Passport & Plate - STICKY, SALTY, SWEET MANGO & TINIPA SALAD
Philippines | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 5 photos
Ingredients
Please bear in mind I am in the Philippines so like the locals I have adopted an ‘oh about this much, just chuck it in’-type attitude to cooking. All ingredients are sourced at my local market so this dish tends to change each time I make it according to what is available on the day. Feel free to substitute & create variations - this is the best way of cooking a dish you know you will enjoy - which is, after all, how I created this salad in the first place!
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 45 minutes
Serves: 5
Ingredients:
3 x large chillies, roughly chopped
A medium knob of ginger, roughly chopped
6 x finely chopped garlic cloves
4 or 5 x large Tinapa fish, or about 250g
Tinapa is Filipino smoked milkfish, beautifully oily & quite salty having been soaked in brine & then smoked. It is usually fried & served for breakfast with plain rice or tsampurado; rice cooked in coconut milk with cacao to create a gloriously sticky, melt in your mouth porridge. There are recipes on how to make tinapa online, & although it may take more time, the results will be well worth it. If substituting, try to use an oily smoked fish such as sardines, haddock or mackerel.
2 x tbs of coconut oil, though you may need a little more
A hearty bunch of green onions, chopped (I include the whole onion, the white through to the green stems)
3 x small red onions (shallots), diced
3 x small or 2 x medium mangos (I like to get mine just before they are ripe therefore they still have a slightly tart flavour which combines well with the richness of the rice & fish)
1 ½ x cups of coconut milk
1 ½ x cups water
1 ½ x cups of brown rice (I usually soak my rice for at least 30 minutes before rinsing & cooking)
¼ teaspoon salt
A generous handful of chopped, roasted peanuts & additional sliced green onion, to serve
How to prepare this recipeAdd the oil to large frying pan, allow to heat before adding the fish. Fry for a couple of minutes on each side, or until the skin is a golden colour. Always maintain a little oil in the pan to avoid the fish sticking & to ensure crispy skin.
Remove from pan, set aside to cool.
Reduce heat to medium. If required add a dash more oil to the pan & fry the garlic, ginger & chilli until fragrant & soft. Turn off the heat & toss through your pre-chopped red & green onions.
To cook the rice, bring coconut milk, water & salt to the boil in a medium saucepan. Add rice, stir well & put the lid on. Then leave for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, & hope for the best. Yes, I’m joking but I have to be honest; I’m terrible at cooking rice. This is compounded by the fact gas cookers (the only cooking option for most people in the Philippines) have only two temperatures - hot & really, really hot. Therefore my rice never quite has the correct consistency. However as creator of this dish, it doesn’t matter! The rice can be sticky as risotto (more likely, given the addition of coconut milk) or slightly crunchy, either way the textures of crispy fish, crunchy red onion & soft mango are complimentary to the final dish.
While the rice is cooking, use your hands to debone the fish & break into small pieces. Add to other cooked ingredients. When the cooked rice has cooled slightly, mix everything together.
I prefer this dish cold, so refrigerate the rice mixture for a few hours before adding mango, peanuts & additional green onion. However, if you prefer to serve straight away, simply cut the mangos into cubes & toss through, serve in a large bowl or long platter & sprinkle with the roasted peanuts & sliced green onion.
This can be eaten on its own, or with grilled white fish & a fresh green salad. If you haven’t already cracked open a San Miguel (the Filipino’s beer of choice) while cooking, definitely grab a bottle to wash this down.
Masarap! Delicious!
The story behind this recipeSadly since arriving in the Philippines as a volunteer I’ve had a love-hate relationship with food. I love the prolific fresh produce at local markets, but struggle with everyday dishes: meat in sauce & not a vegetable in sight. I love the wealth of national dishes; yet hardship & convenience often result in fatty & MSG-laden diets.
My experience has revealed while I have a privilege of living to eat & being discerning with food, Filipinos who live in poverty merely eat to live. Yet my colleagues love food, a meal isn’t a meal unless it comes with rice & merienda (snack) times are strictly adhered to. ‘We love you because you try everything Sib’, is a common statement, however a ‘liver cooked in pigs blood’ incident has me questioning this strategy.
Attempts to introduce other cuisines are challenging, sparking my determination to create a dish to satisfy the tastebuds of both countries. Moreover, lamenting the absence of the year-long anticipated Christmas lunch I wanted to cook something reminiscent of home but using local ingredients & flavours.
A Christmas dish prepared by my Aunt is a brown rice, prawn & mango salad - just the thing for a sweltering December day - fresh, light & bursting with flavour. Nevertheless, in my resolve to create something my colleagues would savour, several changes were needed.
The basis of rice was an encouraging start, while the decision to cook in coconut milk was inevitable. I stuck to the mango & seafood combination, common in many Filipino dishes uniting sweet & savoury. So with a basic recipe of coconut rice, mango & tinapa I went to my local market to hunt for additional ingredients. Bicol (my region) chilli was an obvious choice, while ginger, garlic & onions, all such aromatic flavours & in ample supply, gave me my final ingredients. The garnish was thanks to a deaf man visiting our office peddling roasted peanuts.
Despite doubtful looks & tentative tasting the salad disappeared before I had a chance to eat any-a success!
