Review your fish recipes

Fish is not only healthy, but it is also served often during the Lenten season. Review your fish recipes and serve them, at least every Friday. We are sharing with you some of those we have in our files. You may be doing a good sinigang, but do you know that for an enriched flavor, you can combine salmon head and prawns when cooking this dish? A good proportion is to have one salmon head (always good and pink at South Supermarket in Filinvest, Muntinlupa) cut in two, a tail and four to five prawns (fresh at all times at Estela’s in Alabang Village Saturday market). Use patis for seasoning and throw in two or three pieces of finger chili.

If there are left over prawns, sauté crushed garlic in olive oil and fry the seafood. Very simple but delicious. Salmon belly is sold in a lot of outlets. Stir fry half a kilo, laced with calamansi juice, marinated in teriyaki sauce, and seasoned with ground black pepper. More complicated is the popular rellenong bangus. This is often found in markets and supermarkets, but most of them combine the fish with ground pork. Make your own with cubed potatoes and carrots instead of pork. Many fish mongers, even in supermarkets, will do the de-boning for you. Caution them about keeping the tiyan intact. Marinate the skin in soy sauce, calamansi juice and ground pepper. This can be prepared a day before cooking. The potatoes will have to be cooked after sautéing garlic, tomatoes and onions, prior to adding the fish meat. Then add the carrots, cook a few minutes and then add the hard boiled eggs cut into cubes. Carefully stuff the body with the mixture. It is much easier to coat the fish with flour and bake it, rather than frying. Mix soy sauce, calamansi juice, ground pepper and a little water, let boil with a spoon of margarine, and serve as a dip. Pesang bangus will be enhanced with a sauce of sautéd garlic, tomatoes and onions, patis and brown sugar.     

A foreign chef told us the reason why Filipino food has not really cracked the international market is because it has “too much ethnicity.” We can somehow agree with that, considering most of our dishes are unattractive because they are brown and plating has not improved much. But we are getting there. Our friend Millie brought us to the fifth floor of The Block in North Edsa and we dined at X/O (the X is a crossed fork and spoon and the bar is actually an arrow pointing upward) which means Extraordinary Philippines. Here we found innovative plating. This restaurant is an off-shoot of the little dimsum n’ dumplings stores in many shopping centers in Metro Manila. One of our chosen dishes was the kare-kareng crispy tadyang, their signature dish. The tadyang is unique, and the serving on a flat white plate is very artistic. The meat is laid out on one side of the plate, the vegetables (which include the unusual fried bananas) arranged symmetrically on the rest of the platter. Sauce is served in a separate boat. Outside of being temptingly pretty, the kare-kare was delicious with the added texture of tender crispy beef ribs. The bangus salpicao also got an A from our group. This was made of milk fish fillet (cut into one inch squares), sauted in olive oil, garlic, chillis and spices. Super! Planning a party or family get-togethers? X/O has an expanded menu from appetizers to main courses of seafood and meat for delivery or pick up. The duo-resto has a lot of outlets around Metro Manila. One is certainly near you.

If you want a truly private meal, check My Mother’s Garden on 2650 Zamora, Pasay City. Malu Antonio Veloso is known for her dainty, fairy tale-like gowns for brides and debutantes. But friends have also been lucky to have sampled her culinary savvy, both of which, she quickly adds, she inherited from her mother, the much-respected Marina, in whose memory she has named her restaurant. Malu has opened their maternal home to food fanciers, giving them the privacy of a home. The compound in Pasay has a lush garden (thus the name) leading diners to marvel that such a place exists on a crowded street. The food is excellent as Malu gives it her personal touch. She starts with a salad with her special dressing, followed by pasta, fish and chicken, all flavorful. Dessert and coffee punctuate the meal. Malu and her efficient staff see to the needs of the guests. For resevations, call 831-8407 or 0917-6008886, and have a truly relaxing and delicious meal.

Price watch – mangoes are at less than P90 a kilo now. The current harvest is big, firm and sweet. Mangosteen still at a high of P320 a kilo. Cantaloupes are a disappointment. They look good on the outside but the flesh would be so soft and watery inside. A friend informed us that we must beware of “tusok.” Apparently, farmers have devised the nasty system of injecting fertilizers or other chemicals into the produce, giving them the lovely external look, but spoiling the flesh inside. What will they think of next? Are we indeed, a nation of cheaters? Heaven forbid!

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