Mum's You-Can't-Eat-Just-One Fish Croquettes

With all that's been going on here at AMK, it's just been too easy to neglect my dear blog. I'm sorry blog and my lovely readers for being incommunicado for this long. Making curry tins for gift shops and fancy food stores, cooking for private dinner parties and teaching Malaysian cooking both here and in students' homes has been fun, but honestly nothing is as rewarding as writing a few paragraphs about a favorite dish and sharing the recipe! So here I am with a little recipe about my mum's famous fish croquettes. I dare you to make this recipe and then eat just ONE!

Last night during my usual six o'clock "What's For Dinner" scramble, I realized I hadn't defrosted anything and there were a grand total of zero options for a protein. No meat, no fish... wait! There's this can of Wild Alaska Salmon sitting in my cabinet. I know that my husband detests canned salmon so I had to come up with a way to cook it that would ensure it would go down without a fuss. I searched my memory for all the ways I could possibly use this and up popped a picture of my mum's tasty little fish croquettes, or fish cutlets as we call them in Malaysia. Now, it would be a cold day in hell before Mum will use canned fish for her croquettes. Mum's version begins with a trip to the Pasar Besar Seremban, where she finds the freshest mackerel, has it cleaned and brings it home where she works her magic on it. She's an absolute pro at food shopping at the market - I wish I could take you all on a trip to the wet market to watch her in action. She has all her regular peeps - the fish man, the pork man, the beef guy, the chicken lady, the egg lady, the ground spices lady, the whole spices guy, and of course her favorite - the onion/garlic/ginger man. She's bought from them all regularly for years and has a sweet bullying way of getting the absolute best and freshest of everything. She shows up with her sweet smile, then a quick scowl and they wouldn't dare but give her only the very best! But I digress.

Before I share this recipe, which is Mum's basic technique adjusted according to what I had on hand in my kitchen last night, here are some pics of Mum's fish croquette process that I was pleased to be a part of last Christmas when we were back home. We were making these for a holiday dinner party and had to make a gazillion of them. Mum always says that these are a lot of work. I, however was happy to have this project that kept us busy in the kitchen for hours. It's such a pleasure to watch her do her thing, boss me around, and get into a classic mother-daughter gossip/bicker/giggle session with her. Even when we bicker, her kitchen is full of love and you know that's the special ingredient that makes these so, so, so good. Yes, this warrants three so's.

As you can see, Mum's croquettes start with fresh fish, boiled then very carefully flaked to remove the skin and bones. Mashed potatoes are added, along with onions, red chillies, curry leaves and various spices. In Malaysia, if you made fish croquettes without red chillies and served them to your guests, I bet they'd throw them at you and go out for dinner.
My version begins with a can of salmon, no potatoes and no red chillies. Any white, flaky, meaty fish will do.  As will fresh salmon. Some folks even use canned tuna or sardines. If you're starting with fresh fish, boil it in salted water until cooked, let cool, carefully remove the skin and bones, then flake with a fork. If you're using canned, remember that there are bones in canned salmon. Don't go too crazy trying to remove every. single. pinbone. or you'll be eating your croquettes next July. Just take out the big, round center bones and you're good to go.

Fish Croquettes (serves 4)

1 can salmon (about 15oz) - center bones removed
2 eggs
2 Jersey shallots - chopped
3 curry leaves - finely chopped
2 tbsp breadcrumbs (Mum uses Panko, I used Matzo meal)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/4 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon whole cumin - toasted
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Salt to taste (only if you're using fresh fish)
Vegetable oil for deep-frying
1.  Mix all ingredients.












 2. Wet your hands and roll the mixture into little balls about the size of Dunkin Donuts Munchkins. Don't ask me how I know what size those are. I just know, ok? You can leave them as balls, or you can do as Mum does and flatten them like this --->
Once all the mixture is used up, I like to pop these in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes - it helps them stick together when cooking.

 3. Heat about 1/2" of oil in a frying pan. When the oil is ready, gently place the croquettes one by one into the hot oil.

 4. Cook for two minutes, then gently flip them over to cook the other side.

5. Using a spatula, carefully remove them from the pan and place on paper towels to drain the excess oil. 

 And here they are looking all "come hither". I hope you'll give these a try and let me know how they turned out and how many you inhaled. Happy Cooking!

By: Auria Abraham
© Auria's Malaysian Kitchen 2013

Flowering Chives with Eggs

Chinese Flowering Chives - oh how I love them. Beautiful to behold and simply delightful to cook and serve, the strong flavor makes for a mouthwatering addition to stir-fries, soups and seafood dishes. Tender, oval buds sit atop stiff, square-ish green stems that are about 8 - 10 inches long. The buds  have a strong garlic flavor, while the stems are succulent, sweet and crisp.
These show up in our family dinners about once a week. Everytime I'm shopping in Chinatown, I inevitably come home with bunch of them. I sauté them with garlic, then scramble some eggs atop everything and this makes for a very quick, delicious and nutritious one-dish meal.  Here's how:

Flowering Chives with Eggs (serves 4)

2 tablespoons corn oil
5 cloves of garlic - peeled and sliced
1 bunch flowering chives
Salt to taste
Freshly ground white pepper to taste
4 eggs - lightly beaten and seasoned with salt
Toasted sesame oil

1.To prep the flowering chives,  cut off and discard the bottom half inch. Then cut one 1.5 inch segment and set aside. Continue to cut 1.5 inch segments until you reach the top making sure not to mix these with the first 1.5 inch piece that you cut. Stick with me here, people.  You'll see why I'm being such a stickler about the first segment and the blahblahblah. I promise you this is not just about me being a control freak - there is a valid reason for it.
2. Heat oil over medium high heat in a wok or frying pan. Add the garlic and salt to taste, about a 1/4 teaspoon.
3. Once the garlic is very lightly browned and aromatic, add the first 1.5 inch segment that you cut from the bottom of the stems. These may be slightly fibrous and will definitely require more cooking time that the rest of the stalk, which is why we cook these first.  Add two tablespoons of water to generate some steam and to soften these tough pieces. Cook for about three minutes. (You may choose to skip this step entirely - throw out the bottom, woody segment and use only the tender parts of the stems. I cannot stand any sort of waste in the kitchen and so opt to use every part of the stem)
4. Once the water is almost all gone, add the rest of the cut up flowering chives. Stir to combine and cook until the bright green turns an even brighter green. Sounds impossible I know, but it will happen in about one minute. 
5. Add the eggs and leave them to set a little - about two minutes. Using a spatula, break the set eggs into pieces that can be flipped. I usually break the contents of my frying pan into about five or six large pieces so it's easy to flip them individually. It's best to try and keep the eggs in large pieces rather than to stir and scramble which, in my opinion, leaves a rather unpleasant looking mess.
6. Once flipped, cook for another minute or just until the eggs are completely set. Add white pepper to taste and transfer to a serving dish. Drizzle lightly with toasted sesame oil. Serve immediately with hot rice.
7. Enjoy and plan to make this again next week. And the next :o)

Flowering Chives can be purchased at any Chinese or Asian supermarket. 

MOFA: Museum of Food Arts - NYC's unique tribute to peculiar food.

As a genuine born and bred Malaysian, I've always believed that when it comes to weird food, we've got the market cornered. A walk around my hometown's wet market would prove that in a matter of minutes - pig knuckles, ears and snouts, yardlong beans, stinky shrimp pastes, dried fish large and small, durians, rambutans and mangosteens, century eggs and black salted duck eggs, beef tripe and tendons, and all manner of packaged strangeness. I'm rather proud of said strangeness and love taking visitors from across the seas to the Pasar Besar Seremban (which translates to "Seremban Big Market")
Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting NY's latest destination museum - the MoFA. The Museum of Food Arts blew away all my closely held ideas of us Malaysians being the authority on bizarre foods.  Apparently, crazy food items are found pretty much everywhere in the world, and they are by turns delightful, downright funny or completely gross. Sometimes all at the same time!
The MoFA was started by my dear friend Gary Schreiner sometime in the mid-90s. A collector at heart, Mr Schreiner's home boasts a variety of collections - from his youth, there are the expected stamp and coin collections. In 2004, he began collecting beautiful Bakelite radios, which proved to be quite a costly pastime. The Food Museum collection came about when he discovered his fondness of peculiar food items that he found on his travels across the globe and brought home with him. These first few items were placed prominently in his kitchen and Gary delighted in showing them to his friends, talking about the origins of the pieces and enjoyed watching his guests marvel at them.

AMK: When did you acquire the first Food Museum piece,  and what was it?
GS: I can't remember the first one. I'm sorry. The first really big item was the One Whole Chicken in a can. I was visiting Mike Braun in Portland Oregon, and I told him I had to stop at a supermarket, that I'm starting a food museum and he said "Alright,  I don't know what you're looking for". So we kept walking up and down aisles and he kept pulling things out and I said "nah, nah..." and then all of a sudden, he pulled out One Whole Chicken in a can.  I looked at it and I said "that's it!" and he said "Oh, I see where you're going with this." That must have been in '96. But that can't have been the beginning, I must have had some items before then because I said to Mike "I'm starting a food museum". Unfortunately anything pre-One Whole Chicken in a can, I don't recall. That was one of my most prized acquisitions, and probably solidified the idea for me. 
AMK: So you had the idea for the Food Museum....
GS: In my youth.
AMK: In your youth.  When you were a teenager?
GS: In the 90s, yes.
AMK: That's what I want to go back to - when did you know that you were going to have a food museum, and how did that come about?
GS: I've always liked kinda campy, offbeat things. I don't know what hit me first. Some of the oldest pieces are the Cock Soup, the Chicken in a Can.
AMK: I'd love to know at what point you knew you were going to have a Food Museum?
GS: Oh, once you have three or four of something, then it becomes a collection. I've been sucked into some other collections like, for a while I had some really pretty old radios, Bakelite radios. I still have them, but at some point I just pulled the plug on collecting those. At some point, you have to say "enough", because then it becomes an obsession, your collecting.
AMK: What one item in the Food Museum required the most effort on your part to acquire?
GS: Well, it's always stumbling upon things. It's not like a struggle. It's not like I'm trying to buy a Picasso and I have to go to Sotheby's and ... you know. It's basically traveling the world, and every country I go to, just going into supermarkets. Also people that know I have a Food Museum showing up from their travels and bringing me unusual things. And then being the curator, I have to decide whether it's worthy of the Food Museum, whether it meets the qualifications and high standards that I have. And I can be a tough curator. People bring me things that they think would be perfect and sometimes I have to make the difficult decision of putting them aside. At this point, people just bring or send me things. For example, the Popeye Spinach is from Joan Osborne - we were working on a project and she showed up one day with the can of Popeye Spinach.
AMK: Did she know you had a Food Museum?
GS: Oh yeah, she was very excited to be able to contribute to it.
AMK: Let's discuss the, sort of, sexual undertones that are apparent with some of the items in the collection.

GS: I don't see any. What are you seeing?  (chuckles)
AMK: I'm talking about the Soda Bottle Triptych that tells a narrative "Lift, Boing!, Squirt", and the box of dates that say "Eat Me."
GS: Oh, these are all coincidental.
AMK: Nothing to do whatsoever....
GS: There's nothing sexual.
AMK: There's no connection to your personality,  your ... particular way of seeing things?
GS: Well, food is sensual, no? Food is very sensual but there's no, if there's anything it's just accidental. The Frank in the Pouch, and the Spotted Dick, the Lift Boing! Squirt and the Eat Me, and all that stuff - they're just foods that are funny. But, you know, I let the museum-goer come to their own conclusions.
AMK: Let's talk about where you see the Food Museum going from here.
GS: Well we'd like to get a space at some point. And then, it'd be nice to get a freezer so we can get some perishable foods as well. And I'm talking to Target right now about doing a Free Friday night, like they have at the MoMA. And I'd like a roof garden like they have at the Met, where we can serve cocktails and have food and ice sculptures, maybe overlooking Central Park. And maybe we could have guest chefs - people who do weird food. The one thing to remember is the museum's main rule: We DON'T eat the museum.
If anyone has an interesting food item that's non-perishable and fits the gestalt of the collection that they would like to donate to the MoFA, please send it to PO Box 299,  New York, NY 10025

My favorite Food Museum item ever.  Read the brand name and product name together.  Side-splitting!

This was worth a really close look!

Sun Dired & Road Tenderized -Only the best for the museum!

When plain old salt just won't do!

In Gary's downtime from his role as the Curator/Museum Director of the MoFA, he is an Emmy Award-winning composer for TV & Film.  He has single-handedly scored over a thousand TV commercials and contributed music to countless TV shows and movies. Earlier this year, he performed at Sting's benefit concert for the Rainforest Fund as a featured guest artist, playing chromatic harmonica with Rosanne Cash on a couple of songs and then sharing the stage with Elton John on a duet of “Moon River". His favorite part of the experience was when Sting & Meryl Streep summoned him into the green room to play piano for them to rehearse a number. This summer, Gary and his writing partner Curt Sobel licensed music for the movie "Parker" starring Jason Statham and Jennifer Lopez, with a release date in January 2013.
As if all this wasn't enough, Gary has authored a number of popular instructional books such as "Slow Way to Get Rich Quick", "Fast Track to Speaking Slowly" and "101 Ways To Be Indifferent". He is also an avid inventor and is currently working on a one-way Ziploc bag for people on diets.

MoFA logo by John Bellacosa