Memory is a strange thing; last night when I was cooking, I was certain that I was making this up as I went along with just a bare reference to something I read on E2. Having re-read it though, I have to be honest and admit that this dish is almost completely filched from The Debutante’s great Saluna recipe.
I kind of threw this together last night, and DEB will I’m sure forgive me for borrowing her feathers and posting it as a proper recipe. Or she can nuke this in a fit of rage - she’s got buttons! In Chinese restaurants, we order it as sweet-sour fish (or pork). In Filipino cuisine, we call it “escabeche?. Sounds Spanish, doesn’t it? Whatever the origin, this recipe has been Filipinized in so many ways both in terms of preparation and ingredients.
How many versions of sweet-sour sauce have you come across with? Plenty, I bet. Me too. And I have been experimenting with them for many years. Getting the right consistency, color and blend eluded me for a long time. My sauce was always either too thin, too thick, too pale or too dark. I thought I had the proportions all wrong. It turned out I was using the wrong ingredients.
While a lot depends on individual preferences (some like it more sour; other prefer it more sweet) and quality of ingredients, I discovered a few tricks over the years. First, don’t use food coloring to achieve redness. Food coloring adds nothing to the flavor. Second, don’t use catsup, either. The sauce will never taste right. Third, the amount of vinegar is not directly proportional with the amount of sugar. You need more sugar than vinegar. How much more will depend on your taste. Fourth, never forget to add salt to the sauce. Fifth, ginger is a must when making sweet-sour fish. Sixth, a few drops of sesame seed oil spells magic. This time, I think I finally got it right.
I have made the original before, as a starter and as part of a buffet meal, but I’ve never been able to integrate it into a simple weekday dinner, as it’s a little involved for a half comatose after-work cooking session. It also goes best with rice, which is a problem because I suffer from a severe rice disability: it is the one thing that I cannot, never have, and probably never will , get right. Ready you are Sour Fish. Please visit in the site http://indomunch.com/ for extra details.
About the author
Representing the Sour Fish in the website http://www.indomunch.com/.
Tags: buffet meal, catsup, chinese restaurants, consistency, deb, debutante, feathers, filipino cuisine, food coloring, ginger, inv, proportions, rage, sesame seed oil, strange thing, sweet sour fish, sweet sour sauce, vinegar, weekday dinner, wrong ingredients
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