Baked Rainbow Trout with Dill & Caviar SauceIngredients:
- Rainbow trout, 300-400g each (each trout serves 2-3)
- Fresh dill
- Lumpfish caviar (black)
- Whole garlic
- Rock salt
- Cooking sherry
- Heavy cream / creme fraiche / white pasta sauce
Method:
- Clean out rainbow trout, and marinate with rock salt
- Wash off excess rock salt, and stuff belly with 3-4 sprigs of fresh dill and 1-2 cloves of garlic
- Place in oven-safe terrine, and add cooking sherry to form a 1/2cm-deep layer
- Seal tightly with foil, and bake at 200C for 15 mins
- Remove foil and bake for another 5 mins until most of the sherry has evaporated. Pour off excess liquid from terrine.
- To make sauce, heat up heavy cream / creme fraiche / white pasta sauce in skillet. A small quantity of butter can be added to make it creamier if you prefer, and a small dash of lemon juice is also optional for extra zest.
- Tear out 2-3 sprigs of dill leaf by hand and add to cream
- Turn off the heat once at a boil, and add 3 teaspoons of caviar followed by a gentle stirring action.
- To serve, ladle caviar sauce around the fish and sprinkle with a bit of garnishing salt (fleur de sel) to taste.
Assam Fish
Materials:
- Dried chilli - half a handful, washed
- Shallots - 3/4 handful, washed and skinned
- Assam paste - 1 1/4 fist-sized lump
- Fish (Qi4 Kak4) - 2 fish, approximately 1kg in total
- Cooking oil - 2 tablespoons
- Ikan bilis stock - 1 cube
Method:
- Add 300ml water and massage paste to completely dissolve assam paste
- Add water till paste assumes consistency of cooked instant soup
- Filter out seeds and large bits
- Do not scale the fish! Do not remove the innards either! Just wash.
- Chop fish up into 1/3 or quarters, into sections roughly 2.5" across
- Boil assam mix together with shallots & dried chilli
- Add 1 cube of commercial ikan bilis stock
- Add 2 tablespoons of cooking oil
- Bring to a rolling boil, then ladle fish gently into the assam mix. Do not stir.
- When assam mix is boiling again, simmer on low heat (preferrably charcoal) overnight.
- Add salt to taste
- Watch out for bones.
- First and foremost to YX, for her unwavering support of my multiple culinary misadventures and marsh wiggle-like character - putting a brave face to the worst cooking ever;
- Also, to my partner in crime Montyelm, for his utter creativity and bravado during the steamed mango episode, which inspired many;
- To all members of my family, for subjecting them to years of torture with semi-edible food - including purple macaroni, rock-hard lasagne and nauseating bouillabaisse;
- And finally to several friends who also share this same passion of cooking up - quite literally - a pot of nonsense.
- An oft-heard complaint - I can make the same dish on 2 separate occasions, and they turn out to be as different from each other, as ferns are different from a mammal! Yes, I'm a firm believer of the old nanny's "a pinch of salt, a scatter of cheese and a squeeze of lemon". Here I chronicle the various dishes that I've ever tried myself, and hopefully in a reproducible manner!
I shall not be held responsible for any mishaps, misadventures or mistakes that occur in the kitchen, should you attempt any of these. And please use some common sense - like if I say let the wine breathe, if you want to attach a BIPAP to the bottle, that's really your own problem.
