Gingered fish belly and vegetable soup
In this seafood variant of the Filipino tinola, chunks of bangus (milkfish) belly fillets are simmered with chayote and spinach in fish broth seasoned with ginger and fermented fish sauce.
Servings 4 people
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 1 shallot peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 two-inch knob ginger sliced
- 2 to 3 cloves garlic smashed and peeled
- 4 to 6 cups fish broth / stock
- 2 chayote peeled, cored and cut into wedges
- fish sauce
- 2 milkfish bangus belly fillets (about 500 grams / 1.1 pounds), cut into two-to-three-inch pieces
- 3 to 4 cups spinach
Instructions
- Heat the cooking oil in a pot.
- Saute the shallot, ginger and garlic until softened and aromatic.
- Pour in the fish broth / stock.
- Add the chayote and bring to the boil. Lower the heat, cover the pot and simmer for about ten minutes. Taste the broth and add as fish fish sauce as needed to give it good flavor.
- Stir in the fish belly fillets.
- Drop in the spinach and press down gently into the broth.
- Cover the pot and simmer for five minutes.
- Turn off the heat and leave the soup to cook in the residual heat for another five minutes.
- Taste the broth, add more fish sauce, if needed, and serve immediately.