Chinese Food Culture

November 28th, 2010 | Japanese Recipes | 1 Comment

I am not sure if this is an authentic Japanese Recipe, but this is certainly one of my favorite eat-out dish when I dine at Japanese restaurants. This dish is usually called Seafood Dynamite, or Baked Seafood in Dynamite Sauce, or something along that line.

In any case, it��s basically baked assortment of seafood—usually baby shrimp, bay scallop, clam, etc.— in a creamy mayonnaise sauce, spiked with some masago (Capelin roe), and spiced with a wee bit of Sriracha. Seafood Dynamite has all the ingredients that I love, with a flavor that I rather enjoy, especially when I am in the mood for something luscious, rich, and heavy. Because it calls for seafood, it’s a pricy dish and the portion is usually small if you order at Japanese restaurants. The good news is that it’s so much cheaper making Seafood Dynamite at home, and you can have a bigger portion if you like. Plus, it’s easy to make, as you can see from my Seafood Dynamite recipe below…

I prefer buying fresh seafood to make this dish, but you can totally use a frozen mixed seafood pack that is commonly found at supermarkets. My favorite combination is bay scallop, baby shrimp, crab meat, and manila clam (shelled). Seafood Dynamite is really delicious and filling, and perfect as an appetizer or entree (bigger serving).

November 21st, 2010 | 30-Minute Meals Recipes, Sponsorship, Thai recipes | 2 Comments

If you follow this blog, you know that I recently discovered WorldFoods (from my mie goreng post) and am working with them on a couple of recipes. Previously, I posted a Cambodian Lemongrass Shrimp Recipe. This is another recipe that I would like to share with you using another WorldFoods ready-made sauce—Thai Coconut Galangal Stir-Fry Sauce. This sauce is a blend of coconut milk spiced with galangal, lemongrass, tamarind and chilies. It�™s mild but creamy so it’s great for any protein. I used it to make a combination seafood dish, with shrimp, scallop, and squid…

When it comes to cooking, I am not a purist, meaning, I cook with store-bought sauces and spice paste quite a bit, but I am really picky. I use products that are high quality and promise great flavor. I really like this sauce because it tastes distinctively Thai, and it’s made from 100% natural ingredients. I also like it that I can doctor up the sauce by adding extra ingredients and seasonings.

We all enjoyed this Thai Coconut Galangal Seafood very much, in fact, it tastes almost like a Thai red curry.

When I 1st started blogging on Chinese Food Cultureń years ago, there weren��t that numerous food bloggers back then, and Hui Leng Tay (AKA Tigerfish) of Teczcape: An Escape to Food is one particular of my quite very first blogging good friends. We have turn out to be very good good friends over the many years, even though we have only met as soon as.

I am very happy to announce that her very first cookbook—The Everything Rice Cooker Cookbook—is finally launched. Published by Adams Media, the book is component from the famous “The Everything” series. As the name suggests, the book is all about cooking using a rice cooker, which has a whopping 300 recipes using the magical electronic rice cooker. And the sweetest point is that they are not all rice recipes mainly because a rice cooker is so versatile which you can use it to make so many distinct issues: soups, desserts, steaming, vegetables, pasta, seafood, and more…

Should you be still debating if you should buy a rice cooker, I say go ahead. It’s probably one in the best investments you’ll ever created inside kitchen. What’s far more, now you have a best cookbook to begin expanding your cooking repertoire.

Keep in mind I told you that I hardly ever make my curry from scratch mainly because you’ll find several excellent curry pastes readily obtainable in Malaysia? Go to any markets or stores 1 can discover a variety of selection of curry pastes–they commonly arrive packaged in little plastic bags. All you have to do is adding your meat or seafood to the curry paste and you will have a pot of sinfully good–and authentic–Malaysian Indian-style curries.

That being said, this seafood curry was prepared just that–from a seafood curry paste that I brought back from residence. The curry paste was really beneficial; there are mustard seeds, cardamons, cloves, and curry leaves in the paste–which are some from the secret spices/ingredients for a extremely beneficial pot of Indian-style curries…

For my US readers, you might be a lot more familiar with Thai or Indian curries provided here at Thai or Indian restaurants. Malaysian curries are really several. Unlike Thai curries, Malaysian curries are not sweet since coconut milk is utilised sparingly to complement the spices but not overshadow their tastes. Also, no sugar and fish sauce are added so you get the natural flavors in the ingredients–be it meat, chicken, fish, or other seafood. Malaysian curries are also heavier in spices and thus hotter. Compared for the Indian curries, Malaysian curries are also diverse since yoghurt isn’t utilized. The cooking model originated through the southern part of India, but had considering that been localized to a Malaysian taste.

Anyway, everytime I go home to Penang, I am sure to bring back loads of these curry pastes. They keep well within the fridge and last a handful of months. If you would like to uncover out a lot more about what brands I like, drop me a comment or email.

Enjoy!