one filipino dish a week

I had a striped bass and I really wanted to make something out of it. While I was making the atsara the idea of making sinugbang isda (grilled fish) came to me. Like I said in the earlier post, atsara goes great with grilled things. Unfortunately, living in a high-rise building in NJ in the middle of winter doesn’t lend itself for easy grilling. This is my version of sinugbang isda the paoix remix.

I bought some frozen banana leaves from the Asian grocery and I thought a banana leaf wrapped fish would be really great. Reminds me of childhood trips to the beach. So I seasoned the striped bass with salt and pepper on the outside and inside. I then stuffed the fish with some scallions, onions, garlic, and tomatoes (I really wanted to put lemongrass in there but I didn’t have any on hand).

I wrapped the fish in two banana leaves. I didn’t have twine which would’ve made it easier but it was wrapped well enough. I put the oven to broil. Once it was pre-heated I put in the fish close to the heat source. I put it in there for about 25 minutes.

In the meantime, I made a sawsawan (dipping sauce) for the fish. Something basic just soy sauce, tomatoes and some fresh ground pepper.

This fish came out waaaay better than I thought. It was awesome! The banana leaves kept the fish very moist and gave it that very nice smell. The fish went well with the sawsawan and the atsara. I was very surprised with the results of my random homage to sinugbang isda.

It was still steamin hot out of the oven. yummmmy.

I think the hardest part with making the second dish was figuring out which dish to make. After the first week, the floodgates opened and I found myself wanting to make a lot of dishes. I could not make up my mind between the ones that I remember from my childhood to ones that I didn’t like growing up but I’ve always been curious to try again. For this week, I got a suggestion from the Girl and it was definitely a good one. She wanted me to make escabeche. It was perfect because I’ve always liked this dish. I’ve got a soft spot for sweet and sour dishes and this one definitely brings fond childhood memories. The sweet and sour sauce together with the crispy-ness of the fried fish. Lami kaayo! (very delicious)

So I went and did my search through the cookbooks and the internet about escabeche. The word is certainly Spanish but the Filipino version of it resembles more of a Chinese-style sweet and sour fish. The Spanish version is served cold (think ceviche) but I’ve always known this dish best served hot and the fish crispy.

So I scoured the Filipino cookbooks and called the Mother Goose for her recipe. Each recipe had their own variations of what vegetables and type of fish to put in it. In essence, each would have a sour (vinegar), sweet (sugar- some had ketchup), veggies (carrots, red and green bell peppers, cucumber, ginger, garlic, onions), and the fish (grouper, snapper, and bluefish). The Mother Goose mentioned that sometimes she uses tilapia filet but I didn’t like that idea because I wanted the crispy skin of the fish.

I went to the local chain grocery store and the only whole fish they had was bluefish so I had no choice. One good thing being in Jersey City where there is a fair number of Filipinos around is that the chain grocery store would carry a limited number of Filipino products. When I went to the international aisle they had Datu Puti spiced vinegar. Datu Puti is a white vinegar that I believe is made from sugar cane. This one has hot chilies, onion and garlic soaking in the vinegar to give it a kick. I was very intrigued because this would add another dimension to the dish that I don’t remember having. I love spicy so I went for it.

The Girl helped me cook the dish. As soon as she put the fish into the pan we both looked at each other and smiled. The pan was too small and the tail was sticking up. I knew I should’ve gotten a wok for this. We joked that nobody should eat the tail section. Having good equipment definitely helps. In the end we ended up taking the head off so that the rest would fit in.

The sauce came out great. The spiciness was just enough to dance over the sweet and the sour. We ate this with a bottle of California Chardonnay, fried dumplings, and a side of bok choy with oyster sauce. This was a really good Saturday night dinner and beats going out. I’m starting to really like this experiment.