My cooking anyone?

I'm home, just waiting for the day to pass while doing some small chores. I'm currently enjoying a few days off work and I kindda just taking it slowly. I don't push myself to do the laundry, ironing the clothes, cleaning and dusting. The only thing I try to do most of the time while I'm home is cooking. Here are the reasons why I should be cooking:

1. There's no work means there's no reason to get tired most of the day ergo more time for cooking.

2. No more budget to spend eating out so I have to make use of whatever food is in the cupboard and the fridge.

3. I am choosing to cut down a few calories by refraining from deep fried foods bought from fast food restaurants.

4. and simply because Mars expects me to pamper him now that I'm home for vacation.

On our last trip to the souq, Mars and I bought some beef from the butchery. This is my first time to buy from there as I always buy from Carrefour or Lulu. Buying from the souq is much cheaper compared to buying from the big groceries. Later on, I found out that the meat tastes better too. I just have to deal with the fact that the cleanliness and sanitation of the butchery in the souq is less maintained. I just have to wash thoroughly the meat before cooking and boil it much longer to kill the unwanted bacteria which may be present. I divided them separately in 4 cellophane bags to proportion it into cooking portions.

Some of the beef, I cooked for "beef sinigang". This is also my first time to cook such dish. According to my ever loyal critic and husband, it was delicious, only that the meat was not tender enough. So next time, I know that I have to keep it boiling for a little bit more.

The next day, I used some of the beef to cook "beef caldereta". This, he ate with gusto and asked me to wrap the leftover and pack it as his "baon" for his duty that night.

I missed eating fish and that is why I bought a milkfish from the grocery. I bought the fish even though I know that Mars wouldn't eat it. I also thought that I have to start pushing him to eat fish from now on. The fish came from the Philippines as stated by the plastic wrapper the fish was wrapped in. It never crossed my mind that the fish was just plain fish frozen. I still have to scale, clean and remove the gills and internal organs. Did I say that this is also my first time to do that? I always come back to the thought that I'm learning to cook because of necessity and scaling a fish is one of them. So far cleaning the fish was fun. I just searched from my memory how my grandmother do it. Watching her do it when I was a little girl, paid off afterall. The cleaning and scaling was okay until I have to cut it into portions. The meat of the fish was a little bit crushed because of the pressure of my dull knife. From that incident, I learned that I have to use a very sharp knife next time.

Cooking the fish was not so difficult afterall. I used the rice washings as my broth and in it, I put sliced tomatoes, ginger, onion and the dried kamias (courtesy of Ate Lulu). I let it boil for sometime until the tomatoes are wilted. Then I put the cut up cabbage and beans together with the fish. I jazzed up the saltiness by putting a little bit of salt. After simmering for a few seconds, my sinigang was done. Mars had his share of the broth and vegetables while I ate all the rest. How I love the belly part, yummy! He did ate a little fish though when I spoonfed him with some. Maybe if I keep incorporating fish in our menu once in a while, his tastebuds will soon be familiar with it. Maybe, just maybe. And by the way, he ate the leftover munggo and some fried tocino from our lunch as his dinner last night.