How to Make Rellenong Bangus (Philippine Stuffed Milkfish) - this one with apples and cherries...

Whenever I have a relatively new or recipe that I am trying for the first time, I have a tendency to take pictures and not a video because I am not sure whether the final product would be a success.  This may be for any dish that I make differently because of a modification in either ingredient or cooking process.  For most part, I find that my revisions have resulted in success recipes and though some may be abysmal failures. This one is full of pictures in the video to demonstrate the modifications I made in preparing this dish. 

 

In this entry I am going to make Rellenong Bangus which literally translated as "Stuffed Milkfish".  Rellenar is Spanish for "to stuff" and relleno is the adjective form of it.  In the Philippines, this is a very well-known dish although seldom served because of its complicated preparation that it is reserved during special occasions like parties, fiestas and noche buenas (Christmas Midnight Dinners - though the term literally translates as "good or benevolent night". 

Rellenong Bangus or Stuffed Milkfish

 

Now, the Milkfish is very much a national fish in the Philippines although when I was growing up in the 1980s, the Galunggong or the humble Mackerel Scad was the more common fish of the masses.  By that, one can surmise that Milkfish usually costs an arm and a leg while the Scad is dime a dozen.  Now, because of my humble roots, I grew up with the taste of Galunggong rather than the Milkfish although I must admit that the flavor of Milkfish is heavenly. 

 

Galunggong a.k.a. "GG" or the Mackerel Scad
so called, "fish of the Philippine masses" even so,
this fish is a more expensive commodity than tilapia.

Traditionally, Rellenong Bangus is prepared by first removing the meat from the fish leaving the skin as intact as possible.  The meat is then deboned and minced only to be sautéed in garlic, onions, some vegetables usually peas and carrots and raisins.  The raisins is incorporated as a "sweet-sour" contrast that enhances the savory flavor of the fish.  The meat filling is then returned as a stuffing to the milkfish skin and head, sewn and sealed and fried whole resembling a whole fish and served. 

 

The Philippine Milkfish - Asian stores have them.

Cleaned, flayed open and...

...deboned...

Skins with head intact - Yes, Virginia, head intact!
Marinated with lemon juice and light soy sauce.

In this variation, instead of raisins, fresh peeled and sliced apples combined with dried cherries were used.  Also, a neat variation to the preparation of this dish is baking it rather than frying it.  Fish skin, becoming delicate when cooked, has a tendency to break and since an elongated shaped fish is difficult to fry in a round, bowl shaped, deep utensil such as a wok, I find that the baked method is more efficient, easier and results even in a less greasy Rellenong Bangus.  I suggest that my readers to try this method. 

Sauté the fish meat with some goodies...

 

...and stuff it back in the fish.

 

Dust with all purpose flour, brush with oil, wrap with
parchment paper, bake, rest, slice and serve!
WHEW!~~

Baked Rellenong Bangus (Stuffed Milkfish) with Dried Cherries and Macintosh Apple 

• 2 large Milkfish (combined weight of about 4 pounds) 
• 1 head garlic, peeled and chopped 
• 1/2 medium onion, peeled and chopped 
• 1 medium Macintosh Apple, pared, cored and sliced coarsely 
• 1/2 medium orange or red pepper, diced to small pieces 
• 1 cup dried cherries 
• 2 "American" long carrots, peeled and diced coarsely (or 1 fat "Philippine" carrot) 
• 1 12oz can peas 
• salt and pepper to taste 
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 cup water 
• needle with cotton thread 
• All purpose flour for dusting 
• Olive oil to brush prior and during baking 
• Parchment paper 

 

Procedure 

1. Clean the milkfish by first removing the scales, gills and entrails.  Slit the underside and flay the fish open exposing the meat and fishbones, carefully remove the major spine by breaking it at the head and tail. Scape the meat as you hunt for the small bones removing them in the process.  Set the meat aside in a bowl. 
2. Meanwhile, marinade the fish skin with the head intact using some light soy sauce and kalamansi (Philippine lemon) juice.  A good substitute is the juice of calamondins or kumquats. Set aside as well. 
3. In a medium sauté pan with some oil, sauté the garlic and onions until transparent and fragrant.  Add the carrots and sauté further until the carrots are a bit soft.  Next, add the fish meat and red bell peppers and stir occasionally until half cooked.  You may choose to lower the heat at this stage and cover to let the steam cook the meat. 
4. Add the apples and cherries and sauté further just until barely almost done.  Salt and pepper to taste. 
5. Lastly, make a solution of 1 tablespoon cornstarch with the liquid coming from the peas.  In the absence of such liquid, fish or vegetable broth is a good substitute or plain water would do.  Stir in the fish meat mixture to congeal the meats and vegetables.  Set aside this mixture and let cool. 
6. Using a thin thread and needle, sew the underside of the fish skin leaving the gill opening intact. Once the fish skin is back to its original shape and using a spoon, fill the fish skin up to the head with the filling being careful that the skin does not tear at the stitching. 
7. Using cornstarch, dust the fish all over from head to tail.  
8. The next step varies.  In the original way of preparing rellenong bangus, one fries the whole fish with filling intact in a sizable wok with deep oil.  The problem with this is two fold: one, frying bangus usually results in oil splattering all over the place creating a big mess and leads to burns and two, usually in the middle of the frying when one needs to turn over the fish, the skin breaks into two exposing the filling into the oil and destroying the fine work of art.  I do not recommend this method.  Besides, fish is again exposed to more oil thus the extra calories. 
9. What I recommend is to brush the fish after it is covered with all purpose flour with some olive oil and wrap the whole fish in parchment paper, sealed and bake for thirty minutes in a 350oF oven.  The oil is enough to fry the skin as it gently bakes in the over.  The parchment saves the heat within along with the moisture as it keeps the fish crunchy outside with the filling moist inside.  This is a perfect way of savoring the many flavors and textures of the stuffed fish. 
10. If desired, after dusting with flour, you may choose to cover the whole fish with cling wrap and freeze until further use.  From the frozen state, after brushing with oil and sealing in parchment paper, bake for at least 50 minutes to an hour at 350oF.  During the baking process, you may choose to spray or brush further with oil as the temperature is set to a broil to brown the fish evenly.   
11. Let the baked fish rest for about ten minutes then serve with garnish of parsley if desired. 

 

How to Make Fish Lumpiang Shanghai (菲魚上海春捲)

Today is a tribute to the great party finger food, lumpia - specifically, Lumpia Shanghai. To my non-Filipino readers, I believe you may be more familiar with the term, "spring rolls" which if one really looks at the Chinese characters, 春卷 which in Mandarin is chun jian and essentially is translated from the Chinese as "spring" and "roll". From what I gather, the reason why this is so is that the delicacy is usually eaten during the Spring Festival (a.k.a. Chinese New Year) in China. In other countries, even those with predominantly Chinese as language of communication such as Taiwan, these are called by different names such as 潤餅 "run bing" which is roughly translated as "smooth cake" or 薄餅 "boping" which is "thin cake" referring to the thin smooth crepe that makes the skin of the spring roll. Now, note that the rough Hokkien equivalent of the word 餅 ("ping" in Mandarin) is "piah" which means cake or pie. Thus, mooncakes that are eaten during the Moon Festival are called 中秋月餅 or "tsun chiew ye ping" in Mandarin or "tiong khiew ge pia" in Hokkien which translates as Middle Autumn Moon Cake. This 餅 "ping" or "pia" is the second word that "Lumpia" refers to. Whatever "lum" in Lumpia means in the original Chinese - that, I do not know. But I am speculating that it may refer to spring which is 春 or "chun" which has been bastardized to "lun" which is the usual way of the Philippine Hokkien way of saying the word. From this "lun" it was then Filipinized to "lum" making the word "lumpia". I think this is a reasonable theory as the combination of Hokkien characters would mean "Spring Cake" something which is related to the boping above (Mandarin) or Popiyah (Hokkien).

Lumpiang Shanghai. It is not actually from Shanghai but
somewhat looks like it.

 

This is the "Original" Chinese Spring Roll: Bo-Ping
(Mandarin) which is also called Po-Piyah in Hokkien.
The vegetables are cooked but the skin is not fried
and therefore "fresh".

Now, this one is "Lumpiang Sariwa" or "Fresh Lumpia"
which if one notices, is like the Popiyah.

In the Philippines, the original lumpia is actually eaten with the skin fresh loaded with a filling of vegetables starting with a bed of romaine lettuce and some stalks of cilantro for contrast. Adding some ground peanuts mixed with salt and sugar and add to that a thick brown sauce based on brown sugar with soy sauce, some chopped garlic and a dash of Chinese hot sauce, sautéed thinly sliced mixed vegetables with shrimp, pork and shredded tofu are added then rolled for a flavorful yet fresh and healthy snack. The description in itself is enough to make my mouth water. This version is called "Lumpiang Sariwa" in Filipino, translated as "Fresh Lumpia". If one looks at the Mandarin 薄餅 "boping" which in Hokkien is "Popiah", the ingredients and the resemblance are similar. The ultimate prototype of Lumpia Sariwa is served by the famous Ha Yuan Restaurant in Manila.

 

When the filling is limited to the shredded vegetables, shrimp, pork and tofu mix leaving out the rest of the vegetables and the sauces, and then rolled, sealed then fried, this is known as "Lumpiang Frito" or "Fried Lumpia". This is what's familiar to the Western palate as all of the spring rolls found here in Chinese restaurants are all fried. Usually, the size of a lumpiang frito in the Philippines could be the size of a typical Mexican burrito; however, in the States while this may be so, some have been made into smaller fingerling sizes about half of the diameter of the typical burrito. This results is a more delicate and crunchier spring roll.

Get the Lumpiang Sariwa, remove the romaine lettuce,
clialtro and peanut/brown sauce, then fry it. This
is called "Lumpiang Frito"

 

Now the Lumpiang Frito somewhat resembles the
typical Egg Spring Roll here in the States.
The skin is thicker - this is because of the
use of the thicker egg roll skin.

Anyway - another observation is the type of skin used in making spring rolls. In the Philippines, there are two types of skins. One is the batter based on the recipe for making French crepes which is made of egg, flour and water. Mixed together into a thin batter, this is ladled on a hot oiled skillet and allowed to gel and cook into a thin pancake which is then the basis of the skin. When rolled, it is a soft crepe that wraps the vegetables within. Note that this is too soft to handle and therefore, the whole lumpia is served on a plate like the French crepe is served on a plate likewise. If one notices, egg is an ingredient in making this type of lumpia skin - hence, the other name for the spring roll is egg roll or 蛋卷 ("tan jian"). The other type of skin is based on a soft dough of flour, rolled and rubbed on a hot iron surface, leaves traces of the flour dough to bake quickly much like an Indian tandoori oven leaving a very delicate thin skin made of flour which is peeled. This is the basis of the skin for Lumpia Sariwa and Lumpia Frito and incidentally is the thinner, delicate skin which when fried gives the crunchy texture of the spring roll.

This is another version of the Lumpiang Sariwa or
Fresh Lumpia using a different kind of skin
based on the egg crepe.

 

The reason why the fried spring roll in the US has a
pockmarked surface is the skin. If one notices,
this resembles the siomai wrapper.

What accounts for the more the more delicate
crunchier spring roll is the thinner version.
This is what I use.

Incidentally, when one buys lumpia wrappers in
the wet market in the Philippines, this is what
you get.

How you make the traditional lumpia wrapper is this.
Using a wet dough based on flour and water,
rub the dough against a medium hot metal surface.
The resulting thin crepe is the wrapper.



Incidentally, there is another type of spring roll skin available in the States. The egg roll skin in the States is not the same as the one based on the French crepe like in the Philippines. Rather, it’s a thicker machine pressed rolled skin that is as thick as the siomai wrapper. It's labelled as egg roll wrapper although I do not think it contains any egg but probably the original recipe of this should contain egg much like the egg noodle.

 

But going back to the sizes of the different lumpias, the smaller version of the Lumpiang Frito is what's common in the dimsum restaurants in the States. Incidentally, and a bit of a coincidence this is called 上海春捲, "Shang Hai Tsun Jian" literally translated as "Shanghai Spring Roll", known for the use of the thin version of the skin, it is fingerling size and fried to a crisp. Inside are similar to the julienned cabbage, carrots, tofu with some chicken filling found in the Lumpia Sariwa or Lumpia Frito. Now take this version, modify the filling to be seasoned ground meat, preferably pork and in some instances fish meat like that of the milkfish and serve it with a savory sweet sour sauce. This version is what in the Philippines is called "Lumpiang Shanghai". So, there you have it. You have Shanghai Spring Rolls and Lumpiang Shanghai but the latter is not the same as the former.

Lumpiang Shanghai has become the favorite party food. For one thing it’s finger food and therefore convenient for cocktails and conversations while the music is playing in the background - no need for silverware! Next, its savory and meaty. As with any Filipino culinary sensibility would reveal - anything that has meat has got to be savory and hopefully, spicy and therefore goes well with the ultimate party beverage - beer. 

Now, this is the thin skin based shanghai spring roll
served in dimsum restaurants in the US.

And now we go 360. This is the Lumpiang Shanghai which
resembles the Shanghai Spring Roll above but the
filling is meaty. Fish can also be used.

Usually, lumpiang shanghai has a pork filling which is typical of most Asian dishes although for a healthier yet equally tasty snack, fish meat could be substituted and which I used because Mikey has turned pescetarian for the past six months. (As a side note, he did lose some weight initially as he turned into a dish eater, but I think he has already plateaued. I reserved that for another discussion.) In the Philippines, this is usually Milkfish. But any other white meat fish will do - flounder, tilapia, dalagang bukid etc.

Fish Lumpiang Shanghai.

 

Ingredients.

• 1 kilo fish filets (milkfish "bangus", flounder, whitefish etc.)
• 1/2 head medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 head garlic, peeled and chopped
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 package (25 pcs.) spring roll wrappers (thin style)

Procedure.

1. Slice the filets very thinly to facilitate mixing of the filling. Combine the first six ingredients in a bowl. Using a hand mixer and at a medium speed, incorporate all the ingredients for about a minute then increase the speed to further knead and incorporate the ingredients while disintegrating the fish meat making the mixture sticky to touch. One can stop the mixing process once this stage is reached.
2. Separate the spring roll wrappers and set aside.
3. Make an egg wash mixture of 1 beaten egg with 1/8 cup water.
4. With the egg roll wrappers set in a diamond fashion and in front of you, place about a tablespoon of the fish filling in the middle, shaped like a small cigar horizontally. Taking the two left and right corners, make sure they meet in the middle. Brush some egg wash in the southern region.
5. Fold the southern part and its corner to point northward. Brush some more egg wash on the remaining north fold. Taking the linear fish mixture now covered with the wrapper, roll northward finally sealing the spring roll.
6. Line them on a plate ready to be fried.
7. To fry, use a frying pan that could retain heat very well such as a southern skillet. The oil should be shallow covering about half of the spring roll when fried. Medium heat is desired - meaning that the raw spring roll should bubble when being fried but not instantly turn the skin brown. The browning should occur about 1 1/2 minutes later.
8. After about two minutes or so, one would notice that the upper side would become wet as the filling is cooked. The side underneath has turned about light brown. Turn the pieces and fry the other side for about another minute or so.
9. Once fried to the desired brownness, remove from oil and drain/rest on towels. Serve hot with sweet sour sauce of Thai chili sauce.