Seared Madras Fish & Green Beans with Peanuts & Shallots

I now love green beans.. like seriously! 

Wow.. it's been a while huh? I haven't done much cooking the past week or so.. I've gained too much weight :p Anyway, to make up for the missing days.. I'll put up 2 recipes. They are actually recipes from my favorite chefs on AFC, Nigella Lawson and Laura Calder. :) I saw Laura Calder made her green beans recipe and I thought.. urghh who eats green beans! yucks.. I know right? but this recipe is to die for. It's sooo good! She used hazelnuts but ermm.. it's expensive. Peanuts are cheaper. I used that ;) The other recipe I found in Nigella's book, Nigella Express. It's called Madras Fish for a reason. It uses MAdras curry powder .. I didn't have any. Didn't even know what that was until I saw some sold at Cold Storage. So I changed the recipe a bit. Used the normal fish curry powder instead. I used some kind of white fish .. I have no idea what it was. LOL but I guess any of your favorite fish would do. Just make sure that the fish is defrost thoroughly and doesn't smell. if it does wash it with turmeric juice. that should do it. Nigella used Salmon .. and fried it using garlic infused oil. Don't worry if you don't have it.. hahaha :) I used vegetable oil.

Seared Madras Fish (inspired by Nigella Lawson)

Ingredients:

white fish
2-3 tbsp fish curry powder
salt, pepper
oil for frying

Method

1. Mix the curry powder, salt and pepper together in a bowl. Rub the mixture on the fish thoroughly. 
2. Heat the pan with oil and cook the fish on high heat for 2-3 minutes a side. Sear the sides if the fish is too thick. 
3. Serve on a plate. 

Green beans with Peanuts and Shallots

Ingredients:

Green Beans
2-3 tbsp fried peanuts (chopped)
2 shallots (minced)
salt, pepper
lemon juice to taste
1 tbsp olive oil

Method:

1. Boil the green beans in salted water until tender. Drain and rinse in cold running water to set color. 
2. Heat oil in skillet. Add the shallots for 1 minute.
3. Toss in the green beans until heated through
4. Add salt and pepper. Squirt a bit of lemon juice. Remove from heat
5. Toss in the chopped peanuts. 
6. Serve with the madras fish. 

Madras Fish & Green Beans with Peanuts & Shallots

It's so elegant and so easy that no one would know you spent less than half hour to make this dish ;) Have fun in the kitchen!

Shrimp & Dried Anchovies Fritters a la Marina (Cucur Udang a la Marina ;P)

excellent snack.. 

I remember my first attempt to make fritters... i was doing my English preparation course at a University in California. I met my first boyfriend there.. and wanted to impress him with my ermm cooking skills.. I lived in the dorms. So all 50 something girls shared both the kitchen and the TV.. :D My roommate then was a Malaysian girl too.. she always made these fritters and we'd have them while watching tv at the lounge with the other residents. I've seen and sometimes helped her out making 'em fritters so I thought.. I could make it too. hahaha boy I was wrong. they turned out uncooked, and with every bite you can see the flour.. OMG it was a disaster! hahaha it was embarrassing then. but now it's just hilarious.. It's been 17 years? boy time flies.. I'm older now... much older... am not in any relationships right now.. but I sure can cook :D But despite my failed attempt at cooking these fritters back then.. It's not that hard to make. My mistake then was that I didn't stir the batter well enough, and the pan was too hot. otherwise it would have turned out great ;p

I made shrimp fritters as I had shrimp. You may substitute it with dried anchovies if you had too. For this recipe I used both shrimp and dried anchovies. You can even make it a vegetarian dish and simply omit all seafood in it. I've never tried it with calamari, crabmeat or any other meat for that matter. Perhaps because mum has always used either shrimp, dried shrimps or dried anchovies for this recipe that I never even thought of using any other protein for this dish.

Usually I make these fritters with just shrimp or dried anchovies and onions/spring onions/chinese celery .. I sometimes add corn kernels and potatoes.. but I usually boiled the potatoes first because the batter cooks so quickly that sometimes the potatoes turn out raw. Then recently I watched Masterchef Malaysia's masterclass, where Chef Jo showed his take on this recipe. He cut it into strips.. so that it cooks much faster.. so I tried that.. and I found that I don't have to cook the potatoes before adding it into the batter.. :) cool!

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 tbsp rice flour (optional - this makes it slightly crispy on the edges)
shrimp (cleaned, deveined)
dried anchovies (fried)
1 potato (cut into strips)
carrot (cut into strips) - same amount with potato
chinese celery - sliced (optional)
onions sliced
fresh chili  (seeded and cut into strips)
salt and pepper to taste
3/4 cup water


3 cups oil for deep frying

Method:

1. Add all ingredients together. Pour the water little by little until you get the consistency of a pancake batter. 
2. Heat oil in a wok.
3. Drop spoonful of batter into hot oil and fry until golden. Drain with paper towels. 
4. Serve with chili sauce :) yumssss

yummy... 

Ketam Masak Lemak a la Marina (Crab curry)

mmm.... yummy 

Actually I'm not sure what this dish is called in English. I'm calling it curry because I saw someone called it curry on tv. Anyway... it's a Malay dish but I don't have all the ingredients required (of course) so I had to do it with whatever is available.

The recipe actually calls for coconut milk. It'll be more flavorful with coconut milk. But I don't keep any at home. I replaced it with low fat milk. Serves the purpose not as nice .. The real recipe also has a bunch of other stuff .. which I don't even know.. So I just go with what I know and I thought would be good in it.. :)

I'm not sure where this dish originated.. but it's really famous in Negeri Sembilan.. and some parts of Melaka. They make it really hot though.. My mum and grandmother don't make it too hot.. In fact I only remember eating "masak lemak" that's mild.. really mild.. like if you can rate the heat from 1 to 10, it'd be a 0. I guess it goes back to what Chasing the Yum's Chef said about taste and flavor.. It's about balancing the flavors and highlighting what you like. :)

Since the crabs I had at home are not really fresh.. (I'm so gonna be scratching tonight) .. so I decided to add fragrance of kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and some heat from bird chilis (lots ... about 6) and ginger. :D These ingredients are easily available in Malaysia.. I'm not sure about other places but when I lived in Pittsburgh way back when ;) I could find these ingredients at Oriental stores.. easy :D

I buy lots of kaffir lime leaves, I don't use all... I use maybe 1 or 2 and keep the rest in the freezer .. the kaffir lime leaves stay fresh in the freezer. so would "daun pandan" or screwpine leaves.. I'm not sure about other herbs though.. hmm.. perhaps I should try other types of leaves and see how they fare in the freezer :D

Anyway..... here's the recipe.. give it a try :)

Ingredients

1 Crab -  cleaned and quartered. (I also used the back of the knife to hit the claws of the crab.. it makes it easier to eat the crab and the curry to seep in :) yums)

Simply delicious

onions sliced
1-2 cloves garlic - minced
1/2 inch ginger - sliced
5-6 bird chili - minced
2 kaffir lime leaves - sliced thinly
lemongrass - sliced
2-3 tbs turmeric powder  - coat the crab with the turmeric powder
1 cup of low fat milk
1 cup of water
Oil for cooking
salt for seasoning






Method

1. Heat the pan.
2. Add oil into the heated pan. I used a small milk pan, and I needed about 2-3 tbsp of oil.
3. Saute the onions, then add garlic, ginger and chili in the pan. Saute for about 1 minute at medium heat. Stir occasionally.
4. Add kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass. Saute for 1 minute. Stir. 
5. Add the crab coated with turmeric powder. Stir for about 1-2 minutes. 
6. Add low fat milk and water. Simmer for a few minutes until the crab is cooked. Season with salt. 
7. Serve warm with rice.