Daing

Fish butterflied, cured in vinegar and garlic, dried hard, then fried skin down.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

• 2 milkfish, about 500 g each, butterflied and cleaned
• 200 ml cane vinegar
• 1 whole head of garlic, crushed
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper
• oil, to fry

Method

1. Lay the butterflied fish flesh up in a dish. Mix the vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper and pour it over.
2. Six to twelve hours in the fridge, flesh up the whole time so the cure sits in the fillet rather than running off it.
3. Lift them out and PAT THEM VERY DRY, then leave them on a rack for an hour until the surface is tacky rather than wet. This is the step that decides whether you fry a fish or steam one.
4. Heat 5 mm of oil until a crumb sizzles hard.
5. SKIN DOWN FIRST, and do not move it for 4 minutes. The skin is what you are after; prodding it early tears it off and leaves it in the pan.
6. Two minutes on the flesh side. Serve with rice and more vinegar.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Philippines · All recipes