Chinese Sea Bass with Pak Choy

I thoroughly enjoy bamboo shoots and water chestnuts with their delicate crispness. In this delicious dish they add crunch to tender steamed fillets of fish.

Ingredients:

1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

3 spring onions, finely sliced

1 red chilli, seeds removed and finely sliced

30ml soy sauce

15ml sesame oil

15ml sherry

75g bamboo shoots

75g water chestnuts

2 fillets sea bass

2 heads pak choy

steamed or boiled rice to serve

Method:

Mix the ginger, garlic, spring onions, chilli, soy sauce, sesame oil and sherry together in a bowl.

Loosely line the bottom tier of a bamboo steamer with foil. Lay the fish skin-side up on the foil and scatter over the bamboo shoots and water chestnuts. Spoon the soy sauce mixture over the fish and vegetables.

Place the steamer in a wok with a little water boiling in the bottom. Cook for 6-8 minutes in total, adding the pak choy, which you have placed in the other layer of the steamer, half way through cooking. It is ready when the pak choi has wilted and the fish is just cooked through.

Carefully lift the fish from the steamer and place on a serving dish. Spoon the bamboo shoots and water chestnuts over the fish and drizzle with the cooking juices. Serve with the pak choi and rice.

Chinese Braised Belly Pork with Pak Choy

The flavour of preparing belly pork in this way takes quite a bit of beating.

Try this for an inexpensive warming winter meal.

Ingredients:

1 -1.5kg belly pork

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to season
30ml sunflower or vegetable oil
30ml caster sugar
5 whole cloves garlic
1 inch fresh root ginger, sliced
4 whole star anise
5ml whole peppercorns
1 whole red chilli
30ml white wine
100ml light soy sauce
300ml chicken stock
400g pak choy (4 large), quartered lengthways
25ml sesame oil
25ml light soy sauce
white sesame seeds, toasted
3-4 spring onions, chopped, to garnish

Method:

Preheat the oven to 150C.

Season the belly pork all over with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Pour the oil into an oven-proof saucepan with a lid. Place the pan on the heat then lay the belly pork, uncut, in the pan and cook for a few minutes on each side until browned. Tip the rest of the ingredients into the pan, stir to combine and bring to a simmer. Cover and transfer to the oven for 2-3 hours until tender.

When the pork is almost cooked, prepare the pak choy. Pour 50ml of water into a large frying pan and place over a medium heat. Add 5ml salt and the pak choy. Cook, tossing occasionally, for about 5 minutes or until all the water has evaporated and the pak choy is just cooked - the leaves should be soft but the base of the stalks will still be slightly crunchy. Drizzle with the sesame oil and soy sauce, then sprinkle with sesame seeds.

To serve, lift the pork from the pan and place on a board. Cut into thick slices and serve with the sauce from the pork and the pak choy on rice or noodles, garnished with spring onions.

Pumpkin and Seafood Curry

In keeping with "National Curry Week"

I have another curry for you,

one with a Thai influence.

I don't get to make this very often

as my husband does not eat pumpkin and,

I confess, I'm not crazy about sea food,

so this is a bit of a 'Jack Sprat and His Wife' dish for us.

I eat the pumpkin and he eats the fish.

If you don't like it hot, vary the amount of curry paste.

The recipe for my

"Yellow Thai Curry Paste"

can be found in my e-book,

"Herbs and Spices",

Which will be available soon.

Ingredients:

1 can of coconut milk

30ml Yellow Thai Curry Paste

250ml fish stock

20ml Thai fish sauce

10ml white or light brown granulated sugar

5ml turmeric

3-4 lime leaves, snipped into strips

1 stem of lemongrass, bruised

1 kg pumpkin (or butternut), peeled and chopped into large chunks

500g salmon, or other firm fish like cod or monkfish, cut into 1 inch cubes

100-200g prepared raw prawns

2 small pak choy, chopped

Juice of 1 lime

Chopped coriander leaves to garnish

.

Method:

Put the creamy top half of the can of coconut milk into a large saucepan with the curry paste and mix well.

Add the rest of the coconut milk, stock, fish sauce, sugar, turmeric, lime leaves and lemongrass into the broth and bring to the boil. Reduce to simmer.

Add the pumpkin chunks and cook until tender.

Add the fish and prawns and cook for about 5 minutes before adding the pak choy and lime juice. Simmer for a few more minutes to just wilt the greens.

Serve with rice or noodles, garnished with chopped coriander leaves.

.

If you are making this for a special dinner,

prepare the broth up till the pumpkin is cooked.

The broth can then be set aside

and warmed again when ready to add the fish.

To make a vegetarian version,

omit the fish and add a tin of chick peas or beans of your choice.

These will need to be cooked in the broth

for about 15 minutes to absorb the flavours.

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