Cream Dory with Butter and Lemon Sauce

I got this recipe online: http://www.marketmanila.com/archives/cream-dory-with-butter-and-lemon-sauce. This will give you a decent balance in between fat and healthy ingredients.  I may have taken a brief vacation from blogging as I went up to Baguio for the weekend with the family and now I'm back!!!




The cream dory is imported frozen and it is a pretty close tasting equivalent for western white fish fillets. It is also reasonably priced when compared to ordering the dish in a restaurant. A large fillet might run you PHP150 or so. Here is a really easy recipe. Make sure your fish fillet is thawed (if using frozen) and the skin surface is dry (use a paper towel to dab the fish). Just before cooking, dredge the fish fillet in a mixture of flour with some sea salt and cracked black pepper. Remove excess flour. In a large pan with room for all your fillets heat up some olive oil and a generous chunk of butter…

Once brown, fry the fish fillets for just a minute or so on each side until just cooked.Do not overcook. Remove the fish fillets and place on a serving platter or on individual plates. Return pan to the heat and add the juice of 1-2 lemons and another large chunk of butter. As soon as the butter has melted, pour this over the fish fillets. You can serve this with some peeled small new potatoes that have been boiled until just cooked. If you want some color, sprinkle some finely chopped Italian parsley. I like to take the boiled potatoes and coat them in the remaining fat/oil in the fish pan and sprinkle them with salt and pepper before adding them to the fish. Serve this with a steamed vegetable side dish such as asparagus or with a green salad and you have a really easy, quick and delicious meal. Do not be concerned if the sauce seems to have black bits…it’s just the butter/flour that has burned (on purpose).Once brown, fry the fish fillets for just a minute or so on each side until just cooked.

Mechado

This is actually a friend's family recipe that I learned years ago.  I published the Mechado Marinade yesterday since I usually marinate this for a whole day.  Let me share with you how that's done again.

Mechado Marinade
1 kilo beef cut into cubes (preferably nape part but brisket will also do)
1 clove garlic (chopped)
Soy Sauce
Worcestershire Sauce (I usually use Lea Perrins)
5 tsps. Kalamansi juice
A little bit of pepper

*Marinate for an hour to a whole day

Ingredients:
1 clove garlic (chopped)
1 large red onion (chopped)
2 tbsp. margarine
2 tsp. pickle relish
115 g tomato sauce
1 can sliced mushrooms

Saute the garlic in margarine until golden brown.  Add the onions and saute until clear in color.  Put in the marinated beef.  Simmer for 5 minutes then add the rest of the marinade.  Add the pickle relish and tomato sauce and simmer until tender.  Add the mushrooms and simmer for 5 minutes more.  Serve hot.

Most of you would probably use a pressure cooker for this, thus, it would be more advisable to marinate the beef for a whole day.  If you choose to do it the traditional style, it would take a total of three hours to cook this dish until tender.

Serves 5-6.

I apologize... Before I can even take a photo of the finished product, my friends devoured everything to the last bite!

Mechado Marinade

Last Sunday, I had to put off going to the grocery in the evening because we had a garage sale at home the whole day.  I never thought I would find the perfect beef part for Mechado.  I have been asking for the nape part like every single time I go to the grocery and at noon, they always say that they are out.  I was really suprised to find that part at 8 in the evening!  So, now, I will show you a glimpse of what to watch out for tomorrow.  

All you have to do with these beef cubes (1 kilo) is to marinate them in soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce (2 tbsp.), around 5 pieces of kalamansi, a little bit of pepper and chopped garlic (1 whole).  It's okay to marinate it for just an hour but I usually do it for a whole day and not cook it until the following day while keeping it in the Fridge.  So, here's the marinated meat for your reference.  I will have the full recipe to you by tomorrow together with a photo of the finished product.  Stay tuned!!! 

Kung Po Chicken

This recipe is taken from the cookbook entitled "Wok" by Wendy Switser. I got this from Fully-Booked in Bonifacio High Street. I've tried a lot of recipes here last year and they came out great! So, for tonight, I'm having this for dinner. My roommate Azl has been asking for this for the longest time. So this is it!

Ingredients:

3 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into small chunks

2 tsp. grated root ginger or ginger puree

1 tbsp. light soy sauce

1 tsp. cornstarch

5 spring onions

100 g unsalted, unroasted peanuts

3 dried red chillies, deseeded and chopped

2 tbsp. groundnut oil

1/2 tsp. caster sugar

2 tsp. rice vinegar

1. Put the chicken in a bowl. Whisk together the ginger, soy sauce and cornstarch until smooth, pour over the chicken and stir until evenly coated. Set aside in the fridge to marinate for at least an hour.

2. Trim the spring onions. Remove the green tops from two of them and chop finely. Slice the rest of these two onions and the other onions into 2.5 cm lengths.

3. Heat the oil in a wok and stir-fry the peanuts over high heat for 1 minute or until golden. Drain the nuts from the wok with a slotted spoon and set aside.

4. Lower the heat to medium-high, add the chicken with its marinade and sliced spring onions and stir-fry for 3 minutes. Add the nuts and chillies, sprinkle over the sugar and rice vinegar and toss together over the heat for 2 minutes.

5. Sprinkle over the chopped spring onion tops and serve at once with rice or egg noodles.

*Not that the dried chillies make this a pretty hot dish so reduce the quantity if you prefer or add 1 medium red chilli, deseeded and very finely chopped.

Cooking from Sichuan in western China is hotter and spicier than the sweet-sour stir-fries of Cantonese cuisine, and this combination of stir-fried chicken, chillies and peanuts is one of the region's most popular dishes.

By the way, I had to skin the chicken breasts and I just seasoned the chicken skin with salt and pepper and deep fry!  So good when dipped in vinegar with chillis and a perfect beer match!

Ginataang Tilapia

This was what I cooked yesterday based on an online recipe that I found: http://kumain.com/ginataang-tilapia/. I just tweaked it a bit because I only cooked for four people. It turned out really good!!!!

Ingredients

3 pieces Tilapia (cleaned and scaled)

1 clove garlic (crushed)

1 medium red onion (chopped)

1 red bell pepper (sliced)

1 green bell pepper (sliced)

1 small ginger (sliced)

1 big eggplant (cut into eight)

1/4 squash (sliced)

1 medium ampalaya – bitter gourd – (sliced)

Salt to taste

1 cups coconut milk

1/2 cup vinegar

Instructions

In a casserole, arrange fish, ginger and garlic. Pour in vinegar and coconut milk. Boil for five minutes. Add squash and eggplant and cook until almost done. Add onions, red and green peppers and ampalaya (bitter gourd). Season with salt. Cook until vegetables are done. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Arroz a la Cubana

Why did I only start doing this now. I should've thought about this a long time ago as I have been experimenting on recipes from cookbooks, family recipes, online recipes, etc. Yesterday, I cooked Ginataang Tilapia and it turned out really good! I'll just post another blog about that when I decide to cook that again because I forgot to take pictures.

Tonight, I had Arroz a la Cubana for dinner. I learned this from my mom a long time ago. I just adjusted this according to my own taste buds.

Ingredients:

Steamed Rice

1/4 Kilo Ground Beef

Garlic (minced)

Medium Onion (chopped)

1 large tomato (chopped)

30 g Raisins

3 pieces Saging na Saba each sliced into three and fried

115 g Tomato Sauce

2 eggs cooked sunny-side up

1 medium carrot (chopped)

1 medium potato (chopped)

2 tbsp. olive oil

Salt & Pepper to taste

Saute the garlic, onions tomatoes and beef in olive oil until cooked. Add the carrots and potatoes and cook until tender. Add the tomato sauce and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Then, add the raisins. Add salt and pepper (you can also add a beef cube if preferred).

Put the steamed rice in a bowl. Top it with the beef, eggs and saging na saba as in the photos.

Serves 5-6.