Thyme in Olive Oil

I love thyme. I love the smell of it in my cooking. I grow a pot of thyme. Below is the thyme that has come back from the long cold weather.
The petite white flowers is so beautiful. It almost look like baby breadth to me.
I just cut a few sprigs of thyme and insert it into my cooking oil bottle.
I wash and dry the thyme before I pour in the olive oil. In a few days, the olive oil will infused with the thyme. I then use the oil in everything I cook. It make my egg sandwich taste so much better.

Baked Fish Wrapped in Banana Leaves

Last weekend I went to the Asian store and bought some fish. I bought trout heads, croaker and unknown fish. I cook soup with some of the fish heads. It was just a simple salt, ground black pepper and herbs in the fish soup. The fish was very sweet. I finish them in a jiffy.

For the croaker, I deep fry them. Now, I am left with the unknown fish. I decided to cook this fish wrapped in banana leaves. I was not sure if honey will like baked fish. He usually prefers fried fish. The weather is very humid today despite some showers earlier of the day. The idea of frying the fish and heat up my kitchen is not to my liking.
The first step in preparing for this meal is to cut some herbs that I grow around the house. Above, in the bowl of water, was chives, thyme, thai basil, sweet basil and sage. The aroma from these herbs was wonderful.
Ingredients:
2 fishes
1 big red onion
2 chinese eggplants (long and skinny shape)
2 tablespoon turmeric powder
1 tablespoon salt
4 pandan leaves
fresh herbs (thyme, sage, thai basil, sweet basil, chives)
Some olive oil

Wash and clean the banana leaves. I am using about 6 banana leaves. Three pieces is used for each fish.
Rub turmeric powder and salt on both fishes.
Lay cut side down of the eggplant on the banana leaves.
Then layer it with the onion and pandan leaves.
Add all of the herbs and lay down the fish on top. Drizzle the fish with some olive oil.

Wrap nicely and put it on the tray or cooking dish.
Bake this fish on 350 degree F for about 1 hour.

Serve this fish with tartar sauce.
How to make the tartar sauce. My simple recipe is as follows:
1 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon dijon mustard (I prefer honey dijon)
1 tablespoon sweet relish
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chopped chives

Method:
Mix everything in a bowl. Seasoned to taste.
As for dessert, I served few slices of watermelon.
Honey enjoyed the fish very much. I am very happy to see all my effort are paid off.
The tartar sauce was tasty despite lacking anchovies and vinegar.
I must say that the fish doesn't have that yucky fishy smell at all.
The eggplants was tender and very sweet.
I am not sure where the sweetness in the eggplant came from. I suspect it could be from the juice of the fish and onion. I did not serve the eggplant to my husband. He will not eat the vegetable.

Update on Daun Kesum

About two weeks ago, I root some daun kesum in water. You can refer to the old picture of daun kesum here when I first started. Daun Kesum or "Kesum" leaf is very popular in asian cooking. It has a strong lemon flavor and taste. You can add this leaves in the hot and spicy fish soup or as garnish in your meal.
Today, I decided to check on the roots of this daun kesum that have sitting in water all these while.
I must say that I am happy with the progress. As you can see from the picture below, the roots are healthy and white color. I removed all of the dead leaves and put this plant back into the small china bowl with warm water.
I will probably wait for couple more weeks before I plant them outside in a big pot. For right now, I could snip some of the leaves into my cooking already. Cutting it regularly will promote it's bushiness.