Daing na Bangus, as Served
(click to enlarge)

Daing na Bangus


Philippines   -   Daing na Bangus Marinated Milkfish
Serves:
Effort:
Sched:
DoAhead:  		 2 main
***
4+ hrs
Most		 A very popular dish in the Philippines, particularly for breakfast. We non-Filipinos are more likely to serve it for dinner. This page deals with a bangus already prepared ready for frying by a Philippine market.
If you want to start with a whole, uncut Bangus, or debone a store bought one, the instructions and photos on Tina's page Pinay in Texas Cooking Corner are so good I see no need to repeat this work while that site is available.

1-1/2
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8
1
1
1/2
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1/2
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#
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cl
c
T
t
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c
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Bangus (1)
-- Marinade
Garlic
Vinegar (2)
Salt
Pepper, black  
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Oil
-- Serve with
Vinegar dip
Rice
Salad
Prep   -   (15 min minimum, 1 day max - see steps and notes)
  1. Prepare your BANGUS. This page starts with a fish already prepared for frying by a Philippine market, but you can start with an uncut fish (see Note-1).
  2. IF you have a store prepared fish, you may still want to marinate it for a few hours because the store marinade tends to be quite a bit on the weak side. You also may wish to debone it (see Note-3) as described in Tina's article or on our Deboning a Bangus page.
  3. For Marinade:   Crush GARLIC and chop small. Mix with Vinegar, Salt and Pepper.
  4. Cut Bangus in 6 pieces (serving size) if desired. The photo specimen was fried whole, but that took a 15 inch iron skillet, not available in most American households. A whole fish could be marinated in a sealed plastic bag, but a cut fish can be marinated in an available glass or ceramic baking pan (do not use aluminum).
  5. Marinate Bangus refrigerated for at least 3 hours, or preferably overnight for a freshly cut fish, or, optionally, about 3 hours for a store prepared fish.
Run   -   (20 min)
  1. Drain the Bangus and pat dry with paper towels. Discard the marinade.
  2. In a cast iron or other quality skillet, heat Oil very hot but not smoking. Start frying fish skin side down, and when nice and crisp, turn the fish over and fry the skinless side. The skinless side can be fried quite a bit lighter than the photo specimen if desired.
  3. Serve hot, accompanied by a Vinegar Dip, Rice (steamed or fried) and a salad, or however you please.
A store prepared Bangus - both sides.
Store Prepared Store Prepared
NOTES:

  1. Bangus:

      [Milkfish]. Weight given is for a market prepared bangus. The 1-1/2 pound photo specimen was purchased ready for frying from a Philippine market in Los Angeles, 2014 US $2.79 / pound.   IF you're starting with a whole fish (see Tina's article), select one between 1-3/4 and 2 pounds. Note that in neither case is the fish scaled. The skin and scales are entirely edible if it is fried nice and crisp on the skin side. For details on Bangus see our Milkfish / Bangus page.

  2. Vinegar:

      Preferably use one of the fine vinegars imported from the Philippines. Tina (see link above) uses 1/2 regular Cane Vinegar and 1/2 Spicy Cane Vinegar. Coconut or Palm vinegar are also fine. For details see our Sours page.

  3. Deboning:

      I fried the photo specimen without deboning at all. I recently enjoyed an American Shad and often enjoy Carp. Both are more of a pin bone problem than Bangus, so dealing with the pin bones is no problem for me.   Note:   I always eat fish with pointy chopsticks, which gives me a very high degree of control (I eat most Chinese dishes with a fork, barbarian that I am). If you serve without deboning, provide napkins and a plate on which to deposit the pin bones and other bones.
  4. U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove in=inch, ar=as required tt=to taste
smf_daibang1 var 140309  -   www.clovegarden.com
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