Let’s be honest. Despite every issues that tag along once we mention “frozen foods” – chemical preservative, not fresh, altered ingredients only-God-knows-what, etc – we know that some part of us just can’t hide the fact that we love them. We love the practical side of cooking with frozen foods. On certain occasions. It’s quick, convenient, and delicious (IF, and it’s important to mention, ONLY IF you buy the high quality ones such as Fiesta, etc – explicitly means that the ratio of meat versus flour in these snacks is quite well-balanced.)

On the other side, it has been quite some time since my last post about cooking, although I do cook regularly at home. Now’s probably the perfect moment since it’s still Ramadhan; because when you have to woke up so early around 3-4AM to have suhoor (or sahur, suhr, you name it), you need something practical and that’s when frozen foods come to the rescue :p

When I first got introduced to www.kisahseafoodramadhan.com it intrigues me in a way that, I’ve never really thought of any alternatives to enjoy frozen foods at home. Being mostly nuggets, meatballs, and sausages, I just realized that the industry had moved rapidly that nowadays the variety is just waaay over the top. From fish/chicken/ shrimp nuggets, to cuttlefish/salmon meatballs, seafood sticks, egg roll, fried/steamed dimsum variety and so on. The website has several recipes and I decided to try some of them. So basically here I am, just got inspired to try those wickedly easy recipes. You must have known already that nuggets are good for dipping right? I put everything on my checklist and the shopping went off:

DIPPING #1: AVOCADO SALSA

Also known as guacamole. Yes, seafood sticks with guacamole – something I’ve never really thought of until today. Follow this easy-peasy recipe and make sure to prepare additional tortilla chips to finish leftover dipping!

Simple steps: Mash ripe avocado in a small bowl, mix with chopped cilantro, diced tomatoes & shallots, squeeze few drops of lemon, add salt & pepper to taste, and Tabasco (in this case because I don’t have one, I used Holy Jolokia salsa which my bestfriend gave to me, to add more heat).

Seafood Stix with Avocado salsa. Fiesta Seafood that I use: Seafood stix. Dipping done within 5 minutes! — **Seafood Stix with Avocado salsa.** Fiesta Seafood that I use: Seafood stix. Dipping done within 5 minutes!

DIPPING #2: MINT YOGHURT

This is the easiest recipe ever, done in less than 3 minutes! No exaggeration, no hassle, it takes more time to fry the nuggets than to actually prepare the dipping sauce, haha. Simple Steps: Mix plain yoghurt with diced Kyuri (Japanese cucumber, remove seeds), chopped mint leaves, and salt to taste. THAT’S IT. Too easy yet delicious!

Shrimp Roll with Mint yogurt. Fiesta Seafood that I used: it was supposedly Shrimp Nugget but I don't have that. I guess Shrimp Roll works as well :) — **Shrimp Roll with Mint yogurt.** Fiesta Seafood that I used: it was supposedly Shrimp Nugget but I don't have that. I guess Shrimp Roll works as well :)

DIPPING #3: CORIANDER + TANGY THAI CHILI SAUCE

This is an alternative to add some Asian flavors to finger-foods. In this case, I used Fiesta Seafood Shrimp Shumai/Siomay. It’s basically Thai sweet chili sauce (if it’s hard for you to find, you can always stick to bottled version of ‘Sambal Bangkok’ :p), mixed with chopped cilantro, a dash of black pepper, and finally squeeze few drops of lemon. Voila, alternative to your peanut-dressing siomay!

Coriander with Tangy Thai Chili Sauce. I used Shrimp Shumai for this. — **Coriander with Tangy Thai Chili Sauce.** I used Shrimp Shumai for this.

DIPPING #4: MANGO SALSA

Now THIS is my favorite of all. The sweetness of mango plays well along with the tanginess of chopped herbs, fresh cucumber & tomatoes, shallots, and red chili. Super refreshing! For detail measurement you can follow this recipe.

Main ingredients: Thai sweet chili sauce (Sambal Bangkok), chopped coriander/cilantro + mint + basil, sweet mango, Japanese cucumber/Kyuri, shallots, big red chili, lemon juice. Served with Shrimp Roll from Fiesta.

Preparing this Mango Salsa was a really fun thing to do ;)

MAIN COURSE: SPICY PESTO SPAGHETTI

It’s the only main course recipe that I’ve tried – honestly because I’ve done my own pesto recipes before, so I knew exactly how and what to substitute. The original recipe calls for Pine nuts, which is quite a rare finding here in Jakarta – if so, they’d cost more than IDR 100k per pack in Grand Lucky, which is crazy – so I used cashew instead, making the pesto more creamy.

Spicy Pesto Spaghetti. I used Fiesta's Seafood Stix for this. — **Spicy Pesto Spaghetti.** I used Fiesta's Seafood Stix for this.

So that's my overall experience on 'Kisah Seafood Ramadhan' by Fiesta Seafood. I know it sounds advertorial but the main point here is that: when cooking at home, you have to be creative. Using very simple ingredients, you can max-out the flavor and elevates the overall dish itself, quick and easy. It is advised to be consumed within moderate usage, and unless you are on your clean-eating program, it's a guilty pleasure to have all of these once in a while :)

Cheers!
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