Sinigang na Bangus (Milkfish)
Well, “sinigang” is a traditional Filipino cuisine, at least for me. It tastes sour but in a good way. You can make various flavors of sinigang. Flavors mean different kinds of meats and even seafoods. You can make pork, beef, bangus (milkfish), maya-maya (snapper fish), shrimp, chicken etc. And sourness of this cuisine can be derived from tamarind, kamias (tree cucumber), mango (not riped of course) and some, use santol (cotton fruit). Right now, there are many souring agent that can be bought from different stores, the one which packed and powderized but since Chef Neneng is not patronizing processed flavoring, she always opted to use the natural ones which is the sampalok (tamarind) unless the tamarind is not seasonal, she doesn’t have any choice but to use the artificial one. So this is the step by step towards a delicious Sinigang sa Bangus viand.
By the way, there is no such exact measurement of the ingredients that I am going to list here. We suggest that from time to time, make a taste of your dish so that you will know what to add up more.
Ingredients :
1 whole medium or large bangus (milkfish), if you can buy the one that is already chopped, better so that you will be able to see the fats of it which is located in the middle part of the fish. The more fats the better because I tell you guys, it really tastes heaven
2 medium sized tomatoes
1 medium sized onion
1/4 to 1/2 fresh tamarind
1 tie of kangkong (water spinach)
1 tie okra (lady finger)
1 pc. eggplant
1 pc. labanos (radish)
2 pcs. green pepper (medium to large size)
1 small sized gabi (taro)
salt / fish sauce (patis)
You don’t have to include all of these vegetables. If you’re on a tight budget but still want to eat this food, you can just pick several vegetables or just pick those which you will only eat (okra, eggplant, radish). In our case, chef Neneng really likes vegetables so we include everything.
Ok let’s start!
1. In a clean pot, pour the water. Make it reach the half level of the pot so that your fish will be able submerge on it BUT DON’T PLACE THE FISH YET! Get the tomatoes, chopped it into the middle, then the onion, diced then placed it on the pot with water. Add some salt (maybe at least 1 table spoon).
2. Gather your tamarinds and place it on a clean plastic bag/pouch/ziplock and lock it. Be sure to close the pouch because we don’t want our tamarinds to swim on our soup and it will be hard for us to gather them back altogether later. If the pouch is locked, place it on the pot with water together with the tomatoes, onion.
(maybe you will be wondering why we put salt at this early step? It’s because for the salt to be able to dissolve clearly on our soup. So our adjustments on its taste later will be minimize.)
3. Put the pot on the stove and let it boil (maybe 20 to 30 minutes). Boil means big bubbles, so if these bubbles are visible, check your tamarinds if they are soft, sometimes you will noticed the broken skins of it or if you can pinch it, better. If they are soft already, take them out on the boiling soup and set it aside, let it cool. But if you think you can press it already, then go ahead. It is like you’re getting a juice from a fresh fruits.
4. Next, fish your tomatoes, be careful because by this time, the temperature of the pot is really really hot, plus the smoke arising from the boiling water adds up to the hotness and it will really stressed out your hand so be extra careful. Going back, upon fishing your tomatoes, placed it on a small bowl and pressed it with the spoon until it becomes a puree. Then place it back on the soup. Lower down the heat of the pot and just let it simmer.
At this moment, your fish should be at its cleanest state. Chef Neneng’s way of cleaning the fish is unbelievable. If I am not mistaken she washes it nearly ten times, joke, I am over-acting, maybe 5 times. Just be sure that the water from the last wash is almost cleared, no blood stains.
As per your vegetables, it should be cut in a bite sized, except for the water spinach and green pepper. Leaves of the water spinach should be pulled out on its stems. Then the remaining stems, cut it into an inch-size, DO NOT INCLUDE THE HARD PART (the one that is located almost at the end). The green pepper, you have to make a small opening on the tip it, just cut it with your nails. What we need to achieve is a small taste of it to our dish and not to make our dish a spicy one.
5. Place the taro and radish at the simmering soup then turn the stove to a higher heat to re-boil the soup. Then place the extracted tamarind juice. Sometimes, we put the left over tamarind to a strainer and sink it to the boiling soup base to get the extra sourness remaining of the tamarind fruit.
6. Place the lady finger and egg plant, again, let it boil.
7. When you noticed that all of your vegetables are nearly cooked, sink your fishes and again, let it boil.
Why we put the main ingredient nearly to the last? Because fishes cook fast, and continuously mixing your soup with the ladle will make your fishes crushed and we don’t want that to happen.
8. Carefully check if the fish is cooked and taste the soup if the sourness and saltiness is right. And if it is, placed the water spinach and the green pepper in it and again, let it boil.
If you think it lacks on the sourness level, you can put an additional powderized tamarind mix, or boil another set of tamarind which I think, will cause you a little trouble because by this time I’m sure, your stomach is already has its calling J. A calling for you to eat J. Kidding aside, for me I think the probability of adding sourness is very minimal since we used a concentrated tamarind juice, well people have different taste buds so it’s up to you guys. And for the saltiness, here I’m sure you need to add up some more, cause what we put earlier is about a table spoon only. Now for the additional saltiness, let us use the fish sauce, believe me guys, it much more delicious than the salt.
And there you have it. Your Sinigang na Bangus detailed made by #ChefNeneng. Happy Eating.
P.S.
Fish sauce, kalamansi and the cooked green pepper from your sinigang na bangus. The mixture of these result to a heavenly made dipping sauce which is so much right for your viand.
This is best served with plain white rice... :-)