Smoked Basa Fish in a Creamy White Wine Sauce

Smoked Basa Fish in a Creamy White Wine Sauce

Smoked Basa fillets (or River Cobbler) are my all time favourite fish, quite mild in flavour, boneless and skinless.

I make this sauce fairly often because it is so easy to make and tastes delicious. Also because it is made with semi skimmed milk rather than cream it’s quite healthy stuff.

Smoked fish is fairly salty so apart from the stock cube the seasoning you need is minimal in fact I don’t use any extra seasoning at all.

For 2 fillets of fish you will need:-

1 – Vegetable Stock Cube
1- Level Table Spoon of Plain Flour
1 – Table Spoon of Garlic Oil 

(or olive oil if you prefer) 

50 Ml – White Wine
400 Ml – Semi Skimmed Milk

And of course the fish, use any smoked fish you prefer but believe me Basa is the best.

Gently pan fry the fish in the oil on both sides until it is about 75% cooked.

Then take out the fish and put it to one side, no need to keep it warm because it’s going back in the sauce.

Drain a little of the oil away if you feel there is too much for the sauce then scrape and loosen all the lovely flavoured bits in the pan, and then add the stock cube and the flour.

Stir and cook for half a minute then add the wine and make a paste, let the wine cook out for a couple of minutes.

Add the milk little by little each time making a paste until you have used all the milk.

Now add the fish into the sauce and cook gently for about five minutes.

Now you’re done.

Serve with vegetables, rice or noodles.

What a Great Way to Mash Potatoes

My potato masher and ricer are now redundant; this is such a great way to get creamy smooth mash.

No messing about with pealing, pans of water or draining, just put

them in a 180° oven for an hour or so and test them with a fork to make sure they are nice and soft inside.

Then while they are hot using a clean cloth squeeze the insides out into a bowl.

While they are still nice and hot put in a couple of knobs of butter and mix well into the potatoes.

Then add some cream or milk and whisk until smooth.

If you keep the skins you can deep fry them for a great accompaniment to any lunch or dinner.

Chicken Chop Suey (with homemade chicken stock)

Chop Suey roughly translated means “assorted pieces” so that leaves it entirely up to you and your taste what you use, basically though it will consist of chicken, beef, pork or fish  with bean sprouts, rice and other vegetables.

For this dish I have chosen chicken and green beans and you may think that I have cheated a bit on the stock because I have used stock cubes, but I have enhanced it with the flavour of the bones and the skin of the chicken, the stock cubes just make it a little quicker to produce.

Chicken Chop Suey (with homemade chicken stock)

You will need

3 – Chicken Thighs (skin on bone in)
Splash of White Wine Vinegar
Pinch of Salt
1 – tablespoon – Freshly Grated Ginger
1 – Onion (finely chopped)
175 Gm – Bean Sprouts
120 Gm – Green Beans
1 tablespoon – Light Soy Sauce
2 – Chicken Stock Cubes
1 tablespoon – Chinese Rice Wine
½ teaspoon – soft Brown Sugar

150 Ml - Chicken Stock
250 Gm – Cold Cooked Rice

Top and tail the beans then chop them into 1 inch pieces, now put them into a pan of boiling water for about 5 minutes and set them aside.

Skin and de-bone the chicken thighs and fry the skin and bones in a little garlic oil for about 10 minutes.

Drain of the fat and deglaze the pan with a little white wine vinegar, while the vinegar is cooking out mix the stock cube in 250 Ml of freshly boiled water and pour into the pan.

Simmer on a medium to high heat for 10 minutes then drain through a sieve; this should make
150 Ml of stock.

Pour about a tablespoon of garlic oil over the cold pre-cooked rice, mix well and set aside.

Cut the chicken into strips and cook in a little garlic oil for 5 or 6 minutes.

Add the onion and Beansprouts and cook for a couple of minutes on a medium to high heat then add the soy sauce, rice wine, ginger and soft brown sugar and mix well.

Now add the rice, season with the salt and stir fry for a couple more minutes.

Put in the beans and the stock mix well and cook for 5 minutes just to make sure that the chicken is cooked through.

Place in a bowl and serve immediately.........Delicious.

Chicken Chow Mein (super fast)

This is a gentle wonderful tasting Chow Mein that is so quick and easy to make.

Saying that, most of the time is taken up making the stock so if you decided to buy in the stock it would be super quick.

As long as you stick to the basics of the recipe you can put your own spin on it, like buying in the stock, dark soy instead of light, steam the chicken and so on.

Anyway here it is, please try it and let me know what you think.

You will need;

450 Gm – Fresh Egg Noodles
5 tablespoons – Garlic Oil
4 – Chicken Thighs (skin on bone in)
2 – Chicken Stock Cubes
115 Gm – Fresh Beansprouts 

Pinch – Sea Salt
½ tsp – Soft Brown Sugar
1 tablespoon – Chinese Rice Wine
3 tablespoons – Light Soy Sauce
1- Onion (finely chopped)
150 Ml – Chicken Stock

First off we’ll make the stock, start by skinning and de-boning the chicken thighs.

Heat a little garlic oil in a pan and fry the skin a bones for about 10 minutes.

Make up 250 Ml of stock with the stock cubes and freshly boiled water.

Drain off the fat and add a splash of white wine vinegar to de-glaze the pan
then add the white wine and simmer on a medium heat for about 5 minutes.

Now add the stock and reduce for 15 minutes, this will make 150 Ml of stock.

While all that is going on mix the noodles with 1 tablespoon of the garlic oil and put to one side,
then chop the chicken into 1 centimetre pieces.

Heat 3 tablespoons of garlic oil in a wok and fry the chicken for 5 minutes, now add the onions and beansprouts and cook for a further 2 – 3 minutes then add the salt, brown sugar, rice wine and half the soy sauce and blend well.

Add the noodles, the rest of the soy sauce and the 150 ml of stock then mix well and cook on a medium heat for 10 minutes.

Serve with a rice of your choice or if you are like me you’ll have it on its own.