Fresh Catch: Catfish

Since the weather has gotten warmer and nicer, my friends and I decided to go fishing.  It was my first time and I was definitely excited.  The lake that we went to was stocked with crappies, sunfish, catfish, bass etc.  We started in the afternoon and there were no catches until sunset… not until the last 30 minutes we were there. We eventually caught 3 catfishes–one caught right after the other. It probably would’ve been a sad trip if we didn’t end up catching anything.

I caught one–my first catch, ever. :D

Afterwards, we randomly asked an Asian restaurant to clean the fishes for us.

Then I cooked my catfish… was quite scared of taking it out of the bag for some reason. Probably because it has fangs and whiskers and I was the one who killed it. :\

I cut the pieces in cross sections and peeled the fish skin off.

I stir-fried a few garlic cloves, ginger chunks, and green onion chunks. Added a little salt. Then, after placing the fish in, I added a soy sauce/sugar combination as the sauce and thickened it with corn starch.

Mini Green Tea Cupcakes

Before making these, I was spending way too much of my time trying to perfect the Japanese fluffy cheesecake… I tried making it 3 times, and all 3 times I was unable to acheive the fluffiness. Not sure why it’s so hard. Maybe it’s the whole cake flour that I used, but anyway, since I have a lot of this cake flour left, I found a few recipes that would make good use of it. Including this one! :)

Recipe adapted from Food Mayhem and I also looked at this one from Avocado – Pesto.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cake flour (I used organic whole cake flour)
• 2 teaspoons matcha powder (I used SerendipiTea’s matcha culinary grade, organic green tea)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon white sugar (I cut back on a little bit of the sugar)
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used Trader Joe’s alcohol free)
• 1/2 cup sour cream (I used Clover’s natural sour cream)

For Frosting

• 1 1/4 cups confectioners sugar
• 2 teaspoons matcha powder
• 3 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.  Place muffin liners in muffin tin.

In a bowl, sift together flour, matcha powder, baking soda, and salt. Then mix with spatula.

In the stand mixer’s mixing bowl, beat together sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla extract at low speed (level 1/2).

At low speed (level 1), add half of the dry mixture stirring just until incorporated.

Then add half the sour cream, stirring at low speed (level 1).

Add the rest of the dry mixture, stirring at low speed (level 1).

Then add the rest of the sour cream, stirring at low speed (level 1) until incorporated.

Fill mini muffin liners 2/3 of the way full. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Mine took 11 minutes. (I went a little over the 2/3 fill line, judging by the way mine turned out compared to Food Mayhem’s). Leave in muffin tin for 10 minutes and then remove.

*For some reason my cupcake pictures turned out a little lighter than they really are.*

Cool completely before frosting.

For Frosting:

Sift together confectioners sugar, and matcha powder in a bowl. Then mix with spatula.

In the stand mixer’s mixing bowl, beat together cream cheese, vanilla extract, and butter for 4-5 minutes on low speed (level 2).

Lower the speed to 1 and slowly add the dry mixture.  Then increase the speed to medium (level 3/4) and beat for another 4-5 minutes.

Frost using a piping bag.

This was my first time frosting with a piping bag. The consistency of the frosting is actually quite thick and it was hard to do the swirls, so I resorted to simply just frosting at the center. The frosting is a bit sweet for me, so just a little bit of sweetness at the center was actually the perfect amount for my liking.  I love the aromatic smell and the tea taste is also just right–My new fave cupcake!

Stir-Fried Zha Tsai (榨菜/Chinese Pickled Vegetable)

Zha tsai is a type of chinese pickled vegetable that has a combination of a spicy, sour, and salty taste, and has a crunchy texture. My auntie had made this tasty dish while I was in Asia, so I had her teach me the works. =) which turned out to be pretty simple.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole head of zha tsai
• ~2/3 lbs of thin sliced pork belly
• 1-2 stalk green onion
• 2-3 thai chilis
• 1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup water
• salt to taste

*I brought the zha tsai back from Asia, but I believe you could buy them at the chinese market and they even have the ones that are already sliced.

Directions:

Chop the zha tsai into thin slices. Cut the pork belly into thin pieces. Chop the green onions. Remove the seeds from the thai chilis and chop into small pieces.

Wash and soak the chopped zha tsai in cold water for ~5 mins to soak some of the salts away. Then drain the water.

Place the pan on stove and turn the temperature to high. Once the pan is hot, place the oil in.  When the oil is hot, place the green onions in. Stir a couple times and then add the chilis. Stir and dash some salt in.

Place the pork belly in the pan. Stir and cook for 2 mins or when you see no more pink in the pork belly. (You could add more salt at this point if you like)

Add the zha tsai in. Stir for another minute and add the water in.

Continue to stir and cook until the water is soaked up (could take up to 5 more mins). And then it’s ready!

Lamb Rib Chops, Teppanyaki Style

I used to go with my parents to this one teppanyaki restaurant that served delicious lamb rib chops. When I watched the cooks cook in front of us, it seemed so easy–butter, soy sauce, garlic, and black pepper were the main ingredients used for everything it seemed.  Having kept that in mind, I tried recreating the lamb rib chops at home.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 lamb rib chops (make sure to buy good grade. mine were from New Zealand)
• 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2-1 tablespoon chinese vegetarian barbecue sauce (沙茶醬) to taste
• 1 clove garlic chopped
• black pepper

Directions:

At medium heat, melt the butter in the pan. Then turn the temp to high, wait 30 secs, and place the lamb chops in the pan. After about 30 secs, flip them over. After about 30 secs, turn the heat down to medium high.

Add the soy sauce on top. Move the lamb chops around to make sure the soy sauce is spread evenly. Then immediately flip it over again in order for both sides to have a soy sauce coat. Turn the temp down to medium. Add the barbecue sauce and coat both sides with it. Flip and put pressure on the lamb chops with your spatula to help cook the inner middle portion of each lamb chop.

 

Add a few dashes of black pepper. Add the garlic on top and more barbecue sauce (if needed).  Move, flip, and apply pressure on the lamb chops when needed. When the lamb chops are brown to dark-ish brown, they should be ready.

Momofuku Style Chicken Wings

I’m extremely happy that I came across this recipe: http://steamykitchen.com/6902-momofuku-baked-chicken-wings.html.  (Momofuku is a restaurant group in New York).  I’ve gotta say, the chicken wings were heavenly.

I pretty much followed the whole recipe with only the baking time being different.

The chopped ingredients for the Octo Vinaigrette (including the cilantro. and I even cut a full chili for garnish just like SteamyKitchen did. haha):

The Octo Vinaigrette mixture (I used regular soy mixed with water instead of the low sodium soy. turned out fine):

I baked it for 35-40 mins instead for extra crisp:

Mixing the awesomeness:

Even with the chicken wings being drenched in the octo vinaigrette, they still maintained a slight crisp.

*There will be some vinaigrette left over. I tried to make good use of it and poured it over baked cod and salmon. Chicken is still better, but it worked.