Basa Fish Fillet cooked in Lemon sauce

03/19/201203/20/2012 | Doyd

Something smells fishy and savory…

I love fish. Don’t you?

Instead of eating red meat or poultry, I’d rather eat seafood. I enjoy the light flavor and the variety of dishes I can make out of the many kind of seafood in the market.

I grew up eating fish because my Dad loves to eat fish. Growing up, I remember going to the “Palengke” or wet market. Fresh caught fish, shellfish, octopus, crustaceans and even sea cucumbers and sea urchins can be bought. It’s simply a delight learning easy fish recipes but what makes me extra happy about this particular recipe is that my family gave me a high score on this 🙂

Ingredients:

3 pcs. Basa fish fillet
3 tbsp. Capers, washed and drained
1 Lemon
Ginger, julienned
Shallots. thinly sliced
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Cut the Basa fish fillet into bite sizes. Cut the lemon in half. Juice half of the lemon while slicing the other half into very thin round slices.

Into a non-stick pan, heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Saute the ginger and shallots until fragrant. Add the fish, some salt and pepper, the capers and the sliced lemon. Cook for 2-3 minutes on medium high heat. Add in the lemon juice and drizzle with some more olive oil. Cover the pan and cook for another minute.

Very easy!!!!

Kale Stir-Fry

03/14/2012 | Doyd

I first learned about Kale when I was reading recipes for baby food back in 2004 when our eldest daughter was still a baby. It was intimidating at first because I never used or tasted this type of vegetable which was not available at the local markets when I was growing up in Manila. That’s why in my many years of learning to cook, I barely had any interest with Kale.

Making baby food out of Kale was challenging. At first, we thought the kids will not like it but actually, they did! They really did and it was their favorite homemade baby food and since our children like it so much, we should learn to eat it too. This is the start of my Kale challenge:

Here’s an easy recipe that’s not only appealing to the taste, but also appetizing to the eyes.

Ingredients:

1 Block firm tofu

1 lb. Kale

1/2 Large eggplant (North American Variety)

1/4 cup Low sodium vegetable stock

Sliced garlic

Olive oil

Chili pepper flakes

Salt and Pepper

Heat olive oil on medium low heat. Sauté garlic with a dash of salt until light brown and crispy. Add chili pepper flakes. Add a little more olive oil then cook the eggplant and tofu. Stir in the vegetable stock then turn up the heat to medium high. Lastly, add the kale and cook for a few minutes until cooked to desired texture. Salt and pepper to taste.

The Truth about Kale

The World’s Healthiest Foods dot ORG

Homemade Kimch’i (김치)

05/11/201006/07/2015 | Doyd

This is one of my favorite recipes and I’ve been saving to write about this on a special day like today. But before I start, I want to thank Maangchi, my favorite cooking mentor for teaching me how to make this.

Not all people like Kimchi because of the strong sour smell. I cannot blame them but a lot of other people (like me) love that smell anyway. Years before, I honestly did not mind about what Kimchi is all about but when I started reading about Korean dishes, I became curious.

I first tried Kimchi at Korean restaurants as a side-dish. It was appetizing to me because of the savory kick of spicy and sour sauce. Then slowly, I appreciated the taste of the sauce and my palate started to want for more.

I only like the ones from the restaurant because it tastes more fresh. I never had a store-bought Kimchi in our home and because of that, I realized I had to learn to make my own Kimchi 🙂 To me, it’s comforting to know what ingredients I have used on my recipes. Then I am more confident serving food to my family knowing that they are eating homemade dishes by me.

I hope you enjoy learning this recipe as much as I did. I will make a new batch this weekend 🙂

INGREDIENTS:

2 medium Napa Cabbages
2 medium Korean Radishes (Daikon), cut into 1 inch cubes (leave some for the porridge, julienned)
Sea Salt
1 big Onion
Ginger
10-15 pieces of Garlic (I like to use a lot!)
Green Onions
Asian Chives
Hot Pepper Powder (pick a nice one that’s bright red)
Fish Sauce
Sweet Rice Powder

Cut the cabbages in half, then slit each half through the core, but NOT through the rest of the leaves. Soak each piece in cold water and liberally sprinkle some salt (about 3/4 cup of Sea Salt per medium cabbage), then set aside for 2 hours.

Salt the diced radishes too and leave for 2 hours as well. After 2 hours, turn the pieces of cabbage and radishes over so they are salted evenly. Leave for another 2 hours (Total of 4 hours of salting).

Prepare the porridge. Put 1/2 cup sweet rice powder and 3 cups of water in a sauce pan and cook over medium high heat while stirring constantly. Add 1/4 cup sugar then cool it down. After 4 hours, wash the cabbages and radishes in a cold tub of water… wash 3-4 times making sure you soak it well in water to REMOVE ALL the salt.

To the porridge, add 1 cup good quality fish sauce, 2-6 cups of hot pepper flakes (depending on your taste), 1 cup of crushed garlic, 1-3 tbsp. of minced ginger, 1 large minced onion. (I use my food processor to mince and crush the ingredients on this part)

Mix the porridge and continue washing the cabbages and radishes.

Take a look at my photos and see how I soak the cabbages in water to make sure all the salt is removed.

Prepare the following:

7-12 diagonally sliced green onions
2 cups asian chives cut into 2 inches in length
2 cups of shredded korean radish (left-over from the cubes that you used before)

Combine the porridge and the ingredients above.

Make sure the water from the cabbages drip off before starting to spread the paste on the leaves. You will see on my slideshow how my paste looks like (it will make you salivate if you love Kimchi like me – LOL!)

Start spreading the paste on the leaves and leave some paste for your cubed radishes (Kaktugi). Put your homemade Kimchi into an air-tight sealed container or glass jar.

Make sure you use a clean spoon each time you get a portion of your Kimchi when you eat. Also, press down on your Kimchi after getting your serving to make sure there is no air in between your cabbages. Eat this fresh or wait until it’s bubbly and fermented.

Put the Kimchi container at room temperature for a day then keep it in the refrigerator after the first day of fermentation. In a few days, you will see some bubbles and you will start smelling the sour Kimchi. That means it’s ready being fermented.

Enjoy your Kimchi!!!!

MAANGCHI where I learned how to make Kimchi