My family loves fish and some of our favorites are salmon, cod, and sea bass. My husband and I also love eating milkfish and mackerel because they are what we grew up eating. They are abundant and commonly eaten in the Philippines. I normally cook mackerel by frying it, so when I saw this dish featured on Vietnamese-Australian chef Luke Nguyen’s TV show, I was really interested. I went to buy the ingredients and was lucky to find this Spanish mackerel in our local Asian store. They even cleaned, gutted and filleted the fish for me. I asked for the bones and head of the mackerel, which I was able to use to make the fish stock needed for this recipe. I like the way the mackerel was cooked on a bed of green onions and a mixture of caramelised sugar, fish sauce, fish stock, coconut water, chilies and sautéed garlic and onions. The fish was perfectly cooked in 5 minutes. The meat was tender and nice while the taste was a perfect balance between sweet (sugar) and salty (fish sauce). This caramelised mackerel is delightfully delicious and definitely a keeper. Enjoy!
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 6 tsp white sugar
- 3 tsp fish sauce
- ½ cup fish stock
- ½ cup coconut water
- 2 red chilies
- 2 green onions, sliced into 1½-inch pieces
- 2 mackerel fillets (I used Spanish mackerel)
- Cilantro leaves, for garnish
- In a pan, heat oil over medium high heat. Add onions and garlic; cook for 3 minutes, or until fragrant and softened. Set aside.
- In a non-stick skillet, heat the sugar over medium heat until caramelized, 3-4 minutes. Add the fish sauce, quickly followed by the fish stock. At this point, the melted sugar will hardened. This is okay. Bring the sauce to a boil and let simmer for 5 minutes, or until sauce has reduced. Stir constantly to melt the hardened sugar.
- Add the cooked onions and garlic to the caramel sauce. Bring to a simmer, then add coconut water, chilies and spring onions.
- Add the fish fillets, skin side up and laying the thin tail of the fish on top of the spring onion, so it does not overcook. Cook for 5 minutes or until the fish is cooked through, occasionally spooning sauce over the fish. Transfer cooked fish to a plate, spoon sauce over and garnish with cilantro.
- Serve and enjoy!
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