Thursday, June 21, 2007

Bangus with tofu and the many ways with milkfish


assorted bangus products, originally uploaded by annalyn.

Bangus (Philippine milkfish) is one of my favorite foods, and so does a great number of people. The Philippines is certainly blessed to have lots of them for propagation and distribution. As a result, they have attained world-class export status. It's a good thing that in the Philippines, we enjoy them in a variety of ways and assorted bangus products are now available in the market.

So aside from the regular fresh bangus, daing na bangus and tinapang bangus we can easily have in the palengke (fresh market), enterprising businessmen have now packaged them into a variety of products to be enjoyed.

At the ongoing Manila Foods and Beverages Expo, I visited a booth called Tita Marina's Homemade Special Pangasinan Bangus. What caught my eye was their brochure showing the immaculate bangus in various incarnations, namely: relleno, tocino bangus, boneless tinapa, shanghai bangus with cheese, bangus sardines, bangus siomai, bangus fish nuggets and a few others.

Even my favorite Chinese restaurants offer a bangus dish with tofu. I don't have any picture now, but I tried this at home and it came out delicious.

Here's my recipe for Bangus with Tofu:

First I have one whole bangus deboned and filleted at my favorite suki in the market.

I set aside the belly portion for cooking the dish and marinate it in a soy sauce, pepper and kalamansi.

I mince lots of garlic and saute it in olive or canola oil. Take care not to burn the garlic or it will spoil the dish.

Take out the garlic and then fry the bangus belly. Season with salt and sugar. Add the bangus marinade and a little more liquid if necessary.

Add the japanese tofu (soft variety) and the garlic bits before turning off the heat. You may also put in mushrooms.

Serve in a plate or sizzling pan if you prefer.

1 comments:

ervipesguerra said...

You know I love milkfish a lot(!) that I can survive or should I say enjoy a week-long breakfast, lunch & dinner of "bangus". I'm not exaggerating and to substantiate that statement, I was even called mestisang bangus(me, also being born with brown hair, eyes & an exceptionally fair complexion-- or indeed, short for mestisa)by our neighbors & family friends, oh' even my classmates back in elementary & highschool cause I would often request & favored bangus to be served on the table rather than red meats or other fish varieties; which in a way they kind of associated it with my physical attributes. Even now that I'm married and got different views, fondness of new things or likings & all; I still have the love & cravings for bangus may it be tinapa, sinigang, prito or paksiw. My husband(Rossel) & his family(papa can have it harvested from his business partner's fish ponds, fresh & safe!) know that I would only be pleased with a bangus viand and nothing else! so go and prepare a bangus of any specialty and you'd expect me in your dinner table. Well, thank you in advance & see you then! hahaha ;-)