This is Camaron Rebosado, shrimps dipped in batter then deep fried.  Serve with hot rice and sweet chili sauce and you’re pretty much a done deal.

Simple, isn’t it!  But if you want to go the extra mile, you can transform the exact same dish above into this…

…Sweet and Sour Shrimp.  That’s quite a nice trick don’t you think?  Only, it takes more than just a snap of the fingers.  :D  It looks way better than the Sweet and Sour Fish I made a while back.  Maybe because this time, the red and green peppers were cut properly.

To make the Sweet and Sour Shrimp, I used the same recipe for the Sweet and Sour Fish.  For the batter, I normally use my Camaron Rebosado batter mix.  But this time, I found what I believe is a better batter mix.  And I didn’t even have to use eggs. *wink*

Without further ado, here’s the recipe:

Sweet and Sour Sauce

2 carrots, thinly sliced diagonally

1/2 c water

1 - 1 1/2 lbs large shrimps

1/2 c packed brown sugar

1/3 c vinegar

2 tbsp cornstarch

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 can (13 1/2 oz_ pineapple chunks

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

Shrimp Batter

3/4 c water

2/3 c flour

1 1/4 tsp salt

1/2 baking powder

* Heat carrots and water to boiling.  Cover and cook until crisp tender (about 8-10 minutes).

* In a saucepan, mix brown sugar, vinegar, cornstarch and soy sauce.

* Stir in carrots (with liquid), pineapple (with liquid), and the green and red bell peppers.

* Heat to boiling, stirring constantly.  Boil and stir for 1 minute then keep warm.

* Dip shrimps into batter with tongs then fry a few pieces at a time until golden brown.  Drain on paper towels.

* Arrange the shrimps on a platter.

* Pour the sauce over the shrimps.  Serve with hot rice.

Next time I whip up this dish, I might just consider taking an appetite suppressant to avoid over eating! Kidding.

I have one more WW entry: Playing Catch at the Pumpkin Patch.

Happy Wednesday!

In the Philippines, hotdogs on sticks are a common party fare.

Photo Credit:  Photo by Owee Salva, taken on Abby’s 1st birthday party

I miss red hotdogs!  And no, these weren’t painted in a paint booth. I haven’t had red hotdogs in over a year now.  While they are available at the Asian supermarket, practicality just triumphs all the time.  Natural colored hotdogs are so much cheaper!

oOo

I ordered Grilled Shrimp Skewers at Denny’s for dinner a few hours ago, for La.Pi.S. purposes.  Oh, and because grilled shrimps are far healthier than most of the items on the Denny’s menu. *wink* The shrimp skewers were served on vegetable rice pilaf.  I had a side of mixed veggies, too!

I’m not a big Denny’s fan because the last 3 or 4 times we ate there, the food I ordered just doesn’t come up to par.  I don’t know if it’s because we were in good company tonight, but I really enjoyed everything that was on my plate.

oOo

I made turkey meatballs for lunch last Thursday.  It’s ketchup you see on the silicone cup but I found out that sweet and spicy sauce was a better match.

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 2 tablespoons bread crumbs
• warm milk, about 3 tablespoons
• 1/2 cup cream
• 1 egg
• salt & pepper
• 1 egg yolk

Preparation:

Soften bread crumbs with milk and add to meat. Add cream and mix. Add egg and seasonings and stir. Roll into balls and fry.  Serve with your favorite dipping sauce.  Hubby preferred ketchup.  As I said, I liked the Thai sweet and spicy sauce.

Enjoy what’s left of the weekend and have a great week ahead!  Cheers!

There are two soup dishes from the Philippines, which, I dare say, are the top 2 national favorites:  sinigang (a sour soup that is usually tamarind based) and nilaga (boiled beef with vegetables - pechay and potatoes).

Yesterday, a busy day, I decided to cook sinigang na bangus (milkfish in tamarind broth) for lunch.  The fact that it only takes about 30 minutes to cook (it might be longer if using pork instead of fish) just makes this soup-slash-viand all the more appealing.

I have to admit that I cheated in making this dish.  I sought the help of Knorr Tamarind Soup Base Mix.  Hee hee.  *wink*  I hope this little admission of guilt doesn’t make my Nanay turn in her grave.  Tamarind isn’t always availalble in the Asian supermarket we go to.  My Mom and I have tried using lime as our sour soup base, but it just wasn’t the same.

It’s been a while since we’ve had sinigang.  Abby loved it and constantly asked to be served extra green beans (no stringbeans at the supermarket so green beans it was for us!).  With only Hubby, Abby and me partaking of the sinigang, I get to have the fish head (back home, it’s my Mom who has that privelege.).  Woot!

With cooler weather making it’s way to our part of the world soon, it looks like we’ll be having sinigang a little more often.

“You’ll forget the sun in his jealous sky; As we eat the foods of gold.” Hee hee. Sorry, Sting!  I just had to borrow these two lines from one of your hit songs.

This week’s Lasang Pinoy, Sundays’ theme is “Fried/Golden”.  Let’s face it, a lot of the best tasting, tummy tickling, finger-licking foods out there are the ones which are fried to a golden brown.  Why?  I don’t know really.  Sad as it may seem, but there’s something about greasy, sinful food that just appeals to everyone who couldn’t care less about calories, fats and slimp pants.  And that includes this blogger. Hee hee.

Here are some homemade goldies…

Camaron Rebosado (100% Made from Scratch)

Breaded Pork Chop (I used a storebought breading mix for this one!)

Here are golden food treasures from fastfoods and restaurants…

French Fries and Chicken Nuggets

Jollibee Fried Chicken (Give me some skin!)

Mixed Tempura

It’s a good thing that I’m still much too full to be craving any of the above listed food.  That might not be the case a few hours from now.  Hee hee hee.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend, y’all!

My favorite fish is Lapu-Lapu (Grouper).  It’s just too bad that this fish has become so expensive in the Philippines that it has become a fish reserved for special occasions.  Well, fresh seafood is expensive here, too!  My Nanay (maternal grandmother), cooks lapu-lapu in a frufru free manner…by steaming.  She simply rubs some salt on the fish and squeezes a few pieces of calamansi on it(the Philippine lime).  That’s it.  The fish can also be marinated in soy sauce and calamansi.  We use mayonaisse as dip.  It’s perfect with hot rice!

I am so clueless about fish varieties.  I totally forgot what this fish is called.  Can anybody tell me? :D  I’ll be better at it…promise.

I don’t usually garnish my steamed fish to look like Nemo.  Hee hee!  I only did this once and that was a long time ago.  Hubby and Abby tend to get a little impatient. :D  So I now, I simply lay the fish on a serving plate straight from the steamer.  No more garnishings!  Less work, too!

Shrimp is on the top of our favorite seafood list.  I cook it in a very simply way, something I’ve learned from my grandmother and my Mom.  I place the shrimps in a big wok, season them with salt and then drown them in Sprite or Seven-Up.  I set the fire on high and wait for the shrimps to turn orange, afterwhich I take them out of their Sprite bath right away.  Otherwise, they will overcook and peeling them will become such a chore.  Hee hee.

Shrimp cooked in Sprite/Seven-Up

When I’m not feeling overly lazy, I make Camaron Rebosado with the shrimps, that is, dip them in batter and then deep fry.  This is also a family favorite.

Camaron Rebosado

I know, these are all too simple.  If you have any suggestions, I’m very willing to give them a try.  I’d very much love to be at The Great American Seafood Cook off, not as a “participant”, but as a spectator.  It’s going to be held at the New Orleans Morial Convention Center within the Louisiana Foodservice EXPO and the Gulf Coast Seafood Pavilion from August 2-3.  I’m sure I’ll be able to pick up a lot of new ways of cooking my favorite seafood.  I might as well be able to take advantage of whatever seafood is available here in Austin and turn them into a gastronomic delight.  I think that’s what they call “positiveness of domestic seafood sustainability.” 

One dish that will always remind me of my nieces and nephew back home is Camaron Rebosado.  Next to sweet and sour pork, this is one of their favorite dishes to order whenever we go out for Chinese food.  I tried to impress my Mom by making some for her when she visited us a couple of months ago.  And I did get her seal of approval.  Hahaha!  That always means a lot to me.

I don’t make the sweet and sour dipping sauce from scratch.  I buy the bottled one from the Asian store.  But if you happen to be a make from scratch purist, I’m including a recipe for the sweet and sour sauce as well.

Ingredients:

• 1 kilo long shrimps (pealed and deveined; leave the tail
• pinch of salt and pepper
• 2 teaspoons calamansi juice

For the batter:

• 2 whole eggs (slightly beaten)
• 1 cup cold water (this varies)
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• salt
• oil

Sweet & Sour Sauce :

• 2 cups pineapple juice
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons banana catsup
• 2 teaspoons hot sauce
• salt to taste
• 3 teaspoons cornstarch diluted in 1 tablespoon of water

1. Cut not-so-deep slits on the body of the shrimp to keep them straight during frying. 
2. Marinate shrimps in slate & pepper and calamansi.
3. In a bowl, mix water and egg.  Add in baking powder, flour and salt.  Mix well.
4. In a deep fryer, heat oil.
5. Dip shrimps in batter, let drip and deep fry in hot cooking oil until golden and crispy.
6. In a sauce pot, mix pineapple juice, sugar, catsup, hot sauce and salt.
7. Bring to a boil and add cornstarch mixture, thicken.
8. Serve shrimp with sweet & sour sauce….and hot rice!

Obviously, I didn’t follow #1.  The shrimps are all curled up.  :P  I hope to make these for my nieces and nephew the very first chance I get…or I’ll just take them to the nearest Chinese restaurant.  Hee hee!