1st time cooking fish

After the fishing trip on Thursday, I brought home 4 fishes - the stingray and 3 smaller fishes.

At first, I was hoping to find some place where I could get someone to help me cook them. Din really wanna try cooking them myself and perhaps waste them in the process... Tried searching online for a place but to no avail. Then I tried to get DK to help me ask the zi char stall tat he used to co-own. But he also told me tat they cant cook them for me. Haizzz so bo bian lor, have to do it myself liao.

I dun tink I have ever cooked anything other than stuff like fried eggs, sausages, etc, or maggi mee, which isn't actually really cooking? So this would be like my 1st time actually cooking something. Definitely my 1st time cooking fish. Decided tat I would 1st try to cook those 3 small fishes for dinner on Friday.

Brought them to the wet market and tried to ask some fishmongers whether they would help me process the fishes - descale, take out the organs, etc, for a price of cos. Sadly, the 1st few tat I asked turned me down, giving reasons tat they are too busy, etc... Finally found 1 frenly uncle who even asked for my no. so tat he can jio me when he goes fishing with his frens. Eventually declined his offer as I still prefer to go with my own group.

So I happily headed home with the nicely processed fishes and started to search online for recipes. Decided to steam them cos this seems like the easiest way to do it. Found this recipe which uses tau jio (豆醬， or bean paste sauce), one of my favourite sauces to eat with steamed fish cos it usually makes the fish very appetising. Thought abt doing it our Teochew way with salted vege, tomatoes, etc, but worried tat it may turn out to have a strong fishy taste. So I decided to go with the tau jio recipe as tau jio seemed to have a stronger taste which shld help to lessen the fishy taste.

Decided to 1st try out with the smallest of the 3 fishes so tat any wastage is minimised. Din really follow the recipe exactly as I left out those ingredients tat were for garnishing. Seemed to me tat it was mostly just to make the dish look nicer and also din wanna waste these ingredients as I dun tink I would be cooking again anytime soon.

So I roughly followed the recipe and poured the ingredients and seasoning onto the fish in a plate and left it to steam in the wok for 10 minutes.

I opened the wok lid and ehhhh, the fish looks kind of weird... tink i put a bit too much of the tau jio already... i took out the fish and nervously tasted it. actually taste not bad lah. quite sweet with the fried garlic and a bit of sugar tat i added. the meat was quite tender also. at least it wasn't undercooked, i tink... not bad for a 1st timer like me lah. tink i would give myself 4 out of 5 stars. Haha. Anyway, I finished up the 1st fish and decided tat I'll just steam the 2nd and 3rd fishes in the same way, maybe just with less tau jio...

The 2nd and 3rd fishes still din look really appetising but at least they look slightly more normal... Tasted quite good also. Tink I'll try the Teochew style next time.

After my relatively successful 1st attempt at cooking fish on Friday, I decided to try cooking the stingray on Saturday. Din bring it to the fishmonger for processing as it only needs to be cut. Hmmmm but cutting it proves to be quite hard also... Dunno izzit tat our knife is too blunt or tat its skin is too tough, i spent quite a bit of time before I finally managed to cut out the 2 wings, which seemed to be the only edible parts.

Ehhhh the wings look kind of small don't they... So much effort just to eat so little meat. So those tat we usually eat outside must actually be much bigger than the one I caught.

I poured the sambal belachan which I had bought over the 2 wings and also sprinkled some chopped onions over them. Also added a bit of cooking oil as the sambal seemed a little too dry. Then I wrapped everything up in some aluminium foil and put it into the oven to bake for about 25 minutes.

As I took it out of the oven, I could already smell the fragrance of the chilli. As I unwrapped the aluminium foil, smoke was oozing out and I couldn't wait to try it! Hmmm really taste not bad. I squeezed lots of lime on it and it was really quite appetizing and goes well with white rice.

So there it was, my 1st experiences of cooking fish. Tink i'll try out other ways of cooking them the next time I bring them back from my fishing trip.

Fishing Trip - 02/04/2015

Went for my 2nd open sea fishing trip last Thursday and it was really more enjoyable than the 1st time, not least becos we caught more fishes this time round!

We planned to set off from Marina Country Club about 1 hour earlier than the 1st time, cos the captain said the waters in the morning would be better for fishing. It meant tat I had to wake up at 4.30am... On leave and I had to wake up even earlier than for work...

So off we went out to sea. Although it was my 2nd time, still a bit blur on wat to do. Even forgotten how to hook the prawn on... But after a while it all came back to me. Another reason y it was more enjoyable this time round was perhaps becos I had my own rod and reel to play around with. I had borrowed from Jimmy the 1st time round. This time, Dan helped me to buy a really budget setup which cost only $30 for rod and reel!

Reached our 1st spot and was pretty excited as I dropped the line into the water. Surprisingly, it took just a short while and I got my 1st bite. Quite kan cheong and din really noe wat to do. Followed the captain's instructions of pulling up and reeling in and eventually I got the fish up. It was a stingray again! Hahaha! I had caught a stingray on my 1st trip and the captain said tat it was too small so we released it back into the water. This one was definitely bigger so we decided to keep it. Haha maybe it was the same one and it came back to find me after growing up?

Din really have time to settle down after the excitement of my 1st catch and I felt movement on my fishing rod again. Haha I tink I still have a bit of beginner's luck although it was my 2nd trip. This time it was a more normal type of fish (ehhhh still cant really identify the different types of fishes... so dun really noe the name of the fish). And so just 1 hour into this trip, I already caught 2 fishes. Definitely worth taking leave for this! Haha.

Eventually the others all got their 1st catches of the day and it was turning out to be a very good day for everyone. But my beginner's luck seemed to wear off after I caught my 5th fish and then there were no more. The weather also turned bad and started to rain quite heavily. The captain commented tat the decrease in water temperature meant tat it would be less likely for the fishes to take the bait. Apparently, it makes them lose appetite... So we decided to call it a day.

The biggest catch of the day for the entire boat has got to be the 金目鲈 (Barramundi) (the one at the bottom of the photo) tat Vincent caught right before we decided to call it a day.

Really enjoyed this trip and already looking forward to the next one! But will be going for the lasik pre-op evaluation next Saturday and if I am able to do the epi-lasik op before the next trip tat they already planned on the 30th, then I would need to give the next trip a miss, and also sit out for at least 1 more month after tat.