Steamed Fish

I have featured steamed fish  before, the recipe we got from a magazine.
This time I go this recipe from the internet (Rhonda Parkinson, about.com guide)
while searching about Chinese New Year. Steamed fish if often served during
New Year celebration to symbolize  abundance for the coming year.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons salted black beans
1 1/2 pounds whole walleye or red snapper, well cleaned (I used Tilapia)
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh ginger
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
green onions, for garnish

Place the black beans in a bowl and cover with warm water for about 2 minutes.
Stir and rinse. Drain well. Add the ginger, oil, garlic, salt, sugar, soy sauce and
sesame oil. Mix and set aside. Cleaned the fish well and pat dry. Rub the cavity
and outside of the fish with the black beans mixture. Place in foil, cover and
refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Steamed the fish over boiling water for about 15 minutes until cooked
(check if the fish flakes easily).

You can also microwave it for 3 minutes on high. Rotate the dish and cook
for another 2 minutes on high.

I wanted to try out our new Imarflex turbo broiler, so I cooked it at 450F
for 20 minutes.

Garnish with green onions before serving.

tuna crisps

My last trip to General Santos City, I was not able to buy

fresh tuna for pasalubong. 

But I discovered these in  Acharon market, dried tuna
skin sold for P300/kilo. These would make a good
pasalubong, plenty to distribute but not so heavy
in my baggage.
     

I cut the skin into strips and fry it into crisps.

makes a good pulutan and toppings for my salad

Crispy Gurami

One dish I look forward during summer is crispy gurami.
We used to have a fish net before and a group of neighbors
would borrow it. They would be gone for a week and when
they come back, they would divide the fish they caught with us.

Gurami is a thick-scaled fish found in fresh waters like
Laguna Lake. We often cooked it Pangat style
(cooked in vinegar, garlic, pepper, salt and simmered
until its almost dry).

It is then fried into crisp and served with tomatoes
and the remaining sauce.

Inihaw na Bangus

I got this method of cooking Inihaw na Bangus (Grilled Milkfish) from my
sister. Her secret? Remove the scales to enjoy the skin of the bangus
and wrap it in banana leaves to get a very moist fish.


You can use boneless bangus sold in the grocery but fresh ones from
your local market would be better. Ask the fish monger to remove the scales
and clean it for you. Have it sliced for daing na bangus (the fish is sliced from
the back to expose the whole cavity). Some fish monger would deboned it
for you, if not then you get to debone it yourself :D Remove the main spine
and whatever bones you see.


Mix the stuffing (chopped tomatoes, onions and ginger). Rub the fish with salt
and place the stuffing on one side. Fold back the other side to form the fish
and wrap in banana leaves.


I find it hard to measure the doneness(?) of the fish since since it is covered
with banana leaves. My sister suggests to wrap the fish in 3 layers of banana
leaves. When the inner layer is already charred it is time to turn it to the
other side. When cooked, you'll get a very moist fish with a burnt taste of
banana leaves. Fish sauce with kalamansi would be the ideal dipping sauce.

Steamed Fish

Mom got this recipe of steamed fish from a magazine years ago.
It was an advertisement for Amoy products.

She always use Tilapia for this but I was lucky to buy fresh lapu lapu
from my suki in Los Baños. You can substitute any white fish you like.

4-5 pcs sliced white fish fillet (you can also use small sized fish)
4-5 stalks pechay Baguio
5 stalks spring onions,minced
1 pc medium ginger, minced or grated
3-4T vegetable oil
2T Amoy gold label light soy sauce
2T Amoy sesame oil

Mix together light soy sauce and sesame oil. Set aside.
Place slice of fish on top of pechay Baguio leaf. ( there's no
Baguio pechay in the picture, my fault. I forgot to buy :D).
Wrapped the fish in foil and steam until fish is cooked.
When fish is cooked, transfer each fish into a plate or served
it with foil. Sprinkle grated ginger and onions on top. Heat oil
until very hot but not smoking. Pour over fish just to cook
the onions and ginger. When frying subsides, pour sesame
soy mixture. Serve.

Mom's tip: when using whole fish, place a slice of ginger
inside the fish before steaming to remove the "lansa"
(fishy smell).

Check out these fishy tales:





Kaswela, Sauteed Sinigang?









Salmon Sardines








Paksiw na Isda

Ginataang Sitaw (Long Beans in Coconut Milk)

One of the cooking method that I like here in Pila is "tapâ"
or smoked. This is done by smoking the fish or meat using
bunot or coconut husks to make smoke and covering the fish
or meat with banana leaves or cacawate leaves to trap
the smoke.



Often we would have Tinapang Tilapia when we have visitors.
This is paired with Chicken Adobo sa Gata.

Some days, we had tinapang kanduli (smoked catfish),
the fish usually given by an uncle who have a fish pond.

Smoked kanduli is great with steamed kamote tops
dipped in fish sauce and kalamansi.

The excess smoked kanduli we would cook with
Ginataang Sitaw (Long Beans in coconut milk).

Ginataang Sitaw

1 bunch of sitaw (long beans, cut in 2" length)
2 cups coconut milk
1 medium onion, sliced
1 thumb-size ginger, sliced
2-3 smoked kanduli
salt to taste

Bring to a boil the coconut milk, onion and ginger. Add sitaw and kanduli.
Simmer uncovered until sitaw is cooked, stirring occasionally. Served with
rice.

Tolang Bisaya

One of the things I missed in Iligan City is the availability
of fresh seafoods. Most fish sold in our local market here
in Pila came from Laguna Lake, bangus (milkfish), tilapia,
dalag (mudfish), hito and kanduli (catfish).

I get my supply of seafoods from my suki in Los Baños
who heads to Lucena City everyday to get them fresh.

The other day I got some fresh Pampano, which Mom
cook as Tolang Bisaya, an effortless soup to make.
Mom rarely cooks so when she's in the mood, we let her.
Tolang Bisaya as we call it, is one of her favorite dish.

Tolang Bisaya

1/2 k Pampano or any white-meat fish
1 bell pepper,quartered
1 stalk Salay (lemongrass)
3 tomatoes, quartered
2 onions, sliced in half
bunch of leeks
3 cups water

Place all ingredients in a casserole except fish.
Bring to a boil. Add the fish and boil again until
the fish is cooked. Serve hot.


Check out these fish recipes as well:





Kaswela










Ginisang Pechay






How about a banana snack?






Maruya

Salmon Sardines

As a kid living in Iligan City (our house is just about 500 mtrs
from the ocean), I get the chance to help fishermen with their catch.

My cousins, sister and I would help remove tamban (herring)
caught in the fish nets. As a reward, we get to take home some fish.
Often we would have fried tamban, my favorite. I could finish off
a kilo of fried tamban in one sitting! Sometimes Mom would make
them into spanish sardines. I always associate homemade Spanish
sardines with my mom :)

It is difficult to get fresh tamban here in Pila, so i had to settle
with salmon, which I bought from my suki (my regular fish vendor)
in Los Baños. Mom cook them into spanish sardines.

Mom's Homemade Spanish Sardines

1k salmon or tamba (bangus/milkfish is also good)
3 bay leaves
8-10 pcs sliced pickle
1Tbsp salt
1 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup olive oil
1 medium carrot, sliced
3-4 pcs siling labuyo (chilli pepper)
1 Tbsp black pepper
2-3 cups water

Clean fish and cut into serving pieces. Place in a heavy pan
(Mom used palayok, clay pot) with the rest of the ingredients.
Let it simmer for about 2-3 hours until the meat almost fell
off the bones. Add water if necessary.

If using a pressure cooker, use a little water, about 1 cup
and pressure cook for about 1 hour.

Enjoy!


You might want to try these recipes:





Pork and Liver Bistek








Tortang Talong








Minanok na Manok

Adobong Hito sa Gata

Here in Pila, Laguna, hito (catfish) is often sold live in our local market.
These came from the fishpens along Laguna de Bay. When in season,
you can see hito being sold along the national highway.

Hito are slimy and sometimes "malansa" (fishy taste?). I can't find the
exact English term for this word but to describe it, it's like a taste of rotten
fish, when not cleaned properly. Ask the fish vendor to gut the fish for you
since it can be a little tricky. It's a sight to see the vendor going after a live hito
with his "pamalo"(whipping stick).

To remove the sliminess of the hito, rub it with used wood ash. If wood ash
is not available, you can use salt to rub it with. Others would soak the fish
in salt and vinegar for a few minutes. Wash with water thoroughly.

Hito at home is often cooked as Adobo. Luyang dilaw or yellow ginger
is added to help remove the "fishy" taste.

Adobong Hito sa Gata (Catfish Adobo in Coconut Milk)

1 k hito or catfish (about 4-5 pcs)
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 medium onion, sliced
1/2 c vinegar
1/2 c water
thumb size luyang dilaw, sliced
salt and pepper
2 cups coconut milk

After cleaning the fish thoroughly, cut the fish into half and place in a pan.
Add garlic, onion, vinegar, water, ginger. Bring to a boil without stirring.
Cook until almost dry before adding the coconut milk. Bring to a boil
and cook a few more minutes until oil appears on the side of the pan.
Season to taste. Serve with steamed rice.

Sinigang sa Bayabas

Today, cooking sinigang is very easy. Souring ingredients are
already available in powdered form (Mama Sita's, Knorr
Sinigang Mix, etc) Still nothing beats preparing your souring
ingredients from scratch. Boiling and mashing the tamarind
or Kalamyas or in this case guava fruit adds to the excitement
of cooking sinigang.


We get to cook Sinigang sa Bayabas when Typhoon Santi
(Internation name: Mirinae) hit our place last Oct 31.
One of our guava tree was partially uprooted and we were
forced to harvest the fruits.

Sinigang Sa Bayabas

You will need:

1 medium size fish sliced (Bangus or Tilapia)
4-5 pcs ripe guava (quartered)
1 medium tomato (quartered)
1 medium onion (quartered)
sili leaves or camote tops
2-3 tbsp fish sauce
3-4 cups water
salt

In a pot, boil tomato, onion and guava in water. Simmer
until guava is softened. Take out the guava (leave some
if you like to eat them) and place in a bowl. Mashed and
set aside. Add fish into the pot and simmer until fish is
tender. Strain juice from mashed guava into the pot.
Seasoned with fish sauce. Add the leaves, sprinkle
salt on top and simmer for a few more minutes. Serve hot.