Canned Tuna Fish Cakes 罐头金枪鱼肉饼

Today I was looking for a quickie, a shortcut for my dinner dish. Suddenly, I had an aha moment to use canned tuna. I know the thought of canned food is not appealing at all. Therefore, least I could do was to repackage it and give those poor tuna a facelift. And this facelift took just minutes.

Steamed Pork With Salted Fish 咸鱼蒸猪肉

Steamed Pork with Salted Fish is unique. It smells like dead fish but the Chinese love it. Definitely an acquired taste if you ask me. It is a common Chinese household dish that most Chinese home cooks would have known. The key to a good Steamed Pork with Salted Fish is its ingredients. You must get good mui heong salted fish (normally mackerel). Mui heong salted fish is prepared through a fermenting process for several days before curing. I normally find those that are brined in oil. They are soft and mushy but the smell is so pungent your whole house would smell like a dead rat. For the Chinese, this is a double thumbs-up.

Yong Tau Foo 酿豆腐

I didn't know making Yong Tau Foo nowadays is so convenient. I am not talking about instant fish pastes. Those are just too generic, not fresh and not flavourful enough. My mom went to the wet market this morning and she brought a little plastic of Spanish mackerel (tenggiri) back. Apparently the seller has fillet and deboned it for her already! All that was needed was to chop it up, add flavours and give those lovely mackerel a good slap (literally speaking la). The process was made even easier with a ready food processor. Just add everything into the machine and let the machine do all the labourous work. Within minutes, what used to be fish chunks turned into into fine flavourful sticky paste.

Ginger and Scallion Fish Slices 姜葱鱼片

Some call it scallion, some call it spring onion, some call it green onion. It is all the same. The Chinese call it "chung"(葱) and when it is paired with ginger (姜), it makes a pretty decent dish. The combination of both ginger and scallion is aptly use to add flavour and smell to the otherwise mildly flavoured fish. The ginger is also use to stave off the fishy smell of the protein.

This is a common Chinese household dish. Well, maybe not so common now since the price of fish has gone up many folds compared the olden days. If you are looking at more quality sea fish such as a fresh grouper, the price could be as high as RM35 per kilo. However, this method of cooking is actually more flexible as the fish is first fried and later combined with other flavours (unlike steamed fish dishes whereby only certain types of fish is suitable).  Therefore, you could even use dory if you fancy.

Easy Party Canapes

I love everything small and dainty. It is no wonder that I adore canapes. Remember what they said about good things coming in small packages? This is exactly that. These bite-sized goodies are absolutely pleasing to the eyes and simply delicious.

My basic requirements for easy party canape are simple. Use ingredients that are easily available with minimal cooking. It also has to be time-saving with minimal wastage (very important to me). I am not a fan of skewering multiple components. Imagine you are organising a party and have million and one things to take care of. You do not want to spend hours poking at your food. I am also not a fan of cutting odd shapes that leaves two third of the ingredients to the trash.

Beans Revisited - Tuna Crabstick Roll

This is also from my previous shop's menu.

Sounds Japanese? It is not. Today I am revisiting something that was in the menu of my shop. It is a no brainer but tastes just as good, a perfect snack for both busy adults and kids. You can prepare this to be kept frozen and then fried when needed. Just recently, I froze a batch of these and then cooked for my guests at home. Saves a lot of time.