Shrimp Cocktail

Another shrimp recipe. Just goes to show how much I love shrimp! This is an appetizer but I had it for an afternoon snack (teehee).


INGREDIENTS
Frozen peeled shrimp (pre-cooked, with tails on)
Ketchup
Lemon
Dill (fresh or frozen cubes will do nicely)
S&P


STEPS
1. Combine about a quarter cup of ketchup with two teaspoons chopped dill or 2 frozen cubes. 
2. Squeeze in about half a lemon and season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Serve with thawed shrimp.


Enjoy!

Basa Fillet in Butter and Garlic

This is what I made today, inspired by what I could only find in the fridge. Quick and simple yet very tasty. 

INGREDIENTS

Basa Fish Fillets

Butter

Olive oil

Garlic

Salt and Pepper

Lemon

STEPS

1. Preheat oven to 375F.

2. Combine melted butter, olive oil and minced garlic in a bowl and season with S&P.

3. Grease a baking sheet lined with tin foil with some of this mixture.

4. Lay out fish fillets onto the greased and lined baking sheet.

5. Brush butter mixture generously over the fillets.

6. Place in oven and bake. 

7. After 10 minutes, place a few thin slices of lemon into each fillet and continue to bake for 10 more minutes.

Serve with steamed rice and some blanched green vegetables like broccoli.

Baked Rosemary Chicken

This one is very quick and easy. I had Italianni's Rosemary Chicken in mind when I made this.


INGREDIENTS


Chicken (breast or thigh, with skin)
Rosemary
Salt and Pepper
Olive oil
Herbs de Provence


STEPS
1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Rub salt, pepper and rosemary on all chicken pieces thoroughly.
3. Lay out the meat in greased (with olive oil) baking sheet.
4. Brush olive oil on all pieces.
5. Sprinkle some herbs de provence on the chicken.
6. Place in oven and bake for 30 minutes.


A trick that I use to make sure that chicken thighs are cooked through completely and not have any bloody sections is to cut through the meat along the bones to expose them. Always works for me.


Serve with some fragrant rice and grilled zucchini. 

Baked Hoisin Salmon

This is one of those dishes that I put together by taking only parts of some recipes that I like and adding it to some meat or fish that I prefer at the moment. Specifically, this is inspired by the dressing in California Pizza Kitchen's oriental chicken salad. It's very easy to prepare and something that you would not be shy about serving at a dinner party.


INGREDIENTS


Salmon fillet
Hoisin sauce
Soy sauce
Olive oil
Sesame oil
Chili sauce
Ginger
Cilantro
Basil


STEPS
1. Pre-heat oven to 400F.
2. Prepare about a cup of hoisin and add a splash of soy sauce, a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, a tablespoon of sesame oil and some chili sauce to taste. Add some grated ginger and mix together.
3. Pour the hoisin mixture onto salmon fillet laid out in a lightly oiled baking sheet.
4. Bake for about 30 minutes or test salmon for doneness.
5. Serve with chopped cilantro and basil on top.


The cilantro and basil complements the flavor of the hoisin and salmon tremendously. Adding these to the dish takes it out of the ordinary, so I really think this shouldn't be omitted.

Seafood Salad by Scrumpdillyicious

Scrumpdillyicious: Seafood Salad with Celeriac Remoulade: "A lovely light salad to make during the warm summer months is an easy poached seafood salad made with large shrimp, scallops, squid and ..."


Now this is what I call seafood salad and it's as good as it sounds. I tried out this recipe from Scrumpdillyicious but without the remoulade (couldn't find any celeriac and I thought the sourcream dressing didn't really need to be paired with more mayo) and just added some blanched broccoli -- for garnish and/or as token vegetable :-) It was indeed scrumptious and dillyicious. 

INGREDIENTS
Shrimp (large/medium)
Scallops
Squid
Salad shrimp (small)
Capers


Lemon dill sauce:Sour cream
Lemon
Frozen dill
salt & pepper


STEPS:


1. Blanch the shrimp, scallops and squid separately for about a minute and a half each in simmering water. Set aside in a paper towel to remove any liquid.
2. Prepare the lemon dill sauce by combining about half a tub of sour cream, half a lemon squeezed, about 8 cubes of frozen dill and salt and pepper to taste.
3. Toss the blanched seafood into the dill sauce.
4. Chill before serving

Chicken a la Buffalo

This is my attempt at satisfying a craving for Don Henrico's Buffalo Chicken Wings. It's a teeny bit close but not all there. There are a couple of spices that I can't identify from their recipe so this is the best that I could get. I think the key is making sure that each bit contains the right amount of the chicken, the barbecue sauce and then the dipping sauce. Modesty aside, it's almost as satisfying as the original.

(Note: photo was taken after everyone got a piece, pardon the presentation please :))
INGREDIENTS


Barbecue sauce:
Honey
Ketchup
Soy Sauce
Garlic powder
Nutmeg
I also put in a bit of onion powder and ginger powder but I think they could just be eliminated from the list.



Chicken + marinade:
Chicken pieces (wings, thigh or breast -- with skin!)
All-purpose flour
Olive oil
S&P
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Ginger powder

Dipping sauce:
Plain yogurt
Mayonnaise
Cream cheese
Garlic
S&P


DIRECTIONS:


1. Prepare sauces and set aside


Barbecue sauce: combine equal parts of honey and ketchup and add soy sauce just enough to achieve the color desired. Add lots of garlic powder and powdered nutmeg to taste. 


Dipping sauce: combine 2 parts yogurt with 1 part mayo and 1 part cream cheese and then add your garlic and S&P to taste.

2. Prepare the chicken by rinsing the pieces and patting them dry with a paper towel. 

3. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.

4. Combine some garlic powder, onion powder and ginger powder (ratio is about 2:1:1).

5. Sprinkle about half of the powdered spices onto the chicken. Add some of your barbecue sauce to this marinade.

6. Combine the rest of the powdered spices with all-purpose flour to use for coating the chicken.

7. Dip each chicken piece into the flour mix and coat them well.

8. Place each chicken piece into a lightly oiled baking pan and set aside for about an hour.

9. Preheat oven to 400F.

10. When ready, brush each chicken piece with olive oil and place the chicken into the oven. 

11. Bake for 30 minutes, after which brush some barbecue sauce onto the chicken and then bake for another 20-25 minutes.

12. Brush more barbecue sauce onto the chicken after taking it out of the oven.

Serve with the dipping sauce. Doesn't even need rice to go with it.

Spaghettini with Shrimp in Crab Paste

I made this today. I used this recipe for Gambas Al Ajillo with Crab Paste and just tossed it into some pasta. It turned out pretty well. Mm-uhmmm!


INGREDIENTS
Garlic
Olive Oil
Chili Flakes
Semi-cooked Frozen Shrimp (thaw and season with S&P plus a squeeze of lemon)
Crab Paste

Spaghettini noodles (cook as directed in packet)

STEPS
1. Saute chopped garlic in olive oil in high heat.
2. Add chili flakes and cook for about a minute.
3. Stir in the crab paste and cook for about a minute.
4. Add the shrimp just enough that it doesn't shrink.
5. Turn off heat and quickly toss in cooked spaghettini.


I served this with a tomato, basil and cheese appetizer that I saw from scrumdillyicious. It was a good combo but I wouldn't say it was great. Since the pasta was very savory, I think a blander appetizer would have worked better with it. Perhaps a simple cucumber, tomato and egg salad? Maybe next time.

Humba Bisaya (dark, sweet and sticky pork stew)

Humba is one of my favorite foods. I can never grow tired of it. Luckily for me, my mom has several humba recipes and I think she makes one of the best that I've ever tried. This one is my favorite type of humba: dark, sweet and sticky. It does take me 2-3 hours to make it but it is very very easy.

A warning: this is not the healthiest food option.


INGREDIENTS
Garlic
Onion
Celery

Black Peppercorns

Star Anise

Bay Leaf
Pork (combination of Belly, Knuckles and/or Tail), cut into large cubes/pieces
Silver Swan Soy Sauce
Muscovado Sugar 
A can of Coca cola


STEPS
1. Place cleaned pork pieces in a large stewing pot.
2. In a cup, combine equal parts of the soy sauce and the sugar (about a quarter of a cup each for every pound of meat) then pour over meat in the pot. Mix to coat all pieces.
3. Add peeled and smashed garlic, peppercorns, star anise and bay leaf into the meat ans mix.
4. Place peeled and halved onion and celery stalk over the meat. Cover pot and place on low heat and let cook for about one hour stirring once or twice in between.
5. Add one can of coke to the stew and stir.
7. Continue cooking on low heat  heat until meat is tender and the liquid is reduced to a sticky sauce, about 1 and a half to 2 hours more, stirring every 15-20 minutes.

Best served with steamed white rice and balanced with some steamed green veggies.
Note: As leftover, this dish gets better each time you re-heat or put in the microwave so for best immediate results, allow the dish to sit for an hour or so after cooking and just warm it up again before serving.