One advantage of living in New England is the seafood. Since we are on the coast, the price of seafood here is comparatively cheaper than let's say Nebraska. Every summer, dh and I always look forward to having lobster. Lobster can be bought all year round of course, but it is expensive. During the summer months, you can get lobster for $5.99/pound if it is on sale. The most popular way to cook lobster is to steam it (don't boil it!) and another popular restaurant dish is stuffed lobster. I use the steam method if I feel lazy and don't want to spend too much time prepping. But if I'm in the mood to cook (just like the other day), I cook lobster the Cantonese way.

This recipe is from Eileen Lo's Chinese Kitchen. The original recipe calls for fresh live lobsters to be chopped up. I tried this the first time but found it disconcerting. First, I felt guilty cutting up something that is still 'alive' and second, it grossed me out. So the next time that I cooked this dish, I steamed the lobsters for about 4 minutes so it's partially-cooked. You can also use shrimps in lieu of lobsters. Read more for the recipe.

I omitted the part which calls for ground pork and eggs. It's just personal

preference, I think this dish is best with just the lobster and the sauce. If you like sauce on your rice, then double the marinade. Yummy!

LOBSTER CANTONESE

by Eileen Lo

The Chinese Kitchen

Marinade:

1 3/4 tsp soy sauce

1 1/2 tbsp oyster sauce

3/4 tsp salt (I omit this since it's already salty for me)

1 1/2 tsp sugar

pinch ground pepper

2 tsp sesame oil

Lobsters, chopped into pieces

1/4 lb lean ground pork

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp sugar

1/8 cup peanut oil

2 tsp minced garlic

3 large eggs, beaten

2 tsp fresh ginger, minced

2 tbsp Chinese white rice wine

2 scallions, trimmed and finely sliced

1. In a large bowl, combine the marinade ingredients. Place the lobster in the marinade and allow to rest 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the lobster from the marinade and reserve both separately. As the lobster marinates, mix the ground pork with the salt and sugar thoroughly; reserve.

2. Heat oil over high heat and add 1 tsp of minced garlic. When it browns, add pork mixture. Stir to separate and cook for 3 min. When the pork changes color, add the eggs and mix into a soft scramble. Turn off heat, remove all the ingredients and reserve.

3. Using a clean pan, heat oil and add minced ginger. Add the remaining garlic and stir until brown. Add lobster pieces. Spread in a thin layer. Turn the lobster pieces. Add the wine at the edge of the pan and mix thoroughly. When the lobster meat reddens, add the pork-egg mixture and mix all ingredients thoroughly. Add the reserved marinade and stir. Add the scallions and mix well. Turn off heat, transfer to a heated platter, garnish with cucumber and serve with steamed rice.

I love shellfish, shrimps and lobsters in particular. We usually have lobsters during the summer months, when it is plentiful therefore at their cheapest. Shrimps, meanwhile are available all year round. One of the dish I like to cook during the summer months is sauteed shrimp with corn. It is a super quick dish, no cooking skills required. Fresh corn is best for this recipe and some green vegetable like Spinach or Bokchoy. In the Philippines, my mom use Malunggay for the greens. If you're lucky enough to live in Florida or California, then use this for that unique taste.

I am always on the look-out for simple shellfish dishes like this. I know that there are a lot of recipes on the net but you're not really sure if it's good or not. What's your favorite seafood recipe? If it's unique and inventive, maybe you would want to enter it in the Great American Seafood Cook off . It's great that they hold this contests for seafood lovers, it gives amateur cooks a chance to show off their skill and win great prices. This will also help showcase all seafood that are available locally which would in turn help our economy. I'm lucky enough to live near the largest fishing port in the nation so I know that the seafood I get from the local fish monger is fresh and local.
Read more for the recipe.



Shrimps with Corn

10 pcs shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 1/2 cup corn kernels (2 ears of corn)
1 tbsp canola oil
1 small tomato, chopped
1/3 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
salt or fish sauce, to taste
ground pepper
1 cup spinach or any green, leafy vegetable
2 cups chicken stock
2 tsp cornstarch, dissolved in 1 tbsp chicken stock

Saute garlic, onion and tomatoes in oil until tender. Add shrimps and cook until pink, set aside the shrimps. Mix in the corn kernels, chicken stock, fish sauce and ground pepper. Bring to boil and cook about 5 minutes, just until the corn kernels are tender. Bring back the shrimps to the pan, add the spinach and the dissolved corn starch. Cook until the sauce thickens (less than 2 minutes). Serve with steamed rice.

Escabeche I think is the Filipino version of the Chinese Sweet and Sour dish although the latter has a sweeter and thicker sauce (not to mention redder). Escabeche solely refers to a dish made with fish and the accompanying sauce which has a delicate balance of sweet and sour. To get the perfect Escabeche sauce, it has to be just a little sweet with a hint of sourness to perfectly complement the delicate taste of the fish. Anything more than that will ruin the whole dish.

I've tried a lot of recipes and found some to be overly sweet or too sour. The kind of vinegar that is used is very important. If you are using a recipe from a Philippine cookbook, I suggest using cane vinegar like Datu Puti. This kind of vinegar is not as acidic as the regular distilled vinegar.

Using whole fish adds a special touch, the dish looks nice when you serve it. Some Americans are queasy when they see whole fish served on the table, what more if they see a whole lechon? I can just imagine my MIL when she sees a lechon complete with the head. She will probably swear off on eating any kind of pork for life. LOL I'm thankful that dh is not like that. Here in our local grocery, they only sell fillets of fish. So every time we go to the Asian grocery near Boston, I always get a whole fish. This time I got a whole Lane Snapper, just the perfect size for the family.


I used an oval-shaped pan to fry the fish. This was the reason I purchased this pan in the first place (NO, I am not a fan of Rachel Ray LOL). I've used the regular round pan and fishes this size don't fit (unless you have a huge kawali from the Philippines :)).


ESCABECHE (Pickled Fried Fish)

1 medium sized fish, cleaned
2 tsp salt
1/2 lemon
1/3 cup oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, sliced
1/2 green pepper, cut into strips
1 tbsp ginger strips
1 carrot, cut into strips
1/4 cup vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp catsup
1 tsp cornstarch, dissolved in 2 tbsp water

*Rub fish all over with lemon. Sprinkle with salt and let stand for half an hour.
*Fry in oil until brown. Set aside.
*Saute garlic, ginger and onions until onions are translucent. Add carrots and saute for 3 mins. Add the green pepper and saute for another 2 mins.
*Add sugar, salt, soy sauce and catsup to the water and mix until dissolved. Pour into the pan with the vegetables. Add vinegar and bring to boil.
*Stir in cornstarch solution and cook until thick and transparent.
*Pour sauce over the fish and serve with white rice.

Source: Filipino Cooking by E.Laquian and I.Sobrevinas


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My sister Giselle used to work in the Embarcadero area in San Francisco. There is a small Chinese restaurant a block away from her office and it is where they always eat for lunch. She brought me this Scrambled Eggs with Shrimp dish one day from work. I never thought that eggs with shrimp would taste so heavenly, but it does. (My personal opinion, of course. :)) If you are an egg and a shrimp lover, this dish is for you. You can make different variations of this dish, make it as complicated as you want by adding veggies or spices. I for one prefer it just the way it is.

Fettucine Rigate is my favorite to use in dishes. Rigate is a member of the Fettuccine family. Fettuccine means “little ribbons” in Italian. Fettuccine Rigate differs from Fettuccine in that it has ridges on both sides (rigate means “ridged” in Italian). Pasta shapes with ridges tend to hold more sauce because of the grooves (ridges) versus the smooth pasta.

This sauce is a 'lighter' version of Alfredo sauce, not quite close but passable. Nothing beats the taste of butter in sauce, of course. Since we all want to eat healthy, I chose to skip butter and use olive oil instead. For cooking, I use regular olive oil but if a recipe calls for olive oil drizzled on the food before serving, I use extra virgin olive oil. I heard from Mario Batali, a well-known Italian chef that you shouldn't waste your extra virgin olive oil in cooking, save it for dipping or drizzling over food. So Rachel Ray aka E.V.O.O. , you don't know what you're talking about. LOL

I used asparagus here but you can also use spinach or broccoli. I recommend using freshly grated Parmesan cheese because it adds more depth to the sauce compared to the one that's already bottled.

Fettucine Rigate with Shrimp and Asparagus

1/2 pound fettucine Rigate
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 tsp minced shallots
1/2 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup half and half
1 bunch asparagus stalks
salt
black pepper
1 tbsp chopped parsley
grated Parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the fettucine rigate and cook according to the directions on the box. Drain.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over a medium-high flame. Add the garlic and shallots and saute for 1 minute. Add the shrimp and cook until it turns pink. Remove the shrimp from the pan and set aside. Add the white wine and half and half to the skillet. Let simmer until the liquid is reduced by about half.

In another pan, saute the asparagus in oil. Cut into 1-inch pieces. Return the shrimp to the pan with the sauce and stir in the parsley. Add the drained fettucine rigate to the shrimp mixture, tossing to combine. Add cooked asparagus. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Sprinkle freshly grated parmesan cheese before serving.


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Usually the most delicious food comes from a very simple recipe, Halabos na Hipon is one of them. This is my number one favorite shrimp recipe. It is comparable to shrimp Scampi of the Italians or Gambas al Ajillo of Catalonia.

The only time I make Halabos na hipon is when I have whole shrimps from the Asian grocery. All the flavors to make this a great dish comes from the head. The shrimp products we have in the local grocery or the club store are the headless shrimps, I wonder what they do with the discarded shrimp heads?


The way my mom taught me to cook this dish is very simple. Place the shrimps in a saute pan with just a little water. Add salt and pepper. Once it starts to boil, saute it for about 2 minutes for medium-sized shrimps and around 3-5 minutes for larger shrimps. At the last minute of cooking, add a teaspoon of canola or olive oil to finish the dish.

I prefer my Halabos na hipon to have a lot of sauce so I use more water. :) This goes well with freshly cooked rice or French bread. Yummy!

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I grew up in a family where everyone loves shellfish, it is a healthy source of protein. Fresh shellfish is the best and nothing can beat the taste of raw oysters with some freshly squeezed lemon juice. When I was growing up, we always go to a beach in Cavite and get a big basket of oysters along the way for lunch.

My dad loves to eat raw oysters. Nowadays, he has to be very careful when eating anything that is raw, including oysters. He has Type2 Diabetes so his immune system is already compromised. He will only eat raw oysters if he knows that it came from a company with strict quality control inspection and uses one of the post-harvest treatment processes. Anyone with a compromised immune system should be very careful when eating raw oysters. People with Diabetes, liver disease, cancer, stomach disorders or any disease that weakens the body's immune system. If the oysters have not been properly harvested, cleaned and packaged, they might end up getting very sick.

Here in the USA, we always buy Gulf oysters. The Gulf Oyster Processors use new technologies to ensure that the raw oysters they sell are safe for consumers, including those at-risk. They use three different post-harvest treatment processes to achieve this: (1) IQF - Individual Quick Freezing (2) HCP - Heat Cool Pasteurization and (3) HHP - High Hydrostatic Processing. All these post-harvest processes reduce the risk of illness from eating raw oysters. So before you buy raw oysters, make sure that it has undergone one of these three safety processes.

It is a treat for me to get fresh quail eggs. I can only buy it at an Asian grocery about an hour's drive from our town. This is one of the dish that I like to cook using these kind of eggs. It is very simple yet full of flavor.

All you need are garlic, onions, fresh shrimp, hard-boiled quail eggs, fresh green peas, chicken broth and cornstarch. Saute the garlic and onions until translucent and soft. Add shrimps and green peas. Saute for a minute then add some chicken broth, just enough to make a sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Dissolve some cornstarch in the chicken broth (1 tsp cornstarch + 2 tsp. water) and add to thicken the sauce.Add the boiled and shelled quail eggs. Cook for about 2 minutes (until the shimps turn pink) it is very important not to overcook the shrimp. If you need exact measurements, just drop me a note and I'll send you the recipe. :)

There are many variations of this dish. You can use chicken in lieu of shrimps or you can add cashews for some crunch. I don't cook this dish often because my husband does not like peas. Too bad for him since he's missing out on a great and simple dish. :)

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