Cooking and Food Tips

Enjoying Tinapa  (smoked fish) pa more    

    

Eating smoked fish boneless is really enjoyable. Remove the flesh from the ribs and discard the head and the internal organs.

This tip really works wonders. You do not need to get commercially used seasoning, for one-fourth (1/4) kilogram smoked fish (tinapa), whatever kind of fish it is, use eight (8) pieces small-sized or six (6) pieces large juicy calamansi for seasoning.  Better squeeze each first and discard the seeds then mixed in the tinapa fillet.

Hard Boiled Egg Trick

Set your induction cooker to eleven minutes (11 mins.) timer, voila! I am sure you will enjoy your hard boiled egg for your mayonnaise (get the Mayo Magic from Bestfood Brand – tasty and economically priced almost half the leading brand!).

- Hard Boiled Egg on Instant Noodles  

                                  

If you want to save time, fuel, energy and distilled water. Cook the egg with your noodles, here is how:

1. First, WASH the egg to remove dirt and dust as well as germs (salmonella) from the hen itself and from handling (transporting) the egg to avoid soup contamination.

2. Water the casserole as per instant noodles’ instruction e.g. 2 cups water.

3. If your induction cooker has a timer, set it to eight (8) minutes.

4. As long as the cooker stops, set it on again for three (3)minutes.

5. Then add in the noodles then the seasonings.

6. For a healthier twist, add malunggay leaves for all kinds of meat or chili leaves for chicken flavored mami – ginger too can be added like Tinola, but it can also make pork and beef soup tastier.

A Taste of  REAL GROUND PEPPER

I frequently see ground pepper retailed in one-cooking package to a bigger packaging – I tried them in consideration of the cheaper price BUT I found out later on that I am sacrificing QUALITY. The taste is not that peppery till I tasted MCCORMICK GROUND PEPPER.

I think bottling on a sealed container preserves the freshness, taste and smell of pepper for this brand.  And somebody told me that some local traders add ground dried guava leaves as extender for a cheat, whew!

Another tip is that, do not put ground pepper while sautéing CHICKEN meat, because we only have oil in the pan, I noticed that the pepper sticks on the meat looking like dirt – not looking appetizing anymore. Add it after the water simmers for saucy dishes like in chop suey.

Chicken Magic

Pinoys knew that NATIVE chicken tastes a lot better than commercial (?) chickens. Aside from the trouble of finding one because it is rarely sold in the local markets, the meat is a bit tougher than regular chicken BUT the taste is really guaranteed super delicious.

Here is a tip to make your chicken taste like native for SOUPY dishes like Sinampalukan (tamarind-based chicken soup):

- Saute it on FISH SAUCE,  I recommend LORINS brand – no stinky smell, tastes simply delicious condiment with calamansi on Sinigang/Sinampalukan dishes.

Storing Fish Belly in a Freezer

If you are a busy mom and always in a hurry to finish your household tasks like cooking here is another tip when you are buying wet goods for a week.

- to store fish belly in a freezer without a lot of containers to easily get each piece perfectly without breaking

1. After washing it with distilled water, get any rectangular container (even microwaveable canister will do).

2. Place each piece a centimeter apart till you fill in the container.

3. Before piling it up with the other pieces, line it with ice plastic (so it is sure to last freezing). Voila! When you need to fry it you can take it out perfectly one by one without the need to wait thawing.

If still frozen, better apply low to medium heat when frying. High heat will cook only the outer portion of your fish meat when it is still frozen. Use also a non-stick pan or stoneware pan to guarantee no sticking and perfect frying. When cooking sinigang, you can place it along with the other longer-cooking vegetables unlike fresh that you can only add when everything is cooked for it easily gets done.

Thanks for reading, see the Tips Page of this blog access it on the upper right side bar of this page to see more tips like this – the earlier posts I had just click the button below each page that says ‘previous posts’ . Have a great day or night everywhere in the world!