Shellfish with Chilli

Shellfish or clams are very nutritious food. Once in a while, I will get half a kilogram of shellfish back home to cook. The cleaning part is important before you cook. This is to ensure that the sand inside the shellfish are removed by itself.



Cleaning process
Place the shellfish in a bowl, covered with water and add a little salt. The live shellfish will spurt out the sand. After about an hour, most of the sand are removed by itself. Discard and rinse them twice to ensure no more sand is visible.

Occasions
Lunch (best with white congee)
Dinner

Ingredients (Serves 4)
Half kilogram of shellfish
2 cloves of chopped garlic
1 clove of chopped onion
Some ginger
Some chilli padi
2 tbsp of black bean sauce
Salt

Steps
1. Fry the garlic, onion, ginger, chilli padi and black bean sauce together till fragrant.
2. Add the shellfish and cover with a lid. Add a small portion of hot water.
3. Stir well and ensure that the shells are opened up. Those that didn't open are dead ones. Do discard them. If you feel that they are persistent ones, remove those cooked ones and continue to cook them. At times, they may open up.

I love this dish especially with white congee. The sweet taste of the shellfish with the congee is really mutually alluring! Try it!

Steamed Silver Pomfret

Silver pomfrets (金鲳鱼) are fishes that are mostly farm bred. And the freshest are found in the wet market. They cost around $5 each. I will usually get the fish seller to remove the innards for me. The best deal was when I bought 3 for $10!

My children love them so much because the flesh is sweet and I love to eat with the fragrant white rice!

I have steamed lots of fish before and I used to just place fresh ginger, garlic and sprinkle some spring onions and light soy sauce on the uncooked fish. The taste didn't come out so well. Hence I decided to fry the ingredients before steaming the fish. And it turned out to be fantastic!



Occasions
Lunch
Dinner
Confinement Food


Ingredients (Serves 2-3)
1 silver pomfret
Some chopped garlic, onions and ginger
Some salt
1 tsp of light soy sauce
1 tsp of sesame oil
2 tsp of cooking oil
Chilli padi (Optional)

Steps
1. Place some cooking oil into heated pan.
2. Add garlic, onions, ginger, light soy sauce and salt together. Fry till fragrant but not burnt.
3. Add sesame oil.
4. Place the sauce onto the silver pomfret.
5. Steam it for 8 minutes.

I will usually fry together with the chilli padi and it will bring about both spiciness as well as sweetness to the fish.

How to test that your fish is cooked?

You just use a fork and insert into the flesh of the skin. If there is no blood along the fish bone area, it's well done. Otherwise, steam for another 2-3 minutes. Do remember not to over steam your fish because it may be too dry and not tasty.