Pepe's Black Peppered Prawn recipe

What I like about cooking with my sister, Pepe, is that we counteract what the other person lacks when making certain dishes. For example, I love making sauces, fusion dishes, appies, and anything with loads of cheese in. But I'm horrible at making stir fry dishes and they usually turn out abominably bland or overcooked that I just want to trash it. Meanwhile, anything P can find can turn into delicious, flavourful stir-frys, but she won't know what to do with a block of cheese and a spaghetti squash. So when she was visiting from Vancouver, I took advantage and let her take charge and cook me something to eat that I wouldn't be able to make myself. So she was able to come up with the black peppered prawn and the pan-fried tilapia for me to polish off in just one meal. This dish only took her less than 15 minutes to make so she didn't have to deal with my hunger wrath. How awesome is that?

Ingredients:
3 tbsp olive oil
1.5 cup tiger prawns, thawed and deveined
2 tbsp. minced scallion or red onion
3 chopped garlic
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon granulated or brown sugar
2 pinches of ground pepper
2 tsp. chopped green onion and cilantro

Preparation:
1. Heat the oil in a pan using medium to high heat until hot, add chopped garlic and scallion. Fry until golden brown
2. Add tiger prawns. Cook until the prawns are pink on both sides. This usually only takes 2-3 minutes. Do not overcook the prawns as the worst thing to happen is to end up with hard and chewy prawn meat!!
3. While the prawns cook, add soy sauce and sugar. Stir the sauce with prawns well.
4. Season with black pepper
5. Turn off the heat and plate the prawns. Garnish with chopped cilantro and green onion.

Pepe's Pan-Fried Tilapia recipe

While I was waiting for Pepe to cook me lunch, I complained to her why she was frying the tilapia. I looked at the ingredients she used, and there were only 2 or 3 things aside from the garnish. I wasn't too excited (ugh so basic! boringggggg). But when she served the dish and I ate it, I just shut up. It looked good; golden brown and flakey inside. It was also crispy and well marinated (in just 10 mins WITH 2 things??). Okay, it may be a simple dish but it definitely was delicious and worthy of posting! As for P's response? "NEVER DOUBT MY SKILLS AGAIN!"

Ingredients:

2 pieces of tilapia, butterflied then cut in half to make 4 pieces

3 tbsp of fish sauce

3 tbsp oil for frying

a pinch of ground black pepper

chopped cilantro and green onion for garnish

fried onions and garlic

a slice of lemon

Preparation:

1. Marinate the tilapia in fish sauce and black pepper and leave for about 10 mins.

2. Heat up the oil in a non stick frying pan in medium to high heat.

3. Once the oil is hot, add the fish into the pan and fry until each side is golden brown and crispy on the edges. This should take about 3-4 minutes on each side, depending on the size and thickness of the fish.

4. Once both sides are cooked, plate the fish and top with chopped cilantro, green onion, fried garlic and onions.

5. Squeeze lemon on top of the fish when serving.

Oyster, 2 ways: oyster salad and baked oysters recipes

This oyster salad is inspired by how raw oysters are served in Thailand; with 10 million sides (k, not that many). Using this concept, I thought it would be interesting to dress the oysters with a bunch of flavourful herbs to balance its taste.

Deliciously fresh and sweet raw oysters in Thailand

Ingredients;

6 oysters (raw or blanched)

50 ml lime juice

2 cloves of chopped garlic

2 chilies, minced

2 tbsp. fish sauce

1/2 shallot, thinly sliced

2 tbsp. chopped dill

2 tbsp. chopped mint leaves

1 tbsp. chopped cilantro

1 tbsp. chopped scallions

1 tbsp. crispy onions

to taste:

Louisiana hot sauce

Preparation:

In a small bowl, combine lime juice, garlic, chili, and fish sauce. In a larger bowl, combine all the vegetables and oysters. Add all of the sauce and gently toss the ingredients. Scoop the mixture into individual serving plate. Sprinkle with fried shallot and a drop of Louisiana hot sauce.

Baked oysters

This recipe is a twist on oyster Motoyaki. It's almost exactly the same except I added breadcrumbs, crispy onion for extra crunch and basil oil for extra aroma. The texture and flavour both turned out quite nicely; crispy on top, and creamy with a hint of aromatic basil.

Ingredients:

6 oysters

1/2 cup Japanese mayonaise
1 egg yolk

a pinch of salt

1 tbsp. finely chopped red onion

2 tbsp. breadcrumbs

a dash of basil oil

2 tsp. crispy onions

Preparation:

Whisk together Japanese mayonaise, egg yolk, and salt. Add chopped red onion to the mixture. Preheat the oven to 400 F. In a baking tray (or oyster shells), line the oysters and pour the mixture evenly on top and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Bake for 20 minutes until the topping is golden brown. Do not overcook. Drizzle with basil oil and serve with a few wedges of lemon.

What I paired with:

Stag Hollow's 2009 Con-Fusion--a blend of Gewurztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Gris...(*breathe), Viognier, and finally, Muscat. It has the notes of lychee, melons and grapefruit and is best served chilled. This is more of a summer wine, but I enjoyed it in the middle of winter nonetheless.