Paksiw na prito (pak-prit)

I saw this recipe of Chef Gene Gonzalez from abs-cbn.com. This is almost similar to fish sarciado I think. Perhaps we can try this out at home. The recipe seemed simple enough.

Okoy

I remember going with my mother to buy okoy in a Chinese restaurant somewhere in Binondo. I can still remember the smoke, the smell and the clattering of cooking utensils and waiters going to and fro. Everytime we had okoy for lunch, my mother studied all the okoys she bought to determine its ingredients. She made her own recipe.

Ingredients: ¼ kilo fresh alamang or shrimp; ½ cup powdered malagkit; 1 cup hot water; 2 tbsp achuete oil, ground pepper, salt, msg.

Thoroughly wash and drain the fresh alamang or shrimp. Meanwhile, dissolve powdered malagkit in hot water. Add achuete oil, salt, pepper, msg. Blend batter well until consistent. In a pan, heat oil enough for deep frying. Add to the batter well drained fresh alamang just before frying to avoid thinning of batter. Pour about ¼ cup and fry until crispy. Drain excess oil in paper towel. Serve with your favorite dip. The best dip for me is vinegar with chopped garlic.

Other version of okoy has mongo sprout and/or shredded unripe papaya in addition to alamang or shrimps. If you use shrimp, be sure to remove the "horn" and the "hair" from its head.

Dilis Crispies (fresh)

My mama used to cook this when  was a little kid. This is one of her recipes, hand-written on an old notebook, half-eaten by termites. All these years I have kept it, like a precious gem. Dilis (I guess this is anchovies in English) are small slender fish, about 2 to 3 inches long. Fresh dilis can be prepared as kilawin, a very appetizing dish. For now, I will share Mama's dilis crispies, one of my favorite food.

1/2 kilo fresh dilis; 4 tsp. calamansi (chinese lemon) juice; 4 tsp. table salt; 1 tsp black pepper (ground); cornstarch; and cooking oil for frying.

Remove head of dilis. Wash fish very well and allow to drain. Soak fish in a mixture of salt, juice and pepper for about 15 minutes. Drain and dry fish under the sun for about 20 minutes by scattering the fish on a tray. Cover with screen to keep away flies and other insects. Place cornstarch in a plastic bag, drop some dilis and shake untill all the dilis is well coated with cornstarch. Fry the dilis until golden brown and serve with your favorite dip or sauce. Happy eating!