Fish Sarciado

I lived in a small town in Calamba, Laguna when I was young. The town is bordered by Laguna de Bay, the country's largest lake, on its northwest side. Calamba is approximately 34 miles south of Manila, the capital.

Laguna de Bay, which is a few blocks from where I used to live, is covered with milkfish and tilapia ponds. I remember when storm would hit the province, overflowing the lake, letting the fish out of the ponds. We call it 'bangusan na'. Naturally, tons of milkfish has to be sold for a lower price. People would buy in tens of kilos. We have learned to preserve it, dry it (daing na bangus). And would eat fish for days. Because of this, we have to cook fish in different ways. I prefer frying or broiling fish. I would combine it with rice and tomato/onion/alamang salsa or dip it on spiced vinegar. But sometimes I get tired of eating fried fish. And want to try something else. I have learned to cook paksiw, pinangat, and sarciado.

Sarciado, sometimes spelled as sarsiado, is fried fish in a sauce, or sarsa. The sauce is made mostly of egg and tomatoes. One thing good with sarciado is, you can either eat the fish after it is fried, with the sauce on the side. Or simmer the fried fish in the sauce. It is like two dish in one. The dish is somewhat similar to escabeche.

I have been thinking of cooking sarciado but undecided if I will use milkfish or tilapia. But since there is only tilapia and pompano in the market I went to, I decided tilapia it is.

Here is the recipe for fish sarciado.

Ingredients

1     whole        tilapia, cleaned and cut in 3 pcs
2     pcs             brown eggs
2     pcs             plum tomatoes, diced
1     pc               medium onion, chopped
3     cloves        garlic, minced
2     pcs             onion stalk, chopped
2     tbsp           fish sauce (patis)
1     cup            water
1     tsp             ground pepper
2     tbsp           vegetable oil for sautéing
1/2  cup            vegetable oil frying fish

Procedure

Fry the fish. Set aside.

In a sauce pan, sauté onion, garlic, and tomatoes in vegetable oil. When cooked, add water, patis and ground pepper. Let it boil.

Add fried fish, simmer for 2 minutes.

Beat the eggs, pour in top of the pan. Let it cook before mixing the dish. Add onion stalk. Simmer for another minute.

Serve with rice.

This dish is very easy to make. Preparation and cooking time T
took me 30 minutes. Hope you can try this dish.