/ck/ - Food & Cooking

asdf's entry
>Poached trout with onions, and stewed lamb shoulder with potatoes and carrots.

My father cooked only two meals but he cooked them well. Poached trout with onions, and stewed lamb shoulder with potatoes and carrots. I ate both things frequently as that's all he could cook but the fish more often than the lamb as lamb had too much yang. I remember I would frequently see my father crouched on the floor, scaling the trout with his chopper over newspaper.

This dish isn't really an original dish as much as it is how I would epitomise what I liked best about the dish.

Rather than poaching the trout, I steamed it to enhance the sweetness and retain the flavour of the trout. I sliced the trout not so much because I needed to check how well cooked the fish was, but because my father simply always did.

On the odd occasion we had leftover congee, I found I always preferred it more than rice with trout. It was the way the mild flavour of the congee contrasted with the soy sauce, and being soup-like, it was obviously more comforting.

My father also used to initially use onions as the sole vegetable for the dish but at times would also use spring onions to add some colour. I hated that because I hated spring onions as a kid and found their flavour too strong so here I've used leek instead. I did love onions though so eventually my father started to cook extra and would serve that on the side.

I got very picky about this dish, having eaten it for more than ten years. I would insist that he cook the sugar in the oil rather than mix the sugar into the sauce before adding it to the wok. I also hated it when he used too much wine. But despite my criticism, I loved the dish. As I grew older, I'd keep going back for seconds, thirds, fourths... my father would look at me incredulously and say that I was eating too much. Now that I cook for myself, I can eat the entire fish!

Cooking one portion of congee is probably the loneliest thing I've ever done.