Coffee Jelly

A no-cook, no-bake dessert. Mix, chill and serve, yup, that easy!

before chilling

Ingredients:

• jelly (gulaman) powder
• coffee
• condense milk
• all-purpose cream
• sugar, optional
  
• water (for the jelly mix)
  

close-up shot

Procedures:

• Cook the jelly (gulaman) powder according to package instructions. Be sure to add a liberal amount of coffee but not too much, as you don't want your jelly to become super bitter. If and when you went overboard, a sprinkle of sugar will do the trick *wink*. Cool and cut it into cubes.
• In a deep bowl, preferably one with a lid, mix the jelly with the rest of the ingredients (condense milk, all-purpose cream).
  
• Here's the deal - if and when you made the jelly a little bland, mix a little amount of coffee on the condense milk and all-purpose cream mixture like what you usually do in a tiramisu mix to reinforce the coffee taste in the cream and cover the lack thereof in the jelly.
• Taste test, tweak until you're satisfied and then, chill.
  

chilled coffee jelly

An ambrosia for the coffee lovers :)

Garlic Shrimp

Another easy dish to whip up for no-meat Fridays :)


Ingredients:

• fresh prawns (sugpo)
• garlic, minced
  
• oil
• butter
  
• hot water

Procedures:

• Blanch the prawns. Take off everything (shell, head, tail). Set aside.
  
• Heat a little oil before putting in the butter to prevent it from burning.
• Drop the minced garlic and peeled prawns, saute until the garlic is roasted and the prawns are coated with butter.
• Serve over steaming white rice.
• Chili vinegar dip is optional but recommended.
  

It's as easy as one, two, three, right?

Fresh Pick: Asugon (Barracuda)

Photo below is a Guinean Barracuda, one of the more timid kinds of barracuda, it comes in many names depending on the local you're in here in the Philippines, here in Navotas and I guess, mostly in Tagalog region, it is called Asugon. The asugon on the pic below measured up to 4ft in length, I have no idea, how much it weigh, I was just astonished to see (well not really, I grew up seeing huge fishes) how big it was so I asked my tatay to put a meter beside it, to illustrate how long it is, and took the shot. I have other shots, but I just can't post it the right way, I don't know why :(


My tatay cooked it in two ways - he sliced and fried the body (first) while he cooked the head and tail part plus the egg (and other whatnots) in sour broth (second). Before you question my pop's food preference, let me tell you a side story, he used to work as a chief cook in a cargo ship before he retired, and most of his co-workers during his years of work were Japs nationals, so his quirky palette sort of came from that.



No recipes from me, not a fan of fish and I don't think, I'll ever be :p