Paksiw na Galunggong con Prito

Last Tuesday April 13, in one of my high school friend’s wall post, a trail of discussion regarding “Monggo” (a Filipino vegetable dish of monggo beans with bitterguard leaves and a little bit of soup). I together with my high school friends discussed freely another dish that would match this soup. So along the trail of comments, we have talked about fish-Galunggong (Mackerel Scads) in particular. I have triggered the discussion commenting that aside from the usual fried Galunggong, there is another way of cooking it better, by marinating with vinegar or popularly known to be “Paksiw” prior to frying the fish. This is an all time favorite meal by our old folks and usually comes with “Monggo soup”. So, one of them requested me to blog this (though it is quite common) since there are still some who does not know how to cook this very simple dish. Granting my friends’ request, I am now writing about it and hope that I can extend it to all who wants to give it a try.

Ingredients:
1 kilo Galunggong (Mackerel scad) cleaned
½ cup vinegar
¼ cup water
1 head garlic crushed
1 tbsp. Iodized salt
1 tsp. ground pepper
Cooking oil

Procedure:

1. In a bowl, combine crushed garlic with ground pepper.
2. Pour in vinegar and water. Stir.
3. Arrange the Galunggong in a pan and pour the vinegar mix. Bring to boil for 5 minutes. Set aside. Let stand for at least 3 hours before frying.

Frying: Heat the cooking oil in a pan; fry the Galunggong fish until crispy.

Serve with steamed rice.

Tips:

• Do not over boil the fish. 
• Soak the fish to its marinade overnight to absorb the vinegar mixture before frying.