Fish with back bean sauce

cod with black beans by kattebelletje.

This dish is really nice if you want to eat fish the Chinese style. It is quick to prepare if using whitefish fillets, and a meal by itself or with more dishes for a larger Chinese dinner.
You will need:

400 grams of cod (or other white fish)
1 spring onion
1 cm of ginger
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, Shaoxing rice wine, corn flour,
dried black beans from a jar/pot. [I use the dried kind which keeps forever].

Cut the fish into chunks and marinate in a tablespoon of Shaoxing rice wine and a tablespoon of light soy sauce. Meanwhile, take a tablespoon of black beans and soak in cold water. Cut ginger into julienne strips, slice the garlic and shred the spring onions into very thin strips.

Dip the fish in cornstarch until completely coated and fry the pieces in hot oil until both sides are golden. Take out and put aside. Then, in the leftover oil, fry the ginger, garlic and drained black beans until fragant. Add about two tablespoons of Shaoxing rice wine, a tablespoon of soy sauce, a tablespoon of Chinese black vinegar and a pinch of sugar. Add a few tablespoons of water to make a sauce, then, gently, put back the fish and simmer briefly until done. You don't have to turn them over - of course you can if you want to, but they might fall apart if you do so. Anyway they will be delicious, especially if you spoon over some of the sauce when they simmer.

Take out the fish and arrange on a pretty plate. Pour over the sauce and scatter with spring onion julienne. Eat with rice. You could add some drops of sesame oil in the end, and add some chiles if you like the heat. The black beans give a salty tang to this dish, and the balance of soy, vinegar and sugar is really nice.

steaming fresh salmon

steaming fresh salmon by kattebelletje.

Yes, I've got my new steamer. It is huge, and on top of that, it even has two layers! Now I had to think of something to steam. You can steam anything really, but the first dish I steamed was this salmon dish in Chinese style.

Take one slab of salmon a person (here it is only the two of us) and put on a heatproof plate. Top each piece of salmon with a teaspoon black beans (Yangjiang brand is nice, look here for review), half a teaspoon of grated ginger, half a teaspoon of finely chopped garlic, a few chopped salted chiles and pour over some soy and rice wine.

Bring water to the boil. When it steams happily in your steamer, put in the plate with fish and cover with lid. Check after 5 minutes and take out before completely done, after 7 minutes or so, depending on the size - the fish keeps on cooking somehow.

You can add chopped spring onions and cilantro now, and pour over 2 tablespoons of heated oil so the herbs will sizzle. I, unfortunately, ran out of spring onions and cilantro and had to do without. But it was very delicious nevertheless.

Great party food, too: I mean how easy can it be, steaming plates and plates of salmon for a roomful of people? Just buy a big enough steamer! The steamers come from Thailand and are on sale in Asian stores. Because they are made from aluminium, they come quite cheaply. The cheapest go for about 20 euros.

bacalhau fritters with aioli

bacalhau fritters with aioli
Originally uploaded by kattebelletje.

I had a packet of salt cod in the pantry, waiting for something nice to happen to it. I think I bought it somewhere in an oriental store, but you can find it in some supermarkets or other ethnic shops as well. It is such a basic kind of foodstuff; the salt keeps the fish forever. I was given a nice bacalhau recipe by a friend of mine from work, involving bacalhau flakes and potato strips and garlic and so on; but in the end I happened to watch Rick Stein's cooking trip in Spain and Portugal and he was saying these fritters were third on his list of all-time seafood delicacies, so I was inspired to try his recipe, or what I remembered of it.

You will need: one package of salt cod (I think it was around 500 grams). Start to soak the pieces in cold water for about 12 to 24 hours. Just start a day ahead and ignore eager meowing cats or frowning housemates who doubt the end result will be nicer than cat food. Change the water a couple of times during the day.
Rinse the salt off the cod and cook the fish in boiling water for 15 to 20 minutes until you can flake off pieces of fish. You will have to get rid of all skin and bones and ugly pieces. Put in a bowl.
Take 4 to 5 medium size potatoes and mash them. Mix with the cod flakes. Add pepper (no salt needed, the fish is salty already!), nutmeg and chopped parsley to your liking. Add some milk to make it into a good mash, add two tablespoons of flour, and add two raw eggs. Mix to combine.
Make small balls of the mixture and fry in hot sunflower oil until brown on all sides. Serve with a green salad and aioli; I used the shortcut of adding one crushed clove of garlic to a couple of tablespoons of good mayonaise.
Great taste, especially with the aioli, salty, but softer taste from the potatoes, you can keep on eating these forever!