one filipino dish a week

I had a striped bass and I really wanted to make something out of it. While I was making the atsara the idea of making sinugbang isda (grilled fish) came to me. Like I said in the earlier post, atsara goes great with grilled things. Unfortunately, living in a high-rise building in NJ in the middle of winter doesn’t lend itself for easy grilling. This is my version of sinugbang isda the paoix remix.

I bought some frozen banana leaves from the Asian grocery and I thought a banana leaf wrapped fish would be really great. Reminds me of childhood trips to the beach. So I seasoned the striped bass with salt and pepper on the outside and inside. I then stuffed the fish with some scallions, onions, garlic, and tomatoes (I really wanted to put lemongrass in there but I didn’t have any on hand).

I wrapped the fish in two banana leaves. I didn’t have twine which would’ve made it easier but it was wrapped well enough. I put the oven to broil. Once it was pre-heated I put in the fish close to the heat source. I put it in there for about 25 minutes.

In the meantime, I made a sawsawan (dipping sauce) for the fish. Something basic just soy sauce, tomatoes and some fresh ground pepper.

This fish came out waaaay better than I thought. It was awesome! The banana leaves kept the fish very moist and gave it that very nice smell. The fish went well with the sawsawan and the atsara. I was very surprised with the results of my random homage to sinugbang isda.

It was still steamin hot out of the oven. yummmmy.