visions of clarity...do as infinity

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Poached Sea Bream + Veggies in Sesame Dressing + Cheesecake! (Again!)

Hello

^_^ I just cooked dinner tonight! It was not a disaster thankfully, though I wouldn't say that there isn't room for improvement.=)

First off, french beans and carrots in sesame dressing.

*hangs head in shame* Unfortunately, the sesame dressing was store-bought because I couldn't, for the life of me, find sesame paste!!! (T_T) Meidi-Ya! YOU HAVE FAILED ME! [Or maybe my eyes and searching skills have failed me. HMM.]

The sesame dressing wasn't too bad though I think it'd be more suited for salad leaves. I added ground toasted sesame seeds but my mother felt that it wasn't fragrant enough. O well.=) I liked it. It tasted like those restaurant sesame [goma!] dressings. Nevermind. When I find sesame paste, I'll make my OWN dressing! *beams*

Sea Bream!

I was most excited to try this recipe because I ADORE simmered salmon head in a soy-based sauce that you get in restaurants.=) This wasn't as complex in flavour, not as brilliantly exciting but I have to say.. It's good home-cooked food.=) It also goes fabulously well with rice! ^_^ It's served here with fresh wakame seaweed [bloody expensive I might add.-_-"] and the book also suggests fried burdock but since I have 1) No interest in peeling and chopping burdock and 2) No interest in deep-frying things and drowning in oil, I decided to skip it.=)

My new best friend is also my metal spoon! =D It is a BRILLIANT peeler. There's no chance of cutting yourself, spoons are readily available and you don't waste any of the ginger/carrot/etc because the spoon only scrapes away the skin.xD

Poached Red Sea Bream (Tai in Japanese)

Serves 4
500g red sea bream fillets [I used the Tai that I found in Meidi-ya. I don't think it was red sea bream though.]
1/4 cup or 50ml sake [I used Japanese Cooking Wine]
1/4 cup or 50ml mirin
1/4 cup or 50ml soy sauce [I used the reduced-salt soy sauce]
1/4 cup or 50ml water
3 tbsp caster sugar
15g fresh ginger [I estimated instead of weighing]
5g dried wakame seaweed [I used fresh and I didn't weigh it either. I just bought 1 pack]
cooked burdock [recipe below]

1) Cut each fish fillet into 3-4 pieces. [My fillets were pretty big so I cut them into the size I wanted.]

2) In a large, shallow pan, mix together the sake, mirin, soy sauce, water and sugar and bring it to the boil. Add the fish pieces into the broth, taking care to arrange them so they sit side by side. Sprinkle the sliced ginger over. [I have a feeling you're supposed to cut nice pretty strips. Mine were urm. In a happy mix of shapes.^_^"]

3) Bring back to the boil, cover with a drop lip made from foil or greaseproof paper [basically just put a piece of foil over so steam can still escape but the majority of the pan is covered] and simmer for 5-6minutes. When the liquid has reduced to just less than half, turn off the heat and leave for a short while for the fish to absorb some of the remaining liquid.

4) Soak the wakame seaweed in water until soft. [Of course, this step only applies if you start off with dried wakame.] Drain and squeeze it to remove any excess water and then roughly chop.

5) Remove the fish and ginger from the pan and place on a serving dish alongside the seaweed and burdock. Pour over any remaining sauce from the pan.

For the burdock:

Serves 4
250g burdock
1 tbsp sunflower/vegetable oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp sake
2 tsp caster sugar

1) Peel the burdock and cut into 5-6cm length julienne. Soak in water for 5-10 minutes. Drain and pat dry.

2) Heat the oil in a frying pan. Add the burdock and quickly stirfry. Add the soy sauce, mirin, sake and sugar and mix together, cooking until the liquid has evaporated. Remove from the heat.

Very easy no? =D Perfect for the amateur cook [me] or the busy career woman [future me and friends].^_^

And ahem.

My first time cooking rice!!! ^_^v Ahem. Very embarrassing. But I'm so proud of the rice although the texture is wrong for Japanese rice. My rice was loose, grain by grain whereas Japanese rice is meant to be sticky and slightly wetter. Ahem. So my dad was like, "Good Chinese rice, FAILED Japanese rice". O well. It's not a bad attempt. My first time cooking rice and it didn't fail!!! [Not completely. AHEM.] Beams.

For dessert, we had cheesecake! =D

The flavour had deepened and become more homogenous throughout the whole cake after being in the fridge overnight.=) I really liked yesterday's texture but today's flavour.^_^ It was much denser and more firm today while it was quite light though still rich yesterday.

I will definitely put in more zest next time and attempt to use light cream cheese instead of regular.=D

^_^v

Anyway, I was reading the papers today and Sumiko Tan quoted these lines:

"Success" in life is "a matter of adjustment".
"If you achieve what you set out to achieve, you will be successful - if the goal had value from the start."
"If you fall short of a goal, but realise along the way that there are other valuable goals and are flexible enough to shift to better ones, you will also be successful."
"If the values you cherish have evolved only from the short-term, the selfish, the hedonistic, the frivolous, your success will not be genuine."
"Values that allow and encourage commitment and the desire to contribute to others, produce some enlightenment and ratchet the community one notch higher in quality of life are the ones that will undergird success of the kind you want."

This was in response to envy that might be produced thanks to the recent spate of articles going on and on about the record-breaking prices that apartments are fetching and the jaw-dropping salaries of top-ranking bankers/lawyers/accountants/etc.

I like reading the "reflect" column every other Sunday. [Sumiko Tan, Colin Goh and Tan Hsueh Yun all just.. SPEAK to me. ^_^"] The comics are great too! I love having 2.5 pages of comics! xD Haha.

Right-o! [O my. SUCH a dated term.-_-"] I'm off to watch more Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori! xD More Ichimoku Ren!
cheers
*[-witchstone-]*

[music : Loop Maaya Sakamoto (Tsubasa OST) + Truth Yuna Ito]
[mood : ^_^]
[food : cheesecake! =D and fish!]

Jiamin: Coughs. I must say that that is a rather accurate way of telling someone how to pronounce it but HMM. Quite vulgar. ^_^" And Naruto = draggy! I refuse to watch an anime that can flow into 10 disc boxes!! That's 100+ episodes!!! No way. It'll get draggy towards the what.70th episode? And I think Elijah Wood needs to be more adaptable and interesting. Big eyes only bring you so far. Tsk tsk.

Labels: Baked Cheesecake, edibles, future, Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori, Poached Sea Bream, thoughts, Vegetables in Sesame Dressing

Welcome

visions of clarity...do as infinity
by witchstone

My Emotible!
starry-eyed: filled with such youthful hope and optimism that one's eyes twinkle even when it's dark

Wish List

ie: motivation to save money!
- clothes
- shoes [heels! boots!]
- the perfect tote
- coats/outerwear! [Soïa & Kyo, Burberry...]
- Gackt - nine*nine
- Gackt Photobooks:
1 The Gift The Sixth Day & Seventh Night Tour Document (2004)
2 Crescent Photobook (out of print)
- Cookbooks!
1 Thomas Keller The French Laundry Cookbook
2 The Nobu Cookbook
3 Emily Luchetti A Passion for Desserts
4 Alice Medrich Pure Dessert
- Anime/Manga
1 Rurouni Kenshin
2 xxxHOLiC
3 Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-
- Proficiency at Japanese!
- Learn French for Food!

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