Fisherman's pie

I have known about this recipe since about 20 years ago when I was first introduced to it in the UK. It is one of their 'traditional' fares but I have never made it because I have never found the right fish or had leftover mashed potato.

I finally had one too many potatoes in the fridge and decided to try my hand at this pie. It also just happened that I had bought some frozen fish fillets.

Ingredients

7 to 8 frozen fish fillets, cut into chunks (allow to thaw a little to facilitate cutting)

2 tbsp corn starch

4 potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 capsicum, cubed

2 tsp curry powder (or whatever preferred seasoning)

2 tbsp of butter

1 tsp chicken stock powder

Salt, white and black pepper to taste

Method

1. Prepared the mashed potato. Bring cubed potatoes to a boil with enough water to cover. Takes about 10 to 15 minutes once the water is boiling. Be careful, it will overflow!

2. While potatoes are cooking, prepare the fish. Line a shallow baking tin. Add in the cubed fish fillets and toss in corn starch, salt, white pepper, and curry powder. Ensure that the fish is laying in a single layer.

3. Top with capsicum, again laid in a single layer. 

4. Place into the oven and bake for 15 minutes at 180 deg C until the fish is semi-cooked.

5. Once potatoes are fork tender, drain. Mash with the butter, chicken stock powder, salt, and black pepper. 

6. Spoon over the mashed potato on top of the capsicum and smooth the top. Draw designs with a knife or fork. The more nooks and crannies, the most crispy!

7. Bake for 20 minutes at 200 deg C. If the mashed potato has not turned golden brown, turn on the grill and grill on high for about 5 minutes.

8. Serve immediately!

Pandan juice and paste chiffon

I have tried real pandan juice chiffon  and the colour was always a bit anemic yellow and not entirely fragrant. I decided to top up with paste and also make this a taller 7 egg cake rather than 6 eggs.

Ingredients

7 eggs, separated

150g sugar (120 for whites, 30g for yolks)

58ml coconut oil or corn/sunflower/canola oil

105ml coconut milk

77ml pandan juice

4 to 5 drops of pandan paste

168g cake flour

½ tsp salt

Method

Follow standard instructions for making chiffon cake (refer to recipe link above).

Gula melaka agar

This works because of science! I didn't set out to make a jelly with the distinct two layers but the densities separated on their own.

Ingredients

Juice of 10 to 15 pandan leaves, topped up with water to make 500ml

¾ block of gula melaka

1 can of coconut milk (approx 400ml), topped up with water to make 500ml

1 packet of Swallow brand agar agar powder

Method

1. To extract the juice of pandan leaves, add just enough water to a blender to pulverize 10 to 15 pandan leaves, snipped into short lengths. Pour into a container lined with cheesecloth and allow to drain. Squeeze out any remaining juice and discard the dredges. Leave the juice to separate. More sediment will settle at the bottom.

2. Top up both the coconut milk and juice with water to make 500ml each.

3. Pour the coconut milk into a saucepan and add the gula melaka. On a medium flame, slowly rotate the gula melaka to melt until completely dissolved. If the coconut milk seems to be starting to boil, pour in a bit of the pandan juice.

4. Once completely dissolved, pour in the remaining pandan juice and add the agar agar powder. Stir to dissolve and ensure no lumps remain.

5. Bring to a boil. Once it starts to foam, switch off the flame.

6. Pour immediately into a prepared jelly mold. Prepared means to wet the mold so that it's easier to remove later.

7. Allow to cool completely before putting in the fridge to chill, at least 4 hours or overnight if time permits.

KA Pork bun 肉包

Finally found the prefect recipe. And it was off the bao flour packet! Can't go wrong with this. Recipe was originally for 350g of flour but I wanted to use up all 500g of flour so have adapted accordingly.

Recipe (makes 20)

500g bao flour

¾ C warm water (approx 40 deg C)

5 tbsp milk

1 tbsp instant yeast

1¼ tbsp oil

3 tbsp sugar

½ tsp salt

Meat filling

750g minced pork

½ tbsp sesame seed oil

1 tbsp corn starch

¼ tsp salt

1 tbsp light soya sauce

Dashes of pepper to taste

½ tbsp minced ginger

2 chopped scallions

Method

1. In the KA bowl, mix the flour, warm water, milk, yeast, oil, and sugar. Combined until no more dry spots. Add more water if necessary to combine.

2. Turn on the KA at Speed 2. Beat for a while until everything leaves the bowl then turn up to Speed 4. Beat for about 7 to 9 minutes until the bowl is clean. You should be able to stick your finger through the dough and leave a clean edge rather than a jagged one.

3. Remove the dough hook. Oil the bowl and put the ball of dough back. Cover and proof until the dough has doubled in size, approx 45 to 60 mins at 23 deg C.

4. While waiting for the dough to proof, prepare the filling. Add everything into a mixing bowl and mix well. Mix well with a wooden spoon or pair of chopsticks and stir in one direction only until the meat mixture is sticky. Cover and refrigerate.

5. Cut out parchment squares for the baos to sit on, or prepare the steaming basket.

6. Divide the dough and meat into 20 equal portions. I kept half of the dough in the fridge so it wouldn't proof so fast. Roll and wrap each of the buns. Seal tightly so that the meat is not exposed. This equates to approximately 1 chinese tbsp of filling per bao.

7. Place the wrapped baos on the parchment and into the steamer basket. I'm using bamboo, so around 5 bao per steamer. Cover and allow to proof for 40 minutes.

8. Towards the last 10 minutes of proofing the first batch, warm up the wok and bring to a rolling boil. steam for 10 minutes. Once you can see the steam escaping from the top lid, turn down the flame to medium. After the 10 minutes, switch off the flame and let the buns rest for 2 minutes.

9. Allow to cool fully on a cooling rack before storing in the fridge.

Recipe feedback

Everything about this recipe was spot on! It really helps to use the correct flour and also the recipe that comes recommended. The size of the buns was also correct. 

- The buns were easy to work with and came out very fluffy. However, the pleats would not stay, so it was easier to just make the buns as round as I could.

- It's important to shape the filling into a nice slightly peaked dome ball as this helped to hold up the bun's dome.

- My bun skin wasn't smooth but that's probably due to over-proofing during the first session and insufficient deflating, and maybe an overly high steaming temperature. But one battle at a time.