HOW TO COOK FISH ESCABECHE IN A HEALTHY WAY

Today we are going to cook a fish recipe. Usually in a month, we would order a box of sea bream as one of our food supply at home. Saying so, I need to come up with different recipe to consume these stock. So in this blog I am going to share to you a recipe that is not only mouth-watering, but also very healthy - the fish escabeche or eskabeche.  I am excited to share this to you because I tried an alternative ingredient that has a zero calorie, which is great if you are watching closely your calorie intake in a day. 

Escabeche is the name for a number of dishes in Spanish, Portuguese, Filipino and Latin American cuisines, consisting of marinated fish, meat or vegetables, cooked in an acidic sauce (usually with vinegar), and colored with paprika, citrus, and other spices.*

In the Philippines, we usually cook it with fried fish and love to serve it with sweet and sour sauce, veges and spices. You can use any variety of fish that you prefer such as lapu-lapu, tilapia, tanigue, red snapper (maya-maya), pampano, etc.

Although there are lots of ways on how to do it, cooking escabeche is not hard at all.  Watch this video till the end and learn the technique how to cook this recipe.

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COOKING TIME:  Prep time - 10 mins      Cooking time - 25 to 30 mins

COOKING TIPS:

* When marinating the fish with salt and ground black pepper, make sure you also put some on cut areas and abdomen, then leave it at least 10 mins to absorb the seasoning to give tasty flavour to the fish. 

* In order to get a full healthy recipe I suggest to buy organic ingredients. That means ingredients is harvested without commercial fertilizers and insect sprays.

* Using stevia sweet granules is best to sweeten your recipe as they contain zero calorie. Good to maintain your low calorie intake which helps to lower or maintain your ideal weight.

* Remember that it is harder to correct the flavour if you have added too much seasoning at the beginning, so always put seasoning in a small amount initially and  you can adjust it according to your taste at the end. 

* Do same thing with the corn starch as they can thickened the sauce very well. So add little by little until you get the right consistency. You can add water anytime to lighten the sauce.

* Avoid over cooking the veges, once it is half cook you can remove it from the heat (of course this depends on your preference, you can leave it longer if you like it soft instead of crunchy). 

* Don't cover the pan and stir after putting the vinegar, this way, the acids in the vinegar mellow out and the ‘raw’ taste burns off.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 large fish (sea bream or fish of your choice) - cleaned and salted
• 1 medium red & green bell pepper - sliced into strips
• 1 piece carrot - julienne cut
• 1 medium red onion - sliced
• 1 medium ginger - julienne cut
• 6 tablespoon apple cider vinegar - alternative white vinegar
• 2 cups water
• 4 tablespoon tomatoe paste - alternative 8 tablespoon tomatoe ketchup
• 3 cloves garlic - crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 cup stevia sweet granule - alternative 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoon corn starch - mix with 3 tablespoon water
• 1/2 cup cooking oil - for frying
• 2 tablespoon oil - for sauteing
• Seasoning:  pinch of salt and black ground pepper 
• 1 - 2 tablespoon of fish sauce

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Marinate the fish with salt and ground black pepper for at least 10 minutes.

   
2. Heat cooking oil in a frying pan then fry both sides of the fish until a bit crispy. Set aside.

   
3. In a new heated pan with oil, saute onion, garlic and ginger until translucent and aromatic.
4. Add the vinegar and water. Let it boil for few seconds. 
5. Then add the tomatoe paste or ketchup. Mix and simmer for few minutes.
6. Next,  put the stevia sweet granule.
7. After few minutes, drop the carrots and the red & green pepper.
   
8. Season with pinch of salt and black pepper. You can also put the fish sauce if you like at this stage. Simmer.
9. Optional, you can put the fish over the simmering sauce to capture the fish flavour, otherwise you can save it later and pour the sauce over it once cook. Lower you heat to low setting.
10. After several minutes when the veges are half cook, remove the fish and pour the corn starch mixture. Stir constantly until it totally dissolve and cook. If the sauce get too thick, simply add small water at a time until you achieve the desired consistency.
11. Transfer the fish to a serving plate and pour the sweet and sour sauce over.
12. Serve. Share and enjoy eating!

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Reference:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escabeche