Kilawing Tangigue – Raw Sea Bass in Vinegar for Dinner

Posted On January 10, 2008

My wife and I were discussing last night how she thinks our children are small. Smaller than her old brother’s children. Hey, her brother and his wife are a lot taller than we are in the first place.

No matter. A few years of eating the regular Filipino diet of rice, vegetables and fish even if they are mostly organic hasn’t made our children bigger. Now that I’m into raw food, maybe we can make the children grow bigger with raw meat.

So this afternoon I set off with our cook to the Farmers Market to buy fresh goat for kinilaw, to be raw cooked in organic coconut vinegar. Too late. Other people have already bought the good goat parts for kinilaw. We went around the market and found fresh tangigue aka sea bass. I bought 1/2 kilo at around P 280 per kilo.

Our cook took care of it. I really don’t know what recipe she did but it was fantastic. Absolutely sensational. The whole family loved it. Nothing was left. So the kids endured the hot cayenne peppers, the vinegar, the onions… they said it was hot but they still ate a lot.

Kinilaw means to “cook” in vinegar. It’s not really cooking since there is no heat involved. But soaking fish or some other seafood in a strong vinegar solution turns the meat opaque and gives it a texture of having been cooked.

I really don’t know how raw this counts in the scale of raw foodists. Maybe it is beneficial? It does add more color to our raw menu.

What does this dish look like?

Something like this from http://www.kinilaw.com/

A recipe may look like this:

1 kilo skinned fresh sea bass

2 tbs finely minced garlic

1 cup white vinegar

6 tbs calamansi or lemon juice

5 diced tomatoes

1 cup finely minced onion

3 tbs finely minced ginger

1 red capsicum, diced

1 green capsicum, diced

1/4 cup spring onions, minced

salt and pepper to taste

Marinate fish in vinegar for an hour. Drain and mix with lemon juice and all other ingredients. Let it sit in the refrigerator for an hour before serving.

from http://www.camperspoint.com/article.php3?id_article=110

More information on kinilaw from http://www.coconutstudio.com/kinilaw_art.htm