February 25, 2007
Early morning the other Saturday, I had a chance to go to the Sauyo talipapa to look for some fresh fish and vegetables to serve for lunch. I noticed some fish which I did not recognize that looked like small milkfish or bangus.
“Tamban yan”, said the fish vendor, in answer to my query. “Kumuha ka na, sariwang-sariwa. Bente lang ang kalahati.”
I did not waste time and got half a kilo, even as I thought that the fish would make good sardines. So I went around looking for some carrots and pickled gherkins or small cucumbers.
The search for gherkins in the talipapa was futile as the vendors did not even know what it is. When I said pickles, they showed me pickle relish which is not suited for sardines.
In any case, I settled for what is available and proceeded home to cook the dish. After removing the entrails, I put the fish in my 4-quart pressure cooker together with thin slices of carrots, the pickle relish, some laurel leaves, whole peppercorns, three cups of water and half a glass of olive oil. Of course, I season it with a generous amount of Pan Salt.
Then the pressure cooker is allowed to “whistle” for a good forty five minutes under slow fire. And it’s ready to be served.
It tasted very much like Spanish sardines, except that it did not cost as much. Twenty pesos for half a kilo of tamban, another ten pesos for the other ingredients and the final product was good for lunch and palaman sa pan de sal for meryenda.
I fought the urge to put some siling labuyo because my elder son has not caught the delight of eating spicy dishes. So I just added powdered sili on my own plate to satisfy the craving.
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