Yesterday, tempted as I was to cook shrimps the easiest way I know how, I decided to leaf through my recipe books in search of a shrimp dish that might excite me.  I chose Spicy Prawns from  my Quick and Easy – Enjoy Chinese Cuisine cookbook. The funny thing was, one of the key ingredients is hot bean paste and I only had red curry chili paste! What should have been a Chinese dish suddenly became a Thai dish! Haha!

I only used a teaspoon of (red curry) paste instead of 2 teaspoons per the original recipe. The dish still had some spicy kick to it because the chili paste was really spicy! If I had used 2 teaspoons of it, I doubt if my daughter would  enjoy the shrimps as much as she did.

Here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb  shrimps/prawns, deveined (do not shell the shrimps but remove the heads)
2 T  oil
1 clove  garlic, minced
1 t  ginger root, minced
2 t  hot bean paste or red curry chili paste
1/4 C  catsup
3 T  rice wine
1/2 t  sea salt
1 T  sugar
1/4 C  chopped green onions for garnish (as you can see in the photo, I didn’t have green onions. :D)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat the wok and oil.  Add the shrimps, garlic and ginger. Stir-fry for about a minute.

2. Add hot bean paste, catsup, wine, salt and sugar. Bring to a boil, cooking the shrimps for 1 minute. Toss in green onions.

I apologize for the lack of creativity in presenting the dish. I have nothing in the fridge I can use for garnish. :( Anyway, we all loved how the dish turned out. And it was so easy to make! Whether you use red bean paste or red curry chili paste, the resulting dish will be an instant favorite. My daughter even asked for seconds! I will have to double this recipe the next time I make it.

Cheers y’all! TGIF, y’all! You may now take off your invisible headgears, and take a sweet rest from all of life’s wrestling matches, figuratively speaking. :)

So here’s the dish that I came up with: Beer Bathed Shrimp.

A few beer-loving people just might be jealous of these shrimps.  Hee hee.  Where I come from – the Philippines – this dish is called Nilasing na Hipon.  This  is very easy to make and takes only a few minutes to cook.  But it would be wise  to give the shrimps a nice long beer bath, say 15 to 30 minutes, to give it time to absorb the flavor of the beer.  We got 5 different beers by the New Belgium Brewing Company:  Abbey, Trippel, Ranger, Fat Tire and Mighty Arrow.  The dish features the Mighty Arrow, hubby’s choice.

Here’s the recipe…

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb extra large shrimps (about 30 pcs.)
1/2 cup beer (Mighty Arrow)
4 T extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

2 T butter
1 thumb-sized ginger, sliced thinly
1 red onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp dried basil
2 chili peppers, sliced (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1.  In a large bowl, bathe (marinate!) the shrimps in a mixture of extra virgin olive oil, beer, salt and pepper.  Marinate for 15 to 30 minutes (upto an hour if you so desire). Drain the shrimps before cooking.
2.  Heat butter in a large skillet.  Saute the ginger until fragrant.  Add the onions, then the garlic. Saute until the onions are transparent and the garlic are slightly brown.
3.  Add the shrimps (without the marinade!) and dried basil and cook until the shrimps change in color.  Then add the red bell pepper slices and chilis and saute for about a minute.
4.  Transfer to a serving platter and enjoy!

Hubby and I both loved the kick from the chili peppers.  I cook a lot of shrimps in my kitchen, so much so that I’m happy to add this Beer Bathed Shrimp to my shrimp repertoire. ;)

Cheers, y’all!  Mabuhay! And I say that louder than echo blowers. ;)

Not too long ago, I featured a Shrimp Omelet Bento in one of my lunchable entries.  I am now finally making good on my promise to post the recipe.   This is a Korean recipe for Shrimp and Vegetable Omelet or Cheon. I only used shrimps to make the dish.  You can use oysters, fish fillets and tofu.  For the vegetables, you can use pumpkins and eggplants or whatever makes for good vegetable tempura.

INGREDIENTS:

1 lb extra large shrimps – peeled and deveined with tail on
salt and pepper
1/2 C flour for dusting

Batter:

2 whole eggs and 1 yolk
1 t salt
1 t crushed garlic
pepper

oil for frying

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Pat the shrimps dry and set aside.
2.  In a bowl, mix batter ingredients.
3.  Lightly dust the shrimp with flour and shake off the excess.
4.  Heat the oil in a skillet.  Dip the shrimps (or whatever seafood and vegetables you’ve chosen to use!) into the batter and place in the skillet.  Turn over once to cook both sides.
5.  As you’re cooking the shrimps/seafood, press out the excess water using a fork or a pair of chopsticks.
6.  Arrange the cooked shrimps/seafood (and vegetables) on a platter and serve with a dipping sauce mixture of soy sauce and vinegar.

I’ve done battered shrimp in a number of ways.  One can’t have too many recipes for deep-fried battered dishes!  I found this recipe , to be the simplest of them all to make.  If you’re one of those people who’s not very fond of overly-battered deep-fried food, this is perfect for you. *wink*

So there.  Something easy and simple for you to make tomorrow…meatless Friday.  Just a few more days and hubby and I will be able to enjoy meaty dishes again.  Although, I don’t really miss meat all that much, save for chicken and ground turkey.  The upside is we’ve sort of cleansed our systems naturally…without any help from colovexus. Hee hee.

Cheers and mabuhay! :)

I may not know artist-writer-chef Claude Tayag personally but I sure am glad I am now friends with his bottled pure crab fat!  I have a close family friend to thank for tipping me about this 7-0z, heavenly goodness in a bottle.  I have been crazy about crab fat since I was a little girl.  And I can’t thank God enough for parents and grandparents who fed my brother and me well!

On top of my “must buy” list when we came home to the Philippines for the holidays is bottled crab fat.  We bought 2 jars of Claude 9 Pure Crab Fat at Unimart.  At P332.50 (about $7.55) per 7 0z. (200 g) jar, it’s not exactly cheap.  But, and here’s the big but, it has no MSG, no preservatives and is 100% pure.  You can tell it’s pure crab fat all right because it’s not quite the bright orange the other bottled crab fat are.

I can have a fully satisfying  meal with just crab fat and rice mixed together and sprinkled with a little vinegar, weird as that may sound.  But last Monday, inspired by the Sugpo sa Taba ng Talangka we so enjoyed at Abe, I made Tilapia sa Taba ng Talangka…

Ideally, the tilapia fillets should be drowning in crab fat, just like the unforgettable prawn dish we had at Abe.  You have to understand though, that I have to make my 2 jars of crab fat last for as long as I can possibly can. Hee hee.

To make these, I simply seasoned the tilapia fillets with sea salt and freshly ground pepper and fried them in a pan brushed with a little bit of oil.  After both sides of the fillets were done, I transferred them to a serving platter and, using the same pan,  proceeded to heat some of the crab fat I’ll be needing to top the fillets with.  And that’s it!  It’s not a Michelin star worthy recipe, but…

I can have this everyday…but I won’t because I know what’s good for me.  If only a diet rich in crab fat will help me lose stubborn belly fat.  Wishful thinking. *sigh*

Mabuhay!

About two weeks ago, I received my weekly dose of recipes from one of the recipe sites I am subscribed to.  I often end up ignoring those newsletters and do not even bother opening them.  But when I did bother to read the newsletter that one time, I found that one of the featured recipes is Honey Walnut Shrimp.  I thought maybe it was about time I gave cooking that dish a try.

I’m glad I tried the recipe!  It was a success!  We all loved the dish and thought it was better than the ones served at Chinese buffet places.  Well, come to think of it, anyone’s bound to make a better version of the dishes served at Chinese buffet places here.

I found it interesting that the glutinous rice flour/Mochiko is used for the shrimp batter.  Other minor changes I made to the recipe, aside from substituting cashews for walnuts, are substituting light mayonnaise for regular mayo and using raw wild honey instead of regular honey.

Here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

1 cup water
2/3 cup white sugar
1/2 cup cashews
4 egg whites
2/3 cup glutinous rice flour
1/4 cup light mayonnaise
1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tablespoons raw wild honey
1 tablespoon canned sweetened condensed milk
1 cup vegetable oil for frying

DIRECTIONS:

1. In a small sauce pan, stir together the water and sugar  and bring to a boil. Add the cashews and boil for 2 minutes.  Drain and place the cashews on a cookie sheet to dry.
2. In a medium bowl, whip egg whites  until foamy. Stir in the glutinous rice flour until it has a pasty consistency. Over medium-high heat, heat the oil in a wok or a heavy deep skillet. Dip the shrimps one by one into the glutinous rice flour batter, and then fry in the hot oil until golden brown (about 5 minutes). With a slotted spoon, remove the shrimps from the wok/skillet and drain on paper towels.
3. Stir together the light mayonnaise, raw wild honey and sweetened condensed milk in a medium bowl. Add the shrimps and toss, making sure all shrimps are coated with the sauce. Sprinkle the candied cashews on top and serve with steamed rice.

There’s a voice in my head that tells me I should really stay away from dishes like this if I want to stay away from sites like ridbellyfat.net.  It’s just an occasional indulgence anyway.  And it’s just awfully hard to say say no to sinfully good food. :) *sigh*

Happy Hump Day, y’all!

Mabuhay!

As expected, these were a hit with hubby and our first grader!  Major beauty points for me yet again! :D

Fish Balls are a popular street food in the Philippines.  Practically everybody eats them, from students to graduates (that includes people on a medical job search) to  yuppies.  Everybody!  And don’t let anybody tell you otherwise! ;) Unfortunately, those street balls are highly processed and probably contain very little fish, and that’s if there’s any fish in them at all!  One funny thing about them is that they grow really big while being deep fried and then become flat almost as soon as they’re taken out of the hot hot oil.  Pffft!  Hee hee.

I posted the recipe with photo tutorial for Shrimp and Fish Balls more than a year ago.  That recipe was from a Chinese recipe book.  The recipe I used for these fish balls is the exact same recipe for Steamed Fish Paste Cake (Kamaboko), which is immediately below this entry.  I simply rolled the fish mixture into balls and deep fried ‘em.  What I would really like to get my hands on are the recipes for the dipping sauces of the street kind. Or am I better off not knowing what’s exactly in them?  Oh well.

It’s a long weekend for us!  And our restless feet will most probably take us somewhere fun.

Cheers, y’all!  Have a wonderful wonderful weekend!

I have to say, it’s going to taste a heck of a lot different from frozen ones, which are really more flour than fish.  This is fish and will taste like fish. ;)  It’s been a while since I posted a photo tutorial for a recipe as it is quite hard to be photographer and  home chef at the same time.  Hee hee.  I’m happy to have come up with a photo tutorial for this one with a little help from Hubby. ;)

INGREDIENTS:

18 oz (500g) white fish fillets, skinned
1 egg
1/2 T ginger juice
2-3 T cornstarch
salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1.  Grind the fish fillets in a food processor.  Add egg, ginger juice, cornstarch and salt.  Mix well.

2.  Divide into halves.

3.  Brush 2 12″ x 10″ sheets of aluminum foil with oil.

4.  Shape kamaboko paste into logs approximately 4.5″ in length and 2″ in diameter. (By all means, shape it into the length and diameter that you fancy!) Roll up and seal both ends.  Steam for 30 minutes over high heat.  Test for doneness by inserting a skewer into the center of the log.  If it comes out clean, then it’s done!

5.  Slice into 1/2″ rounds or thinner.

You might want to try what I did, which was to brown the logs in a pan coated with oil before slicing.

Next time, instead of forming the fish paste mixture into logs, I’ll form them into balls.  I just might do that tomorrow! ;)

Cheers, y’all!

These pictures should give you an idea just how much crawfish I’m talking about…

Bowl #1

Bowl #2

Bowl #3

Pot #1

Cooler #1 (Cooked)

Strainer #1 (Live)

Cooler #2 (Live)

I was not able to take a photo of another crawfish-filled huge pot that was cooking on the grill burner and another cooler with more live crawfish.  Didn’t I say it was a crawfeast?!  Hee hee.

We had some healthy side dishes to go with the abundant supply of crawfish.

Buttered vegetables…

and Corn on the Cob and Baby Potatoes

For dessert, we had leche flan, bread pudding, chocolate cream pie, apple pie and fresh fruits.

Whew!  Hubby and I were able to fill an empty grocery bag with crawfish shells.  The bowl we were getting crawfish from just kept getting refilled every time we thought we were done. We just couldn’t get enough of these cajun-spiced mudbugs!

Be sure to have your antihistamine or whatever diet supplement you’re taking handy when taking on such a huge gastronomic adventure. Anaphylactic shock is a party pooper, you know!  Hee hee.

This is crazy simple and takes only a fraction of a time to make.  I just seasoned both sides of the salmon fillets with a pinch of salt and pepper plus a drizzling of organic blue agave and voila, off to the hot grill pan they went!

I have to admit, I love those grill marks! :)  My daughter had this with brown rice and mayo for dipping.

By the way, if you don’t have blue agave, you may use wild raw honey as substitute.

How’s that for another healthy meal option?  That’s exactly how you will avoid having to use Lipofuze.  ;)

Happy Memorial Weekend, y’all!  Cheers!

I used to be guilty of buying frozen fish sticks and chicken nuggets for my daughter’s school lunch when she was in pre-school.  I know, shame on me!  But I’m smarter now and so much more conscious of what I pack in her lunch bag and what I cook for the family. *wink*

The “fish sticks” I ended up making aren’t exactly sticks because they are about twice the size, if not bigger, of the regular fish sticks.  I simply cut the thick cod fish fillets into smaller pieces, seasoned them with sea salt, fresh ground pepper and Emeril’s essence and covered them in whole wheat bread crumbs.   I cooked them in a non-stick pan, which was coated with a thin layer of cooking spray.  That’s it!  Simple. Easy. Healthy.  They should complement the hours you spend at your home gyms.

I packed the fish fillet  with a mixture of brown and white rice. I’ve been cooking equal parts of brown and white rice until the little munchkin’s taste buds fully adjusts to the taste of brown rice, which shouldn’t be long now.  For her dipping sauce, the little girl requested for mayo mixed with a little bit of Kikkoman Ponzu, a sample I received as part of the FoodBuzz Tastemaker Program. ;)

I used to worry about my little munchkin not wanting to eat rice in school unless it’s part of sushi.  As you can see, I need not worry about that anymore.  Surprise, surprise, she’s been eating rice with her favorite home-cooked dishes in school. Yeah!