Stuffed Eggplant with Black Bean Sauce

Stuffed Eggplant is usually one of three pieces that make up a dish commonly found at Yum Cha. The other two is traditionally stuffed pepper and stuffed tofu. The dish is called 'The three treasures' (or something close to that). I'm not a huge fan of the stuff tofu or pepper, so when I'm cooking at home, I usually just make a dish with only the stuffed eggplant pieces.

sliced eggplant pieces soaking in water

Stuffed Eggplant with Black Bean Sauce
Original recipe passed to me from my grandma

• 6-8 Asian Eggplants (sliced diagonaly in 4cm pieces, with an incision sliced 3/4 way through, soaked in cold water for 1 hr)
• Small bowl of Cornflour (to be used during the 'stuffing' process)
• ~300g White Fish paste (from chinese grocery shops)
• 1 tablespoon of dried shrimp (soaked in water, finely chopped)
• 2 tablespoons of corriander (finely chopped)
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt & a pinch of ground white pepper

Sauce:

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 garlic clove (smashed and finely chopped)
• 1 tablespoon of fermented black beans (fresh or use black bean paste from chinese grocery shops)
• 1 fresh red chilli (finely chopped)
• 2 tablespoon of light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
• 1 cm piece of yellow block sugar (smashed)

Method:

1. To prepare the eggplant, on an angle, slice into 4cm pieces. Then make another incision in between the 4cm piece for the filling.
2. Mix together the fish paste with dried shrimps and corriander. Season with salt and white pepper.
3. Drain the eggplant pieces after they have been soaking in the cold water for 1hr.
4. Rub some cornflour on the insides of the eggplant piece and place about 1 tablespoon of the mixed fish paste into the eggplant. (The cornflour helps hold the fish paste in place).
5. Shallow fry the eggplant pieces in some hot oil.
6. Remove the pieces as they start to turn a golden colour and set aside.
7. In a medium hot wok, add the oil then stir in the garlic, black bean, chilli, soy sauce, oyster sauce and sugar. Keep on stirring the contents around so it wont burn too easily.
8. Add in the eggplant pieces. And carefully stir fry the content around the wok, until each piece has a coating of the black bean sauce.
   

Serve with some plain steam rice.

Notes:

• Soaking the eggplant in cold water beforehand helps to stop the eggplant pieces turning brown (discolouring).
• Sliced eggplant pieces diagonally to get more surface area
• If using fresh black beans then rinse the beans well through some water, then mince them together using the back of a spoon in a small bowl.
• The cornflour is used to hold the fish paste together after the eggplant has been cooked. Just rub a bit of the cornflour on both sides of the incision made in the middle of the eggplant piece.
• If you don't have yellow block sugar, then just substitute with white sugar - about 1 teaspoon.

Chicken Mushroom & Dried Scallop Rice

This is another one of my grandma's dishes, which I have adapted into one of my a so-called 'one pot' meals.

Its pretty much just throwing everything together to be cooked in the rice pot. So instead of plain old steam rice served with separate dishes. The dish is incorporated into the steam rice. The result is a bit like chinese fried rice, except the method calls for steaming with some fresh rice. Therefore, it is also a lot less oily than fried rice. Also Chinese fried rice is best made with leftover rice that has been sitting in the fridge overnight.

Chicken Mushroom & Dried Scallop Rice
Adapted from a Recipe originating from my grandma

• 3 cups of white rice
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 4 dried scallops (soaked overnight - water reserved)
• 8 dried shiitake mushrooms (soaked overnight - chopped - water reserved)
• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
• thumbsized piece ginger (smashed)
• 300g chicken mince
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon chinese rice wine

Method:

1. Wash the rice until the water runs clear.
2. Using a fork, break up the dried scallops. Add scallops and the reserved water into the rice. If needed, fill the rice cooker with water to the required amount to cook 3 cups of rice.
3. Add in the 1/2 teaspoon of salt and stir the rice around, so that there is an even spread of scallops around the rice. Start the rice cooker. When the rice is nearly ready...
4. Heat the oil in a pan and add in the ginger. Once you start to smell the ginger, add in chopped mushrooms and the chicken mince.
5. Add in the seasonings - salt, soy sauce, sugar, wine and oyster sauce.
6. Pour in about 3 tablespoons of the reserved mushroom water. Enough so that the chicken doesn't dry out too much as it cooks.
7. Stirfry the contents around until the chicken mince has just cooked. Discard the ginger piece.
8. Open the rice cooker and pour in the contents of the pan and mix everything into the rice.
9. Close the lid of the rice cooker and let the contents sit for at least 30 mins on the 'keep warm' setting.

Notes:

• 3 cups of rice is enough for 3 very hungry people or about 5 'normal eating' people
• Taste the rice. If its a bit too bland, drizzle a bit of light soy sauce over the rice and mix well before serving.
• The ginger is optional, and is used to fragrant the oil and the other ingredients during the stir frying process.

Salmon with Soy Mirin Sauce

I'm a sucker for crisy salmon skin and raw\rare cooked salmon. I've been trying to find a way with pan-cooked salmon, to have both the tasty crispy salmon skin with a nice medium-rare interior. Basically I wanted my salmon to still retain some of it's raw salmon freshness, with a bit of taste from some soy and mirin (so its not too bland), with a crispy Salmon skin top.

With past experiments, I tried marinating the piece of salmon in the soy marinade, although the salmon was really tasty, I couldn't get the skin to crisp. The other alternate method I tried was with pan-frying the salmon skin (salted) side down first, then turning it over and adding the marinade to the pan as the salmon cooked. I found with this method the marinade burnt too easily.. I think .. Something to do with the sugar content in the marinade.

So.. this is the method that works for me. To prep for the crispy skin, I tried to dry out the salmon skin as much as possible with a piece of kitchen paper towel. Seasoned it with a generous amount of freshly grounded salt, then place onto a plate (curved sides) with the skin side up, ready for the marinade. Make the marinade and pour the contents around the salmon. Make sure you don't pour the marinade on top of the salmon (if you do, the skin won't be crispy). Marinate for about 30-40 mins. Moving the salmon piece around every 10 mins or so. Just before cooking, drizzle a bit of olive oil over the top of the skin.

Heat up the pan until its hot. Place salmon skin down first and cook for about 2 mins. Then turn the salmon over and continue to cook for another 3-4 mins on medium-high heat.


Pan-fried Salmon with Soy Mirin Sauce
The salmon & soy mirin combo is no newbie...but the method of preparing\cooking is my own

Marinade:

• 1 tablespoon mirin
• 3 tablespoons of light soy sauce
• couple of dashes of sesame oil
• 1 thumbsized piece of ginger (smashed)

1. Take a piece of salmon fillet, make sure all scales are removed and pat the skin dry with a paper towel. Season generously with some freshly grinded sea salt.


2. Prepare marinade. Pour marinade around the piece of salmon. You may need to lift the corners of the salmon to let the marinade into the middle. Let sit for 30-40 mins, while doing some lifting\moving of the salmon every 10mins or so.


3. Preheat the pan to high heat. Drizzle some olive oil over the salmon skin. Place salmon skin down onto the pan and cook for 2 mins on high heat.


4. Flip the salmon over and after 1 min turn the heat down to medium-high. Continue to cook for another 3 mins. You should see the sides of the salmon flesh turn opaque.


5. Remove from the pan and let rest on a plate for a couple of minutes before serving.


6. The leftover marinade can be added to be pan after the salmon has been removed. Add about 2 tablespoons of water to the marinade, bring to a light simmer on low heat and the marinade will turn into a 'soy mirin' sauce you can drizzle around the plated piece of salmon.

Serve with some steamed baby bok choy .... :)