Fish and Chips

This recipe I got from Jamie Oliver's show, Oliver's Twist, which is one of my favorite cooking shows on television. It's really easy to make and I've made it a little bit my own by adding on my own dip, a few more ingredients, and using milk instead of beer (which is mainly because I didn't have beer at the time haha)

Ingredients:
1. 4 Fish fillets: something nice and firm but not steak-y (I recommend lapu-lapu, dori, or tilapia)
2. Salt and pepper
3. 1 cup Milk
4. 1 cup regular Flour
5. Cayenne pepper
6. 2 egg whites, whisked until white and sticky
7. 2 Potatoes (or more if you want a lot of chips!)
8. Dijon mustard
9. Mayonaise
10. Lemon/calamansi

Directions:
For the Fish
1. Season the the fish fillets with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper
2. Mix together the egg whites, flour, milk/beer, and season with a bit more of salt, pepper, and cayenne.
3. Dip the fish fillets into the mixture
4. Fry in hot oil about an inch thick to ensure crispiness. Each fillet will be done in about 5 minutes.

For the chips
1. Peel the potatoes (I like to leave a little skin on)
2. Cut into wedges or thin strips or discs, it's up to you
3. Blanche in oil
4. When the fish is all done, you can re-fry the potatoes again in the now very hot oil so it will be nice and crispy.

For the dip:
Mix mustard to mayo (2:3) with a pinch of pepper

Serve together, seasoned with salt and pepper, with mustard and lemon juice on the side.

ENJOY!

Grilled Sea Bass and Asparagus

So here is what I cooked for tonight's main course! I was initially planning to cook the fish ala Jamie Oliver's beer fish and chips, but realizing that my mom bought these large and very fresh sea bass steak fillets, I felt that it would be better to just make something a little fancier. Haha!

So this recipe is really very easy. Let me get to it.

Ingredients:
Sea Bass steak cut into about an inch thick fillets (like in the photo)
Dried or fresh rosemary
Asparagus
Salt and pepper
Butter
Marinade

Now for the marinade, I just used Selection ready-made Lemon and Garlic marinade*. I poured it on the asparagus and sea bass fillets, just enough to get them coated --not really super drenched, and then rubbed the fillets with salt, pepper, and rosemary herb. Then I left the asparagus and fillets in the fridge for about 40 minutes. You can leave it there for longer, of course, if you like.

* - If you want to make your own lemon and garlic marinade though, it's just made of olive oil + lemon + lots of crushed garlic/garlic powder + pepper.

Now we grill! For this recipe, instead of using an electric griller or a real with coal griller, I opted for a ridged griddle.

Directions:
1. Put some butter on the griddle. This will serve as your oil and add some extra flavor.
2. When the griddle is hot (you'll know when the butter begins to bubble/pop), go on and place the fillets and asparagus!
3. Grill each side until ridge marks begin to form and the meat turns a beautiful white with a brownish tint from the butter. This will take around 15 minutes total, depending on whether you like yours rare, medium rare, medium well, or well done. I recommend medium well. Just the right amount of rawness inside the meat, but also with that little burned-ish taste on the outside! Haha! For the asparagus, just take it out when it begins to soften.

Enjoy! :D

Chef's Salad

Today I made dinner again. This time my mom and dad ate too! I made chef's salad and grilled sea bass; the recipe of the latter in the next entry.

I like salads, but usually we have the salad bar type of thing going on in our house where our helpers just lay out the lettuce and have the sliced veggies and the different dressings, and it's up to us to mix and match. I like that too, but frankly I was getting a little tired of it already and really, I just wanted eggs in my salad! So then I decided to make this one.

Ingredients
Romaine/Iceberg Lettuce
Hard boiled eggs (sliced)
Cheddar cheese cut into small cubes
Tomatoes (sliced, if it's a big one)
Carrots and cucumbers* (cut into strips)
Crushed Bacon and/or croutons
Your favorite 'mayo-based' dressing. I recommend Low-fat Caesar dressing or Thousand Island.

Directions
Toss everything together and top with crushed bacon and/or croutons! Add a little pepper too and voila! :)

Brocolli Parsley Carbonara

My parents and my brother weren't in to eat dinner at home; so instead of reheating some food from the fridge or eating galunggong which I wasn't in the mood for, I decided to make and eat some pasta! I talked to my friend, Marg, about what would be nice to try and cook for the night, and she suggested this eggplant pasta she tried in the Avenetto restaurant in the Fort; however, she couldn't describe it well enough and I haven't tried it either. I decided to choose something else. Looking through the pantry I found that I had some ingredients perfect for carbonara! Now although I've seen and helped some friends make carbonara for a few times before, I've never cooked it myself, so looking through the internet, mixing and matching different carbonaras to what I had at home and my personal taste I came up with this recipe... and it was good! Here's how to make it:

Ingredients:
Spaguetti/Fettucini/your favorite pasta
Sausage cut into small pieces (this is supposed to be bacon but we didn't have any bacon that time)
Brocolli
Parsley (about a handful)
Garlic (3-4 cloves)
All purpose cream
Quickmelt cheese grated or cut in small chunks
Milk
1 egg (optional)
Butter
Salt and pepper


Directions
1. Melt about half a stick of butter in a pan. When it is very hot, add the sausage bits.
2. Fry sausage in the butter until it begins to crisp.
3. Lower the heat, and then add in the brocolli. (Don't put in too much. I actually just added brocolli because I felt guilty that my sauce was going to be so rich.)
3. Add in the cream and milk (about 1:2 ratio)
4. When the sauce starts to simmer, add in the cheese (1 cream: 1 cheese)
5. Let the cheese melt and stir so that all will mix together well.
6. Add the chopped parsley (just about a handful) and the egg(egg is optional)
7. Mix in the chopped garlic
8. Stir all together for a few minutes and season with salt and pepper.
9. Pour some over cooked pasta, sprinkle a bit of parmesan on top and tada! :D