Grilling fish outside of our house

Despite a cold Auckland winter (for someone born in the Tropics), my somewhat paleolethic habits have prompted me to grill snapper outside our house. So on an early Saturday morning on the last June weekend, I dropped by the Auckland Fish Market to buy a couple of medium-sized snappers after driving my wife into her office in the local insurance company (she was a bit busy as doing work during weekends, even for just a couple of hours is not a norm in corporate New Zealand).

Immediately right after arriving at our home (that's about 15 kms from the CBD where the fish market is), I wasted no time in grabbing the small BBQ grill that I kept just at the side of our small house and started piling up the used charcoal. I realised that they were slightly wet for quick use, probably because the grill was rained on a couple of days ago or more likely, as the grill is water-tight covered, because I've used too much water putting off the live coals the last time that I did grilling (couple or so months).  I have to get my stock of charcoals I stored in my garage (garage which I recently converted into a "boxing gym" but it has been more than 3 months since I actually put on the boxing gloves and sweat it out with the standing punching bag.  As a consequence my fairly aged car, a Nissan Primera Camino 1996, has to endure being parked outside and being covered with frost every morning. I need to get serious with this boxing stuff!).

Anyway, going back to the charcoal, I have accummulated 3 bags of different types/grade of charcoal. The story behind is that I initially bought a bag of charcoal that was really easy to use, but out of ignorance, I wasn't aware of the relative priciness. On my second purchase, I decided to buy the cheapest available; it felt and weighted like they were stones! This is probably what they call "coal" and not "charcoal". When I attempted to use them, it took my entire Sunday afternoon and partly the evening to successfully grill fish! It was horrible and took all of my patience and persistence, but I kept telling myself I should not give up and set my mind as if I was stranded on an island and I'd either sleep with empty stomach or persevere and have a yummy fish dinner. So basically, I started like 1 pm in the afternoon trying to start an ember on the rock-like coals. It was already 5-ish when I was able to generate enough live coals to guaranty a well-cooked grilled fish. My arms took a good deal of exercise by having to fan the live coals to life from a small ember for more than 3 hours.  And I have to inhale a good deal of smoke and my eyes were already cursing me after an hour of constant irritation.  But I managed to convince myself that failure is not an option if I were to survive in this imaginary uninhabited island. The third bag was a bit in the middle between the last two I've tried in terms of difficulty in creating embers. I actually discovered it when we were attending a get-together a friend couple's place (it was a dinner with a mix of watching and cheering our national fist "Manny Pacquiao" fight against his kryptonite nemesis, Juan Manual Marquez). It wasn't the kind of outcome we hoped for in the fight but it was a very enjoyable get-together.

And that's how I ended up with these 3 odd bags of charcoals of different types. I decided to use them in combination and thought this would be the best grilling session I will have so far (in a cost and convenience perspective, cost because I don't have to use all of my previous 1st choice charcoal and convenience because I don't have to endure an inordinate length of time in fanning live charcoals). But I learned another important lesson from the last session: it's not all about charcoal!  I basically didn't have a good fan available and as a result, fanning the coals required triple effort to achieve the same level I had on my previous sessions!  And once again, it took almost my entire afternoon to just grill a couple of snappers! I was literally starving and out of patience when I started putting the first fish on the grill.  I didn't even mind or notice the cold winter wind but was silently praying that the threat of rain which the ominous clouds wanted me to know won't materialise before I finish my stuff.

After all those hard lessons, I decided that an activity as simple as grilling fish requires some serious planning and preparation. Next time, I should have all the following essentials:

1. A reliable and efficient fan
2. Sufficient fire starters and matches
3. Dry fuel. Any wet charcoals should be removed (and can be added back once there are enough embers). I also learned that I can actually extinguish embers on my BBQ grill without pouring water. I just have to cover the live coals with the airtight cover and that should do the trick as the absence of oxygen will put off the embers.
4. A mask to minise inhalation of smoke
5. A rainless weather (you can opt to use a canopy or tent though)
6. Some imagination (mostly, to help you with patience)

And with that, I will prepare a "grilling checklist" for my next session!

Buggy's day

Today is Buggy's birthday so mejo hectic ang schedule.  Started with the day with brekkie pinoy style beef tapa. Buti namn at nagustuhan nya so photo op muna.

Tapa king and queen with apple juice

Winner namn daw ang tapa so magiging regular na sha sa menu namin.

Then we headed off at St Pat's for the 11 am mass. Buti nlng maaga kami kasi ang daming tao.

After ng mass nag lunch ang bida (ang may birthday) for sa Zap kami ang kanyang paborito.

Tapos nag stroll muna kami sa Clouds dahil 2.50 pa ang movie na papanuodin namin. so Photo opp muna sa Clouds

We watched Wrath of the Titans, winner naman!

Happy birthday to the Bug!!



Empanada

This is my first attempt of an empanada! saka na ang recipe pag perfect na. photo nlng muna ngayon.

Birthday celebration 30 March 2012

It was my birthday on March 24 it is Bug bday today (April 8).  We decided to invite our friends here to have a simple dinner.  Napilitan na din kami maglinis ng bahay sawakas!

For the dinner, I prepared shrimps in garlic and butter, lamb skewers. Tapos nag takeway sa #1 bbq si Bug ng crispy pork (2 kilos) and some stir fried veggie. 

Our guests brought fried chicken wings, pasta carbonarra, ice cream, chicken satay and cake. Ang cute ng cake na gawa ng friend namin. Ito ung photo!

 

Happy birthday to us!!!!

Lumpiang tuna

I recently tried cooking lumpiang tuna and it was a hit. I'm posting it here so I would not forget the recipe.

Ingredients:
 1 canned tuna
 spring rolls wrappers
 mixed veggies (peas, carrot and corn)
 1 small diced onion
 1 egg
 salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:
 Combine all the recipe in a bowl.
 wrap the combined ingredients in the spring roll
 Fry in oil.

Lamb skewers

Its been a while since I posted something here.  The initial plan was to do at least 1 post per week but got busy with other stuff. I will try to catch up though. 

For this Lamb skewers you need the following:
lamb chopped in small pieces
herbs (rosemary, paprika, thyme, salt and pepper)
soy sauce
chili flakes
olive oil
bamboo skewers

Procedure:
1.Cut the lamb chops to small pieces. Smaller pieces makes it easier to grill.
2. Rub the herbs and chili flakes to the meat.  I dont measure the herbs I put in, but maybe you can use 2 tablespoon of mixed herbs to 1/2 kilo.
3. Put salt and pepper to taste.
4. Sprinkle 2 tablespoon of soysauce.
5. Marinate for few hours.
6. Put the meat to the skewers then grill.
7. Dab the meat with olive oil to avoid drying the meat.

Time to let go

After 9 years, my handy cutie calculator gave up, the numbers does not appear clear and I have to tap it to work.

Canon calculator for almost 9 years

I bought this calculator when I was reviewing for my board exams.  This has been with me through think and thin, board exams, my work in SGV, EY Dubai, EY Auckland and Lumley.  It has seen my dramas on every client I had.  Everyone who sees this calculator finds it cute and girly. But now its time to go. Thank you my everdearest cutie purple calculator!