QUICK & EASY: PINIRITONG PAKSIW NA BANGUS BELLY

Aside from Sinigang sa Bayabas, the other ways I like my bangus belly are fried or pinaksiw. One day, I decided to combine both cooking process just because.  So here it is.

INGREDIENTS

• 400 gms boneless bangus  belly
• 500 ml   sukang paombong (vinegar)
• 250 ml   water
• 50  gms  ginger (peeled, sliced)
• 4 cloves  garlic 
• 1 pc        siling haba 
• 1 pc        dried laurel leaf
• salt to taste
• whole peppercorn
• Cooking oil

TO MAKE

• Arrange the bangus belly at the bottom of the pan
• Place the ginger, garlic, siling haba, laurel leaf and pepper corn
• Pour the vinegar and water
•  Let it boil. Add salt to taste.
• Once it boils, lower the heat and let it simmer for 5 minutes
• Remove the bangus and set the broth aside.
• Heat oil in a pan.
• Once hot, fry the bangus belly with the ginger and garlic.
• Serve with the paksiw broth as sawsawan (dipping sauce)

FOOD FIND: Bangus Tocino (Sweet Cured Milk Fish)

Saw this in the Supermarket... Century Tuna's Bangus Tocino.

 Tried it today. it thawed easily enough and though the fish meat looks a little too brown for comform once it's thawed, it does cook well. Of course, just not as pretty as the fish cuts you see on the packaging.

 The fish takes some time to redden (smaller amount of salt peter or salitre than the pork tocino variety, I suppose)  and caramelize but it tastes just like tocino. It's not malansa (fishy) but you do get to taste the bangus (milk fish) after all the sugar has melted away in your mouth.  For a tocino, it's not  dispapointing.

And nope, this is not some paid blog.

FOOD FIND: FRUITY BANGUS AT PUERTO DEL SOL, BOLINAO, PANGASINAN

One of the perks of my current jobs is that I get to go places, meet interesting people and taste very creative dishes. In a recent trip to Puerto Del Sol in Bolinao, Pangasinan I tasted this refreshing and healthy concoction made by the resort Chef, Fruity Bangus. The boneless bangus belly is used as a wrap fro local fruits like mangoes and pineapple. To cook it, the wrap is simply steamed. The resulting flavor is similar to the Paksiw  na Bangus (bangus slow-cooked in vinegar and spices) but you also taste the natural sweetness of the fruits used.

Food Find- Adobong Bangus sa Dilaw na Luya

Bangus or milkfish is the most common fish in the Philippines. It's usually cooked fried (prito), in sour soup with a tamarind or guava base (sinigang) or grilled (inihaw). One way to cook it is to cook it in vinegar and spices (paksiw). I find that  mostly people who grew up in the provinces or people in the 35  and above demographic are more familiar with this way of cooking. 

Finding the Adobong Bangus sa Dilaw na Luya  at the Bangus restaurant in Galleria was such a pleasant surprise for me. I am thinking that they called it adobo because it's also cooked in vinegar.  

 What is great about the dish is that the acidity of the vinegar is just on the outer layer of the fish. The meat retains the natural sweetness of the fish . The sauce, flavored by the pungent yellow ginger  and the acidity of the vinegar,  enhances the sweetness of the fish meat which remains intact and succulent,  especially the fatty stomach (tiyan) part.