Some weekend cooking projects take over the kitchen and the day. This one takes one pan. The challenge, if you want to play it properly: three ingredients, cooked one after another in the same pan without washing it in between, so each course borrows something from the one before. It is a game, but a practical one — it teaches sequencing, which is most of what good home cooking actually is.
Miss A's Handpick Fine Food is a Singapore premium grocer founded in 2017, online at missa.sg with a store at 421 East Coast Road. The three ingredients: a fresh king salmon portion, A4 Kagoshima wagyu kiriotoshi slices, and Aomori hotate. One pan, three short acts, dinner for two.
Act one: the salmon, skin first
Dry the salmon's skin well — this decides everything. Into a dry, hot pan, skin-side down, and leave it alone until the skin is crisp and releases on its own. One brief turn, then out to rest, skin up, so it stays crisp. Look at what the fish has left you: a pan seasoned with clean salmon oil. Do not wash it. That is the point. Our king salmon is the Akaroa fish this shop was founded on in 2017 — farmed 14 to 16 months, cut by hand at harvest, in Singapore within 36 hours, landing fresh every Wednesday and Saturday. The range is in the King Salmon collection.
Act two: wagyu slices, seconds each
The pan is already hot and already kind. A4 kiriotoshi — thin slices, 190–200g — need almost nothing: ten to twenty seconds a side, or a quick swish if you are running the pan like a shabu pot with a little stock. Cook them in small batches and eat as you go, with a pinch of salt. Thin wagyu overcooks while you are still admiring it, so this act rewards attention and punishes photography. The beef leaves the pan richer than it found it. The Japanese Wagyu collection is where the slices live.
Act three: hotate, in everything that came before
Last, the scallops — Japanese Aomori sashimi-grade hotate, patted very dry, seared briefly in the pan the salmon and wagyu have seasoned between them. A minute or so a side; they should still be sweet and just-set in the middle. This is the course that justifies the whole game: the hotate picks up a whisper of everything that went before it, and tastes like the evening, concentrated. Serve all three acts' worth of eating with rice and something green and plain, and the challenge is complete — one pan, now finally allowed to be washed. The hotate are in the Seafood collection.
FAQ
Can I change the order?
The order is the recipe. Salmon must go first (it seasons the pan most gently), wagyu second (it enriches), hotate last (it gathers). Cooked the other way round, the salmon would pick up beef fat and the game would be over by act one.
What if I only have two of the three?
Salmon and hotate make a fine two-act version; wagyu and hotate likewise. What the challenge needs is a sequence, not a full cast — any two good ingredients, cooked in the right order, will teach you something.
How do I keep the kitchen from smelling of fish for days?
Ventilate while you cook, wipe the pan while it is still warm, and take the fish packaging straight out to the bin. Fresh fish, cooked the day it lands, smells of the sea for an evening — not of fish for a week.
