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.