#23 Philippine's Spicy Escabeche (Sweet and Sour Fish)

SPICY ESCABECHE
(Spicy, Sweet and Sour Fish)


Ingredients:

Red Snapper (fried)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 tablespoons thinly sliced fresh ginger
2 stalks sliced green onions
1 cup Sweet Chili Sauce
1/4 cup water
1/3 cup all purpose flour
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Clean the fish thoroughly and fry until golden (not crispy).
2. Heat 2 tbsps. vegetable oil in medium heat.
3. Sauté garlic until golden brown, and then add the onions until transparent.
4. Add the sweet chili sauce, water, flour. Mix well.
5. Add the fried fish. Bring to boil.
6. Lower the heat and then add ginger and green onions and simmer it for 10 minutes.
7. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Days before the New Year's Eve, my-sister-in-law  Neann and I were emailing each other about lucky foods  to make for a prosperous new year. Filipinos believe so much in "swerte" which means "lucky" and "malas" which means "bad luck". So immediately I googled: new year lucky foods. Found PIG, FISH, GREENS and BEANS. I found out also that not only do Filipinos and people from other countries in Asia believe it, it is also widely observed in a lot of European countries. She said she is making "Escabeche" which is "filipino sweet and sour fish", it is a great dish to make for dinner, so I told her I will be making it as well. I am not a superstitious person, I moved out from my parents' home almost 17 years ago, and have never done anything special with foods to make it lucky or put lucky objects to invite good luck in my home..since every one in my immediate family and a lot of people do it, I thought why not do something "lucky" this year for a fun change. I quickly went shopping for "lucky" foods in the afternoon of 31st of December. LOL. I'll be very lucky this year since I made ALL the lucky foods to make for the New Year's Eve dinner. I found a huge list online (including buying 12 kinds of round fruits). I went over board with the preparation and fell asleep before midnight. Hahaha. Well, the next day, we had so much of left overs and bottles of champagne unopened. I guess the good luck started pouring in immediately since we did not wake up to January 1st having the worst hang over and we had more to enjoy for a few days. :)