Today was Singapore food.
Did Sambal Stingray, Satay, and Goreng Pisang.
Some things I learnt.
1. If your food smells fishy or strong, you can
(A) for seafood, immerse in a slightly acidic solution for 15 mins (we used diluted tamarind juice because it was available for the sambal).
(B) For lamb or mutton, you can use milk.
(C) other meat, try brine.
2. Stingray sometimes smells of ammonia due to the fishmonger improperly cutting it up and puncturing the internal organs, releasing urine etc. Then see 1A.
3. Toasted whole spices, then ground, taste (and smell) a lot better. We did cumin, coriander today like that. I should try to adopt this.
4. The fragrant portion of a lemon grass is the purple ring on the lower portion of the stem. When prepping lemon grass, you can remove the outer one or two coats.
5. You can impart the "charcoal/smoked" taste of satay as follows (but it is very smoky/messy). This was fun to do.
(A) Heat a cast iron pan dry till it is very very hot over as high a heat as you can. You may see smoke at first, but that is due to minute food particles still stuck on the iron. Wait till the smoke clears.
(B) Pour oil into the pan. It should immediately start to smoke and even catch fire!
(C) put the satay into the pan. It will char very fast, so watch it and be ready to turn it.
(D) after the charring, the meat is not completely done. You will still need to finish it in the oven.
6. Somebody mentioned "Satay" sounds like Sah Teh (3 pieces in Hokkien). The chef immediately turned around and agreed :-). I googled it and it seems more like a tall tale. Here's an interesting article http://www.friedchillies.com/articles/detail/the_authoritative_satay
7. Banana leaf can be prepared as follows
(A) wash it first. Strip the spine.
(B) then heat it. We did it over the gas fire directly with a tong. It can even char slightly.
(C) crumple it somewhat. It will now be flexible and be usable for wrapping.
Did Sambal Stingray, Satay, and Goreng Pisang.
Some things I learnt.
1. If your food smells fishy or strong, you can
(A) for seafood, immerse in a slightly acidic solution for 15 mins (we used diluted tamarind juice because it was available for the sambal).
(B) For lamb or mutton, you can use milk.
(C) other meat, try brine.
2. Stingray sometimes smells of ammonia due to the fishmonger improperly cutting it up and puncturing the internal organs, releasing urine etc. Then see 1A.
3. Toasted whole spices, then ground, taste (and smell) a lot better. We did cumin, coriander today like that. I should try to adopt this.
4. The fragrant portion of a lemon grass is the purple ring on the lower portion of the stem. When prepping lemon grass, you can remove the outer one or two coats.
5. You can impart the "charcoal/smoked" taste of satay as follows (but it is very smoky/messy). This was fun to do.
(A) Heat a cast iron pan dry till it is very very hot over as high a heat as you can. You may see smoke at first, but that is due to minute food particles still stuck on the iron. Wait till the smoke clears.
(B) Pour oil into the pan. It should immediately start to smoke and even catch fire!
(C) put the satay into the pan. It will char very fast, so watch it and be ready to turn it.
(D) after the charring, the meat is not completely done. You will still need to finish it in the oven.
6. Somebody mentioned "Satay" sounds like Sah Teh (3 pieces in Hokkien). The chef immediately turned around and agreed :-). I googled it and it seems more like a tall tale. Here's an interesting article http://www.friedchillies.com/articles/detail/the_authoritative_satay
7. Banana leaf can be prepared as follows
(A) wash it first. Strip the spine.
(B) then heat it. We did it over the gas fire directly with a tong. It can even char slightly.
(C) crumple it somewhat. It will now be flexible and be usable for wrapping.
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| Goreng Pisang. We only deep fried it. The batter was prepared by chef due to lack of time. |
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| Satay in the foreground. Background has stingray (wrapped). |
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| This was fun. I kept exclaiming as I was doing this. |
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