I brought out a portion of frozen roundscad (aka galunggong) to thaw this morning. I was thinking of frying it for lunch. When hubby saw me in the kitchen, he asked what I planned to do with it. I quickly replied that I'd be frying it since it was quick and the kids always love it when we have fried fish. He asked me what I thought about making it into an escabeche (sweet & sour) dish. Hmmmm....I haven't tried making escabeche and just by the sound of it, I thought it'll be quite a challenge. I didn't have enough time on my hands...just an hour to prepare for lunch, is escabeche at all possible?
A quick search on Google revealed various ways of making escabeche...after browsing 2-3 recipes online, I realized that making escabeche wasn't that difficult at all! About half an hour later, the result yielded a feast featured in the photo above. It was raining the whole day and oh boy, the escabeche lunch was just perfect for the weather.
Here is the recipe I used:
8-10 medium sized roundscad (galunggong), fried *** you can use any other type of fish: lapu-lapu, matangbaka, anduhaw
2 thumb-size ginger, julienned
3 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 pieces medium-sized tomatoes, quartered
1 medium red onion, sliced
1 medium sized red bell pepper, julienned (*** you can also throw in a green one for color contrast)
1 small carrot, julienned (I didn't have this in my kitchen so I left it out but most recipes call for it)
1/4 cup vinegar (cane or white)
3-4 Tbsp tomato catsup
1 Tbsp corn starch, dissolved in 1/2 cup water
1-2 Tbsp sugar
Canola oil for sauteing
Set aside your fried fish. In a shallow pan, heat some oil. Saute ginger, onions ,garlic and tomatoes until translucent. Add carrot and bell peppers. Stir in vinegar, catsup until well combined. Bring to a simmer then add sugar. Slowly stir in the corn starch & water mixture. You should get a slightly thick sauce. Adjust your vinegar, water, catsup, sugar to taste. Pour over fried fish and serve with hot steaming rice.
