Wednesday, June 18, 2008

*The Canned Food Convenience - A Choy, Mushrooms, Tofu Puffs & Fried Dace in Black Beans


Have you ever stopped cooking for too long...you...
- forgot how to tear lettuce leaves
- couldn't differentiate sugar from salt, garlic from ginger (aw!)
- couldn't locate the bottle of soy sauce
- mistook sweet soy for dark soy
- placed the bottle of olive oil by the rubbish bin (if not in the rubbish bin)
- and found that opening a tin of fish could be as difficult as constructing a space shuttle?

My Sous Chef missed the kitchen soooo much. It's been such a long time since SC did anything in the kitchen other than:
- doing the dishes/instant noodles (such an angel!)...or...
- annoying whoever's cooking (such as: attempting to tickle you when you were: holding a huge and sharp kitchen knife; or holding a huge wok full of hot oil on a flaming stove; or balancing a tray of hot muffins fresh from the oven - these impractical-devilish-jokes are extremely dangerous, please do NOT even think about trying any of them)

Finally, here's SC's signature dish:
A Choy (Taiwanese Lettuce), Mushrooms, & Tofu Puffs
featuring Fried Dace with Salted Black Bean

If you're looking for something quick and easy, guaranteed to taste fan-bloody-tastic, a fool-proof-no-brainer and quite a healthy dinner, then this is gotta be it.

Recipe
- half pound of
Taiwanese lettuce (A choy), you can replace this by romaine lettuce or any other veggie of your choice, but we love the crunch of A choy
- a large can of fried dace in salted/fermented black beans (try to find this in Asian supermarkets near you)
- a handful of tofu puffs (I quartered them, so they appeared and felt like a lot more than they really were HAHA!)
- a handful of mushrooms (SC used fresh oyster mushrooms, straw or white mushrooms would work too)
- you do not even need oil, as there's plenty of oil in the can of fish
- totally optional: red chilli for the spicy kick

Pour the can of fish into a hot saute pan, just get enough oil, discard the excess oil. Add the mushrooms, add the veggie, add the tofu puffs, mix well, cook the veggie to your liking...

and SC, remember to retrieve the olive oil bottle from the rubbish bin ^_^

15 comments:

  1. Tofu puffs? I'm intrigued. :) This looks like something I'd love for lunch, Rita! And no, the spicy chili is not optional! lol ;)

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  2. Duhh Rit..kayaknya enak tuh, and sehat..:D

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  3. Um, for a part-canned meal, this is stunningly delicious! Rita... are you sure that fish came out of a can?! gorgeous, girl...

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  4. A Choy!? Yey, I saw them here in Taiwan. I was still mystified by what A Choy is until now...after you gave a take about Taiwan Lettuce. LOL! What's so special about Taiwan Lettuce that makes them grade A!...I really don't know :P

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  5. dace iku iwak opo ya ? cuba browsing kok ra ketemu :(

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  6. ini makanan favorit gue loh rit, gue plg happy kalo nyokap masak ini,sama banget pake tofu juga.. good idea pakein pak coy. kalo nyokap gue nbikinnya berkuah bangett... kyknya seperti lo gini lebih simpel.

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  7. This looks so healthy and tasy too.

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  8. Ahhh, canned dace fish. I forgot about them. My mom used to serve that to me for lunch. Instead of squatting out on my balcony frying fish on a pan (so my condo doesn't stink up of fish), I can just heat this up in the rice cooker while my rice cooks. Yum... thanks for the idea.

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  9. Oh, I love fried dace in black beans. I used to cook it with kailan, now you reminded to go get some the next time I'm in the Asian store. Really miss eating it after seeing your picture!

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  10. love the fried dace fish but was warm by chef not to eat too much coz the product made from China!!..Lovely deco with A choy!!.I like to eat it with chok!

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  11. kelihatannya enak deh Rit.. harus berburu di toko Asia deh *mulai pasang mata*

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  12. why is the chili optional? that's just not right.

    also, dace? i'm mystified.

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  13. Looks interesting, though I'm not completely sold on the fish yet. Have to look at it some more, hehe.

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  14. The canned fried dace in salted/fermented black beans sounds really interesting.

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