fun too!

Ingredients:
- a pot of hot water or soup stock
- vegetables, suggest cabbage
- seafood, suggest fish & prawns (even abalone if it's for Chinese New Year)
- others, suggest fishballs, mushrooms, carrot, quail eggs
- 1 or 2 slices of ginger, optional, to mask "fishy" taste

Method:
- prepare vegetables beforehand, wash & cut
- cut fish into slices, marinate with salt, pepper, sesame oil & a little corn flour
- for tastier soup use whole prawns. For easy eating, remove heads & shells, then also marinate with salt, pepper, sesame oil & a little corn flour
- prepare quail eggs by separately boiling & shelling them, just like making hard boiled eggs
- prepare all other ingredients, washing, cutting etc
- put sufficient hot water or soup stock into the steamboat, wait for water to boil, add a little salt & sesame oil if desired
- add cabbage, carrot, mushrooms, fishballs
- add ginger, fish, prawns
- add fishballs, quail eggs

Tips:
- fish, prawns & abalone cook rather fast, only put them into the boiling soup when you want to eat & ladle them out immediately when done
- turn down heat when not cooking. Prepare a little more soup / hot water than you need as soup in the steamboat will dry out due to constant heating. Add when necessary
- raw fishballs are cooked if they "float" in the soup
- you can add any other ingredients that you like, for example "yong tau foo", meat balls, crabsticks, "tang hoon" (vermicelli) etc
- if you don't have a steamboat, just cook everything in a big pot and serve with rice. Tastes nice too :-)

Simple Way to Cook Steamed Fish

Steaming is a healthy & easy way to cook. I would prefer to use fish fillet, so I don't have to deal with cleaning away the scales & the gut. I prefer to use ikan kurau or cod. As for salmon, I'll talk about it another time. Anyway, here comes the recipe.

Ingredients:
-fish fillet, about 200 gram
-ginger, about size of your thumb, less if you don't like the taste of it

Marinade:
-salt, about a teaspoon
-dash of pepper

Method:
-boil water in the steamer
-clean the fish fillet
-to marinate, coat the fish fillet with salt & pepper for about 10 minutes
-cut the ginger into slices or thin strips
-rinse the fish, though there's no need to get rid of *all* the marinade
-place ginger & fish onto a plate, put it into the steamer when the water is boiling
-continue to steam on high heat for about 8 minutes, until cooked
-if you prefer, you could add a dash of sesame oil or soya sauce to the fish when cooked

This is a simple way of cooking fish. If the fish is fresh, it will taste good too!