Fish

[notmyself]

7 hours ago, james.d said:

Holy smoke.. that is a beauty of a yorkshire ( my mother would be proud of that)and the fish a good colour like what i aim for. 

I got some garlic / pepper tempura flour as recommended by Metisdead and there was barramundi but i didnt get any as i was unsure. Only now at home  i found out its known here as pla kapong.. Another trip to makro for me

 

 

 

Cheers.

 

It's a shame this thread is not part of the 'food porn' thread as there are some seriously good foodies who post there on a regular basis.

 

Problem with using pure tempura flour is that to get the colour means you have to cook it for a longer period so you are effectively burning it rather than browning it as well as it being inherently more white from the get go. Take for example [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baozi]baozi[/url] the Chinese inspired steamed buns seen throughout SE Asia and even 7-11. They are white as snow because they use a tempura flour which is often called Hong Kong flour in the west. They can also be made from wheat flour but the result is nowhere near as white which is a good thing if you are looking for a certain colour such as on the batter for the fish in the picture above. The properties are also not the same....

 

Friend comes over from the southern U.S. from time to time so we planned to make a Gumbo at the restaurant of a mutual Thai friend in town. When I arrived he was already in the kitchen making a roux but it wouldn't brown so I asked Nok what type of flour she had and it was rice flour, tempura flour. U.S. friend of mine looked at me and said it wouldn't work which was true for getting the dark brown (chocolate) colour but it would work as a thickening agent. Only problem was knowing how well of a thickening agent it would be because it is judged by colour in that the longer it is cooked and the darker it gets reduces its effectiveness as a thickener. We guessed through experience of how long it takes to make a roux using wheat flour and it turned out pretty well which was fortunate as it was feeding 30 people.

 

Point of the above is that using pure tempura with not give you the colour you are after unless you overcook it.

 

The Yorkshire pudding is all about method... Traditionally served only before roast beef and cooked in the drippings as a starter to fill people up for economic reasons it is now served with any roast and also as a dish within itself such as toad in the hole. Drippings work well as far as taste is concerned but impurities in the grease as well as fond stuck to the bottom/side of the roasting tray can really mess with how it will raise. I think I have a picture somewhere of this which I shall search for before I post. I use a surgically clean extra heavy Pyrex dish with commercially produced goose or duck fat. Lard is an equally good though less flavoursome alternative and much cheaper too!  Equal by volume amounts of whole egg, full cream milk and plain flour along with a good pinch of fine salt are the only ingredients and these should be whisked with wild abandon after in a chilled ceramic bowl after all including the bowl all are well chilled in the fridge. Preheat the Pyrex to 225C along with the fat of choice and when ready get the batter into the dish as fast as you can before back into the oven. Do not open the door and you a torch to check when it is done.

 

Failure.......

 

 

 

 

[wayned]

11 hours ago, tutsiwarrior said:

also saw a nice liter bottle of japanese mirin which is a sweet sake based cooking sauce, good for marinades and etc...at the checkout I was not allowed to purchase as it was between 1400 and 1700hrs...

Same thing happened to me at the Tesco in Chainat.  I threw a "farang" fit and finally the manager understood that it was not for drinking but cooking. He took off the tax stamp and handed it to the girl and I was allowed to buy it.  I no longer have any trouble buying it anywhere.  The first thing that I do is rip off the tax seal and when you get to checkout it goes through the scanner with no problems, unlike other countries where the bar code is on a no-no list!

[wayned]

The thread was/is fried fish so:

 

I'm from the US and actually had a restaurant on lake Pontchartrain outside of New Orleans.  The only fish that we "crumbed" and fried was catfish.  Not the slimy saltwater variety, but fresh, fresh water catfish,, live in a tank outside, that were farmed raised in a lined pond.  We cleaned them, skinned them, removed the fins, cut them in chunks (bone in) and "crumbed" them with a mixture of flour, corn meal and Zattaran's seafood seasoning.  The fish were always served with "hush puppies", a deep fried biscuit made with corn meal.  The fish were brought live by my friend who raised them and kept in an aerated tank in the back.  He was also a commercial "line" fisherman and supplied red fish, red drum,  not red snapper, which was the preferred fish to filet and serve blackened.  If he caught very large ones that he could not sell at the market he would leave them hanging on the post in the back and red fish courtboullion got added to the chalk board menu that night.  I bought my shrimp and oysters directly from the boats as they docked in Gulfport Mississippi and soft shell crabs and crawdads from a lady that raised them on one of the bayous.  She also had fresh gator but I never served it, although if cooked right it is very tasty..  Most of the other seafood was bought at the fish market in New Orleans.

 

Although the Pangasiius here is a species of catfish, it contains too much water to bread and deep fry.  I think that it is the way that they package it adding a lot of water to add weight.  I've tried drying it all day and them frying it but it still seems to be mushy, edible but not what I like.  It is good if you pan fry it and finish it by poaching it in tomato salsa and you can even add some grated cheese at the end.  If I fry fish, not often,  I buy live catfish at the market and have them bonk it on the head and clean it myself, too much work.

 

As far as batter, I use all purpose flour, some Cajun spices and beer (or soda water) to make the batter.  I had deep fried soft shell crab and shrimp, fresh steamed asparagus and home made french fries  with dipping sauce of wasabi mayonnaise for linner yesterday.  I've never been able to find corn meal here, but haven't really looked.

[wayned]

To continue with the fish story!

 

I like crispy skinned salmon but always found the the salmon that they sold here was left out in the air and dried out.  Last year Tesco, Big-C and Makro started to sell individually packed salmon fillets, 140 grams for 69 baht.  They came frozen but for some reason they defrosted them and put them on ice in the fish section.  I found that they were actually really good but always looked for the stock in the freezer section.  Easy to cook.  Drain, wash and dry and let get to room temperature.  Just before cooking season with salt and pepper.  Put some olive oil in a non stick frying pan and heat over medium high until it begins to smoke.  Add a pat of butter and when melted put the filet in skin side down.  Cook 2 minutes.  Turn it over and cook about another minute.  Remove from pan and melt some more butter in the pan then put a spoon full of capers in the butter.  Swirl around to heat the capers through and spoon over the fish.  Good served with fresh steamed asparagus with the same caper/ butter sauce.

 

Recently the price has gone up to 89 baht, but it is a good buy for a decent piece of salmon, all be it sometimes I cook 2 pieces as the 140 gram slice is slightly on the small side unless there's plenty to go with it like adding a couple of shrimp when cooking the salmon.  Or even a small filet or boned chicken thigh to have "surf and turf".  I even sometimes cook it for breakfast with scrambled eggs with some capers and raw thinly sliced onions on the side.  Or cook it and wrap it in a flour tortilla with some lettuce, tomato, onion ans salsa.

 

I'm getting hungry just writing about it but have a large pot of masman curry on the stove that has to be eaten first.

[grollies]

29 minutes ago, wayned said:

To continue with the fish story!

 

I like crispy skinned salmon but always found the the salmon that they sold here was left out in the air and dried out.  Last year Tesco, Big-C and Makro started to sell individually packed salmon fillets, 140 grams for 69 baht.  They came frozen but for some reason they defrosted them and put them on ice in the fish section.  I found that they were actually really good but always looked for the stock in the freezer section.  Easy to cook.  Drain, wash and dry and let get to room temperature.  Just before cooking season with salt and pepper.  Put some olive oil in a non stick frying pan and heat over medium high until it begins to smoke.  Add a pat of butter and when melted put the filet in skin side down.  Cook 2 minutes.  Turn it over and cook about another minute.  Remove from pan and melt some more butter in the pan then put a spoon full of capers in the butter.  Swirl around to heat the capers through and spoon over the fish.  Good served with fresh steamed asparagus with the same caper/ butter sauce.

 

Recently the price has gone up to 89 baht, but it is a good buy for a decent piece of salmon, all be it sometimes I cook 2 pieces as the 140 gram slice is slightly on the small side unless there's plenty to go with it like adding a couple of shrimp when cooking the salmon.  Or even a small filet or boned chicken thigh to have "surf and turf".  I even sometimes cook it for breakfast with scrambled eggs with some capers and raw thinly sliced onions on the side.  Or cook it and wrap it in a flour tortilla with some lettuce, tomato, onion ans salsa.

 

I'm getting hungry just writing about it but have a large pot of masman curry on the stove that has to be eaten first.

5555, that's what we're having tonight. Can't wait.

[tutsiwarrior]

3 hours ago, wayned said:

To continue with the fish story!

 

I like crispy skinned salmon but always found the the salmon that they sold here was left out in the air and dried out.  Last year Tesco, Big-C and Makro started to sell individually packed salmon fillets, 140 grams for 69 baht.  They came frozen but for some reason they defrosted them and put them on ice in the fish section.  I found that they were actually really good but always looked for the stock in the freezer section.  Easy to cook.  Drain, wash and dry and let get to room temperature.  Just before cooking season with salt and pepper.  Put some olive oil in a non stick frying pan and heat over medium high until it begins to smoke.  Add a pat of butter and when melted put the filet in skin side down.  Cook 2 minutes.  Turn it over and cook about another minute.  Remove from pan and melt some more butter in the pan then put a spoon full of capers in the butter.  Swirl around to heat the capers through and spoon over the fish.  Good served with fresh steamed asparagus with the same caper/ butter sauce.

 

Recently the price has gone up to 89 baht, but it is a good buy for a decent piece of salmon, all be it sometimes I cook 2 pieces as the 140 gram slice is slightly on the small side unless there's plenty to go with it like adding a couple of shrimp when cooking the salmon.  Or even a small filet or boned chicken thigh to have "surf and turf".  I even sometimes cook it for breakfast with scrambled eggs with some capers and raw thinly sliced onions on the side.  Or cook it and wrap it in a flour tortilla with some lettuce, tomato, onion ans salsa.

 

I'm getting hungry just writing about it but have a large pot of masman curry on the stove that has to be eaten first.

 

I just discovered the frozen salmon in the freezer at our small local tescos...I had asked the stepdaughter about pla talay and she pointed it out...gonna havta try some soon...

 

got some bell peppers (capsicums) at makro and gonna havta make some spaghetti sauce soon...just finished some that I had made without...great when mixed with the pasta and reheated fer breakfast, keeps ye goin' 'till lunchtime...