Fish & seafood

• No meat during Lent?
• Sweet and spicy talakitok in a flash
• Fish fillet with corn sauce
• Sardines frittata in tortilla
• Budget cooking part 2 (fish and vegetables frittata)
• Pasta with clams in red wine sauce
• Chili garlic shrimps with coriander paste and Kecap Manis
• Baked fish and spinach
• Baked mussels with butter and cheese
• Bangus (milkfish) fritters, v. 2

Mighty meaty

• Low-fat, down-sized burgers
• Cliff sandwiches
• Korean beef stew a la Kimchi
• Beef stroganoff
• Baby back ribs and mushrooms a la teriyaki
• Valentine’s Day breakfast 1: German corned beef, cabbage and mushroom soup
• Pork, spinach and Pinoy pesto
• Pork and beans
• Tequila Pork Loin
• Pork and chicken in coco milk and pesto

Healthy veggies

• Baked stuffed potatoes
• Capsicum halves stuffed with chicken, cheese and vegetables
• Cooking for Father’s Day? Here’s an idea.
• Mashed potatoes and kalabasa (squash)
• Beef and broccoli leaves
• Fried chicken and vegetable salad
• Buttered pork and vegetables
• Baked pompano and red cabbage
• Fried beef brisket and potatoes with sour cream
• Salmon salad with mango-lemon dressing

Nasi goreng (fried rice)

Back in college, there was a restaurant in the Diliman area called Rasa Singapura. That was where I had my first taste of nasi goreng. It is tempting to categorize this entry under “Singaporean recipes” but nasi goreng more properly belongs to Malaysian and Indonesian cuisines. It is fried rice cooked in much the same way as any Chinese-style fried rice except that the most popular versions of this dish include a little bit of shrimp paste — belacan (sometimes, belachan) to Malaysians; bagoong to us Filipinos. The desire to cook nasi goreng was a good excuse to buy a bottle of bagoong, something I don’t touch because of an allergy to crustaceans. But my allergy is no reason why my husband and kids cannot enjoy this wonderful Southeast Asian dish.

You will find many, many variations of nasi goreng. It is, after all, a dish that often makes use of leftover rice, meat, seafood and vegetables. The following recipe was adapted from Homestyle Malay Cooking, a part of the Periplus Mini Cookbooks series.

Serves 3.

Ingredients :

4 cups of cooked rice (room temperature or chilled)
12 medium-sized shrimps, shelled and veins removed
3 boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch cubes
12 to 15 string beans (I used baguio beans)
half a head of garlic
2 finger chilis
1 onion
1 stalk of lemongrass (light portion only)
1/2 tsp. of shrimp paste
1 tsp. of salt (or to taste)
freshly ground pepper (optional but recommended for added aroma)
4-6 tbsps. of cooking oil

Cooking procedure :

Slit the chilis lengthwise and scrape off the seeds. Chop.

Crush the garlic and discard the skins. Peel and chop the onion. Peel the outer layers of the lemongrass, discard then thinly slice the tender portion.

Trim the ends and edges of the beans and cut into half-inch lengths.

Transfer the chilis, lemongrass, garlic and onion to a mortar, add a little oil, and grind with a pestle. Alternatively, place in a blender, pour in the oil and pulse several times to form a paste.

Transfer the paste to a wok (or frying pan) and cook over medium heat until the oil separates from the semi-solids (or saute the paste in oil if you ground it in a mortar). Turn the heat to high, add the cubed chicken and cook, stirring, for about five minutes. Add the shrimps and cook for another minute. Add the beans. Season with salt, pepper and bagoong. Cook for an additional minute.

Add the rice, stir well, and cook until heated through.

In the mood for more food?

1. Gizzard, cashew nuts and peas stir-fry
2. Baked eggplants with bacon and cheese
3. Beef and hofan soup
4. Anchovies and eggs mish-mash
5. Dan Eric’s: ice cream without corporate pricing
6. Fazoli’s: Italian food at Eastwood City
7. Pork, okra, squash and eggplants in sour cream
8. Suman
9. Lumpiang tinapa at mangga (smoked fish and mango spring rolls)
10. Patis (fermented fish sauce)