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…
Continue reading 'Salmon and tomato soup' »
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.
Continue reading 'Pan-fried kitang with tofu-egg salsa' »
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.
Continue reading 'Tilapia with shredded corn and coconut cream' »
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.
Continue reading 'Baked mussels with butter and cheese' »
Sardines frittata in tortilla
Beef and chicken are not the only things you can use to stuff flour tortillas. A tortilla is a bread and anything that goes well with bread will taste delicious with tortilla. I bought a bag of flour tortilla a week ago intending to stuff them with chicken a la king. Sadly, the chicken a la king was gone before I could use it as stuffing. The package says the tortillas won’t be any good after tomorrow so I decided to create something that would be as radical a filling as chicken a la king.
The title says I stuffed the tortillas with sardines frittata but that title doesn’t really do justice to the filling. Read on to understand what I mean.
Continue reading 'Sardines frittata in tortilla' »
Talakitok (trevally) steaks with homemade pesto
Instead of cooking the fish separately and tossing them with the pesto afterwards, I cooked the fish steaks in the pesto over low heat. The result? Fish meat that absorbed the saltiness and garlicky flavor of the pesto. And, despite the amount of oil in the sauce, I didn’t have to worry about cholesterol because I used extra virgin olive oil to make the pesto. We were pouring the sauce over the rice and mixing it in. Darn, it was good. 
Continue reading 'Talakitok (trevally) steaks with homemade pesto' »
No meat during Lent?
I am posting this as a future entry because I will be going away with my family for a week. It is the afternoon of March 16, Sunday, as I post this but this entry goes live on Tuesday morning.
It is Lent and a lot of people go meatless during this time. There are a lot of seafood recipes in the archive and the ones in the photos below are some of them. Just click on the photos to view the recipes.
Continue reading 'No meat during Lent?' »
Mackerel frittata
Fourth day without tap water and I’m losing my inspiration to cook. How can I get inspired when the primary concern is to use the least number of kitchen utensils so that minimal water is needed for the clean-up afterwards? That’s what happens when you try to survive with stored water and you have no idea when the next supply will come. So, last Saturday, while mainstream media and the internet were still buzzing with the latest political fiasco in the Philippines, I tried to cook the tastiest lunch that I could manage under the circumstances.
I cooked this mackerel frittata using a chopping board, a knife, a vegetable peeler, a can opener, a frying pan, a bowl and a spatula. Even I was amazed at how well it turned out — firm but still soft and very tasty. The secret? I beat the eggs WITH the liquid from the canned mackerel. That made all the difference.
Continue reading 'Mackerel frittata' »
