Chilean Sea bass is available at the frozen section of the supermarket and directly from Mida Food Distributors,Inc. For orders and to learn more about their products, you can check out the catalog on their website.

Here’s the recipe. Enjoy!

Pan-Grilled Chilean Sea Bass with Port Wine Reduction

Ingredients

1 ½ cups Dry red wine
1 ½ cups port wine (the more expensive, the better)
1 whole onion
1 bay leaf
1 carrot
2 pieces Chilean Sea bass fillet (skin On)
stick of butter
Salt & Pepper

1. Combine wine, onion, carrots, and bay leaf in a large saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil.
2. Let reduce by half, around 45 minutes.
3. Strain sauce and set to room temperature.
4. Heat butter in a pan, high heat. Pan-fry sea bass, skin side down.
5. Turn heat off and flip sea bass for 5 minutes.
6. Take off heat and season.
7. Pour port reduction over and serve.

Cream Dory Tandoori with Raisin Couscous

Ingredients:

2 Cream dory fillets, cut into cubes
1 tablespoon Garam masala, cumin powder, turmeric, curry, nutmeg, coriander seeds, cardamom, cinnamon
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 cup couscous (dry)
1 ½ cups Chicken Stock
handful of raisin
Lemon

1. Mix yogurt and all dry spices together.
2. Skewer the fish cubes and season with salt & pepper.
3. Pour over yogurt mixture and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
4. Bring chicken stock to a boil.
5. In a large bowl, pour heated stock over couscous mixture.
6. Cover and let it set for 10 minutes.
7. Mix with a fork to ensure couscous is nice and fluffy. Add raisins.
8. Place skewers over a grill on high heat.
9. Serve over couscous.

Enough babbling. Let’s get to the food!

Crab Cakes with Aioli Dill Sauce

Ingredients:

2 eggs
Fresh Parsley
Worcestershire Sauce
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 piece lemon & zest
salt & pepper
1 lb Blue Swimming Crab Lump Meat
½ cup normal breadcrumbs
2 cups panko breadcrumbs
half stick butter

for the Aioli:

1 piece garlic clove
Sea salt
Black Pepper
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
around 600 ml extra virgin olive oil
Lemon Juice & zest
Fresh Dill, chopped

Procedure:

1. Beat eggs in a bowl and add parsley, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, mayonnaise, lemon juice and seasoning. Mix well.
2. Gently fold in crabmeat and normal breadcrumbs until mixture is no longer moist.
3. Gently make 6-8 balls out of the mixture then flatten into thick patties.
4. Lightly coat the patties in panko breadcrumbs and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Fry in butter until golden brown. Squeeze lemon when done.

For the Aioli:
1. Smash garlic and salt in a large bowl (or pestle and mortar).
2. Combine with egg yolk and mustard. Mix together.
3. Start adding the olive oil little by little, whisking continuously.
4. Add the lemon juice/zest, and dill.
5. Season to taste.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Ingredients

Chicken

1 fresh chicken
6 slices fresh ginger

Chicken Stock

1kg chicken bones from 1 whole chicken
3 pieces ginger

Chicken Rice

2 ½ cups long grain rice
120g chicken fat
50g butter
50g ginger paste
50 g garlic paste
1-2 tsp salt to taste
3 ½ cups chicken stock (from the boiled chicken)
2 pandan leaves

Chilli Sauce

200g fresh red chillies, seeds removed
80g garlic
100 ginger
3 tsp chicken stock (from the boiled chicken)
200g Pineapple
½ cup Calamansi juice to taste
1 ½ tsp sugar
Salt to taste

Ginger Sauce for Dipping

75g ginger
2 tsp sesame oil
1tsp oyster sauce

Chicken Soya Sauce

3 ½tsp soya sauce
2 tsp chicken stock (from the boiled chicken)
1 ½ tsp sesame oil

Chicken Soup

Chicken stock (from the boiled chicken)
Seasoning with chicken stock (powder)
50g shredded cabbage
20g spring onion, chopped

Method:

1) Fill a pot large enough to fit the whole chicken with water and bring to boil with ginger. When the water boils, turn heat off and place the chicken into hot water and cover for 45 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pot and place the chicken into ice water. Set aside chicken stock. Remove the chicken from the cold water, drain and de-bone the chicken and cut into bite-sized pieces on serving plate.

2) For chicken rice, wash the rice and drain well. In a pot, fry chicken fat until oil is released. Add the butter then fry well with the ginger and garlic paste. Place the rice into a pot and add in chicken stock & pandan leaves then season with salt. Transfer rice into an electric rice cooker or pot. Cook the rice about 25 minutes or until done.

3) For chilli sauce, place the chilies, garlic and ginger, pineapple into blender and blend until it becomes a paste. Add chicken stock, calamansi juice, sugar and salt to taste. Note: The chili sauce in a covered container will keep for a few days in the refrigerator.

4) For ginger sauce, place the ginger in the blender and blend until it becomes a paste. Add sesame oil, oyster sauce and salt to taste.

5) For Chicken Soya Sauce, mix together the soya sauce, chicken stock and sesame oil.

6) For Chicken Soup, you will need to boil the remaining chicken stock with the chicken bones for an hour; season with chicken powder. Add the shredded cabbage in the stock for a short while and lastly, add the spring onion before serving.

This recipe serves 4-6 persons. I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!
For more recipes and information on courses, log on to www.themayakitchen.com .

Here’s the recipe:

Apple Banana Fritters

3 ripe bananas (saba), sliced
1 medium apple, any variety
pancake mix
water
powdered sugar, for dusting
cinnamon
oil, for deep frying

Heat the oil in a deep frying pan over medium heat. Prepare the batter. In a bowl, combine the pancake mix with water. Mix thoroughly until well blended. Batter should be free of lumps and thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Set aside.

Peel and slice the bananas thinly. Core and peel the apples. Cut in half and slice thinly. Toss the apples and bananas in pancake mix until well covered. Scoop some of the mixture and place on a saucer. Slightly spread out the apples and bananas, and cover with more batter if necessary. Over the hot oil, gently slide off the mixture. Fry until golden brown. Drain on paper towels or wire basket/rack. Dust with powdered sugar and add a dash of cinnamon before serving.

Makes about 6-7 fritters.

For this recipe, I used half of a 200 gm pack of instant pancake mix. The saba can be substituted with lakatan or plantains. These fritters are best served slightly warm.

I think it was 2 years ago when I first saw Travis Kraft’s video tutorial on Youtube on how to cook Adobong Manok. While I may have laughed at his attempts at speaking a heavily American-accented Tagalog, it has inspired me to write post about Filipino dishes that I love. For my first recipe post here, I am posting the recipe for my version of Tinolang Manok.

Tinolang Manok is one dish which is best eaten hot, on a cold and rainy day., and served with a dipping sauce of calamansi juice, patis (fish sauce) and sili.

Feel free to adjust the recipe to suit your preference.

Tinolang Manok

Ingredients:

1 kilo chicken, cut into pieces (best cuts to use are thighs, wings and back)
salt to taste
3-4 tbsp patis ( fish sauce)
2 medium sayote , peeled and cut into wedges or 1 small unripe papaya, seeded and cut into wedges.
1-2 tbsp or ginger, gut into strips
1 medium red onion, minced
oil for sauteeing
chicken stock or water + 1 chicken cube
2 bunches of dahon ng sili ( chili pepper leave) or
malunggay leaves, washed and removed from stalks
whole black peppercorns

Wash chicken thoroughly and pat dry with a paper towel. In a medium sized pot, heat oil and saute’ ginger and onions. Saute’ until onions are slightly translucent and ginger becomes aromatic. Add in chicken. Cook until the meat has turned white and no traces of pink are visible and juice and fat is rendered. Season with patis and allow to simmer until liquid is slightly reduced. Pour enough broth to cover the chicken. If you are using water, now is the time to add in the chicken cube and peppercorns. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes on medium heat. Add in the sayote. Check and wait for the sayote to become slightly tender before putting in the sili leaves. Season with salt. Simmer until sayote is cooked and the sili leaves have totally wilted.

Nothing says Christmas like a delicious Christmas ham on the table at noche buena. While the ham-hamon as it is locally called- originated in the west, Filipinos have whole-heartedly embraced it; adjusting and cooking it to suit the Filipino palate–making it a part of Filipino Christmas tradition.

Here is a very simple ham recipe that is truly Filipino in taste. Below are two simple methods for cooking the ham: baking and pan-frying.

Pineapple Glazed Ham

Ingredients:

Christmas ham of your choice (cooked/ready to eat)
Pineapple juice
Pineapple marmalade
sugar, to taste
Canned pineapple slices, drained (optional, for garnishing)
Cherries(optional, for garnishing)

Method 1:

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees F. In a saucepan, combine pineapple marmalade and pineapple juice and simmer until it has thickened and slightly reduced. Adjust sweetness by adding sugar. This will be your glaze.

Place ham in an oven proof baking dish or roasting pan. Pour glaze on top. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes per pound. Allow the glaze to darken and slightly caramelize.

Allow to slightly cool before slicing. Serve warm.

Method 2:

Slice ham into thin slices. In a shallow frying pan, combine marmalade and juice and allow to simmer. put in ham slices and cook until pineapple mixture has been reduced and ham has caramelized. Serve warm.

TIP: You may substitute orange marmalade and orange juice for the pineapple juice and marmalade. A very simple thing I do with ham is just slice it and then pan fry it with a little brown sugar.

Nachos are pretty much do-it-yourself: you choose what toppings you want and how much. In our nachos, we had iceberg lettuce, fresh salsa, bits of whipped cream cheese, black olives, beef, mushroom, jalapeno, cheese and sour cream. To assemble, just put the nachos in a plate or a shallow dish, top with your toppings of choice and serve.

Salsa can be easily be bought at the supermarket, but I prefer to make my own. Just combine diced tomatoes, white onion and green bell pepper in a bowl along with chopped cilantro, then season with salt, pepper and vinegar. That’s it. As for the beef, stir-fry it and season with salt, pepper and cumin. So easy no? Not to mention cheap!

Chicken & Cream pasta sauce
Ingredients
200 gram chicken fillet, cubed
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 tablespoon olive oil (for marinade)
3 tetra-bricks of all-purpose cream
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 can of mushroom
1 cup peas
2 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup cheddar cheese
1/2 cup water
salt
pepper
olive oil

1. In a box, mix the chicken fillet, oregano, salt, pepper and olive oil.
2. Heat olive oil in a sauce pan on medium heat. Sautee the garlic, then add the chicken.
3. Add in the mushroom and peas when the chicken is cooked. Simmer for one minute, then transfer into a bowl.
4. In the same pan, put in the butter. As soon as it’s melted, add in the flour.
5. Once the flour has totally mixed with the butter, add the cream and simmer, occasionally stirring.
6. When the cream starts to boil, add the water and continue simmering.
7. Add in the cheese when the sauce is gently boiling, stirring until the cheese thickens the sauce.
8. Spoon in the chicken mix into the cream sauce, including the juice.
9. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
10. Serve hot over your pasta of choice.

Basic Omelette Recipe
3 medium eggs
pinch of salt
freshly ground black peppper
1/2 tsp chopped celery leaves
filling of your choice
oil (optional)

1. Beat eggs in a bowl with salt, pepper and celery leaves.
2. Heat oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. The amount of oil varies on how non-stick your non-stick frying pan is.
3. Pour the egg mix when the oil is hot. Swirl it around the pan until it covers the entire pan. Let the eggs cook for a while. When the eggs has cooked a bit, swirl the pan again.
4. When the top of the egg is fairly dry, put your filling on one side of the omelette, leaving space on the edges.
5. Flip the other end of the omelette to cover the fillings.
6. Continue cooking for 10 more seconds then serve.