Steamed Bamboo Clams, garnished with fried garlic and chilli.

I saw some bamboo clams in the market today and decided to give it a go. It was yummy and fast to cook! Under 2 mins!

I havent cook any before because i never knew what they were called in Cantonese in Hong Kong. It was only because this lady was ordering some for her steamboat that piqued my interest as she was calling out a name I have never heard before. Then Viola! Saw those lovely fresh live clams!

I asked the fishmonger for cooking instructions and it's sooooo freaking easy and cheap.All it took was to steam them for 2-3 mins with ginger slices and they are done!

What I did was to fry some chopped garlics, deseeded chopped chilli in some coconut oil. When the clams were done after 2 mins, I scooped the fried ingredients and together with the oil, drizzle over the clams as in the photo. After which, for those who prefer some sauce to go with, mix 1/2 teaspoon of soysauce with some water and drizzle over the clams as well. Garnish with spring onion as well. Done!

Steamed bamboo clams

A yummy dish served under 5 mins!

Tip: The garlic gives it a nice roasty crunch and the chilli after frying is no longer spicy. However if you want to retain that spicy effect, fry the chilli separately and remove from frying oil before it loses the redness.

Steamed Moreton Bugs (Crayfish) with fried garlic and chilli

One of my recent meal, steamed flathead lobster aka Moreton Bay bug (as known in Australia). In Singapore it is called crayfish 虾婆 but that is a misidentification since actual crayfish means something else altogether from what I gathered.

This dish is one of my childhood favorite and my husband's though he eats it differently growing up in Australia. The only way I like to eat it is steamed regardless of the other fried recipes out there. To me, if the seafood is fresh = alive and kicking when you purchased it, no point wasting good money to fry it. Frying is for less than fresh stuff or frozen stuff in my household.

Cooking this is so easy, almost kid's play.

Total Cooking time needed: 10mins.
Prep time: 10mins.


Ingredients:
1. The bugs, in this case I bought 4.
2. Spring onion - 5-6stalks
3. Ginger.
4. 6 LARGE cloves of garlic -(coz I love fried garlic)
5. Sugar
6. Fish sauce - 2 teaspoon
7. Light soy sauce - 3 teaspoon.
8. Chinese rice wine - 1 tablespoon
9. Oil for frying garlic - 2 teaspoon. (Am using coconut oil. extra light olive oil is fine)
10. 1 chili - big or  2 small type really doesnt matter after they are deseeded and rinse.


Pre-cooking Steps:
1. Chopped the buggers into half or get the fishmonger to do it for you.
2. Washed out the veins and the nasty brain blob connected at the head if they are still there.
3. Optional: I like to use a toothbrush to give the shell a good scrub thorough. I think its good to clean the loose surface dirt away.
4. After rinse, pat dry with paper towel and line them flat on steam plate.

Garnish & sauce Prep Steps: (you can do this while the bugs are steaming)
1. Sliced then Chop the garlics into coarse bits.
2. Sliced then chop the deseeded chilli into coarse bits. (Make sure they are deseeded prior else it will be really spicy)
3. Heat oil and fry the garlic+ chilli mix until garlic is browned.
remove from oil and leave to cool on the side with paper towel to absorb excess oil.
4. Remove excess used frying oil from pot until about 1 teaspoon amount is left in the pot.
5. Mix soy sauce, fish sauce & 2 teaspoon of sugar into a small bowl.


Cooking Steps:
1. Slice ginger in 8 thin pieces. Lay them slice on top of the halves of the bugs.
2. Slice a few more thicker slices and randomly place them around the place. Basically ginger reduce any "fishness"
3. Take 2-3 thick stalks of the washed spring onion and roughly chop them into halves. We want the lower part with the bulb (root end). slice them into halves and lay them randomly onto the steam plate with the bugs.
4. Drizzle the chinese rice wine onto the bugs.
5. Steamed the bugs for 10 mins (over boiling water if using wok).
6. After the bugs are steamed, pour some of the "juice" from the steamed plate into the sauce mix.
Amount doesnt matter, its up to you but i normally use only 2-3 tablespoon worth. the rest discard.
7. Stir well the sauce and taste if its too salty, if it is, pour more water or add more sugar to taste.

8. When ready, pour sauce into the heated remaining oil in pot and quickly remove from heat when the sauce start to bubble. 

9. Drizzle the sauce over the bugs.

10. Garnish the bugs with the fried garlic and chilli.

11. Chopped 1 stalk of spring onion and garnish the dish. (optional)

Done.

Steamed Large Prawns with fried Chilli Garlic & Soysauce

Saw the freshest lovely live prawns in the wet market tonite and couldnt resist them at all! So bought some back for steam prawns. A quick and super easy meal to prepare tonight! Looking at all the live produce, I really think this is the BEST thing about living in HK. 

Anycase, back to my dinner ingredients for tonight! I dont like fried food, but really like most of my dishes steamed if I can. I dont like to stir fry prawns either, esp not when they are this fresh! Just the colors alone are mouth watering. My hubby and I were laughing at the prawns with its motor fast wriggling legs (backstrokes paddling on its back) in the water. Then I was laughing at my partner for taunting the prawns that they will soon be eaten. What a grown up big kid! That aside, here's my simple steps for 15-20 mins cooking.

Serving: 2 pax.

Ingredients


1. Rinsed Prawns (about 10-11 medium size)
2. Finely Chopped garlic (not minced, so dont use those garlic crusher). - 4 cloves. For Frying
3. Finely sliced ginger strips, quantity up to your personal preference. This is for frying
3. Roughly sliced Ginger pieces, about 6 pieces. For Steaming with prawns
4. Chopped rinsed scallions or Spring onion - 1 stalk.
5. Clear Chinese Rice wine. I suppose u can use shaoxing wine but I didnt.
6. 1/2 of a big chilli, deseeded and minced. NOT chilli padi
7. 1 stalk of spring onion, halved vertically. Only need the bottom of the stalk, meaning, the half with the bulb minus the roots. Dont really need the green bits. For steaming

Sauce Ingredient

1. 1- 1.5 Tsp of Fish sauce
2. 1/2 Tsp of Sugar
3. 1-2 Tablespoon of soya sauce


Cooking Steps

1. Just 10mins before cooking, mix 5 tablespoon of chinese rice wine into the rinsed prawns to season. If your prawns are still alive like mine, they wont like it and will jump, so cover with a lid or plate.
2. Line prawns into a steaming metal plate. Try not to pile them to ensure evenly cooked.
3. Throw in the sliced ginger and halved spring onion into the prawn lot to steam with.
*4. Cover the plate with foil and poke holes randomly all over to allow steam to get in. The foil is only required if u have live prawns to prevent the suicidal prawns jumping into the boiling water. So this is optional.
5. Steam prawns for about 8-10mins depending on your prawn thickness, mine was cooked for 10-11mins for the prawns were 1.5-2 fingers width big and I had covered the plate with foil.
you should know its cook when it turned bright red throughout from head to tail.
6. Put the chopped spring onion onto the prawns

Sauce Steps
1. In a sauce pot, heat 2 tablespoon extra light olive oil.
2. Fry chopped garlic and finely sliced ginger strips. When browned, remove from oil.
3. Next, fry the minced unseeded chilli for a min or less and remove from oil.
4. When prawns are ready, pour the excess liquid from the steamed dish and mixed with sauce ingredients above. This helps to dissolve the sugar.
5. Heat up the previous frying oil, and when warm, pour the sauce mixture into the warm oil and quickly remove from heat and pour the bubbled up sauce into the steamed prawn. Pour all over the prawns.
6. Add the fried garlic, ginger mixed with the chilli over the prawns.

Voila. Done.

Cantonese Style Steam Live Fish

One of the best thing in HK is to getting fresh fish from the wet market and steam the bugger yourself. 

I love eating fish esp steam ones. 
Gonna share a simple steam fish receipe if u are sick of eating dead chilled fish fillet and want a change in scenery. It's really really easy!!! 

Serving: 2 Pax.

Ingredients

1. A live fish. For 2 people, get either 10 or 12 "leung" weight in HK wet market.
I got "Dong Xing" variety. get the fishmonger to clear out the innards.

2. Scallions/ Spring onion. Sliced into thin strips

3. Ripe red tomatoes (1-2)

4. 2 inch Fresh Ginger. 1 inch is sliced into thin strips, another 1 inch is sliced into pieces 

5. Dash of Pepper, (Sea) Salt, Cooking oil, 

6. 3-4 tbsp of light soy sauce.

7. 1-2 tsp of white sugar

The only thing else u need is a good wok/ steamer and a small pot for mixing the sauce.

Cooking Steps.

1. Wash the fish thoroughly and use the back of your knife to run thru the fish to check its properly/ completely descaled. Meanwhile, heat the wok 3/4 filled with water.

(I asked my mum why do we need so much water, she explained sufficient water gives it a more consistent steam to cook the fish thoroughly)

If you happen to see the swim bladder, just use a scissor to remove it. It doesnt smell. Just air.

2. Pat Dry fish with paper towel and place in steaming plate (best are those metal ones. Avail in Japan home store. The thin porcelin plates are ok but any thicker will ruin your timing)

3. Rub a pinch of salt on both side of the fish.Placed the sliced gingers under the fish.

Stick another slice inside the fish where it was slit open.

4. Take the scallion and chop off the green parts, and stick 2-3 stalk of the white end at the base under the fish as well. The idea is for the fish to "absorb" the flavour of ginger and scallion when it is cooking. Also takes about the fishy smell.

5. Rinse and cut the tomato into quarters. Size if up to you but not too small coz they shrink after steaming.

I love tomato so I would use 2 whole tomator and line it round the fish. I dont care for looks, I go for food! :P

6. Optional: Sprinkle some sugar over the surface of the cut tomatoes. Can omit this.

7. When the water is boiling, stick the fish and the contents onto the stand into the wok.

Cover. (You should need to cook this for about 9-10mins, depending on your fish size and the plate you are using. For me, I normally cook it till 9mins, take a look if the eyes have turned white and popped out, and off the flame and cover for another min in residual heat.)

8. While your fish is cooking in that time, get busy with the sauce.

The portion is really up to you. 

9. Take more scallions/ spring onion stalks and chop them into 3-4 segments. Then slice them into narrow strips as well. The finer the better. I personally love eating the end stalk/ the white section more than the green part,. But a mixture is good.

10. Take a small bowl, pour out about 3-4tablespoon of soysauce. The portion is up to you. If you like stronger flavour, you can have more. Then add similar portion of water. Then add about 2 teasppon of sugar to taste. As you stir well, you can just dip your finger and mix till you like the taste, where the sugar takes away the edge of the saltiness of the soy. If the sugar doesnt seem to dissolve, add more water.

The sauce shouldnt be too sweet. And remember, the sauce shouldnt be too dilute since the end steam product will already have natural juice from the fish and tomato.

11. Towards the last 2 mins before your fish is cooked, heat up the small sauce pot. Pour in 2 tablespoon of cooking oil and heat. (I use to use olive oil but its too dense. Mum recommended the KNIFE brand oil, a lighter oil that is specially for cooking fish. You will see a fish on the label picture.).

12. When hot is oil, throw in the ginger slices to cook till golden brown. You shouldnt cook your ginger too early else it will turn soggy. The idea is to when it turn browns just as the fish is cook. So which is why i recommend to start last 2-3 mins before the fish is due to cook.

12. When the fish is done, turn off flame and sprinkle the sliced scallions/spring onion onto the top of the fish.Scoop the browned ginger slices onto the fish as well.Pour some of the oil over the sliced scallions on top of the fish.

13. With the remaining oil, pour in the soysauce mix. Caution, water and oil will result in splashing for the first few seconds. Quickly pour the whole mix and drizzle over the fish from head to tail, ensuring you cover the scallions. Dash some white ground pepper and you are done!