Fish Steak

Today's lunch was fish steak and ensaladang talong. 

My mother's latest kitchen gadget is an air fryer, which reminds me of Star Trek, because you just push buttons and your food is cooked. Well, kind of. I used the air fryer on the eggplant, for 7 minutes total at 180º C. After cooking, take the eggplant out of the air fryer, slice in half (lengthwise) and scrape off the meat from the skin onto a bowl with cubed tomatoes and onions. Dilute vinegar in water to taste and pour on salad.

Today's experiment included one eggplant, two tomatoes, two onions. Realization: next time maintain ratio of one is to one.

For the main dish, I chanced upon a beautiful Tanigue fish in the freezer. First, I spread a dab of olive oil on the oven toaster pan before putting the fish in. Then soy sauce, water and calamansi juice are mixed in a small bowl (I started with equal parts soy sauce and water with two calamansi). About two-thirds of this sauce is used to cover the fish. Set oven toaster to its maximum 15 minutes.

I interrupted this cooking time to add sliced onions at the 8 minute mark. After the first 15 minutes, I added another 8 minutes since the fish seemed half-cooked. Since I was experimenting and still felt unsure of the cook even after 23 minutes, I turned over the fish and added another 3 minutes. At each interruption, I would add the leftover soy sauce mix (diluted with more water each time) and make sure the fish and onions were sufficiently covered to avoid burning. 

Finally, I had to pinch off a piece of the fish just to reassure myself it was really cooked. It was. So, lunch is served.

Potato Omelette

I like omelettes for breakfast. For this one, used two small potatoes and two eggs. Cubed the potatoes (for shorter cooking time) and then fried them. Beat the eggs and seasoned according to taste (basic salt and pepper, optional rosemary, sage and/or thyme). Poured eggs over the potatoes and allowed time to cook. Am not really an expert at flipping so just turned over sections of the omelette until everything was cooked. Breakfast is served!

Ten days later, had omelette again. This time, incorporated leftover lunch: cubed the carrots and added the eggplant and ground beef. It was almost like torta, but with the ingredients in different proportions. Goes well with ketchup. 

110615 Breakfast

One of the first things I learned to do in the kitchen: dip bread in beaten eggs until completely covered then allow to toast on frying pan smeared with butter until golden brown. Easy peasy breakfast. It's not the traditional sweet version of French toast served with jam because I like mine savory. Eggs are seasoned with salt, pepper, and rosemary. The toast is served with cheese, parmesan or otherwise. Good start to a good day. 

220615 Pork Chop

Going out of my comfort zone, I tried frying a pork chop for lunch the other day. Looking up recipes online, I decided to go with the simplest step mentioned in passing at this site, which is to season the meat with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Afterwards, I simply put on the pan and let it fry. 

The final result was surprisingly flavorful and tender, though I couldn't quite get the pork skin right. Maybe next time. 

Fish Fillet - Third Way

Allow fillet to defrost before putting it in aluminum. Normally would use foil but found this tray and reused it. It was a perfect fit for both fish fillet and oven toaster. 

Crush some peanuts. For lack of a mortar and pestle, a spoon and ceramic bowl does the trick. Position the spoon above a few peanuts and apply just enough pressure to crush without scattering them all over the place. This amount consists of three packs of Happy peanuts (you might want to use more if your fillet is bigger). It adds just a bit of crunch to the dish.

Mix peanuts in enough mayonnaise to cover the fish, maybe three to five spoonfuls. Spread mixture over fish.

Sprinkle parmesan cheese and cook in your oven toaster. Tried it on high (450 degrees) for five minutes but the cheese began to burn so turned the heat down to 350 degrees for the next ten minutes. Quite yummy. 

A variant:

The picture above is basically the same recipe but this time,
some pistachio was mixed with the peanuts. Oven toaster was
set at 350 degrees for twenty minutes. Found this did not
quite have the same toasty effect on the cheese so will
keep the five minutes on high for the next time.

Fish Fillet - Two Ways

There is a nice fish fillet at the supermarket that lends itself so easily to the novice cook. I've done two versions: steamed and fried. My sister likes to cover it up with mayo and parmesan cheese and put it in the oven toaster. Quite yummy.

For the steamed version, slice the fillet and season with salt, pepper, sage, rosemary and thyme. Place the fillets in the steamer (rice cooker); and allow to cook. It would be nice to be able to cook rice at the same time and hit two birds with one stone. However, rice cooks rather quickly, which could leave your fish almost cooked but not quite; so the safer route is to cook rice and fish separately.

I actually prefer the fried version. Beat an egg and season to taste (salt, herbs). Dip the fish slices in the egg and then fry.

Serve with sweet chili sauce or mayonnaise. Bon apetit!

290515 Dinner

Leftover beef and broccoli make yummy rice toppings. Dinner is served.