Baked Crispy White Fish with lemon and Parsley

INGREDIENTS:

3 pcs White Fish Fillets

3 cups Cornflakes, no sugar coating

1/2 cup Parsley, finely chopped

1 Lemon of zest

1/2 Lemon of Juice

1/3 teaspoon White Pepper Powder

1/2 teaspoon Salt

Vegetable Oil

SAUCE: 

1/3 cup Mayonnaise

2 tablespoons Ketchup

1 teaspoon White Vinegar (optional)

DIRECTION:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350F.

2. Crush cornflakes into fine pieces.  Mix them with parsley lemony zest, 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, white pepper and salt together.  The mixture should be gluey.

3. Pat dry the fish and cut it into strips.

4. Coat the fish with a fair amount of the cornflake mixture.  Slightly use both palms to tighten it.  Lay the fish on a baking tray that lined with parchment paper.  Repeat this process to finish all the fish.

5. Bake it for about 25 minutes or until the it is golden and crispy. 

Cilantro Zesty Oil

INGREDIENT:

2 cups Cilantro, leaves and stems

4 Garlic Cloves, minced

1 Lemon of zest of juice

1/4 cup Olive Oil

1/3 teaspoon Sea Salt

DIRECTION:

1. Soak and rinse the cilantro; drain well.  Chop it finely with a knife.

2. In a bowl, add all the ingredients.  Mix well.  Serve it with fish or meat.

Spicy Lemon Marinated Oyster

INGREDIENTS:

1 dozen Oysters (I used frozen)

1 Jalapeño, deseeded and diced

1 Lemon, juiced

a pinch of Sea Salt

DIRECTION :

1. Carefully rinse the oysters to remove the impurity around the dark rims; pat dry.

2. In a mixing bowl, add oysters and the rest of the ingredients.  Gently mix well.  Serve immediately.

Lemony Lentil Soup

It is a wonderfully filling and delicious soup that can warm your body up in a cold weather.  It is something that I would make a big pot and bring it to work everyday for lunch.  I know the list of ingredients looks so long, but do not let that intimidates you.  Most of the items are just spices.  I hope you will enjoy this recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup Green Lentils, rinsed

1 Yellow Onion, peeled and chunked

2 Carrots, cut into bite size

2 Potatoes or green bananas, cut into bite size

1 Zucchini, cut into bite size

3 Tomatoes, cut into chunked

7-8 Garlic Cloves, peeled and minced

2 cups Canned Diced Tomatoes

1 cup Cilantro, roughly chopped

4 Limes, juiced (can be substitute for lemon)

4 cups Vegetable Broth

2 cups Water

2 tablespoons Vegetable Oil (for frying)

1 teaspoon Ground Cumin

1 teaspoon Turmeric Powder

1/2 teaspoon Cayenne Power

1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

1-2 tablespoons Red Chili (optional)

Salt to taste

DIRECTION:

1. Heat up the oil over high heat.  Add onion and garlic.  Fry until they are fragrant; about 5 minutes.

2. Add lentils, zucchini, potato, tomato and carrot.  Stir fry for about 5-10 minutes.

3. Add diced tomatoes, vegetable broth, water and all the spices.  Bring it to a boil over high heat and then continuously cook for another 15 minutes.

3. Turn off the heat.  Add cilantro and lime juice.  Season the soup with salt to taste.

Lemony Beetroot and Lentil Salad

It is a very simple and also substantial salad that can be prepared in almost no time.  The lentils make this salad substantial and you can enjoy it just as a whole course meal.

INGREDIENTS:

2 Beet Roots, Peeled and cut into sticks

1/2 cup Lentils

1 cup Water

1 handful of Italian Parsley, roughly chopped

1/2 Lemon of juice

1 tablespoon Agave Syrup

pinch of Salt

DIRECTION:

1. To cook the lentils, combine the rinsed lentils and 1 cup of water in a pot.  Bring them to a boil over high heat.  When the water starts to boil, reduce the heat to low.  Cover the lid; cook it for 20 minutes or until the lentils are soft to bite.  Allow them to cool.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients including the cooked lentils.  Mix well; allow it to sit for 10 minutes for the taste to develop before serving.

Lemon Brown Rice Salad

Do you often have extra brown rice in the fridge? I do because I tend to cook a larger pot for multiple recipes that call for day old rice, just like this one.  It is still delicious to use freshly cooked rice, but the day old one will give you a more al dente texture.  Adjust the lemon juice amount to suit your tastebuds.  This substantial salad is good to serve with pan fried fish.

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups Indian Brown Basmati Rice, cooked

1 cucumber, seeded and cubed

Red Bell Pepper, seeded and cubed

1 handful Parsley, leaves and stems, finely chopped

DRESSING:

1/3 Lemon of juice

1 Lemon of zest

5 tablespoons Olive Oil

2 tablespoons Light Soy Sauce

1/3 teaspoon Salt

2 flat tablespoons Brown Sugar

DIRECTION:

1. In a large bowl, combine all dressing ingredients and whisk well.

2. Add the remaining ingredients and then stir until they are well coated with the dressing.

Lemon Spaghetti

Lemon and spaghetti are surprisingly tasty and refreshing.  This pasta is my family's favourite and we love to pair it with roasted chicken.  Good quality olive oil is highly recommended in this recipe because it can change the flavour dramatically.  If you are fond of a little spicy, sprinkle a generous amount of black pepper on top before serving it.

INGREDIENTS:

1 handful of Spaghetti

6 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1/2 Lemon of zest and juice

Sea Salt to taste

Freshly ground Black Pepper to taste

DIRECTION:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine olive oil, lemon juice and zest, salt and pepper; set aside.

2. Bring a big pot of water to a boil over high heat.  Add salt; the water should taste similar to sea water.

3. Add spaghetti and cook according to the package until it is el dente.  Turn off the heat.  Drain well and return the spaghetti back to the pot.  Add the olive oil mixture and gently mix to coat.  Serve with roasted chicken or steak.

Cilantro Chutney

If you have a whole bunch of cilantro left from another recipe, you can use it to make this lemony chutney.  This chutney is very delicious when paired with chicken, white fish, and baked potato.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup Cilantro, leaves and stems

1/2 inch Ginger, peeled and cut into pieces

1/2 Lemon, juice

2 tablespoons Olive Oil

3/4 teaspoon Cumin Powder

1/3 teaspoon Salt

DIRECTION:

1. In a food processor, add all the ingredients.  Blend until it is well incorporated.  This chutney can be kept in the fridge for up to 4 days.

June Berry Muffins with Lemon and Cardamom

June berries are also called service berries.  We are so lucky to have many of them grow at the park across the street.  When it comes to mid-June, the berries will become purplish-red and attract many birds to eat them.

My son is familiar with these little tiny juicy berries and he knows exactly which trees in the park produce the best berries.  He often suggests to pick some berries on the way home to add into pancakes or muffins, but he usually ends up snacking on them instead of bringing them home.  Now, eating June berries is a highlight for my son in the summer after he plays at the splash pad at the park.

Actually June berries are a very common botanical plant in Toronto.  If you pay attention, you will certainly come across them in parks, gardens, or sidewalks.

I froze the June berries before I used them for the recipe here.  It is only because I didn't have time to make the muffins for that few days and I didn't want them to go bad.  However, fresh berries are equally good.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup June Berries, frozen

1 cup Cornmeal

2 cups All Purpose Flour

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1 handful of Quinoa (optional)

3 Eggs, beaten

1/2 cup Butter, melted

1 cup Milk, 2%

1 Lemon, zest and juice

2 teaspoons Cardamom, ground

1 teaspoon Ground Ginger

pinch of Salt

材料：

1 杯  Juneberries，冷凍

1 杯  玉米粉

2 杯  麵粉

2 茶匙  泡打粉

1/2 杯  棕糖

一把  藜麥 (隨意)

3 隻  雞蛋，打勻

1/2 杯  牛油，熱溶

1 個  檸檬，皮和汁

2 茶匙   豆蔻粉

1 茶匙  薑粉

少撮  鹽

DIRECTION:

1. Preheat the oven at 360F.

2. In a large bowl，combine butter, eggs, milk, lemon juice and zest together; mix well.

3. Add in cornmeal, flour, quinoa, cardamom, ground ginger, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Mix everything thoroughly into batter.

4. Gently stir in the frozen June berries.  Divide the batter equally into the paper muffin cups.  Bake for about 20 minutes.

做法：

1. 預熱焗爐至360F。

2. 在一只大碗內，加入牛油、蛋、檸檬汁和皮；拌勻。

3. 下玉米粉、麵粉、藜麥、薑粉、棕糖、泡打粉，鹽；拌勻成麵糊。

4. 輕輕拌入Juneberries。把麵糊平均倒入小蛋糕模。焗若20分鐘。

Roasted Lemon and lavender Chicken Wings | 烤檸檬薰衣草雞翼

Roasted Lemon and lavender Chicken Wings

烤檸檬薰衣草雞翼  

Ingredients:

2 pounds Whole Chicken Wings

1/2 pc Lemon of Juice, freshly squeezed

2 tablespoons Honey

Marinade:

1 tablespoon Dried Lavender

2 tablespoons Dark Soy Sauce

3 tablespoons Shaoxing Wine

To taste Ground Black Pepper

To taste Kosher Salt

材料：

2 磅   雞全翼

1/2 個   檸檬, 榨汁

2 湯匙   蜜糖

醃料：

1 湯匙   乾薰衣草

2 湯匙   老抽

3 湯匙   紹興酒

調味   黑胡椒碎

調味   鹽

DIRECTION:

Homemade Strawberry Jam without Pectin ｜自製草莓果醬 (不含果膠)

Strawberry is almost the first fruit to welcome summer in Ontario; many of the local farms will open to the public for pick-your-own strawberries.  Every year my husband and I will bring our son to a strawberry farm to learn where the food comes from while picking some of the freshest fruit home.

Like many other children, my son always has fond memories of going to a strawberry farm, sampling those fresh fruit right on the field.  He will walk up and down the aisles, finding the biggest and the best looking strawberries between the leaves and shoving them into his mouth.  "It's so juicy! Mommy, look!" my son says happily.  His content face is usually covered with delicious juice.

The 30 pounds of strawberries we picked this summer.

This summer, we brought home thirty pounds of strawberries.  It was a little crazy.  I spent a full two and a half hours hulling them to prepare for the jam making.  It was a mind-over-matter job indeed.

There are two common ways to make strawberry jam.  One is using pectin and the other one without.

Pectin is extracted from high pectin fruit, like apple, through heat and acid.  It is a thickening agent that helps gelling jam or other preserves.  By adding pectin, the jam can solidify without too much reduction in the liquid.  So, it generally helps speed up the cooking process, also resulting in a larger portion of jam.  Though, pectin may cause stiff jam and may also leave some off flavour in the product.

Strawberries contain high amounts of pectin naturally; therefore, it's not necessary to thicken the jam with extra store-bought pectin.   My strawberry jam recipe is the traditional way without pectin, which means that it requires longer cooking time to reduce the liquid to the right consistency.  The finished product is usually about half of the amount of the fruit.  However, the jam is much more fruity and has no off flavour from the pectin.

Thanks for dropping by.  I hope you will enjoy this recipe.

Homemade Strawberry Jam without Pectin

自製草莓果醬 (不含果膠)

INGREDIENTS

8 cups Strawberries

3 cups Sugar

1/2 Lemon of Juice

DIFRECTION:

1. Gently rinse the strawberries.

2. With a chopstick, hull the green leafy top of the strawberries.  Discard the tops.

3. Pour the strawberries in a big deep pot.  Mash them with a potato masher until lumpy.

4. Add sugar and lemon juice.  Mix together over high heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture starts to boil.  Reduce the heat to medium.

5. Continuously boil the mixture until it becomes thicker.  Reduce the heat to simmer.  Skim off the foam and stir the mixture occasionally.

6. When the mixture reduces to nearly half, test the jam by dipping a cold spoon in the jam.  If the jam coats the spoon without falling, the jam is ready.  Remove the pot from the heat immediately.

I tested my jam on a cold plate.

7. Bottle the jam in hot sterilized mason jars immediately.

8. Seal the jars in water bath for 10 minutes.  The jars need to be totally submerged.  Leave the jars to cool and check carefully to see if the lid is moving.  The lids should not be movable.  Once cool, store them in a dark cool place.

The best part of making jam for my son was that he got to lick the spoon after I finished the jam.  Another lovely memory!  He said it was a big strawberry lollipop. 

The batches I made this year.  They should be enough to last until next summer.

Yum!

Sake Steamed Mussels | 清酒煮青口

Sake Steamed Mussels | 清酒煮青口  

Ingredients:

2 lbs Mussels

300 ml Sake

2-3 sprigs Fresh Basil

1/2 Meyer Lemon

15 gram Ginger Slices

材料：

2 磅   青口

300 毫升   清酒

2-3 束   九層塔

1/2 個   梅爾檸檬

15 克   檸檬

DIRECTION:

Apple Chicken Salad Wrap | 蘋果雞絲沙律卷

Apple Chicken Salad Wrap

蘋果雞絲沙律卷 

Ingredients:

4 Chicken Legs

2 Granny Smith Apples

1 Jicama

Tortilla Wraps

Mayonnaise:

3 Egg Yolks

400ml Vegetable Oil

1 tablespoon White Wine Vinegar

1 Lemon of Juice

材料：

4 隻   雞脾

2 個   青蘋果

1 個   沙葛

墨西哥薄餅皮

美乃茲：

3 隻   雞蛋黃

400 毫升   菜油

1 湯匙   白醋

1 個檸檬 (榨汁)

DIRECTION:

Pearl Barley Lemon Drink ｜ 檸檬薏米水

Peral barley lemon drink is a common beverage in Hong Kong.  During the fiercely hot summer time, many moms will make this lemony drink for their family to cool off their bodies.

In this drink, we combine two different types of barley, the raw barley and the toasted barley.   Since we believe every food contains different elements like "yin and yang" or "cold and hot", we consider raw barley to be "cold" and roasted barley to be "hot".  By combining the two barley together, we can balance the extreme elements that benefits our bodies.

The raw barely is on the left, and the roasted barley is on the right.

Pearl Barley Lemon Drink

檸檬薏米水

Ingredients:

1/4 cup Raw Barely

1/2 cup Roasted Barely

4 tablespoons Sugar

1/4 wedge of Lemon

How to make it:

1. Bring it to a boil.  Add raw barely and roasted barely.  Reduce the heat to medium and continuously boil it for 25 minutes.  Turn off the heat.  Squeeze in the lemon juice and season it with sugar.

Preserved Meyer Lemon ｜ 醃梅爾檸檬

To preserve your own food is one big step towards an urban homestead.  It is a way to re-learn and practice a basic life style.  Living in the city, we have little space to grow our own vegetables, but my family and I are trying as much as possible to eat what is in season and preserve the bounty for later.  Making preserved lemon is my annual project.  I will preserve just enough of it to last until the next batch of lemons is ready.  

Comparing the regular lemon to the Meyer lemon, I would say the flavour of the Meyer lemon is more profound and less pungent.  It tastes like a combination of lemon and orange.  Salted Meyer lemon makes a wonderful citrus seasoning that can be used in many meat dishes, and goes especially well with pork and seafood.

The high season for Meyer lemons begins in November to March

Preserved Meyer Lemon  ｜ 醃梅爾檸檬

INGREDIENTS:

4 Meyer Lemons

1/2 cup Sea Salt

A clean air-tight bottle

DIRECTION:

1. Wash the lemons carefully with a soft brush; dry them.

2. Cut them into quarters.

3. In the clean bottle, add a thin layer of salt and then add a layer of Meyer lemons.  Alternately add the salt and the lemons until the bottle is full. Seal the bottle and keep it in the fridge for at least three weeks.  You can start to use this preserve after three weeks, but I found the best flavour develops only after the full year of preserve and when the lemon rinds get really soft.

This recipe is one I reach for preserved Meyer lemon most often.

Steamed Pomfret with Meyer Lemon

(Ingredients):

1 Pomfret, gutted

2 wedges of Preserved Meyer Lemon

DIRECTION:

1. Roughly chop the lemon; apply it on both sides of the fish and inside the fish’s belly. Place the fish on a plate and leave it on the counter to marinate for 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil and add a rack in the pot. Place the fish on the rack and steam on high heat for about 12–14 minutes (depends on the size of the fish). Drizzle some light soy sauce to add extra flavour if you want.