Jasmine's Treat

My youngest kid, Jasmine, surprised me with her honors card and ribbon proudly posted in our ref when I arrived home from an out of town trip yesterday. The ever busy mom felt guilty upon realizing the effort exerted by my baby to be acknowledged :-D

Aside from the hugs and kisses we gave her, I prepared extra special tuna balls for her and her classmates to feast on during their christmas party today.

The busy mom woke up very early to prepare a super healthy piece for the KD II of GSC Elementary School for the Arts :-D. Sliced into small bits a lot of carrots, bell pepper, and spring onions. Opened a 1.8 kilo can of tuna flakes in oil, drained this thoroughly and seasoned it with a dash of salt, pepper and sesame oil. Combined everything in a bowl and with the freshest eggs around, the mixture was completed.

I then formed the mixture into balls and fried it in vegetable oil. The end result made me heave a big sigh of relief for Jasmine now has the tastiest and healthiest tuna meatballs to bring to their potluck.

Sweet blend catsup served as dip. My food tasters in the house all exclaimed "ang sarap!" when given a sample. :-D

I hope the KD II pupils of GSCSA enjoyed it as much also!

The Tale of the Tuna Tail in my Kitchen

I have long been wanting to cook crispy tuna tail in my kitchen but it was not materialized for a long time. It's because I don't have the following:

a pan big enough to fry whole tuna tail;
the patience to wait for the frozen tuna tail thawed; and I have
fear that I might end up cooking tuna tail that is not fresh anymore and is laden with too much preservative.

Thanks to the fish section of the Robinsons supermarket. There I discovered that they are selling fresh tuna tail at Php70.00 a kilo. It is also interesting enough to note that scaling as well as chopping the tail to your desired cuts is being offered for free by the amiable staff in the fish section. I love mine sliced an inch thick for easy frying.

I just followed my dear lola's way of frying fish. Sprinkled a bit of salt over the fish and then I drizzled the seasoned fish with a little DM vinegar. The explanation I got from her was that the mixture of salt and vinegar makes the fish smell better and the fried fish' color would turn brown faster and I hereby affirm this myth from the kitchen of my younger years.

Now, I am bent on trying other recipes for tuna tail. Thanks to Robs fish section and to my lola, cooking tuna tail now is as easy as counting 123.

A Piece of Fish Steak

I chanced upon the other day sliced fresh Malasugue fish at KCC supermarket. Bought a kilo composed of 5 neatly sliced glowing in freshness of this white meat fish.

The first two slices ended up as tinola for our dinner that night. What remained was cooked Pinoy Bistek style for our lunch this sunny Saturday noon.

Ingredients:
fish
calamansi, pepper, garlic, patis
onions
oil (vegetable and olive)

I marinated for an hour the fish in calamansi, pepper, garlic and of course, Thai fish sauce (patis). I then fried the marinated fish in vegetable oil. Kids love our fried stuff well done so the fish was just taken out of the pan when it had this golden brown color.

Serving as toppings of our fish steak are onion rings stir fried in olive oil. You could smell the aroma of the onion once its done and it's sweet and spicy taste blends well with our tasty fried fish.

Best served with newly cooked white rice!