FISH ESCABECHE with a hint of PINEAPPLE

My husband bought some fresh fish at the market and requested me to make it into sweet and sour fish. So here's what I did with it: FISH ESCABECHE with a hint of PINEAPPLE. =)

I'm not sure of the origin of the recipe but here's how it was done by my mother when she used to cook it for us. I just added some pineapples to it for a more sweet and sour taste, and adding Vitamin C to your dishes doesn't hurt too. =)

Here's how you can do this very simple fish dish:

Ingredients you'll need: (for 2-4 servings)

- 4-5 small-medium fish or 2 big fish (cleaned, scaled and innards removed)

*for this dish, my husband bought the freshest from the market and so we used 3 pcs. "Kaluping" and 1 pc. "lapu-lapu".

tip: you can use other fish like "tilapia" and "apahap" or you can even bread and fry white fish fillets as substitute for whole fish.

- 1 onion

- 1 medium carrot

- 1 green bell pepper

- 1 red bell pepper

- 2 tsp of minced garlic

- 115 grams of pineapple tidbits with syrup (small budget pack)

- 1/2 cup white vinegar/cane vinegar

- 1/2 cup water

- 2 tsp cornstarch

- 2 tsp soy sauce

- 1/2 cup brown sugar

- salt and pepper to taste

- seasoning granules (e.g. Maggi Magic Sarap, Aji-ginisa);optional

- vegetable oil

1) Pat dry your fishes and rub them with some seasoning granules or salt.

2) Heat up a shallow pan and put a generous amount of vegetable oil to fry the fish into, about 1/2 cup.

tip: Make sure your wok or pan is really really hot when you put your oil, and your oil really hot when you fry your fish to avoid the fish skin sticking to the pan. Also, put some rock salt to the hot oil before frying your fish, to avoid splattering of oil during frying; the salt will absorb the excess moisture from the fish.

3) Fry the fishes until crispy and golden brown then set aside.

4) Prepare your vegetables and cut them into strips.

5) Then, make the base for the sweet and sour sauce. In a bowl, combine vinegar, water, brown sugar, soy sauce and cornstarch and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

6) In another pan, heat some vegetable oil, and saute all the vegetables quickly making sure they have still some crunch to them. Start sauteing the aromatics: garlic and onion then follow with the carrots and lastly the bell pepper. Remove from pan immediately and set aside.

7) In the same pan where the vegetables were cooked, pour the sweet and sour sauce and simmer over medium heat until slightly thick.

8) Once thickened, incorporate back in the pan the vegetables and simmer some more, about a minute.

9) Add the pineapple tidbits with the syrup; season with salt and pepper then simmer another minute. Remove from heat.

10) Transfer the fried fish to a a shallow serving platter then pour the sauce over the fish. 

Done! Now ready to be enjoyed and savored! =) Super Easy, eh? =) Best way to eat this is to pour some of that delightful sauce and tender fish meat over steaming hot rice! =)

If you still haven't tried this, make this! For me, it's a comforting, home-cooked meal that brings great childhood memories with my mother. If you have kids, you are sure to score some Mommy/Daddy love with cooking this dish. Fish is sooo crispy and sauce real yummy! =)

 Don't take my word for it, go and make some! =) Now! Quick! You might still score some fresh fish produce at your market. =)

Happy Eating! =)

"lazy" CHOCOLATE AND BACON ICE CREAM

It’s ridiculously hot right now, I feel like I’m inside an oven; the result of which makes me want to make everything into an ice-cold treat: ICE CREAM! (for more ice cream recipes, click here and here.)

The inspiration for this creation has been haunting me ever since I watched that episode of Bizarre Food in Paris, where Andrew Zimmern, the show’s host was graciously treated by his Parisian tour guide with some candied Bacon (with brown sugar) incorporated liberally in the “Egg” (purposely redundant since he added a lot of it) Ice Cream. Andrew claims it was great, and it was like having the usual bacon and eggs for breakfast, except it was cold and creamy. I believed him, because well, I am a fan. =) Andrew (1^st name basis lang? haha) also mentioned that the idea wasn’t exactly new to him, since in the U.S. there were already the sightings of chocolate covered bacon, for this reason, the light bulb moment for this idea came.

Note to self: Make candied bacon strips too!

In my search for great Bacon Ice Cream Recipes, I came up with several but decided to adapt James Cooper’s version first. Why? Because it has a lot of chocolate – bacon is great on its own but maybe it will be outrageously mighty if added with chocolate.

Make James Cooper’s Chocolate Bacon Ice Cream recipe via examiner.com; recipe is here, if you are into really SALTY and mildly SWEET.  But, since I do have a weak tongue for the super salty, I played with his recipe and got a little crazy with it, hence, the birth of the ICE CREAM concoction: 3 KINDS OF CHOCOLATE AND BACON ICE CREAM.  Here it was in all its Saltiness glory: 

I keep adjusting it to lessen the saltiness to my sodium chloride weak tongue; I ended up putting more sweet components to mask it: more sugar, more milk, and more chocolate. So when I ran out of the dark chocolate, I added milk chocolate chips, and when I still ran out of that, I added my last weapon, white chocolate chips; and guess what? It still was SALTY for me. (I really should have added some potatoes on that custard to absorb the salt, too late, tsk tsk) And so even if my heart was rallying against it (I don’t like wasting ingredients), I had to throw everything until the saltiness haunts me no more.

I had to re-do the entire thing. This time I did not use the adapted ice cream recipe but just used my version of chocolate ice cream. The basic technique for the chocolate covered bacon was retained and I even doubled the bacon strips that were called for this time, because, it was that RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME (hell yeah!); it had the right amount of salty and sweet.  So ultimately, it just became CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM WITH CHOCOLATE COVERED BACON BITS. =) And this time, it was love at first scoop, just pure heaven. =)

If you have an adventurous palate and wants to experience bacon heaven, here’s how you can do it too:(good for 2-3 servings)

1) Start by cooking 3 - 4 strips of bacon ( I used more! )with no oil, in a non-stick pan over low heat until they are dry and browned, but not burnt.

2) Drain the bacon and remove excess bacon fat by putting and drying them with paper towels. Let them cool. (yup! 1 bacon was gone, the husband took it!)

3) In the meantime, prepare about 120 grams of your favorite chocolate bar. Cut hem into coarse pieces and place them on a heat-proof glass bowl.

4) Boil some water in a saucepan and put over it the bowl with chocolate. Melt the chocolate until smooth and creamy.

5) While chocolate is still melting, prepare a plate or tray with buttered wax paper.

6) Dip the bacon strips in the melted chocolate and place them in the buttered wax paper. Store the chocolate coated bacon strips in the fridge until ready to use. Remove the saucepan from heat but keep the bowl on top of the saucepan to keep warm.

7) Start making the chocolate custard base ice cream by combining 2 egg yolks and 1/4 cup caster sugar in a bowl and whisk it until it turns to pale yellow.

8) In another saucepan, combine 250 ml of milk with 1 cup of cream (I used low fat milk and whipping cream because that's what I have); bring this to a boil.

9) Once boiling, lower the heat just to bring it to a constant simmer. Temper the egg yolk-sugar mixture with about 1/4 cup of the hot milk. Whisk well.

10) Pour the tempered egg yolk-sugar mixture back to the warm saucepan and stir constantly until thickened.

11) While thickening, add 2 tsp of cornstarch dissolved in 2 tbsp of the warm milk to create a slurry then put it back in the saucepan. (This is the part I got lazy and I just added 2 tsp of cornstarch).

12) Stir constantly over low heat; the mixture will be a little thicker. While doing so, add in the remaining melted chocolate; stir until chocolate is well incorporated to the custard mix.

13) Remove from heat and transfer to another bowl or freezer container. Put a cling wrap firmly over the surface of custard to avoid air for coming in and forming a "skin". Let it cool for a while before transferring to the freezer. Let it freeze for 30-45 minutes.

14) While freezing the custard, get back to your choco covered bacon strips and chop them coarsely.

tip: Go have some taste of the choco covered bacon strips, but make sure to have a lot of self control because you might finish it all! =)

15) After 30-45 minutes, the frozen custard should have a soft-serve ice cream consistency. Mix it well and incorporate the choco-covered bacon bits. Reserve some for garnish.

16) Return the cling wrap firmly pressed over the custard and freeze it overnight. If you have an ice cream maker, pour the mix and churn according to manufacturers instructions.

17) When the long wait is over, serve with more choco covered bacon bits on top. 

So far, this has been the most creamy and dense ice cream in my ice cream portfolio; very much like a gelato than an ice cream; and we have no problem with it. =)

Honestly, this may not be for everybody. My husband felt a little odd at first and took a longer time adapting to this acquired taste. While I, on the other hand was perfectly fine with it. I'm guessing my palate becomes more adaptive to new taste when it involves 2 favorites: CHOCOLATE and BACON; no matter how weird the combination may be. =)

I know my ice cream repertoire still has a loooooong way to go, and this wont definitely be my last ice cream bacon recipe! I'll probably make a COFFEE and CANDIED BACON ice cream next; or maybe jump to my dream ice cream flavor: CILANTRO ice cream! (*suddenly becomes giddy). =)

Until then, enjoy this good queerness. =)

Happy Eating! =)