Pan fry fish with ginger citrus sauce

Nowadays when I cook 红斑鱼 or the red grouper (I think that is the correct English name...), I like to pan fry it. I find that pan frying it makes it nicer than steaming. That is my personal opinion. Today I actually planned to cook it with ginger and soy sauce. But I saw half a lemon sitting in my fridge and I wanted to use that. Was thinking whether I should cut the fish into slices then deep fry it before making the lemon sauce. Due to time constraint, I decided to just pan fry the fish first and make the sauce after that. It was a good move as I managed to stir fry my vegetables while pan frying the fish.

Ingredients
Red grouper thick slice (any other fish that has firm flesh)
Ginger strips
Cornstarch solution 

Sauce
1 part lemon juice
2 part orange juice 
Some water 
1/2 tsp sugar
Pinch of salt

Recipe
1. Clean the fish and rub it with salt. Wash off the salt and pat dry with kitchen towel.
2. Oil the pan and gently place the fish in. Allow it to pan fry on medium heat for at least few minutes on each side till it is brown. Remove from heat and place on serving plate.
3. Clean the pan with kitchen towel and oil the pan again. I like to use the same pan to save some washing.
4. Heat up some oil in the pan before adding the ginger strips. Let it cook for a while till it starts to brown. Pour in the sauce and allow it to cook till boil. In the meanwhile, season the sauce with sugar and salt till the desired taste.
5. Add in the cornstarch solution to thicken the sauce. Pour the sauce over the fish once it is done.

My first attempt I used more lemon juice than orange juice. It was quite sour and I had to adjust with more sugar. Hence I think 2:1 portion should be better. Love the refreshing taste of this dish!

Baked chicken leg with tomato sauce

Today is only Tuesday and I am already feeling so worn out. Coming back home, the only thought on my mind is to prepare the dinner in the simplest way and serve dinner asap. Last week I baked chicken leg with five spice powder and this week I am back to baking chicken legs again! lol At least for this week, this is the preferred method for cooking cuz it is my cheat method for saving time. While the chicken is nicely cooking in the oven, I use the time to blanch the vegetables and wash up the dirty dishes.

Ingredients
2 chicken legs (boneless)

Marinate
3 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
3 Tbsp tomato sauce
1 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp garlic powder
Some black pepper
Pinch of salt

Recipe
1. Put all ingredients for the marinate in a small bowl and mix well.
2. Marinate the chicken using some of the sauce for a few minutes. (a few tablespoon of sauce, as long as enough to cover the chicken will do)
3. Heat up a pan and pan fry the chicken on both sides. Remove when the skin turns brown.
4. Preheat the oven at 200 degree celcius and arrange the chicken on the baking tray with skin side up.
5. Pour the remaining sauce onto the chicken and let it bake till juice runs clear. I baked mine for about 15 minutes.

I tried to pan fry the chicken first because I wanted to try to see if it makes any difference and to shorten the baking time too. My husband said the chicken is slightly not-so-tender at some parts which I am not sure whether it is due to me pan frying first or I just bake it too long. Maybe next time I will just marinate and put the chicken straight into the oven to see if it is better. ^^

Baked five spice chicken leg

My first experience using five spice powder was making braised pork belly. I love the smell of the five spices so I am always excited to find recipes that use five spice powder. I would also put the powder when I am making ngoh hiang. Picture of the five spice powder I bought from NTUC below.

One year ago, I chanced upon a kind member who shared her recipe on marinating chicken legs with five spice powder and air fried it. I thought it was a very good idea and tried it. Wanted to find the original recipe and credit the owner but couldn't find it. I had it manually written down in my cooking notepad last year. Anyway this is strongly recommend for a simple quick dish with minimum fuss. Do try the recipe!

Ingredients
2 large chicken legs
Chopped spring onions

Marinate
4 Tbsp Soy sauce
1 Tbsp Dark soy sauce
1 tsp Sugar
Dash of white pepper
1/2 tsp five spice powder
1 Tbsp water

Recipe
1. Put all the marinate ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Pour marinate all over the chicken legs and set aside for at least 1-2 hours in the refrigerator.
3. When you are ready to cook, preheat the oven to 200 degree celcius.
4. On the baking tray, place the chicken skin side down and drizzle all the marinate on it.
5. Bake the chicken leg in the oven for at least 30 minutes. After first 10-15 minutes, flip the chicken over to face skin side up. Continue baking until it is fully cooked. The timing really depends on the size of your chicken legs. Also I realised with bone, it takes longer to cook. So if you get boneless chicken legs, it should be cooked faster.

 My husband is not the type to praise my cooking but he did say this is nice. The chicken is flavorful and tender according to him. :)

Teochew style fish porridge with spinach and wolfberries

I asked my son what he wanted to have for dinner that day when his daddy is not around and he replied "fish porridge". Then I was thinking what kind of porridge should I make? Usually I would cook the porridge till it is congee-like and put in the fish slices to cook. Teochew style fish porridge came to my mind. For the fish slices, I chose to use 红斑鱼. Not sure what should be the correct English name for this fish. Red grouper or red snapper or something else? If you know, pls drop me a comment to tell me, thanks! To make it more nutritious, I added in some spinach and wolfberries too.

Ingredients
Fish slices
Cooked rice
Spinach
Wolfberries
Fried shallots
Soy beans
Fish bones
Ginger slices
Chinese cooking wine
White pepper
Soy sauce 
Salt

Recipe
1. Wash the soy beans and place them in a stock bag. Heat a pot of boiling water and add the beans to let it boil for 20-30 minutes.
2. Add in some fish bones and ginger slices to let it further cook for another 15 minutes.
3. Marinate the fish slices with some chinese cooking wine, pepper and soy sauce. Mix well then set aside.
4. Remove the fish bones and soy beans from the pot. You may remove the ginger slices if you want but I preferred to have mine in the soup.
5. Add the cooked rice into the soup. (Make sure your cooked rice is not too mushy else it won't be nice)
6. Add the spinach and wolfberries into the pot. Let it cook for a while.
7. Finally put in the fish slices. I use a chopstick to lift the slices into the soup. Do not pour marinade into the pot.
8. Taste the soup. You can add some salt if you prefer a heavier taste.
9. Garnish with some fried shallots and serve it hot.

This will definitely be on the list of comfort food I love! Makes your stomach feel so satisfied and warm. For my own serving, I added a bit of dong cai and the flavour is so good. (Skipped that for my son because I think it is too salty for him.)

Another dish that you can serve easily for dinner on weekday too. I did step 1 in the morning before I stepped out for work and completed the rest when I get home. Thaw the fish in the refrigerator the night before or the morning itself, then it will be semi thaw in the evening which makes it easier to cut into slices. As for the fish bones, I used the cod fish bones I had. I must find a time to cook this again since my husband missed my first attempt!