Pan fried or air fried salmon fillet?

Everybody loves a perfect medium-cooked fillet that's crispy and browned on the surface, but tender and moist inside. I normally pan fry the fillet so that the skin is nice and crispy but this method produces a lot of oil splatter all over the stove top. I decided to try using the air fryer since it is less greasy and healthier. Both methods produced perfectly cooked meat but the skin was not crispy using the air fryer at initial attempts. After different ways of placing the fish in the basket I finally perfected it. 

Ingredients

One 6 to 8 ounces fillet per person if serving as a main course or it can be served as a side dish.

Wash and let the fillet “drip dry” for 10 minutes.
If the fillet is moist or wet, it is more likely to stick to the pan and the skin won't crisp quite as nicely.

Just before frying, pat dry the salmon fillets with a paper towel. 

Season both sides with freshly ground salt and pepper.

Sprinkle mixed herbs on the meat-side.

Using the pan fried method

Melt a knob of butter or 1 tsp oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat.
Add the salmon skin-side down.

Fry for 2-3 minutes, then turn the salmon over and fry for a further 1-2 minutes. 
I like to turn the fillet on the side to brown it.

Using the air fryer method

Set up the Air Fryer to 12 minutes on 180 deg Celsius.

Heat up the air fryer for 1 minute to minimise the food sticking to the basket.

Place fillet skin-side down into the fryer.

I could not flip the fillet to brown the skin as it was stuck to the basket.

This is the skin that’s left behind in the basket.

This is the fillet minus the skin.

Today I am using the grill pan instead of the basket.

Heat up the air fryer for 1 minute.
Place fillet skin-side down into the fryer.

Unfortunately, I could not flip the fillet over so had to let it be.

The meat was perfectly done but the skin was not crispy at all.

Today I am trying an alternative way to fry the fillet

Place the fillet into the fryer with the skin side up

I fried it for 15 mins without turning it over

Fry for a few more mins if you want the skin to be more crispy

Perfectly fried salmon

Here I am frying salmon cutlets

Really nice fried salmon without making the kitchen oily

Hainanese chicken rice (海南雞飯) with yin yang chicken

The adults love pak cham kai with the chicken rice but the children prefer roasted chicken so the solution is to combine both and call it yin yang chicken

Ingredients

1 chicken cut into 2 halves

Cooking the yin chicken (pak cham kai)

For the marinade:

1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine

1 tsp light soy sauce

Pepper

Salt to taste

Mix the marinade and rub all over the chicken

Leave it for about an hour

Put some ginger slices and garlic on a heat proof plate.
Place the chicken on the ginger and garlic slices

Place the plate in the steamer

Cover and steam the chicken until cooked.
Every now and then spoon the chicken juices over the chicken so that it will be moist and tasty.

Once the chicken is cooked, remove the chicken from the plate and rub some sesame oil all over it

Allow to cool and keep aside

Keep the liquid from the chicken to cook chicken rice





Cooking the yang chicken (honey roast chicken)

Half a chicken

Mix together:
2 tbsp honey

1tbsp olive oil

¼ tsp cinnamon

Some salt and pepper in a small bowl.

Line a baking tray with tin foil.
Place some lemon slices on it.

Place the chicken on top of the lemon slices.

Brush the chicken with about half of the honey glaze. 

Cover the chicken with the tin foil.

Transfer the chicken to the pre-heated oven (180 C).

After about 30 minutes open the top of the foil and baste the chicken with its juices

Then brush the glaze on the chicken once more.

Cover and roast for another 30 minutes.
Open the tin foil and continue to roast the chicken until the skin is golden brown.

Remove from the oven and let it rest for 15 minutes before cutting it.

Cut both types of chicken into bite size pieces and plate it.

Cooking the chicken rice

This is the bottled version of chicken rice paste.

So far this is the best of all the pastes that I have tried.

Wash the rice and add the chicken rice paste and the juice from the steamed chicken.

Put in 1 bulb of garlic, 1 chicken stock cube and a knob of butter.

Add the required amount of water to cook the rice.

When the liquid is boiling, stir the rice to mix in the ingredients.

When the rice is cooked, stir it again so that it will be fluffy.

Serve with the chicken.

Stir fried tomatoes with eggs and minced pork

One person asks for fried eggs, another asks for fried tomatoes with pork so the solution is to combine the ingredients to make everyone happy. Ta ra “fried eggs with minced pork”. Everyone loved it so I am happy. 

Ingredients

5 medium sized ripe tomatoes

3 eggs

Minced pork

Cut the tomatoes into wedges

Break the eggs into a bowl

Season with salt and pepper

Whisk the eggs until there is a small layer of fine bubbles

Heat 2 tbsp oil until very hot

This will make the eggs fluffy

Break the eggs into smaller pieces and stir until golden in colour

Remove from the wok and set aside

Add 1 tbsp oil into the wok and fry some garlic until fragrant

Add the minced pork and fry until colour changes

Put the tomatoes in and mix well with the pork

Add 1 tsp sugar if the tomatoes taste sour otherwise ½ tsp is sufficient
Tomatoes will produce more liquid as it cooks so do not add water unless needed

Stir fry until the tomatoes begin to soften

Put the eggs back into the wok

Mix thoroughly and it is ready to serve