Ingredients:

2 large Chinese eggplants

1 boneless milkfish, meat scraped and chopped

20 pieces medium size shrimps, shelled, deveined and chopped

vegetable oil

2 tablespoon soy sauce

1/4 cup chopped onions

1/2 cup chopped button mushrooms

1 stalk celery, chopped

1/4 cup diced carrot

1/4 cup frozen green peas

1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper

salt and pepper

1/8 teaspoon chopped rosemary

1/8 teaspoon chopped thyme

5 – 6 large eggs, slightly beaten

Kitchen tool needed:    fish turner

Methods:

1.  Steam or boil the whole eggplant until tender.  Let cool.  Make a slit along the length of the eggplant.  Open the eggplant in a butterfly; flatten and season with salt and pepper.

2.  Make the stuffing thus:  Saut? the shrimps for a minute (do not overcook).  Transfer to a platter.  Wipe clean the same pan.  Saut? the onions in vegetable oil;  add the fish and mushrooms.  Season with soy sauce.  Cook the fish until the liquid evaporates, and stir in the celery and carrots.  Then add the green peas and red bell pepper.  Sprinkle with rosemary and thyme during the last part of cooking.  (Hint:  Do not overcook the vegetables.)    Correct the seasoning.  Chill the stuffing until cold to the touch.

3.  Combine the shrimps, chilled stuffing and the eggs to constitute your filling.  Use a non-stick frying pan to heat the oil.  (Note:  The secret for this recipe is maintaining the perfect medium heat, neither under nor overheating.)    Scoop the filling into the pan, roughly forming into the shape of the eggplant.  Lay the eggplant on top of the filling, then again scoop just enough filling to cover the eggplant.  Cook the bottom side until golden brown.  Using the fish turner, turn the eggplant over to cook the other side until golden brown.

4.  Follow the same method in step 3 to cook the other eggplant.

5.  Rest the eggplants on a serving platter for a few minutes before slicing them diagonally into serving pieces.  

Chef’s tip:    You can make omelettes out of any leftover fillings.

 Household Hints:

We just had our library on the main floor level converted into a bedroom, complete with a full bath.  Even though our contractor, Junie Angeles and his crew, did an excellent job, dust will inevitably cast its spell on a job well done and find its way in every nook of the house.  In my own situation, cooking is a lot easier than dusting the whole house.  Here then are some tips on preparing before and dusting and/or cleaning the house after a construction job.  

Make sure to ask your contractor to isolate the work area from the rest of the house with commercial plastic to minimize the spread of dust.  We also covered valuable furniture and works of art to protect them from excessive dust.

After the construction is finished and the contractor has done his cleanup, we are still left with a lot of cleaning to do, most especially dusting.  In our case, we hired a cleaning person to help us dust and clean every corner of the house.  As an added measure, make sure that after all the cleaning and dusting, you have to check if your air filter needs changing to avoid blowing more of the same dust all over an already clean house.