Kitchen

Kid-Friendly Pinoy Fish Recipes Beyond Escabeche

by Kevyn Gohu
September 21, 2022

If you’re trying to get your kids to eat more fish, here are some Pinoy fish recipes beyond Escabeche.

Every Pinoy loves a good Escabeche fish recipe, with its sweet and sour sauce and crispy deep-fried skin. But eating fried and sweet recipes all the time can be one of the reasons why Filipinos get diabetes. Besides, being a country surrounded by water allows the Philippines access to all sorts of seafood recipes. So, here are some kid-friendly Pinoy fish recipes to try beyond Escabeche.

1. Sugba

A Pinoy fish recipe hailing from the Visayas region, Sugba or Sinugba is when a fish is wrapped in a banana leaf and grilled over charcoal. For this kind of recipe, the fishermen would prefer “chunkier” fish. Or, the kind of fish that are dense in meat. Some use soft fish but their preference is usually the bigger fish such as Talakitok, Tilapia, Bangus, Pampano, or Maliputo.

Tip: If charcoal isn’t available in the house, a toaster oven does just as fine so long as there’s a banana leaf. It’s best enjoyed with tomato, onion, and salted egg salad, too.

2. Fish Steak

Taking a page from the old Pinoy meat classic recipe “Bistek Tagalog”, Fish Steak is a family-friendly fish recipe relying on soy sauce and onions especially when the fish is already filleted and deboned. Most families would use Bangus for this recipe but some have discovered that Tilapia and Hito (Catfish) make an interesting substitute. In a way, it’s like adobo but with less sauce.

3. Fish Sisig

Nothing says boneless than fish sisig. Mincing fish meat instead of pork for this Pinoy recipe, the fattiness of the sisig is a lot less so it will need some oil and ginger to get that same mouthfeel and flavor. For the crispy chicharon part, all you need to do is skin the fish and fry the skin! Or, if there’s no time — just pass by a delicacy store. They’re bound to have some crispy fish skin lying around. Most people use Bangus but Torcillo makes a good meaty fish, too.

4. Calamansi Butter Grill

Forget being fancy. Just grab a few leftover calamansi as a result of the family’s constant Filipino restaurant takeout, a thin slice of butter, and grill the fish in it. Any steak-tasting fish such as Torcillo or Malasugi (blue marlin/swordfish) work well with this recipe.

5. Ginataan

Ginataan or “to stew in coconut milk” is a lifesaver for most parents to get their kids to eat veggies. Because coconut milk has such a strong flavor, it masks a lot of the bitterness usually found in vegetables. Toss in some squash (kalabasa) and string bean (sitaw) along with deep-fried fish flakes and you have a pretty delicious Pinoy fish recipe.

6. Tinapa

No fancy marinades are required. Just pop this salty-savory Pinoy fish recipe into the toaster oven for some heating and enjoy with rice. Add an egg for extra color. Some Filipino families even like it with their champorado. Galunggong and Tawilis are the common Tinapa fish choices.

7. Fish in Egg Sauce

It takes a bit of deep-frying again but this time, no sugar. Instead of using a sweet sauce, use an egg-based sauce. It has extra protein because of the egg. If not in the mood to make egg soup, that’s what Instant Crab and Corn Soup packets are for. Just add an egg and tada, you have your sauce! Tilapia is pretty good for this kind of thing.

There are a lot of Pinoy Fish recipes to try!

Fish may be a bit scary or annoying to feed kids because of the bones. There’s that fear they might choke on the bone and then, there’s the irritation of having to flake the fish for every bone. But fish is a good alternative to meat when trying to get protein without all the fat and cholesterol.