Missing Venus

We were hosting a truly Filipino lunch that included rellenong bangus one day last week, so we drove to the place where the seafood is always fresh.

No, not Venus de Milo at the Louvre, but the lady behind the seafood section in South Supermarket. We were hosting a truly Filipino lunch that included rellenong bangus one day last week, so we drove to the place where the seafood is always fresh. There they have this gracious lady, called Venus, who always attends to us. But that day, unfortunately, she was not there, as she was reporting late. The apparently very busy lady who was there, short of ignoring us, waved us to a male attendant. So we got four large fish (P400-plus) and instructed the gentleman to be very careful in extracting the meat, leaving  intact the tiyan (belly).

To our great disappointment, when we got home, in the course of cleaning the bangus, the bellies were gone, mixed with the rest of the extracted flesh! What a let down! There was nothing we could do, just lament about missing Venus who always does it very well.

We do not mix meat for the filling of our relleno like others do. We simply use the fish meat with potatoes. Here is our recipe which we inherited from our late Inay.

Simple but delicious bangus relleno

Ingredients:

One large bangus

Half kilo potatoes (diced)

Half a head native garlic, crushed

Two pieces tomatoes, chopped

One medium-size onion, diced

10 gms raisins

Prodecure:

Boil the bangus meat, flake.

Marinate the body (skin) in soy sauce, pepper and juice of calamansi, set aside. In a little oil sauté garlic, tomatoes and onion. Add potatoes and wait until cooked.

Add salt and pepper, then the flaked bangus, raisins, eggs and pickle relish. Mix well. Cook for about 5 minutes. Let cool.

Stuff the bangus body with the mixture. Prepare baking tray by coating it with margarine and pre-heat oven to 225 degrees.

Coat the fish on both sides with flour. Grill in the oven until done.

Serve with a sauce of soy, calamansi juice and margarine.  

A friend gave us a box of coffee bars which were delicious and light. They came from Anihan Technical School in Calamba, Laguna and is a project of the Foundation on Professional Training. The baked products are home-styled by their students. Proceeds from the sale are used to support their scholars. Contact numbers are 0922-850-0287 and 0917-545-1598. They have other products which we will write about after we visit the school’s atelier.

Oh, we had an “accident” which produced an edible result. We were cooking our matamis na saging (saba). As we waited for it to cook, we read the newspapers. When we remembered to check on the bananas, the syrup had caramelized! We caught it just in time, before it got scorched! The resulting candied dessert was excellent! We will do it again.

Have a happy Sunday!

E-mail me at [email protected].