Sarciadong Isda

It's Friday again...and today, I'm bringing you this fish recipe from the Philippines called Sarciadong Isda which simply means "fish cooked in sauce". 

Though in some regions Sarciado is cooked with scrambled eggs, in the province where I grew up, it has no egg. The one with egg is what we call Cardillo. Anyway, they are basically the same. In both dishes, fried fish is simmered in a sauce which consists mainly of garlic, onions, ginger & tomatoes. The only difference between them is that Cardillo contains scrambled eggs mixed to the sauce while Sarciado is cooked without the eggs. Both dishes are very popular due to their simple preparation. Filipinos find them to be the best ways to recook/reuse left-over fried fish.  But whether using leftover or not, fish is fried beforehand to prevent from falling apart while cooking in the sauce. 

Ryan & I like adding a little kick to it, so I often cook my Sarciado with Jalapeño. I always remove the seeds to make it kid friendly for Clarise and Cherlin. If you don't like it hot, it would be totally fine to omit this ingredient. :)

Hope you'll like this Meatless Friday recipe! 

The next time you have left-over fried fish, you should try either this or the Cardillo.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend with your loved ones! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1 big tilapia, about 2 lbs., cleaned, gutted and cut into 5-6 pieces (You can use other fish like bangus, maya-maya, cod, golden pompano or scad.)
• ¼ cup all-purpose flour 
• 5 Tbsp Light olive oil
• 3 tomatoes, washed, seeds removed and chopped
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp ginger, minced
• 1½  cups water
• 2 Tbsp fish sauce
• 5 stalks green onions, cut into 1 inch length
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 Jalapeño pepper, seeds removed and sliced into rings (optional)

Procedure:

1. Sprinkle fish with salt. Let sit for about 15 minutes. Dredge in flour. (I do this to make sure that the fish skin won't stick to the pan.) In a skillet over medium heat, fry fish in light olive oil until both sides are light brown. Remove from pan and place on a paper towel lined plate to drain oil.

2. In a large sauce pan or in the same skillet (if large enough), saute garlic, ginger, onion and tomatoes over medium heat in the olive oil used for frying the fish until tomatoes are soft. 

3. Add water and fish sauce and bring to a gentle boil. Add the fried fish. Lower heat and cover the pan. Simmer for about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to suit your taste. 

4. Add green onions and jalapeño pepper. Simmer for another 3 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit for a while to allow the sauce to further absorb the flavor of the fish. 

5. Transfer to a serving plate. Serve with hot rice!