Cooking with Coconut Milk + Salmon Coco Sauce Recipe Example

Hello!

I decide to make a general recipe post today!

Coconut milk is one of the most versatile cooking ingredients that I really like. This ingredient, which I believed originated in Asia (Indian, Thai, Indonesian, Cantonese cuisine all seem to favour this), can be used to make various types of cooking, from appetisers to main course and sweet desserts! In fact, I've always admired Thai coconut milk based desserts (although admittably I refrain myself from eating a lot of them because of their high sugar content!)

Coconut milk gives a distinctive taste to my homemade cooking, and to me, is a great substitute allowed on the South Beach Diet. Moreover, at least in the UK, you can always find half-fat coconut milk (I found mine from Waitrose). If you ever have a chance to come to Indonesia during the Ramadan or the Islamic Holy Month period, you'll find that most of the food served after the day fasting period ends are nearly made entirely using coconut milk!

To incorporate coconut milk to your daily simple homemade cooking promoted by the one by two kitchen blog is relatively simple. I use them to make Thai green curry and one of my favourite dishes: salmon and Chinese cabbage in coconut milk sauce. Lately I've really liked eating Chinese cabbage, because they remain fresh longer than other leafy veggies.

An important bit of doing stir-fry is to add water to create the sauce. I learn this by experience!

Do take a look at the recipe below, and remember that you can change the ingredients to your liking. Just remember the Coco sauce mix: fish sauce, a little bit of water during stir-fry, and coconut milk!

Salmon, Prawn and Chinese Cabbage in Coco Sauce

Salmon, Prawn and Chinese Cabbage in Coco Sauce

Ingredients:

• Coconut milk (preferably half-fat - half a can)
• Fish Sauce
• Salmon (1 Fillet - cut to square pieces)
• King Prawn (approximately half-pack or 100 grams)
• Chinese Cabbage (approx. 5 leaves - chopped)
• Bean sprout (as desired)
• Spring Onion (2; chopped)
• Extra virgin olive oil OR other vegetable oil

How to Prepare:

• Heat one tablespoon of oil in a frying pan
• Sizzle the spring onion until the fragrance comes out
• Put the Chinese cabbage and bean sprout in, stir-fry for around 3 minutes
• Put the salmon in, stir-fry for additional 4-5 minutes or until salmon turns opaque
• During stir-frying, add some water if pan becomes too dry, but not too much until it covers the pan!
• Pour fish sauce sauce (approx. 4 tablespoons)
• Pour the coconut milk and stir-in
• Wait until the sauce boils and mix more fish sauce if you want more flavours
• Stir in the prawn and wait until they boil
• Serve!

AWESOME dinner and SBD-ish!

You might like to read my posting about fusion food at here.


LOVE. the one by two kitchen.

Salmon Baked Dynamite

Hey I'm back at the one by two kitchen!

So news is - I'm not in the original one by two kitchen anymore cos I have moved to a new flat with amazingly big kitchen! In fact I think the kitchen is now 2 x 4 sqm!

While I was in Indonesia, I went a lot to a Japanese/American restaurant by the name of Poke Sushi. One of my favourite menu is the Half-Baked Dynamite, a combination of baked scallop with dynamite sauce.

After a little browsing - I finally found what a dynamite sauce is.. and created my own version. I baked it at my new place and served it to Teresa, who seemed to really like it. To be honest I didn't know that a dynamite sauce is so much simple to make.

So here goes the recipe of a much simpler and cheaper Baked Dynamite. I don't know how to half-bake them and would not suggest it either!

Makes 2 Servings

Ingredients:

• Mayonnaise (preferably low-fat)
• Sambal ABC (Indonesian hot sauce)
• Fish sauce
• Salmon Fillet 350 gram - cubed around 2 x 2 cm
• Seafood stick (4 sticks) - cubed around 1 x 1 cm
• Mozzarella cheese (to garnish)
• Spring onion (to garnish)
• Olive oil or other vegetable oil

Preparations:

• Preheat oven to 200 degree Celcius.

How to prepare:

• Put 5 tablespoons of mayonnaise to a bowl, mix with 2 tablespoons of Sambal ABC and 1/2 tablespoon of fish sauce to create the dynamite sauce
• Prepare a baking tray and grease lightly with oil
• Put the cubed salmon fillet onto the baking tray
• Put the mozzarella cheese on top of the salmon fillet
• Put the seafood stick on top, and sprinkle once more with the mozzarella cheese
• Pour the dynamite sauce to fully cover the salmon fillets and seafood stick
• Garnish with spring onion
• Bake the dish in the oven (175 degree Celcius for 15 minutes or until salmon is cooked)
• Serve!

*Caution: this dish is hot and spicy, but wonderful to awe your guests.

LOVE. the one by two kitchen.

Steamed Salmon Teriyaki with Cheese: a mix between the east and the west!

I don't normally post two recipes in a day (to give time for my blog to grow and for people to read) but because a very good acquaintance of mine, Olivia, asked me today to post the recipe for this from my FB album, I am posting it for her and for my readers too!

I love cooking salmons (and eating them too, of course). Ever since I got to the UK, salmons are half the price that I used to pay while I was in Asia, and so salmons always get on top of my shopping list. Usually whenever I go to my favourite supermarket, Sainsbury's, I absent-mindedly reach out to the seafood rack and grab two packs of skinless and boneless salmon (although later on I find that with a cheaper price, I can get a boneless but not skinless salmon).

Cheese, although is nothing particularly new to me, is pretty new when suddenly the supermarket has one aisle dedicated to them! I know Mozzarella and Cheddar, but I have no idea what Gouda or Leicester cheese are when I first arrived in the UK! So I have been doing so many cheese tasting (on my own), and I found tastes that I like and tastes that I would avoid as well. One of the cheeses that I will be using in this recipe is the black-peppered cheese, which I like because of the hot pepper sensation. The cheese is mild and not that matured and thus it will melt away beautifully when steamed.

I have a huge passion for Teriyaki sauce too, because I believe Teriyaki sauce is one of the sauces that I encountered when I first started learning to cook by myself in Singapore. This recipe is hugely influenced by my mom, who loves everything simple, tasty and homemade-y. Kudos to her for inspiring so many recipes that you will find in the one by two kitchen's album.

Oh and if anyone realises - I grew up in a place where 5-in-a-day was very encouraged and thus I tried incorporating a lot of them (except for the carbs, because to be honest I am an avid South-Beach Dieter).

Please note that a steamer will be needed, as well as a rounded bowl or a bowl to be used in the steamer.

Ingredients:

1. One approximately 250 gram fillet of salmon, skinless and boneless (boneless but not skinless is acceptable too)
2. Lettuce (preferably round lettuce)
3. White cup mushrooms (approximately 4)
4. Spring onions (1 or 2)
5. One slice of black-peppered cheese
6. Teriyaki sauce (preferably Kikoman)

How to Prepare:

1. Arrange a bed of lettuce leaves on the base of the rounded bowl
2. Slice the salmon fillet to around 5 or 6 chunky cubes, and arrange them on the bowl
3. Arrange the white cup mushrooms, alternating them with the salmon fillet (purely for aesthetic reason)
4. Chop the spring onions and sprinkle them above the salmon and the mushrooms
5. Pour teriyaki sauce over the bowl, around one and a half round of pouring will be sufficient
6. If you like it spicy, pour over chilli powders on top of the bowl
7. Put the bowl to the steamer and after the water boils - give 8 to 10 minutes or until the salmon turns opaque and the water from the steamer has condensed to the bowl and mixed with the teriyaki sauce to create a soup-like mixture
8. Place the cheese over the dish, steam for around 3 minutes or until the cheese is melted
9. Carefully move the bowl out of the steamer and serve warm

NOTE about salmons: salmon's skins will be easily removed once they are cooked - so don't sweat over it!

LOVE. the one by two kitchen.

Smoked Salmon Boat

This is one of my favourite morning breakfasts of the one by two kitchen food album. I'm a huge fan of the South Beach Diet, and although I occasionally cheat, the combination between my sugar allergy and my belief in South Beach Diet usually restrain me from eating carbohydrates. However this salmon boat is a must try for salmon and cheese lover! This is a very 'Western' sort of dish though with Feta/Greek/Goat's cheese which might not appeal to some of my Asian friends. But hey - life is about trying out new stuffs and falling in and out of love (to food as well!)

Right so - Salmon Boat! This recipe is inspired by Johnny, a friend of my roommate and I who came to visit Nottingham and made something similar to this (I alter them to boats cos I found the idea of boats a lot more fun and cuter!) These recipes would give you a lot of servings, depending on how big you like your boat is and of course - the salmon crescents!

Ingredients:

1. Multi-grain brown bread (can be found in Waitrose for those in the UK)
2. Salmon crescent (from Waitrose, can be substituted with Smoked Salmon)
3. Feta/Greek/Goat's cheese, preferably in the round-shaped packaging
4. Fresh basil leaves

How to prepare:

1. Prepare six branches of fresh basil leaves, wash, drain, and dry them
2. Slice the bread around 4 cm thick and store the bread in a cool dry place (we don't want no damp or mouldy bread.. eww!)
3. Slice the Goat's cheese around 1 cm thick and put them back on the fridge (yeah you know)
4. Cut the salmon crescent in half, or if using normal Smoked Salmon, slice the smoked salmon to small pieces and mix them together with a a spoonful of goat's cheese in a small cup and use your tablespoon to roll them to salmon cheese balls
5. Assemble the boat as follows: bread for the base, cheese slice, basil leaves, and top them off with the salmon crescent or the salmon cheese balls
6. Enjoy your quickie, pretty and tasty breakfast!

LOVE. the one by two kitchen.