Nasi Paprik & Curry Fish

Been a little busy as my 2 precious are finishing their last semester before the school holidays, planning what we will be doing, where we will be going, doing some Christmas shopping, etc, etc, etc.  A Mother's job is never ending.  I even heard a Mom saying...she is Mom of all trades...haha! That's a good one...and of course, its the truth...a Mother is a wife, a sister, a cousin, a student, a teacher, a friend, a counselor, a mediator, a nurse, an IT expert, a magician, a nurse....the list goes on and on.

We have been doing our Christmas shopping and we walked pass a Thai Restaurant and voila....amazingly, we saw "Nasi Pataya" and "Nasi Paprik"....but when we saw the price....my other half decided that it would be cheaper to cook it ourselves.  So, we did just that.  Some people believe that Nasi Paprik comes from Thailand but others think that its from North Malaysia.  However, a buddy of mine who is from Thailand kindly informed me that Padprik is actually 2 words: Pad - Stir-fry & Prik = Spicy like chilli.  We have been eating Nasi Paprik since we were little and till now, we still love it so much.  Here's a photo of our nasi padprik.

A few days later, we met up with a friend of ours and he shared with us how awesome it was flying home to meet his parents and having so many yummylicious food and one dish just shouted to us - Curry Fish!!! My other half and I just looked at each other with "THAT LOOK" and we knew we had to cook it at home soon....you know how it is when you have been married for so long... So, here's the photo of our version of the Curry Fish which we ate with rice.

I know that my version of fish curry has a nyonya and chinese influence to it as this is my Grandma's recipe.  I love adding okra / ladies fingers and cabbage into the curry plus taupok.  Sometimes, we even add some indian drumsticks into the curry too....its really delicious!!!

Till next time...happy holidays!!!

Deep Fried Fish Soup with Rice & Fish Nuggets with Thai Chilli Sauce

This was the first time that I could not resist buying 2 pieces of fish fillet...it looks so fresh and juicy.  With these 2 pieces, I made nuggets and deep fried fish soup with milk which we ate with rice.  Oh me, oh my...its really awesome on rainy days.

Deep fried fish soup with / without milk is a popular dish in my household.  Some of my friends prefer adding 1-2 tsp of carnation milk into the soup to make it more milky. Others just prefer the soup by itself.  This soup dish can be eaten with plain white rice or with noodles.  One of my friends loves to add XO into the soup.  However, even though I love XO, I do not use any as I have 2 kiddos in my family. To do the soup, I will fry some garlic and ginger till fragrant. Then I will add the ikan bilis stock, salted vegetable, tomato and seasonings. To serve, just add in 1-2 tsp carnation milk and seaweeds.  Here's a photo of our Deep Fried Fish Soup which we ate with rice.

While I was deep frying the pieces of fish fillet, my other half and my prince were happily eating these nuggets. My eldest called it fish nuggets. Discovered that it taste delicious when we dipped it into some sweet thai chilli sauce.  Here's a photo which my other half took - Fish Nuggets with Sweet Thai Chilli Sauce

Ain't it plain awesome when everyone in the family enjoys the food which we cook? What's more awesome, I created 2 dishes out of it...ha!ha!

Asian Steamed Fish - Teochew Style

Steaming is a healthy way of eating. Eating this dish with plain hot rice is just delicious...yum!!!
There are different ways of steaming fish. In my household, we prefer the Teochew style which consist of salted vegetables, sour plums, mushrooms and tomatoes or the Cantonese style that consists of ginger, salt, soy sauce, sugar and stalks of green onions.

I just love this dish...its simple and easy to do.  Just prepare the mise-en-place of garlic, ginger, dried mushrooms, salted vegetable, sour plums, chinese cooking wine, soy sauce, stock and of course the fish. Mix everything together in a bowl and marinate the fish with some cornflour and salt (keep it in the fridge for 30 mins). Arrange the vegetable mix on the fish nicely, pop it into the steamer and steam it for 15-18 mins (depending on how large your fish is).

This is just delicious with plain white rice...my 2 kiddos just love it!!!