Beauties into Beasts: "Ugly" Fish (Grilled Pompano, Rainbow Trout, Sea Bass)

[js]
I've been quite dejected of late.

I have lost my desire for grilling fish.

Mind you, this is big news. Ding-dong, sound the gong: the death of Desire, with a capital D. (Oh no, I'm having a flashback to my pretentious years in school. Heaven forbid.)

Recalling the capital D, I do not think my lack of desire lately has anything to do with our general lack of industry. This is different: I've been foiled by failure and I'm now fearful of destroying more specimens of fishly beauty.

After those gorgeous(!) pike mackerel about a month ago, I've been having trouble grilling fish. I've tried it with three different fish now. I wish I knew what I was doing wrong, because then, I can write myself a cautionary tale of how not to turn beautiful fish into ugly fish.

My goodness, indeedy, what we've created on the grill are MONSTERS.

[ts]
The rainbow trout was a beauty! It was so beautiful that we were compelled to buy it! JS didn't even take a picture of it.

Here's the pompano.


[js]
The rainbow trout was under that pompano. I was trying to get a picture quickly and did not want to shuffle my fish.

We usually have pompano fried, but I thought of trying to grill these babies for a change.

What a wrong decision.

Look! Look at that skin flaking off. Ugly!


Actually, the pompano managed to escape the worst of it. Look at the rainbow trout after it went on the grill.


Whoa!

It's a good thing I did not take a picture of the trout prior to cooking it. I bet you I would have been flamed for desecrating it. TS tried to dress it up with the lemon slices, to hide the ugliness, but there is no denying the incontrovertible truth.

Face of the trout so badly burnt like that. Look at it! It's like the dark side of the moon or some such. Only its mother could love it now.

On a side note, the trout was delicious, though. It was dusted with salt, pepper, oregano, and basted with a garlic-olive oil mixture.

We also bought some seabass and this is how they were before the grill.


Okay, I've kind of made a mess with the slashing and the lemons, but that is not my worst crime.

Look at them after!


TS again did the best that she could. The lemon slices tried to cover their ugliness, but to no avail.

This is so embarrassing. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I wait until the grill is hot, I wipe the grates with oil, then I put my fish onto the grill.

They go in beauties, they come out beasts.

I need help!


[ts]
Teehee. Not to belittle JS's pain, but this is kinda funny. Teehee.

(Sesame Seed) Buns

[ts]
We thought we'd try something different and participate in the Taste & Create event (created by For the Love of Food).

How it works:
Each blog gets a partner and makes something from the partner's blog. In our case, we were paired with Stephanie from Fun Foods -- On a Budget!

We're not really big bakers, so we thought we'd try something new-ish and make hamburger buns.

I took the liberty of adding some sesame seeds on top of our buns. Hence, sesame seed buns. =)


rising


bun in the oven, done!

Stephanie was correct: this was a very simple yet successful recipe. The bun was soft and slightly sweet. Very nice. Ours still tasted a bit yeasty, though, so I don't know if that was intentional. In any case, we didn't mind the yeasty flavor; after all, isn't that what bread's supposed to taste like?


soft & fluffy

Once we knew we were making these buns, we brainstormed ideas for fillings. I think what we have is quite exciting! (Well, at least, I think it's super-duper-exciting.) Stay tuned!


Breads we've done from the book:
Artisan Deli-Style Rye Bread
Brioche
Swedish Limpa Bread
European Peasant Loaf
Olive Oil Bread with Onions and Olives

Other breads we've made before:
No-Knead Bread, Two Kinds
Sesame Seed Buns
Foccacia
Potato Cornmeal Foccacia
Whole Wheat Challah



This event is created by created by For the Love of Food to promote community, sharing, tasting, and blogging.

Our partner blog: Fun Foods -- On a Budget!
Recipe for buns here.

Mama's Giniling (Soy-braised Ground Pork with Carrots & Potatoes)

Here it is, folks, our mother's "world-famous" giniling dish.

We are sharing the secrets of what has sustained us lo these many years.



[js]
Giniling is our mother's old reliable. It never fails to grace our table once, twice, five times (or sometimes more) a month since. . . well, forever. (Or, at least since I remember eating.)

It is an extremely accessible dish, extremely popular with us "kids." (And now, popular with the real kids in the house, our bosses aged 4 and 3.)

This is the one dish that we "kids" have never complained about having so very often: our mother has never heard, as it pertains to this dish, the annoying, whiny question of, "Giniling AGAIN?"

A dish like this having a special kind of hold on us must be -- well, special.

Having nourished our family for decades, our mother believes that it will nourish others. Thus, she has taught this dish to many a newlywed just starting out on the journey of life.

"World-famous" indeed. ;)

In fact, up till about three years ago, this dish was so revered -- think cows roaming the streets of Hindu India -- that it did not even have a name. We did not even know how to call it. It was one of those newlywed "students," a young wife, who came up with the name we're using now.

The word "giniling" actually means ground up, and in this case, it refers of course to the ground pork.

This dish is very easy to do.
(The lighting is a bit off, so bear with the photographs.)

Brown 2 pounds of ground pork in a skillet.


Our mother sometimes adds about a tablespoon of vinegar to cook with the ground pork if she deems the pork to be too aggressively porcine for her liking. Drain and throw out the fluid that the pork generates. That's a Mama secret, which we are now sharing with our readers. ;)

Add black pepper to flavour the ground pork.

[ts]
(Black pepper, of course! She is dictator of the Black Pepper Regime, as described here.)

[js]
The timing of the black pepper is interesting, and I personally do not know if our mother deems that this is exactly the RIGHT time to add the pepper for maximum flavour.

Add chopped garlic. Then, add 1 tablespoon of shao xing wine and 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce.


Add cubed up carrots and potatoes, about 1 cup of each.

[ts]
The size of your dice does not matter. For no apparent reason, our mother sometimes makes small dice (extremely rare, though) and sometimes large dice. Sometimes the carrot and potato pieces aren't even really "dice"or cubes at all! ;)


[js]
Add approximately 4 tablespoons of soy sauce and 1 cup of water. There should be enough water in the skillet so the ingredients do not burn. This dish is like a stew that it needs to simmer.

Add a tablespoon of sugar.

simmering

Let the mixture come up to a boil and keep on a low simmer until the carrots and potatoes are tender. Adjust the seasoning. You might need to add more soy sauce to taste.

Serve over white rice and enjoy.

"Classic" Giniling

[js]
And there you have it. This is a good dish to have in anybody's arsenal: it's tasty, it's easy, and it will not break the household budget. I can have this three times a week and not complain.

Recently, our mother started to experiment with other flavour combinations with giniling. One of her favourites is the Tomato & Preserved Chili Radish, shown below. [preserved CHILI radish info/pic]



Another one is Fried Tofu Puffs and Preserved Radish, without the spiciness.
[tofu puff pic/info; preserved radish (aka "Szechuan vegetable") pic/info]



[ts]
These giniling versions are all made the same way. It's actually amazing how different they taste merely by switching around a couple of ingredients.

[js]
One ingredient that we (or at least, our mother) never use with pork is ginger, so no ginger was harmed in these dishes.

Not pairing pork with ginger is just a Chinese (or Fukien-Chinese) custom, similar to the Italian one of not pairing seafood with cheese, and the reason for this particular custom escapes me.

I like all the "gourmet" versions too, but my favourite still has to be the classic giniling.


Mama Dishes
Mama's Silkie Chicken ("Dyong Kwe")
Mama's Philippine-style Fruit Salad
Mama's Cilantro Beef Shin
Mama's Black Peppercorn Shortribs
Mama's Fish Head Soup
Mama's Giniling
Mama's Giniling, v4 and v5
Mama's Ampalaya (Bitter Melon)
Ma-Kut (Pork Bone) Soup