Chub Mackerel Escabeche

                               

The marriage of sweet and sour flavors never fail to captivate the palate.  Add a hint of ginger and spice and you're going to reach for that extra cup of steaming  rice.

Escabeche, is the Spanish dish consisting of fried fish swimming in a sauce that hinges on two contrasting flavors. It is one, that the  fiesta- loving Filipinos have embraced  and added to their  everyday cooking rituals--just one of the many dishes  adapted from the colonizers that make up the interesting and often undefinable  mosaic called Filipino cuisine. Browse on any Pinoy  foodie's blog and you will find many versions this recipe.

Here is my own take:

Ingredients:

Chub Mackerels with the entrails removed
Chopped garlic
Ginger sliced into matchsticks
Sliced white onions
Carrot sliced crosswise
chopped parsley for garnishing
salt
fresh cracked black pepper
water  or stock
brown sugar
Rice wine vinegar
cornstarch
canola oil for frying

Recipe:

1.Season the fish and fry in oil with the correct temperature.Dredge in seasoned  flour if you wish.
2. While the fish is frying, saute the garlic,onions and ginger in another pan. Add the carrots after a while.
3. Add a small amount of water and let it simmer to soak in the flavours of the sauteed spices.
4. Slowly add the vinegar. The volume will depend on how sour you want  your sauce to taste.
5. Add the sugar  and stir until it melts.
6. Taste and adjust  if needed. Let the liquid simmer some more.
7. Check your fish.If done, set aside.
8. Make a slurry by combining about a tablespoon of cornstarch with a small amount of water.
9. Pour the slurry into the simmering sauce until it thickens.
10.Add the  finished sauce to the fish and let it simmer some more to let the fish soak in the  sauce..
11. If you are in a hurry, pour the sauce on the fish in a plate.
12. Plate and garnish with parsley.