Tag: fish
Mpuh Fish (Fish in Plantain Pudding)
Mpuh Fish (Fish in Plantain Pudding)
Mpuh fish is a Central African dish consisting of a catfish steak in plantain batter wrapped in a banana leaf then steamed. The plantain batter firms up into almost a tamale like consistency with the whole catfish steak in the center. Plus it gets the earthy flavor from the banana leaf. I’ve been wanting to make this dish for quite a while. It has a lot of steps. You could say that this is a complete pain in the ass to make. But, holy shitballs is it good.In Cameroon, they typically use catfish. You can also use snapper, tilapia, striped bass, or mackerel. I purchased a whole cleaned catfish for only $3.99lb. So it’s fairly inexpensive considering you yield 4 servings. If you are unable to find njansa, country onion spice, or African nutmeg, you can substitute garlic and onion powder. My local Asian market has a huge African section, so I was able to find them there.
Servings: 4
Equipment
- Steam pot
- blender
- twine
Ingredients
- 1/2 medium onion
- 1/2 small bell pepper
- 2 tbsp njansa
- 2 tbsp country onion spice
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tsp African nutmeg
- 1 cup plantain flour
- 2 cups warm water
- 3 tbsp palm oil
- 1 tbsp chicken bouillon
- 3 lbs catfish
- banana leaves heated under a broiler or open flame for pliability
Instructions
- Add the onion, bell pepper, njansa, country onion spice, African nutmeg, and a 1/4 cup of water in a blender. Purée.
- Add the purée to the plantain flour, palm oil, warm water, and chicken bouillon. The consistency should be similar to pancake batter.
- Rinse the whole catfish under warm water quickly to wash away any slime.
- Cut into 4 steaks and add to the plantain batter.
- Place a catfish steak in the center of the banana leaf with a scoop or two of the plantain batter.
- Wrap and tie up, making sure that none of the batter pours out.
- Do the same to the other catfish steaks.
- Place the banana leaf packages in a steamer pot. Steam over high heat for an hour, making sure that there is always enough water in the pot. Let rest for 20 minutes before serving.
Plantain Pudding
- There’s a good chance that you will have extra plantain batter. You can portion out the batter into ramekins like so.
- Add them to a steamer pot. Steam for 25 minutes.
- Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.
Shoyu Yellowfin Poke Bowl
Shoyu Yellowfin Poke Bowl
Traditional Hawaiian Poke consists of sashimi grade yellowfin or ahi tuna marinated in Shoyu soy sauce, sesame oil; tossed with Hawaiian pink sea salt, raw green and yellow onions, and macadamia nuts. It is served on its own as an appetizer or as a main course over sushi rice. While preparing this dish is actually quite simple, it is extremely important to use the highest quality fish as possible. So if you want sashimi grade, you’re going to have to spend a little money. But this is something that I’d eat for a special occasion. While fresh sashimi grade might taste “better” aesthetically, I prefer to use frozen sushi grade. For it to be frozen sushi grade, the tuna is flash frozen and held below -30 degrees for 15 hours. This would kill parasites in a fish if there happen to be any. Eating fresh doesn’t do this.So if you’re interested in trying to prepare raw fish at home, give this poke recipe a try.
Ingredients
- 16 oz sashimi grade yellowfin tuna
- 2 tbsp shoyu soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 3/4 tsp hawaiian pink sea salt
- 1/4 cup yellow onion thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup green onion chopped
- 1/8 tsp gochugaru chili flakes
- 1 tbsp macadamia nuts finely chopped
Instructions
- Before even touching the fish, wash and sanitize your cutting board and knife.
- Cut the tuna into 1/4” cubes.
- Mix all of the ingredients together. Let chill in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
Sichuan Fish with Pickled Mustard Greens
Sichuan Fish with Pickled Mustard Greens
This recipe is completely new territory for me. I’ve eaten a lot of Chinese food, but have never really ventured into anything pickled. This is a dish that you won’t find at most Chinese restaurants in the U.S. You may instead find Sichuan boiled fish in a hot chili oil broth. This recipe has a hot and sour broth with poached fish slices and pickled mustard greens. Dare I say that this dish is definitely for the more adventurous eater. It has it’s own “funk”, and I mean that in the best way possible. If you aren’t a fan of sour, this might not be for you. Think of this recipe as poached sauerkraut fish.When choosing fish, you want to use a firm fleshed white fish such as tilapia, catfish, or cod. I happened to have a couple of walleye fillets. Cut the fish fillets into 1/4”-1/2” thick slices. You don’t the pieces to be too big. The objective here is to quickly have the fish poached in the broth.You can serve this as a soup like in the picture. But if you want to serve this the authentic Chinese way, you would scoop out all of the greens with a slotted spoon onto a serving dish after it has simmered for 15 minutes. Then the fish would be quickly poached in the broth. The fish is then layer across the greens with a little bit of the broth on the bottom. Lastly, the Sichuan oil is drizzled over the fish. To eat this, serve with a small bowl of rice. The purpose of the Sichuan oil drizzled over the top is to add an extra umami flavor to the fish. This step is very necessary and should not be skipped.
Ingredients
Fish Marinade
- 1 lb white fish fillet sliced into 1/2” thick pieces
- 1 egg white
- 1 tbsp potato starch
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
Sichuan Fish with Pickled Mustard Greens
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 5 dried chili peppers
- 6 garlic cloves sliced
- 1 leek sliced
- 2 ginger slices
- 3 green onions chopped
- 2 tbsp spicy bean paste
- 3/4 lb pickled mustard greens sliced
- 1 tbsp shaoxing cooking wine
- 4 cups chicken stock plus more
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
Sichuan Oil
- 2 tbsp vegetable or peanut oil
- 1 tsp sichuan peppercorns
- 1 tbsp spicy bean paste
Instructions
- Mix together the fish marinade ingredients.
- Add in the slices of fish, making sure they are evenly coated in the marinade. Marinate for 20 minutes.
- Heat up cooking oil inalag pot over medium high heat. Add in the dried chilies, leeks, garlic, ginger, and green onions. Cook down for 5 minutes.
- Add in the pickled mustard greens. Cook for 5 more minutes.
- Stir in the bean paste, making sure that everything is evenly coated in it. Deglaze with the cooking wine.
- Pour in the chicken stock, sugar, salt, and white pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.
- Add in the fish. Simmer another minute or two, until the fish is cooked through.
- In a separate small sauté pan, heat up cooking oil over medium heat. Add in the peppercorns and bean paste.
- Cook until the peppercorns start to darken.
- Drizzle some of the oil over the fish.
