Fish Sarciado (Fish With Tomato Sauce)

Today is United Nations Day, so I thought it would be nice to mark that with a New World international recipe connection.  This is a dish from The Philippines that is heavily influenced by the native cuisine of Mexico, due to the Spanish galleon's that ran between Acapulco and Manila and back.  Of course, the "Aztec influence" here come in the form of a rich tomato sauce, spiced up native Filipino style with lemon juice and fish sauce.  Tomatoes are called Kamatis in the Filipino language.  This recipe from a book that I recently picked up entitled The Flavor Of Asia by my all time favorite Filipino food writer Reynaldo Alejandro (who is also a chef, accomplished choreographer/dancer & graphic artist).  In addition to the Filipino recipes, the book contains recipes from all over Asia, and not just China & Japan.  There are a fair number to recipes from out of the way places like Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia and Laos.  This recipe conveniently calls for fillets, but as you can see whole fish can be used too.

Fish Sarciado

1 lb. fish fillet (sole, red snapper or sea bass)

1 tsp. salt

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1/2 cup vegetable or corn oil

2 tbsp. garlic, minced

1/4 cup onion, minced

1 cup tomatoes, minced

1/2 tsp. pepper, freshly ground

1/4 cup water

1 tsp. fish sauce or additional salt

14 cup scallions, chopped

1.  Season fish with salt and lemon juice.  Let stand for 20 minutes.

2.  In a large skillet, using 1/2 the oil, fry the fillets until light brown on both side.  Drain.

3.  In another skillet, saute the garlic in the remaining oil until light brown (my note:  don't burn it), then add the onion and cook until transparent.  Add the tomatoes and cook until soft.  Add pepper, water, and fish sauce or salt.  Simmer until thickened.

4.  Add fried fish to sauce.  Cover the skillet and cook for 2 minutes, turning filets once.

5.  Serve hot, garnish with scallions.

This is an Aswang, a Filipino monster of the forest.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Pinkakbet

Pinakbet

This is probably the most famous dish that utilizes the Ampalaya or Bitter Melon (gourd), it you can't find the gourd, or just can't take bitter foods, are pregnant or allergic, then, by all means, substitute zucchini, or any other soft squash that you like.  As you can imagine there are many, many version of this dish; this one come from The Philippine Cookbook by my favorite Filipino food writer Reynaldo Alejandro.  This is cooked a great deal like a classic stir0fry.  This can be make vegetarian easily!  If you are not a pork eater, substitute chicken and/or shrimp.  Of course, you may use fresh okra, that's a must here in the south!

1 tbsp. minced garlic

1/2 cup, finely chopped onion

2 tbsp. corn or vegetable oil

3/4 lb. pork, sliced thinly into cubes
5 inch thick pieces of ginger
4 ripe tomatoes, cubed
1/2 cup bagoong (the saute' type, I like the shrimp paste, in a pinch you
   substitute fish sauce with some hoisin)
1/3 cup water
3 Asian eggplant (or 1 regular)
2 cups bitter melon, seeded and cut into 2 inch lengths, (or use the same with
    zucchini, only not seeded)
1 10 oz package frozen lima beans
1 10 oz. package of frozen okra
Salt and pepper to taste.

1.  Heat oil and saute the garlic and onion.  Add the pork and cook for 15 minutes, stirring.  Add in the ginger and tomatoes, cook, stirring, for another 10 minutes.  Add the bagoon and cook for another 3 minutes.  Add the water and bring to a full boil.  Add the rest of the vegetables and cook for 15 minutes at a simmer.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve hot.  This dish is sometimes called "Filipino Ratatouille," and like the classic, it can be served at room temperature.  When serving hot, serve with white rice.  Adding shrimp at the last minute is done in some parts of the islands.  To make vegetarian, skip the meat and substitute the fish paste with soy sauce mixed with hoisin.  Can also add pepper or chiles to this to make it spicier.

Harvest Ingredient 18: Ampalaya/Bitter Melon

This is another of those Asian "dealies" that has made it into New World cuisine,  by way of Pacific isles.  It is mostly consumed in the Caribbean, where it is called variously called caralli, bitter gourd, or more popularly, Corilla.  they have even been adopted the native tea culture of the tribal remnants on Dominica (not read more about this, click here.)  Though they originated thousands of years ago in India, these strange member of the squash and melon family have long since made their way, via China the most of the island nations close to the Asian mainland, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Formosa (Taiwan), New Guinea, and, of course, The Philippines, where it is known by it's indigenous Tagalog name of Ampalaya; it is here this vegetable really makes a splash.  In English speaking areas of the Caribbean, it is sometimes sold as "bitter gourd."

Caribbean Corillas

There are number of sub-types, and given the extremely knobby skin of most Caribbean varieties, it seems that they most likely were brought directly from India, where these types are still the best known.  Smoother skin varieties, also known in some small areas of the Caribbean, are known to have evolved under cultivation in China and spread to places like The Philippines.  Some of these vary a great deal in bitterness, but all varieties are more bitter the darker the skin.  In some places, the suggestion to par-boil it to reduce bitterness is given, this is especially true of the knobby types found in India and the Caribbean:  some people swear by it, others are not so sure.  

Burst ripe fruit

In some places it is grown exclusively to ripen it to a bursting stage.  At this point the bright red flesh around the seeds is very sweet and the pulp can be eaten fresh and raw and often makes it's way into several different types of salad in southeast Asia, including fruit salads.  At this point, the fruit itself is bright yellow to orange and that part of the "melon" is now inedible.  In it's green state, the stage that it is most used in, it must be cooked, or even double cooked (as mentioned above) to render it edible by most standards (there are exceptions!).  

The smooth skin type of "Bitter Melon" aka Ampalaya is the type most typically found in The Philippines.

The plant has been used in a number of different ways medicinally wherever it is found.  In the New World country of Guyana it is used as a vegetable to prevent malaria; and in Colombia and Panama, a tea (also drunk in Dominica, see above) is used to treat malaria.  In the 1960's it was found to have powerful properties that aid people with diabetic conditions.  In The Philippines a recent medical study showed that ingestion of a specific dose of bitter melon supplement was as effective in glucose reduction as some drugs marketed for the same reason.  The fruits contain a compound that increase sensitivity to insulin, thus allowing people with Type 2 Diabetes to utilize insulin in their systems better, in other words, it reduced insulin resistance.   In normal people, this can lead to a brief case of hypoglycemia if too much of the fruit is eaten.  Other more recent research suggests that it may have implications for treating certain types of cancer.  CAUTION:  this should not be eaten by pregnant women!  One of the other uses for this in the Pacific is to induce abortion; for that reason it is a traditional medicine for childbirth.  It has even been used in some places as birth control.

Bitter Melon leaves are eaten as well in The Philippines.

Food uses for it are actually quite wide ranging and varied for such a bitter tasting "vegetable." I'm not to even try to touch on all of them (there are actually that many!), but a few are just too strange not to mention!  One is it's use in beer making in China and in Okinawa in Japan.  In Vietnam it is served raw with pulled dried meat; it is also used in a stewed state there for the Tet holiday, meant to remind people to be thankful for what they have now, i.e.:  they don't have to eat bitter melon everyday!  There is even a soft drink made from these strange things!!  In parts of the Caribbean and northern South America it is cooked with really hot indigenous Scotch Bonnet chiles, onions and garlic in a saute that makes it really crisp.  In other parts of the Caribbean it is cooked and put into a traditional salad, and supposed to be good for digestion. In Guyana, the same saute is used, minus the hot peppers, however the gourds of well boiled first and the saute not crisp.  

A traditional sauteed bitter melon from the Philippines:  a Ginisang Ampalaya

As mentioned above, it is in The Philippines that the "melon" or Ampalaya is used as a vegetable in a variety of different ways.  In addition to the above vegetable saute, it is also sauteed with beef and even tossed up with oyster sauce (showing it's Chinese roots).  As in the Caribbean, it is also put into the salad bowl, in most cases, not raw, but not cooked either; rather it is salted like cucumbers (of which this is a distant relative), squeezed and macerated in citrus juice, before going into the main dish.  As mentioned above, the leaves and tendrils are also eaten the this island chain, usually as a saute or in soups. They can also be scraped free of seeds and stuffed, stewed in garlicky hot sauces, with or without seafood.  It is also pickled and even goes into an iced tea.  Perhaps the greatest of all uses of the ampalaya comes in the regional specialty of Ilocos region of Luzon in the form of pinakbet and vegetable saute that typically sees this married with eggplant, okra, and beans:  lima and/or string (long) beans and tomatoes.  Sometimes with pork, sometimes, without; but always with the indigenous Bagoong (a paste typically made from shrimp).

Small Filipino Bitter Melons

Sinigang With Calamansi

Couple of teaspoons vegetable oil

1/2 to 1 small onion or 1 shallot, sliced thin

2 cloves garlic minced or crushed

1 Fish bouillon cube (Knorr makes a great product)

2 1/2 cups boiling water

1 cup yard long beans, winged beans or regular green beans, cut into 1 inch pieces

4 fresh Calamansi (or 2 tbsp juice)

1 tomato, peeled and chopped

1 tsp. toyo (Filipino soy sauce), regular soy sauce or oyster sauce

1 tbsp. patis (Filipino Fish sauce) or other fish sauce

Fresh black pepper to taste

1/2 lb. your favorite white fleshed fish

1/4 lb. sea scallops (cut in half if they are large)

1/4 lb. large shrimp, shelled and deveined

1 cup Kangkong (Water Spinach), or regular spinach

6 oz Asian egg noodles, pre-cooked in salted water

1.  Heat the oil add in the onion or shallot and the garlic, quickly cook for 30 seconds.  Add in the stock cube and pour in the boiling water. Mix well to dissolve the cube.  Then add the beans, calamansi juice, the tomato, the soy or oyster sauce, the fish sauce and season to your taste with the black pepper.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

2.  If you are using the water spinach add that at this time (if using regular spinach wait to add until the last minute), cook for 5 minutes.  Add in the seafood and continue to simmer for 3 minutes, then add the water spinach or spinach.  If you are using regular spinach, add this at the end of cooking with the cooked noodles, heat for no more than a minute.  If you are using the water spinach, add the noodle at the end of cooking and warm through.  Serve hot.

Pork Sinigang

Variations

Really, though the seafood is pretty traditional, sinigang really just means a soup or dish cooked with sour fruit, there are version that replace the seafood with pork or just add cooked pork to the above recipes. Okra, Daikon and Asparagus are all imported ingredient that have made their way into the sinigang pot as well.

You can make this without the noodles or serve the noodles in the soup bowl and ladle over the hot soup.  You make this with other type of noodles, like cellophane.

You can add in other ingredients, like cherry tomatoes, mild chilies, fresh or dried mushrooms, I've even seen a sinigang recipe made the strawberries!

You make it more sour by adding some tamarind or replace the calamansi the tamarind altogether.  

A Beef Rib Sinigang