'Fish & other seafood' archive

Oven-steamed whole fish

Some people think it’s a bad idea to overpower fish with too much seasonings and spices. In fact, true blue fish lovers swear that fresh fish is best eaten right out of the sea with the taste of sea salt still in it. It’s a code I can subscribe to except that I don’t enjoy the strong fishy smell. I like the natural flavors of fish in all their undiluted glory but the smell can be too much. So, I add a lot of ginger to my fish. That set me wondering. See, when I cook steamed whole fish, I’ve often added the usual Asian seasonings and aromatics to it — light soy sauce, garlic… the works. If I just added ginger and some greens, and perhaps a small amount of sesame seed oil to heighten the flavor, will the steamed whole fish taste better if there aren’t too many seasonings and herbs drowning the natural flavors of the fish?

Braised tilapia

To braise means to cook in a little sauce that gets absorbed by the seafood or meat turning it highly flavorful. In Asia, the sauce in which fish, chicken or meat is braised is always supplemented with herbs, spices and aromatics. So, basically, you put some sauce in the pan, you add the herbs, spices and aromatics, you add the fish, chicken or meat, you cover the pan and leave everything to simmer.

It’s so simple, one wonders why not many people take advantage of the braising method of cooking.

Budget cooking part 2 (fish and vegetables frittata)

We know it as torta; it is called omelet in the West. I simmer the fish, flake the flesh, mix it with vegetables and eggs, then cook the mixture in a little oil. The 800 grams of fish, mixed with two potatoes, a carrot, an onion, a few cloves of garlic and six eggs resulted in two large frittatas. We ate one for dinner a few nights ago; we ate the second one for lunch the following day. How’s that for cooking on a budget?

Salmon and tomato soup

We’re not fully operational yet in our new kitchen. Although the unpacking is almost done, we had been cooking on a borrowed “super kalan” for the past few days while waiting for the new cooking range to be delivered…

Not that we’ve been eating badly. It’s a pain cooking with one stove but we manage, believe me. For instance, for lunch yesterday, we had a delicious soup made with salmon head, fresh tomatoes and basil picked from the garden…

Tuna belly fillets with garlic and rosemary

The complete title of this entry should be tuna belly fillets with garlic and rosemary served with tomyao but that’s a pretty long title so I used the shorter version. The life of this dish depends largely on the proper seasoning of the fish fillets. If you try to scrimp thinking that salt and pepper will be enough, you’ll miss the entire experience.

It is not absolutely essential to serve this dish with tomyao but I was fortunate enough to buy a tray of the stuff at Robinson’s Supermarket recently. Any green salad can accompany the fish but…

Pan-fried kitang with tofu-egg salsa

Kitang is a fish. What its scientific name is or by whatever other name it goes by is something I have yet to discover. It was the favorite fish of my late uncle Ben who would have grilled kitang almost every day after he was obliged to go on a low-fat, low-salt and low-sugar diet. Kitang is not always available in the market and the times that it is, the price doesn’t make it very attractive. When I found kitang today at Shopwise for P198.00 per kilo, I choose the largest one and cooked it for lunch along with the chicken and misua soup.

Tilapia with shredded corn and coconut cream

One of the dishes we really enjoy at President Restaurant in Chinatown is the fish fillets with corn sauce. I’ve done a chowder version of that dish in the past and I called it talakitok belly and corn chowder. It was good, no doubt, but I discovered that if the flour and butter based sauce is replaced with coconut cream, it’s even better. More than that, if you use shredded fresh corn instead of canned corn kernels, the sauce becomes even thicker and richer because of the starch. If the yellows and whites make the dish look too boring, add some greens and you not only make the dish more nutritious, it becomes more visually appealing as well.

Baked mussels with butter and cheese

The night I made the baked mussels with olive oil, garlic and cheese, my daughter Sam slept through dinner and missed the event. I did set aside some of the baked mussels for her but by the time she got up the following morning, the mussels had spoiled. In the summer heat, that wasn’t surprising. So I promised her I’d make another batch but she should make sure to stay awake for dinner.

Instead of olive oil, I used butter this time. Sam is not a big fan of olive oil and I thought that having missed the previous batch of baked mussels, I’d go all the way and please her so she’d stop feeling bad about what she missed.

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House On A Hill

Chicken dishes

• Chicken, ham and potatoes pie
• Chicken and straw mushrooms in coconut milk
• Pollo con queso
• Turkey and potato salad
• Chicken and macaroni salad
• Lumpiang pabo (turkey spring rolls)
• Bacon-wrapped chicken livers
• Spaghetti, ham and Alfredo sauce
• Chicken and mangoes in yogurt
• Chicken & Broccoli Pasta

Superb soups

• Real cream of mushroom soup
• Bulalo (beef bone marrow) noodle soup
• Beef, misua and upo soup
• Creamed cabbage soup
• Creamed broccoli and potato soup
• Budget cooking, part 1 (macaroni soup)
• Kalabasa (squash) and potato soup
• Fish head soup with coconut cream
• Chicken and misua soup, version 2
• Chicken soup for a rainy day