Pan Fried Salmon with Homemade Teriyaki Sauce 照焼三文鱼

I always enjoy eating Salmon Teriyaki bento set, to me a piece of fish with a bowl of rice is good enough as a satisfying meal.  But often that piece of salmon from the bento is just too slim or without skin. Yes I do enjoy eating with the skin especially when it's crispy, isn't that the best part?

This is not a difficult dish, the trick to fry the fish is to make sure that the base side on the pan is cooked before you flip it over. If it is not cooked, the meat or skin will stick to the pan and you will risk breaking the piece.

Arrggghhhh.... just when I need it most my bottle of Teriyaki sauce has finished. Did a search online and to my surprise it is very easy to make your own. Alright, ho-say liao (Singlish of great/ good) no more buying of the bottled sauce from now on ;) There are many recipes online, some added more than 6 ingredients and I took reference from one of the easiest and modified from there. This evening I only used 3 ingredients (sugar, Mirin 味醂 and light soy sauce), you could purchase Mirin from any supermarket at the Japanese section or Daiso. Mirin is a Japanese rice wine which has lower alcohol content and higher sugar content. 

Did I mention that the homemade sauce is as good as what you could get from restaurant/ supermarket? Try it, it is so easy! Besides being a sauce for salmon, can use it for squid, hamburger steak, meatball, Enoki mushrooms wrap with shabu, etc.

Ingredient
A piece of salmon about 250-300g (prefer not to use steak)
Salt
Cornflour

Teriyaki sauce (step 7)

1.5-2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp Mirin
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp sake (optional, I didn't add)

Method
1) Rinse the salmon and pat dry with kitchen towel.
2) Smear salt onto the salmon.
3) Just before cooking, coat the salmon with a thin layer of cornflour.
4) Heat the pan with little oil and place the salmon with skin side down using low-medium flame. Use your fingers to gently press from the top so that skin is fully in tact with the pan.
5) When the bottom side is done, flip over to cook the other side. Follow by the 2 sides for a short while.
6) Dish out the salmon.
7) In a bowl mix the sauce ingredients. Pour away the oil from the pan and over low flame add the sauce, it will bubble up immediately. Let it heat for a few seconds and off the fire, do not burn the sauce. Drizzle the sauce over the fish and serve while its hot.

南瓜咖椰酱 Pumpkin Kaya Jam

With the addition of pumpkin to the kaya it brings the taste to another level, goes well with any kind of bread. 

Ingredient
300g pumpkin (remove seeds & skin)
180g coconut milk/ cream
60g gula melaka
8-10 pieces of Pandan leaves (tie into a knot)

Method
1. Steam pumpkin cubes and mash finely using a masher or fork.
2. Combine all ingredients and cook over low fire.
3. Stir constantly to prevent burn and cook until the gula melaka dissolves. Off the flame when it reaches the jam texture, this will probably take about 20-30 mins depending on your stove fire.
4. Store into a bottle and chilled.

Coffee bread with Pumpkin Kaya Jam

Modified from Angelin Goh's recipe.

Caramelized Onions

Caramelized onions are sweet, rich and soft, perfect as a topping for steak, chicken or pizza with cheese. Who is that fellow who is able to turn this pungent raw onion into such a sweet topping? Thunderous applause for you.

I came across this at Morgan Fields, Star Vista when I ordered their Sirloin steak with caramelized onions. It was so delicious that I actually ate up the very last bit of the onion. Of course the steak was good too, their food and customer service left a very good impression. Back to the onions, the look of the onions doesn't appeal to me. Really, not at all. Can you imagine a spoonful of dark brown mass on top of the brown colored steak? You got it? Brown and brown, hmm...the color combination is really not so eye-pleasing but once you tasted it, hooked is the word. Yes I am hooked to the dish especially the caramelized onions so I really want to try making it. It is actually quite easy to make but you need patience to stand in front of your stove stirring the pot of onions like a witch. Hahahaha....whenever I need to standby my stove stirring food to prevent burning with a wooden spatula, I thought I look like a witch cooking a pot of amazing stuffs :P 

Ingredient

2 large onions

1 knob of unsalted butter

Salt

1/2 tsp sugar

Method

1. Peel and slice onions into thin strips.

2. Melt butter in a pot.

3. Add onions and dash of salt, on med-high heat cook and stir constantly until onions turn translucent and browning starts.

4. Switch to low heat, add sugar and continue to stir constantly until they turn brown color. This will take about 30 mins depending on the amount and heat used.

5. Cool completely and transfer to a jar. The onions can keep up to a week in the fridge.

Tips

1. You could also add black pepper, herbs to make your onions more flavorful. But for round one, I would suggest the basic because it already tastes very good.
2. I used non-stick pan so that washing will be a breeze after cooking, I don't have to spend time scrapping the brown stains.