Experiment 3: Midsummer Fish

Prelab:
I wanted to use fish and squash together in a dish for lunch, but seeing that a few pieces of smooth-tailed trevally (salay-salay) won't be enough for 3 people, I decided to throw in a lot of vegetables. I found a foregin recipe in the internet that uses lemon, olive oil, zucchini, squash, fish fillets, mint leaves, and red wine vinegar. You're supposed to roast them in an oven (ma mere loves oven-baked dishes since these are tasty even with minimal oil), but I was too lazy to clean the oven afterwards that I decided to do some major changes.

Date Performed: Nov. 24, 2009

Ingredients:
5 long strips of string beans
1 cup of sliced squash (*about 200g)
1 cup of sliced ampalaya
5 small pieces of calamansi
8 small pieces of salay-salay
parsley leaves
2 small onions
3-4 small cloves of garlic
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar and 1 tbsp brown sugar dissolved in 8 oz water (*about 250 ml)

Preparation:
It can be divided into 3 parts.
1) Heat 1 tbsp of vegetable oil in pan. Sautee 1 minced onion and garlic. Add thinly sliced squash and strips of string beans that were equally cut to 4 or 5 parts. Stir occasionally until half-cooked. Add ampalaya. Stir occasionally. Separate vegetables when cooked.
2) Fry salay-salay.
3) Place vegetables on top of fish. Add 1 minced onion. Pour apple cider vinegar solution. Sprinkle some parseley leaves. Bring to a boil.Serve hot.

Post-lab:
I never knew that mes parents aren't fond of anything with sugar. The apple cider label stated that I should add honey if I were to use it in cooking, but since we had no honey, I added sugar instead. I'm certain I tasted it and it was fine before I added it, but it wasn't to their liking. It's too sweet for them. Maybe if I settled for the super sour taste of apple cider vinegar, it would've been better.
- Apple cider vinegar has a far too different taste than red wine. Too bad we don't have red wine or any other wine for cooking. *shrugs* I only used apple cider vinegar since ma mere said I could use it as a substitute for red wine, but I guess that doesn't work.
- I think the ampalaya was another mistake, because the slightly bitter taste doesn't blend in with the apple cider vinegar solution. But then, what could I use to replace zucchini???
- There's too much difference between roasting and frying. Next time I shouldn't be so lazy in the cleanup part.
- Mon pere likes to eat traditional dishes. It became quite obvious after calling my midsummer fish recipe 'weird'. Hmm... old folks like eating old recipes I suppose. He keeps justifying that I should prepare normal dishes for normal people and for guests in the future.
However, normal dishes are fairly easy when you're looking at the typical cookbook. I've been assisting ma mere long enough to know that cooking traditional dishes at home are no different from the usual laboratory exercises I do in the university.

I really really really am not fond of cooking. IF I cook you something, then I probably like you enough to do it.

But since mon pere requests (or rather, nags me everyday to start practicing cooking for my own good) and since ma mere is sick right now, it's not like I could refuse the people I love.

So I found a compromise. I could experiment on the usual recipes and see how far I could edit them. I'm not really afraid to try things out, or to fail people's preferences, for that matter. Besides, if the premise that "all chemists are great cooks" is true, then it follows that I'll be able to invent some interesting dishes in time.