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Milk fish or Bangus as popularly known all over the Philippines is a very delicious, white flesh fish. This is widely cultivated in almost every part of the country's coastal areas and abundantly available in wet markets, supermarkets, groceries and even street vendors and also exported in many countries. Milk fish is one of the favorite table food of Filipinos. There are several ways in cooking milk fish. This can be simply fried, or cooked as soup with some vegetables or complicated recipes like stuffed milk fish (rellenong bangus). I want to share with you my all-time favorite stuffed milk fish. This is very delicious but requires a lot of work. Stuffed milk fish is typically served on special occasions. Maybe once a month or twice when home-cooking. Just deboning the fish takes a lot of time.
We need:
- 1 piece large size milk fish
- 1 medium size onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tomatoes, diced
- 1 medium size carrots, finely chopped
- 1 cup cooked green peas
- ½ cup raisin
- ½ cup pickle relish (optional )
- ¼ cup calamansi juice or lemon juice
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 1 raw egg
- 3 tbsp.flour
- cooking oil for frying
- salt and ground pepper to taste
How to do it:
Remove scales and take out intestines through the opening cavity of the milk fish. Clean. Gently pound the fish to loosen the skin with the use of a kitchen mallet or the flat side of a knife. Snap off the big bone from the nape to the tail. Gently remove the meat by scraping the meat slowly down to the tail and around with the use of a long spoon or the long handle of a kitchen turner. Feeling that the meat is already separated from the skin, push it out gently through the opening cavity making sure not to make any cut or damage on the skin of the fish.
- Marinate the skin of the milk fish with head in the mixture of soy sauce and lemon juice or calamansi juice and set aside.
- Place fish meat in a pot and boil in just enough water for 5 minutes. Drain and debone the meat and flake it.
- Saute garlic and onion in a large skillet until slightly brown. Add the tomatoes till tender and stir in the fish meat, carrots, green peas and pickle relish. Cook for about five minutes. Stir in the raisin. Add salt and ground pepper to taste.
- Add and mix well beaten egg to the saute.
- Stuff the mixture inside the fish skin and the head.
- Roll the milk fish in flour just enough to coat.
- Fry until golden brown.
- Let it cool and slice slightly diagonal at your desired thickness.
- Garnish with freshly sliced tomatoes and cucumber.
Serve with catsup and rice to make a delicious, complete and balance meal.
This is one Filipino recipe that takes about an hour to prepare. The deboning takes a longer time since milk fish is notorious with bones. But the finished product is really worth it.
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