Totsong Isda (Fish with Black Beans and Fermented Soy Cake)

I'm back here in Texas from our 6-day Kansas vacation, and after all the unpacking and laundry I had to do, I'm ready to share another delicious Pinoy recipe with you. But before that, let me share with you this awesome opportunity of getting your own copy of a newly released ecookbook from Jeff Pirtle a.k.a. Chef Jeff.  Chef Jeff, who grew up and attended cullinary school in Seattle, Washington, has over 10 years of cooking experience from health-care as a certified dietary manager to cooking for the rich and famous on yachts and cruise ships. He also had a private cooking practice in Charlotte, NC where he cooked for local sports celebrities and regular busy families, using regular ingredients from the grocery store that helped them save money. This is where he came up with the idea for this cookbook.

It's called dinnerRevolution. It's an ecookbook that will help us feed our families wholesome and delicious food without spending all day in the kitchen. The good thing is, Chef Jeff will be giving my followers a free copy of this. All you have to do is leave a comment here, visit this link, sign up with your name & email address and Chef Jeff will email you the link to your free dinnerRevolution copy. It sells for $27, so getting it for free is such a good deal. :) I got my copy yesterday, and though I haven't checked all the recipes yet, I can say it's a fantastic cookbook! It has my favorite recipes like Chicken Quesadilla, Chicken Enchiladas, Lasagna Roll-Ups, Pad Thai, Shrimp Salad & many more! With over 200 dinner recipes with less than 10 ingredients and take less than 30 minutes to prepare, this ecookbook will definitely be a big help for busy moms like me. It has a wide variety of recipes from chicken, beef, pork, seafood and even vegetarian! I must say you should really grab this deal! Visit this link now! You wouldn't want to miss it!

Now back to my recipe...

In the Philippines, totso is the way of cooking fish, which is usually bangus(milkfish), in black beans and tahure (fermented soy cake). I love this dish except for the tahure in it, so since I started cooking on my own, I've always used tofu instead of tahure...and most of the time, I don't use bangus. I love bangus but it has a lot of fishbones making it quite difficult to eat. When we were still in the Philippines, I often used tilapia, but here in the US, I use pompano most of the time. 

Here is my version of Totsong Isda that is slightly different from the original version, but sure is more appealing especially to kids because of the hint of sweetness that oyster sauce adds to it.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole fish, cleaned and cut into serving pieces
• 2 pcs roma tomatoes, diced
• ½ cup canned black beans
• 2 pcs firm tofu, fried and cubed
• 1 medium-sized onion, sliced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 thumb-sized ginger, julienned
• 2 Tbsp oyster sauce
• Flour for dredging
• Salt & pepper
• Vegetable oil for frying
• ½ cup water (you can add more water if you want more sauce)

Procedure:

1. Season fish with salt. Let sit for 15 minutes then dredge in flour. Fry in vegetable oil until golden brown. Set aside.

2. Discard the oil from the pan, leaving about 2 Tbsps. Saute garlic and ginger until light brown. Add tomatoes and onions and sauté until tomatoes are soft. 

3. Add black beans and fried tofu. Saute for about a minute.

4. Add water and oyster sauce. Mix well. Season with salt and pepper to suit your taste. Simmer for 3 minutes.

5. Add fish. Cover with sauce and simmer for another 5 minutes.

6. Add green onions. Simmer for 3 more minutes.

7. Remove from heat. Serve with steamed rice!