Seafood/Fish/Corn Chowder

If you want to make a corn chowder, do the same thing but replace the seafood with 1 can each of cream of corn and corn niblets.

Seafood/Fish/Corn Chowder
(serves 6-8)

Ingredients:

• 8 strips bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 1 medium carrot, finely diced
• 3 stalks of celery, finely diced
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 2 medium potatoes, finely diced
• 2 lbs seafood (eg., white fish cubes, scallops, prawn, mussels, clams, etc.; whatever you have on hand)
• 1 370ml can of evaporated milk
• 5-6 cups water
• 2 tsps dried thyme 
• a pinch of cayenne pepper (doesn't make anything spicy; just brings out the flavour)
• Salt & pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Add a splash of water to a large dutch oven and brown bacon until crispy over medium high heat. Set bacon aside but keep all the bacon grease in the dutch oven.
2. Add onion, carrots, celery, garlic, dried thyme, cayenne pepper, and a pinch each of salt and pepper. Mix well until garlic is fragrant.
3. Stir in flour and mix until you can't see any more white/raw flour. Slowly add in water while stirring the veggie/flour mixture. It'll be kind of clumpy but adding in water slowly will help unclump everything.
4. Add in potatoes and evaporated milk. Bring to a simmer and simmer on low for 15 minutes, covered. It'll form a skin but no worries; just stir to get rid of it.
5. Turn heat up to medium low and stir in seafood. Keep stirring occasionally until seafood is cooked through; about another 10 minutes. Season with more salt and pepper if needed.
6. Serve with bacon "bits" on top as garnish and French bread/baguette to sop of the chowder.

Fish Tofu & Veggies Stir Fry

There's nothing quite like a simple stir fry to stretch your protein. In this case, it's a half pound of fish tofu. Okay, fine. So fish tofu doesn't really have that much protein, but still. It's protein-ish? Meh, you can always just sub the fish tofu with any protein. Chicken or pork slices are always my go to (marinated with soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch and oil). It's what I grew up with...but I think fish slices would go nicely too. Just gotta brown them, take them out and then add them back in at the end so that it's not overcooked.

To make this totally vegetarian, just add some marinated firm tofu and you're good to go. :D


Fish Tofu & Veggies Stir Fry
(serves 4-6)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup toasted/roast cashews
• 1/2 - 1 lb fish tofu, sliced (or 1 marinated chicken breast, sliced/1 package marinated tofu, cubed/ 1/2 - 1 lb marinated pork tenderloin, sliced; etc.)
• 1 small onion, thinly sliced
• 2 medium carrots, thinly sliced
• 3 celery ribs, thinly sliced
• 3-5 slices ginger
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 green onion, cut into 2 inch long pieces, white parts separated from green parts
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp canola oil

Directions:

1. Heat up a wok over high heat. If your cashews aren't roasted, toast them in the dry wok and then set aside in a clean bowl.
2. Add oil and let it heat up until the oil shimmers. Add in ginger, garlic and white parts of the green onion. Cook until fragrant.
3. Add protein and cook until lightly browned.
4. Toss in onions, carrots, celery, salt, sugar and soy sauce. Mix well. Cover and cook until protein is cooked through and veggies are tender crisp.
5. Stir in green parts of the green onion. Transfer everything onto a serving dish. Top with toasted/roast cashews.
6. Serve with rice and soup.

Egg on Fish

Haha. I didn't notice it at first, but if you look at the picture closely, you can see a smiley face with a tongue (the fish) sticking out! How creepy...

So, did I mention that I bought a lot of snapper from Costco? I think this'll be the last time I do that. I always seem to forget that we just don't eat enough fish to validate buying it from there. Normally I'd freeze excess food, but with fish, there's no freezing! After it defrosts, it's so darn fishy that we can't even eat it. Ai..when will I learn? =\


Egg on Fish
(serves 2)

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 8 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 2 small snapper filet
• Salt & pepper, to taste
• 2 Tbsps extra virgin olive oil, divided

Directions:

1. In a small skillet, heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil in over medium low heat. Crack the eggs into the skillet. Season with salt and pepper. Let it cook slowly. If you're in a rush, cover with a lid to cook faster (which is what I did. Hence the whitish film over the yolk).
2. Meanwhile, heat up the remaining olive oil over medium high heat in another pan. Season both sides of the snapper filet with salt and pepper. Pan fry the filet until golden brown on one side. Gently flip filet over to cook other side. Add in tomato halves. Cook the fish with the tomatoes until fish is cooked through. Season with more salt and pepper, if needed.
3. Transfer fish onto a plate, top with fried egg & tomatoes.
4. Serve with toast or hash browns and coffee or milk.

Tomato Fish Stew

Never would I have thought to make a fish stew. I was actually going to make a chowder with all this snapper that I got from Costco. But then I saw "stew" and thought "oh why not?"

I gotta say...this isn't bad. It tastes especially yummy over Brown Rice and Beans. I had it the next day for lunch and it wasn't fishy either. SCORE! :D


Tomato Fish Stew
(serves 4)

Ingredients:

• 6 snapper filet, quartered into strips (about 2 lbs)
• 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 1 small onion, sliced
• 1 tsp dried thyme (or 1 spring of fresh thyme)
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 inch knob of ginger, minced
• 1 Tbsp fish sauce
• 1/3 cup water
• Salt & pepper, to taste
• 2 Tbsps virgin olive oil, divided

Directions:

1. Heat up 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium high heat in a large sauce pan. Season the fish strips with salt and pepper. Pan fry the strips until golden brown on both sides. Transfer to a plate.
2. Heat up remaining olive oil in the pan. Toss in onions, tomatoes, thyme, garlic, ginger and fish sauce. Cook until onions and tomatoes have softened. Add in water. Return fish to the pan. Cover and simmer for 3-5 minutes, until the fish is cooked through.
3. Serve over Brown Rice and Beans (or just rice).

Steamed Salmon Steak

Did I mention I was on vacation and Hubby has to work all day? I feel bad (kinda) but it's one of the rare moments when I actually get to eat the foods I love without feeling guilty that he doesn't like it or needing to make something else for him. Which basically means I'm doing little "woohoo!" dance in my head because I get to eat something I love that he doesn't and not feel anything but pure joy. :)

This is definitely one of those dishes. Hubby doesn't eat salmon unless it's in sashimi form. There's this "fishiness" that he tastes in most fishes, especially the fattier ones. Oh but I love this one. I had it almost all month after K was born. With no soy sauce though, since I wasn't allowed that. Still super yummy though! I love ginger, so I always add more than enough. :)


Steamed Salmon Steak
(serves 1)

Ingredients:

• 1 (1/2 lb) salmon steak
• 3 Tbsps soy sauce, divided
• 2 Tbsps canola oil, divided
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 inch knob of ginger, cut into slivers
• 2 Tbsps green onion, finely diced
• 1/2 tsp sugar

Directions:

1. Set a steamer rack on the bottom of a large pot or wok with enough water so that the dish is suspended above the water surface. Bring water to boil while you prep the fish. 
2. Sprinkle salt on both sides of the fish. Top with the ginger slivers. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of the soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of the canola oil. Steam fish for 8-10 minutes, or until the flesh flakes off easily. 
3. While fish is cooking, combine the remaining soy sauce, canola oil, green onions and sugar in a small dish. Cover with plastic wrap and nuke in the microwave for 25 seconds on high.
4. When fish is done, pour the nuked soy sauce mixture over the fish. Serve with a side of rice and some veggies.

Obviously cook the fish longer if you have a bigger piece or more pieces. :)

Ahi Tuna Sesame Poke

It was difficult but I managed to take a picture of this before Hubby devoured it! No, I'm kidding. I actually made this just before going to bed the other night and then left it in the fridge for him the next day. Usually he forgets to eat the food I make for him the next day, so I gave him a piece to sample first so that he'd remember it was in the fridge for him. Little did I know that it worked a little TOO well. He did actually devour it all before I could have more than one sample piece. :(

Oh well. He liked it and that's what matters. :)


Ahi Tuna Sesame Poke
(serves 2-3, or 1 hungry Hubby)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb sushi grade Ahi tuna, cut into bite sized pieces
• 2 tsps soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp sesame seeds
• 2 green onion, finely diced

Directions:

1. In a medium mixing bowl, toss everything together until tuna is well coated. Serve with a side of sushi rice or by itself as an appetizer. If you want it saltier, just add 1/2 teaspoon of soy sauce.

Spicy Salmon Sashimi

So I was at H-Mart shopping for some beef bones to make more Pho and noticed that there's a sashimi section. HMMMMMMMM.....Poke? :D

It's actually pretty unfortunate because there wasn't any tuna. But there was a lot of salmon, so I just got a pound of it and made spicy salmon sashimi. It's pretty darn good and comparable to the one we usually get at a local sushi place, only it's less sugary. It is most definitely cheaper than getting it from there too. Lol. Maybe even healthier? :)

This is a pretty spicy dish, so if you don't want it to be that spicy, I'd half the gojujang and add 1 tsp of water to dilute it a bit. But if you're used to spice and love it, I'd stick with the recipe below. Add some chopped cucumbers to ease the heat. :)


Spicy Salmon Sashimi
(serves 2-3)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb sushi grade salmon filet, chopped into bite sized pieces
• 2 Tbsps gojujang
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tsps sesame seeds, divided
• 1 green onion stalk, finely diced, divided

Directions:

1. Combine salmon, gojujang, sesame oil, sugar, 1 teaspoon of sesame seeds and all but 1 tablespoon of green onions in a medium bowl. Mix until all of the salmon pieces are well coated.
2. Garnish with remaining green onions and sesame seeds.

Make sure you use sushi grade salmon! I used the kind you can get at Costco (froze for 3 days and then defrosted before making) and it wasn't as good. It's still alright, but it definitely was not as yummy as the sushi grade kind at H-Mart. I gotta look for another place to get this stuff. A pound at H-Mart was already $12. Cheaper than going to sushi places for sure, but still...:P

Tuna Salad Wrap

It seems like I'm always in need of a quick dinner. Sure, I have some frozen meals to dump into the slow cooker but I haven't been able to find anything I REALLY like (although I did find something I REALLY didn't like). Maybe I'm just not a fan of slow cooking? I know, right? The horror! It's like me and roast beef. I tried making it at least 5 different times with different recipes and always failed. Then I actually had some during a buffet dinner somewhere and decided that it's really just well done steak. So not a fan. So maybe I didn't really fail all those times, but it's just that Hubby and I don't like that kind of taste. So maybe it's the same for slow cooking...????? Who knows, but maybe I'll figure it out in a couple of years or at least after a few more attempts at frozen slow cooker meals.

In any case, I haven't had tuna salad in a while and (as usual) I needed a quick dinner. No bread in the house but I do have a couple of tortilla wraps left. Score! I even made it with some Greek yogurt to increase the protein and decrease the fat. That oughtta offset that box of chocolates I devoured at work earlier today...right? XD


Tuna Salad Wrap
(serves 2)

Ingredients:

• 2 170g (7oz) cans of tuna, flaked with a fork
• 1 Tbsp mayonnaise
• 2 Tbsps Greek yogurt
• 1 celery rib, finely diced
• 3 Tbsps capers, drained & minced
• Salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 2 flour tortillas
• Butter/green/red lettuce or spring greens (optional)

Directions:

1. Combine tuna, mayonnaise, Greek yogurt, celery, and capers in a small bowl and mix until well blended. Add salt and pepper to taste.
2. Spread some lettuce (optional) in the center of 1 of the tortillas. Spoon one half of the tuna salad on top of the lettuce. Fold the sides over the filling and roll up into a wrap. Repeat for second wrap.
3. Slice each wrap in half and serve with a side salad and soup. Enjoy!