Cooked a Proper Meal

Steamed red garoupa.

Rendering duck fat.

Salted vegetables and duck soup.

I don't blame my friend Ah Yi for thinking I cannot cook. Ever since he has known me, which really is not very long at all, I have been tapau-ing food. I used to cook all meals when the children were small. It was not healthy for the children to eat out all the time. Then, the children grew up and ate rarely at home. The Husband too had dinner out about 3 times a week.  It was hard to cook for just me and M. So, I mostly made do with tapau food.

This week, The Son is on army leave. The Daughter works from home. The Husband no longer has a string of dinners to attend. Occasionally, my children's partners join them. Suddenly, it makes sense to cook properly again. 

So, I did!

Steamed Fish

I soaked a fish in a solution of sodium bicarbonate for a few hours. 

Then, I steamed it in the Le Creuset braiser. Done this way, the texture of the fish is firm and moist. Layer the bottom of the pot with tomato, onion and ginger. Add 1 cup of water. Bring to the boil. Lay the fish on top. Place another layer of tomato, onion and ginger on top of the fish. Squish 2 sour plums and place on the fish, along with generous knobs of butter. Turn the heat down to 3 on the induction stove. Steam for 40 minutes. Throw on chopped spring onions just before serving.

At level 3 on the induction stove, it barely steams. It is more like a fish sauna. So, the cooking is low and slow. The fish meat texture is excellent this way.

Salted Vegetables and Duck Soup

I used the recipe from The Meat Men, which required white peppercorns and nutmeg. Nice! I broiled the duck meat to extract the fat and achieve some degree of the maillard reaction. Then, I added the gelatinous soup stock that I had made last week, pressure cooking cuts of lamb shoulder and pork shoulder. 

I found out that if I kept re-using the same water to pressure cook the tough cuts of lamb and pork, I would get a nice gelatinous soup stock which I could then convert into an aspic, or I could just add garden vegetables to make a filling vegetable stew.

I threw the whole lot into the thermal pot with pickled mustard, tomatoes, onions, white peppercorns and  2 seeds of pounded nutmeg.

Gelatinous soup stock.

Aspic. Picture from HERE.