The Kitchen God's Wife(y)

meet marlon, the kitchen god. in this picture, he is expertly deveining prawns for our second-year anniversary dinner (nearly two weeks ago!). since i flew in pretty late on our anniv itself, we hied off to jumbo for a cop-out comfort dinner of black pepper crab. the next evening, though, we decided to make our own little feast culled from superfast foods by michael van straten and barbara griggs.

(about this cookbook: i don't know if you can still find it on shelves, because my mom bought it a long time ago. the earliest i can remember seeing this around the house was sixth or seventh grade. and every single time i see it, i just have to pick it up and read it. it has a whole section on foods that are good for people in a certain age group: toddlers, students, working singles, supermoms and dads, middle-aged, etc. its main selling point is that it's full of yummy recipes that take 20 minutes or less to prepare. kind of like jamie oliver's shows, it's meant to give people confidence about cooking -- that it doesn't have to be complicated and that anyone can do it.)

this is what we did with the prawns.

scallops and prawns provencale

preparation time: 10 minutes
cooking time: 10 minutes

6 scallops, 250g fresh prawns, 1 tbs lemon juice, rock salt and freshly ground black pepper, flour for dusting, 2 tbs olive oil, 1 tbs butter, 2 cloves of garlic (chopped), 2 tbs of finely chopped parsley

wash the scallops and slice into three or four pieces. wash and blot dry the prawns. sprinkle them with lemon juice and dust very lightly with flour (or you can dust right before you toss them into the pan). heat oil and butter, add scallops and allow them to take color. add prawns and fry. add garlic and parsley, toss together and serve. yummy with brown rice. :-)

of course for the kitchen god, this was barely cooking -- it was just tossing things together. as for me, it was pretty new, considering that i hardly do any cooking at home. my sister and i can basically fry stuff and cook anything instant or out of a can. haha. so, to build confidence, i first stuck to brainless things like dusting the prawns and chopping whatever needed to be chopped.

currystrumpet's little area of responsibility.

i picked out the cute mini grater at the grocery. one dollah only la.

the cheese, shiitake mushrooms, ripe tomatoes and sundried tomatoes (above) were for another dish we decided to do: sundried tomato risotto! i won't put down the recipe here, but suffice it to say it was more complicated and took much longer to cook than the scallops and prawns. that was mainly because we did it the hard way and actually boiled the brown rice in vegetable stock. the kitchen god later said we could have cheated and precooked the rice.

playing wifey: the kitchen god's lowly student gives the risotto a helpful stir

sitting down to our self-cooked anniv feast. happily, both dishes turned out quite well.

superfast foods got another whirl a couple of days later, with a recipe i'd been eyeing for a while. it just looked so yummy and easy.

pepper-crusted fish in a warm lime and coriander vinaigrette

preparation time: 10 minutes
cooking time: 8 minutes

1 heaped tbs mixed peppercorns (coarsely crushed), 2 fresh or frozen white fish fillets (we used salmon), 1 tbs olive oil

for the vinaigrette: 1 clove garlic (peeled), 2 level tsp coarse-grain mustard (wholegrain or dijon should be ok), grated rind and juice of two limes (just one is enough), 4 tbs olive oil, rock salt and freshly ground black pepper (the more the merrier), fresh coriander leaves, chopped (dried is ok too)

coat the fish with the peppercorns, pressing them well into both sides. set aside.

prepare the vinaigrette. crush garlic in a bowl, then stir in the mustard, lime rind and juice, 4 tbs olive oil, salt, pepper and coriander.

heat 1 tbs of olive oil in a large frying pan. fry fish for about 3 minutes until crisp and golden. keeping the heat high, pour the vinaigrette over and around the fish. maintain heat for a couple of minutes to reduce liquid.

masterpiece in progress: salmon in lime and coriander vinaigrette

this was exquisitely simple (eee! cooking show lingo!), except that it was a freaking bitch trying to grate lime rind on that tiny cutesy grater.

BUT. OMG. it was like the best tasting dish i've ever had a part in making. it smelled absolutely wonderful while it was cooking. i usually associate lime with chemical scents such as dishwashing liquid and car air freshener, but real actual lime cooking just has such a heavenly scent.

it smelled so good i had visions of dinner parties dancing in my head. you know the type, when you dress up in a dress and heels and invite friends over for wine and some impossibly easy-to-cook but gourmet-type dish that will make them look at you differently.

i've never hosted such a party in my life, but such was the aroma of this dish (this VINAIGRETTE! that I MADE!) that i could easily imagine a lifetime of me hosting these kinds of things, never running out of things to wear and impressing the bejeezus out of anyone. *cue tinkling, silvery peal of laughter while effortlessly flipping over salmon*

and it wasn't just the aroma ha. the dish tasted...

...

basta. it was extremely good. shockingly good. i think part of my shock came from the fact that i actually participated in it without screwing it up. the kitchen god was so proud of me.

also tried this dish using tilapia instead of salmon and lemon instead of lime. the kitchen god had the brilliant idea of pre-steaming the fish over the brown rice before frying it. he also stuffed it with garlic and sprinkled it with chopped mint. the lemon makes a much more subtle and sweet vinaigrette than the lime, which can kind of shock with its tangy flavor since we don't get to eat a lot of lime back home.

so that's the kitchen god and me, kitchen goddess in training. don't worry, i haven't gone completely domestic yet. ;-)

--

a couple of words on my previous entry: i do know that i'm really lucky being here and still having a lot of options out there. i guess i just chose to indulge my wounded pride. i usually pick myself up rather quickly after these things. so thanks for all the supportive and sweet comments i received from you guys. as jayme says, itaas ang bandila! :-)