Rellenong Bangus

Ingredients

• 2 whole milkfish (bangus), about 600 g each, scaled and gutted
• 4 tbsp calamansi juice
• 3 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 carrot, finely diced
• 1 potato, finely diced
• 1 tomato, finely diced
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup green peas
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp cracked black pepper
• 3 tbsp neutral oil, plus 1 cup for frying
• Banana ketchup and spiced vinegar, to serve

Before you cook

• Ask the fishmonger to scale and gut the milkfish through the gills, leaving the belly uncut.
• Dice the carrot, potato and tomato into 5 mm cubes so they cook evenly in the stuffing.
• Beat the eggs in a small bowl.
• Have a trussing needle and kitchen string, or a few cocktail sticks, ready for closing the fish.

Steps

1. Lay a fish on a board and pound it firmly along both sides with the back of a heavy knife, working from tail to head.
2. Keep pounding until you can feel the flesh has loosened from the skin all the way along.
3. Snap the backbone at the tail end and again just behind the head by pressing hard with your thumbs.
4. Reach into the neck opening and gently work the flesh and bone free, easing it out in pieces and leaving the skin whole.
5. Repeat the loosening and emptying with the second fish.
6. Rub the empty skins inside and out with half the calamansi juice and the soy sauce, then set them aside.
7. Put the extracted flesh in a pan, cover it with water and simmer for 10 minutes until opaque.
8. Drain the flesh and spread it on a tray to cool for 10 minutes.
9. Flake the cooled flesh with your fingers, picking out every bone as you go and taking your time over it.
10. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan over medium heat.
11. Add the garlic and onion and cook for 3 minutes until soft.
12. Stir in the carrot, potato and tomato and cook for 6 minutes until the potato is just tender.
13. Add the flaked fish, raisins and green peas and toss everything together for 3 minutes.
14. Season with the fish sauce, the remaining calamansi juice and the cracked pepper.
15. Spread the stuffing on a tray and leave it to cool to room temperature, which takes about 15 minutes.
16. Stir the beaten eggs through the cooled stuffing until it just holds together.
17. Spoon the stuffing back into each fish skin through the neck opening, filling it to a natural shape but no fuller, because an overpacked skin splits in the pan.
18. Sew or pin the neck opening closed and pat the outside completely dry.
19. Heat the cup of oil in a large frying pan over medium heat until a crumb sizzles steadily.
20. Lower one fish in and fry it for 8 minutes, spooning hot oil over the exposed side.
21. Turn it carefully with two spatulas and fry the second side for 7 to 8 minutes until deep gold and firm.
22. Drain both fish on a rack, rest for 5 minutes, then cut across into thick slices and serve with banana ketchup and spiced vinegar.