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We went to the market and wanted to get some fresh fishes, somehow the fresh cuttlefish laying on the seafood ice counter looked so tempting that attracted us so much to get it. I picked up a whole nice and big cuttlefish. So it was for the dinner, Sambal Cuttlefish or so called  Sambal Sotong.

The Sambal Sotong is usually served with Nasi Lemak (Malay Style Coconut fragrant steamed rice) or Nasi Bungkus (Pre-packed Coconut Rice) you can find in any Malay stalls. As previously mentioned, Sambal is a chili based paste used widely in cooking for Malay cuisine. Sambal is prepared from scratch with dried chilies, fresh chilies, garlic, ginger, shallots and other ingredients, grounded into paste. One important cooking tip is to cook the chili paste with oil on low heat until the oil oozes from the paste, or separated from each others.  The chili will turn into deep red in color, add some seasoning to taste.

Once you’ve learned to prepare Sambal, you can substitute with other ingredients. Check out our other posts for Sambal recipes, Sambal Okra, Sambal Belacan Asparagus, Rojak, Sambal Kangkung.

Ingredients:

1 fresh whole Cuttlefish (cut into 2″ strips, cut checkers patterns on bigger strips)

Ground Spice:
15 dried chilies
5 fresh red chilies
8 small shallots
1 inch ginger
4 cloves garlic

Seasoning:
1 tbsp Tamarind juices (soak 1 tbsp tamarind paste in warm water, discard pulp)
1 tsp belacan
1 tbsp sugar
Few dashes salt to taste

Cooking Method:

1. Ground all the ingredients in food processor into paste.
2. Heats 2 tbsp oil on low heat, stir fry the paste until the oil oozes from the paste, separated from oil.
3. Add in belacan, stir well.
4. Add in cuttlefish strips, stir fry till cook, about 1-2 minutes.
5. Add tamarind juice, sugar and salt, adjust to desired taste. Stir well and combined. Serve.

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I wanted some seafood but I was concerning about the recent seafood quality due to the Gulf oil spill. The BP oil spill incident  has been more than a month without great solution to stop it. It is now becoming the largest oil spill in the history.  I am not sure how much it has affects on the consumer’s seafood choices, but with up to 5 thousand gallons of oil spill a day this is seriously contaminating the ocean and killing the sea life.

During this time, I would highly recommend consumers to do some research and study before consuming seafood. The  high levels of mercury and PCB in mussels from the Gulf of Maine are a concern. So for safe I bought the easy frozen farm raised mussels over the fresh ones. Selecting the farm raised mussels is also an environmentally friendly seafood choice. Remember to eat healthy!

Ingredients:

12 ~ 16 mussels
8 ~ 10 cloves garlic (minced)
stalks green onions (finely chopped)
2 bird eye chilies (finely chopped)
2 tbsp cooking oil
Few dashes salt

Cooking Methods:

1. Rinse the mussels under cold water put them on a platter. Bring water to boil on steamer, steam the mussels for about 5-7 minutes. Do not overcook the mussels the flesh will become too old.
2. Heat a pan with 2 tbsp oil on medium, add in minced garlic, chopped green onions and bird eye chillies. Turn heat to low and stir fry frequently until garlic turn golden and fragrant. Do not burn. Add in few dashes salt.
3. Spread on top of mussels. Ready to serve.

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This coming Sunday is the first day of Chinese New Year, here I have prepared the famous dish Black Moss Seaweed with Braised Dried Oyster (髮菜蠔豉). This Cantonese dish is famous to be served during the Chinese New Year because the combination of the ingredients of black moss (髮菜) and dried oysters (蠔豉) that has the similar pronunciation with fat choy hao shi (發財好市) in Chinese that signifies good wealth and a good market. Being in a low economy since last year, I sincerely wish everyone has a rich and prosperous Tiger Year.

Black moss seaweed or fat choy can be found in Asian or Chinese supermarkets in the dried food section. It doesn’t look delicious from the appearance as it is black in color and it looks like the human black hair. For that reason, it is named as “hair vegetable (髮菜)”.  But when it is cooked, it is actually tasted just like very fine vermicelli in texture except it is in black color. It is used widely in many Chinese New year dishes for good wealth and richness.

Dried oyster on the other hand, literally means good market(好市) in Cantonese. For those firm Chinese believers, this is a must-have-dish for business man in order to have great business and good opportunities in the market. Dried oysters are also used in many Cantonese dishes or soups, as the dried oysters are not as fishy as the fresh ones, but still preserve the slightly crunchiness in texture and its seafood taste.

Ingredients:
12 jumbo dried oysters (soaked in water)
18 black mushrooms (soaked in water)
1 pack of black moss seaweed or fat choy (soaked in water)
2 cups chicken stock
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp shao xing wine
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp water
Salt to taste

Serve size: 4-6 people

Cooking Methods:

1. Soak the dried oysters, black mushrooms in separate bowls overnight. Soak the black moss seaweed for 5-10 minutes till soft before cooking.
2. Add in chicken stock, black mushrooms, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, shao xing wine, and water. Bring to boil. Simmer for 30 minutes.
3. Add in dried oysters and simmer for additional 20 minutes.
4. Add in black moss seaweed and bring to boil.
5. Season the sauce with sesame oil, salt and sugar to taste.
6. Remove from stove. Place oysters, black mushrooms and fat choy in a nice platter. Serve hot.

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It has been raining cats and dogs since Monday until today and it will be raining tomorrow as well. Thank God for bringing us the rains due to the water crisis in California but sadly, the rain is way too much than what we long for and it flooded some areas in SoCal.

The indolent weather caused me so lazy and inconvenient to drop by the grocery store to pick up some meats after work. Thus my only meat choice to cook for tonight dinner was a pack of shrimps in the fridge. When I thought of peeling and deveining the shrimp, I felt so headache! Anyway, I had no choice but just dealt with the process. I’ve prepared the shrimps with scallion and ginger this time. Easy and delicious!

Ingredients:
1/2 lb shrimp (peeled and deveined)
3 stalks of scallion (chopped)
2 inch ginger (sliced)
3-4 garlic cloves (minced)
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine (绍兴酒)
1/3 tsp sugar
1/4 cup chicken broth
1/2 corn starch

Cooking method:

1. Heat up the pan or wok with 2 tbsp oil, sauté the garlic, scallion and ginger until fragrant.
2. Add in the shrimps and stir until medium cooked.
3. Pour in chicken broth and bring to boil.
4. Add in oyster sauce, soy sauce, rice wine and sugar. Stir well.
5. Thicken the sauce with corn starch.
6. Dish up.