Thursday, November 29, 2007

"Mat Lat" Parrot Fish

My blogging friends, especially Beachlover had been exploring ready make ingredients that come in pack form especially those made in Malaysia. So when I was looking through my unpublished post, I found this one. "Mah Lat" Parrot Fish. This dish had also been posted by my fellow dedicated floggers and great friends, Teckiee and Jacksonkah. "Mat Lat" is a famous szechuan dish in China which ultilise szechuan pepper corn and loads of chillies. Here today I am going to included the details:



There is a lot of variety of ready made "Mat Lat" paste but I use the about one. It taste as usual hot, hot and also comes with a hint of mutton taste.


Here I used a whole Parrot fish. To make a great whole fish, I deep the whole fish in a pool of oil at low temperature. "Yau Jum Yee" is a good cooking technique of cooking fish. Once the fish is golden brown in colour, your fish is cooked and ready.


Next is to make the "Mah Lat" sauce, pan fry some garlic and dried chillies in hot oil, put 1-2 tablespoon of "Mat Lat" paste then add some stock. Add seasoning to your liking. If you like hot, hot then add more of the "Mat Lat" paste. I prefer it to be a bit mild so that can taste the freshness of the fish.

Hope you can find this "Mat Lat" paste. I have a few packet of this "Mat Lat" paste left in my kitchen, if you like a packet of this, do let me know by emailing to bigboysoven@gmail.com which stock last.

Hope you can find this paste and try this dish... one word to describe... lovely.

From Steven Cheng

Friday, November 23, 2007

Salt & Peppered White Baits

"Chee Yim" or "Salt & Peppered" is a very delicious dish by itself. You can have it in prawn, squid, chicken, mantis prawn and even fish. Today I am introducing this dish with white baits. White baits are small fishes whereby all the bones are taken out before being cooked. As my good friend Sunny Yaw always say, easy and simple....lol!


400gm white baits (other white fish meat can be used too)
1 egg
a pinch salt
a pinch white pepper
1 teaspoon sesame oil

tapioca powder
oil for deep frying

3 tablespoon white wine
3 sliced green chilli padi
a pinch salt

Marinated fish baits with salt, white pepper, seame oil and set it aside.
Heat up deep frying oil
Coat fish baits with tapioca flour.
Deep fried them till light golden brown.
Heat up a clean wok.
Put all those deep fried fish baits on to the work.
Dashed in white wine.
Throw in green chilles and a salt.

I would recommend you to order this when you are dining at my restaurant as it had be come a favourite dish with my dinners.

Have a try yourself in your own kitchen too.

Yours Steven Cheng

Thursday, November 22, 2007

"Lat Chi Kai" Dried Chilly Chicken

Got to say that Chef Steven's "Lat Chi Kai" is one of the most delicious shanghainese chicken dish in town. I had tried a few such as those at Jalan Ah Loy cooked by a chinese chef from China, verdict not too bad but still not that tasty. I had tried Dragon-I, verdict, great but too many dried chillies, tried De Hunan's at Khucai Lama, verdict, the chicken pieces are too small and hard (deep fried to long I guess).

This "Lat Chi Kai" consists of small cut of chicken meat and deep fried and a quick stir fried with dried chillies, whole garlic and ginger. Oh I got to say it is lovely and it can be eaten by itself, rice or with the company of a few pint of beer, a truely discovery of shanghainese dish.

If you are at Chef Steven Cheng's restaurant, do not miss this lovely dish. It is one of my favourite dish where I truely recommend this to you to try.

Yours Sunny Yaw

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Lemongrass Prawns Hokkien Style


This dish is a very special dish, why?

My late dad taught me this dish, yes my late dad. He is a real cook and I think he learned from his aunt when he was young... I think. I seldom see this dish serve in any restaraunt which is strange. Yes it is my late dad's recipe. This dish main ingredient is prawns and lemongrass. You need to cut lots of lemongrass to prepare this dish but not as difficult to prepare a dish called "ikan perut"and this dish is flavoured with fresh turmeric. So I recommended that Chef Steven Cheng to try this recipe and this is how it turn out.


400 gm large prawns
20 stalks lemongrass
1 inch fresh turmeric
1 big onion
4 bulbs garlic
3 chilli padi
1 cup coconut milk (1/2 cup double cream)

Unshelled the prawns and clean properly
Marinate the prawns with a pinch of salt and pepper
Thinly slice the heart of the lemongrass. Take about an inch.
Minced turmeric, onion, garlic and chilli padi
Deep fry the sliced lemongrass untill fragrant. Take them out.
Fry the minced onion,turmeric, garlic and chilli padi till fragrant.
Add in prawns, once cooked and in lemongrass.
Add in coconut milk and add in seasoning.
(* if you want a drier dish add in less coconut milk. )


This dish is lovely and smells so fragrant. This dish is specially prepared by Chef Steven Cheng.

Yours Sidney

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Eight Treasure Duck

Well, eight treasure duck is something very new to me although this dish had been around for ages. The process of making this duck dish usually takes about a day or two. Firstly you need to clean and wash the duck properly, then marinate with salt, pepper, five spices and coat the duck with soya sauce and dark soya sauce. Leave it for an hour or two, then deep fry the duck


Stir fry ingredients such as chestnut, lotus seed, mushroom, sliced roast pork, shrimp, button mushroom, dice onions and diced carrots with seasoning. Stuff the duck with the ingredients and double boiled with concentrated chicken soup.


This eight treasure duck is gorgeous and delicious. The meat is so tender, soft and so full of flavour. Once you open the duck cavity, you will see so many treasure of goodness in it.


If you like to try this dish just let us know a day or two earlier, so that I can prepared this dish for your dining at our restaraunt.


Yours, Steven Cheng