Fried Catfish Fillet With Tomato Sauce

My daughter asked me to cook meatless or fish dinners on Fridays because she is giving up a few things during Lent, and meat on Fridays is one of them. I am more than happy to feed everyone in my house fish and this is my chance to cook fish more often.

Fried Catfish Fillet
1½ pounds catfish fillet
1 tablespoon lemon or calamansi juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sea salt
cornstarch
olive oil for frying

Tomato Sauce
1 T olive oil
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 large tomatoes. diced
1 tsp lemon or calamansi juice
1 tsp soy sauce
½ tsp salt
ground black pepper
fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped

• Marinate fish in lemon juice, soy sauce and salt for no more than 10 minutes. In a large skillet heat oil on medium high. Roll fillets in cornstarch, fry until golden brown and crispy. Transfer to a serving dish.
• While fish is marinating, prepare the sofrito: Saute garlic and onion until cooked, about 3 minutes. Add lemon juice, soy sauce and salt, stir fry for 1 minute. Turn off the heat, add tomatoes, cilantro and ground pepper. Mix well and set aside. Spoon on top of fried fish fillets. Serve with steamed baby squash.

sweet and tender steamed and lightly salted assorted baby squash

Callos With Green Chickpeas

Callos is one Spanish dish that I regularly make, it is so easy to prepare and so flavorful. I don't use tripe in my callos because it takes forever to cook and nobody in my house likes the smell of cooking tripe. I use a lot of chorizos instead. For a little variation I used green garbanzos (chickpeas). The colors of red peppers, tomatoes and the chorizos look so well with the green chickpeas.

Callos
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cups ham, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 Spanish chorizos, sliced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 16-oz can diced tomatoes
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, Spanish is best
1 cup sherry
1 cup chicken broth or water
2 teaspoons salt
1 pound frozen green chickpeas or 32-oz can chickpeas, drained

• In a medium saucepan, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil and add the garlic and onion, cook for 2 minutes. Add the chorizos, fry for 2 minutes, then add the red bell pepper, saute for 2 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients except chickpeas and let simmer for 15 minutes. Add the frozen garbanzos and simmer for 10 minutes, do not let boil rapidly or the chickpeas will break into mush. Drizzle the remaining olive oil before serving.

You have to pre-boil separately tripe or pork hocks if you are using them. Then add with the meat as directed above.

Misua With Patola Soup (Extra Thin Flour Noodles with Green Loofah)

You would think it is strange to eat loofah, that thing you use for exfoliating while in the shower but it's true, patola is loofah in its green form before it's dried to make into loofah and it is edible and yummy. Most Asians I think eat this vegetable. When I was a child in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, I used to see them growing on my neighbor's fence which they gave away to anybody who asked, for free.

Yesterday I went to the grocery for the sole purpose of getting celery root for soup but then I saw this really fresh young patola. I had to see if the grocery has very thin flour noodles we Filipinos call misua (Singaporeans call them meesua) and was so glad they have them. I looked for the recipe in my Filipino cookbooks and I was annoyed that not one among my 6 cookbooks has it. My Singaporean/Malaysian cookbook has almost the same recipe as the Pinoy's, they also use patola which they call ketola. I didn't put seafood and chicken, we had the soup with boiled eggs, just like the way my mother prepared it.

For the soup, saute 2 chopped garlic and 1 sliced onion, add 5 C chicken broth and 1 T patis (fish extract) and bring to a boil, let boil for 2 minutes then add sliced patola, cook for 2 minutes, add 3 bundles noodles, cut in half, and cook for 2 minutes, do not overcook. Adjust seasoning with salt or fish extract. Top with sliced boiled eggs (I like my eggs boiled for only 5 minutes).

Blue Potato Pancake

Each time I go to the grocery there's always something that catches my attention, these blue potatoes surely did. They are a bit sweet and waxy and the blue color is so vivid. I got a pound and did not know what to do with them besides taking photos. I was thinking of a giant hash brown (or should I say blue), pancake, Spanish omelette, or individual latkes. I decided on a giant hash brown/pancake because it is simpler, it does not need eggs like latkes and Spanish potato omelette. It is so nice as a side dish with a little sour cream.

Potato Pancake/Hash Brown
1 pound waxy potatoes
1 onion, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon sea salt

• Boil potatoes, whole and unpeeled, for 10 minutes. Let potatoes cool in the freezer for 15 minutes. Peel potatoes and coarsely grate.

• In a non-stick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon butter, saute onions until cooked, add to the grated potatoes with the salt, mix gently. Heat 1 tablespoon butter in the same skillet, add the potato mixture and press onto the skillet. Cover and cook on medium heat until a crust is formed, about 10-15 minutes. Invert on a platter, add the last tablespoon of butter to the skillet and ease back the potato pancake onto the skillet. Cook for 10 - 15 minutes until bottom has formed a crust. Slice into wedges and serve with sour cream. A sprinkling of crisp bacon bits with the sour cream is also very good.