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

Tom Yum!

Here is how to make Tom Yum soup.
Ingredients:
-Shrimp and/or squid
-Green chili (sliced on one side about thrice. The more slices and chili, the spicier)
-Tom Yum paste* (30g to every 500g of water)
-Tomatoes cut so that it kinda looks like potato wedges (sorry I don't know what that cut is called haha)
-Pechay/Leafy vegetable
-Fresh or powdered coriander
-Bunch of lemongrass
-Onion leaves (cut)
-Onions, garlic, a little ginger (all chopped)
-Salt and pepper

Directions:
1) De-shell and de-vein shrimp. Don't throw shells just yet. For squid, just slice ala-calamares
2) In a heated pot, saute the garlic and onions with 1/4 amnt of water (total amnt of water depends on how much soup you want.. just keep in mind the tomyum paste to water ratio). Add the shrimp heads in soon after.
3) When shrimp heads begin to change in color, add another 1/4 of water along with the ginger. Boil for a few minutes. Then take out the shrimp heads (which by then should be very orange already)
4) Add the remaining 1/2 of the water into the pot with the tom yum paste, shrimp, squid, tomatoes chili, and vegetables
5) Mix in the coriander and onion leaves as the water is boiling, put in a dash of salt and pepper to taste.
6) Soup is ready when the shrimps have turned pink and and squid has become firm. Put in the bunch of lemon grass when you are about to turn off the fire.
7) Wait for it too cool a little bit and then serve! :)

*Tom Yum paste
You can purchase tom yum paste in most Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Singaporean, Thai etc groceries. If not, what I do sometimes is I just mix tamarind powder (sinigang mix is fine too), curry mix, and patis (fish sauce) in a 1:1:1 ratio. I also add more coriander --this time fresh than when I use the tom yum paste.

Parmesan Tempura w/ Lemon Butter Garlic sauce

Something I cooked up for dinner on the 30th of November. My mom had bought some shrimp to eat for dinner, but sick of having to eat it simply steamed and with garlic and vinegar like it's usually prepared around here, I decided to take the challenge.

I didn't have enough time to go shopping for gambas ingredients so I decided to just modify tempura. I'm still thinking of an interesting name for it (feel free to post your suggestions!), but until then I'll just call it what it is:

Parmesan Tempura with Lemon Butter Garlic sauce
Ingredients:
Shrimp, de-shelled and de-veined
Flour/cornstarch/panko breadcrumbs for the coating
Parmesan cheese
1 egg
Salt and pepper
Butter
Finely chopped GARLIC (a lot.. maybe 4-5 cloves depends on how strong you like the taste of garlic; i like it really garlicky)
Lemon/Calamansi juice to taste

Let's begin with making the sauce. Heat a pan and put in about 2-3 sticks of butter until it starts to melt. Sautee your garlic in the butter and then when the garlic starts to brown, add in the lemon/calamansi juice to taste. Leave it on low heat for about a minute or so just to let the tastes combine. When that's done, pour 3/4 of the sauce (including the garlic) into a small bowl.

Now marinade the shrimp in salt and pepper for about 15 minutes or more, just so the taste sets in (you can of course do the salt and pepper step before making the sauce to save time). Crack the egg into a bowl and the mix the coating with parmesan cheese in another bowl. Dip the shrimp into the egg and then into the coating mixture and set aside.*If you want to do this in an easier, faster way, just dip all the shrimp in the egg and then put it in zip lock bag containing the coating and then just shake it, much like the Mcdonald's shakeyerfries thingamajig. Heat up the same pan used for making the sauce and use the 1/4 left of the sauce in it as your oil. When it is hot, fry the shrimps until the tail turns pinkish red and the coating is crispy. By then the remaining garlic from the pan would turn crispy as well, so take that and put on top of the shrimp when serving. Oh and for the sauce, either just mix it all together with the shrimp, or serve it on the side as a dip like in the photo (above).

Tada!