Bangus with tofu and the many ways with milkfish

assorted bangus products, originally uploaded by annalyn.

Bangus (Philippine milkfish) is one of my favorite foods, and so does a great number of people. The Philippines is certainly blessed to have lots of them for propagation and distribution. As a result, they have attained world-class export status. It's a good thing that in the Philippines, we enjoy them in a variety of ways and assorted bangus products are now available in the market.

So aside from the regular fresh bangus, daing na bangus and tinapang bangus we can easily have in the palengke (fresh market), enterprising businessmen have now packaged them into a variety of products to be enjoyed.

At the ongoing Manila Foods and Beverages Expo, I visited a booth called Tita Marina's Homemade Special Pangasinan Bangus. What caught my eye was their brochure showing the immaculate bangus in various incarnations, namely: relleno, tocino bangus, boneless tinapa, shanghai bangus with cheese, bangus sardines, bangus siomai, bangus fish nuggets and a few others.

Even my favorite Chinese restaurants offer a bangus dish with tofu. I don't have any picture now, but I tried this at home and it came out delicious.

Here's my recipe for Bangus with Tofu:

First I have one whole bangus deboned and filleted at my favorite suki in the market.

I set aside the belly portion for cooking the dish and marinate it in a soy sauce, pepper and kalamansi.

I mince lots of garlic and saute it in olive or canola oil. Take care not to burn the garlic or it will spoil the dish.

Take out the garlic and then fry the bangus belly. Season with salt and sugar. Add the bangus marinade and a little more liquid if necessary.

Add the japanese tofu (soft variety) and the garlic bits before turning off the heat. You may also put in mushrooms.

Serve in a plate or sizzling pan if you prefer.

Cooking French: flambeed strawberries with vanilla ice cream

flambeed strawberry, originally uploaded by annalyn.

To continue with our Manila Diamond Hotel cooking series, here's something that's guaranteed to impress your partner or date and win you loads of beauty points. Recipe provided by MDH's Le Bellevue Restaurant:

Pick out 400 grams of strawberry. Clean and remove the leaves and keep dry.

Gather approximately 15 grams of peppercorn. Blanch in boiling water 20 seconds and set aside.

Also gather four leaves of basil. Clean and cut into strips with scissors.

Heat olive oil in skillet.

Add brown sugar and make a light caramel.

Saute strawberries with butter. Add green peppercorn.

Take out one small glass of mango juice. Pour into the pan over strawberries. Simmer for one minute then add basil strips and a little more olive oil. Roll in pan.

Set up the flambeed strawberry in glass. Top with vanilla ice cream and pin toasted ensaymada on side of glass.