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No. 24FilipinoSeafood

Barramundi Escabeche

This raw acid is what gives the sauce its bite — everything boiled earlier has gone mellow.

John Drummond

Four crisp skin-on barramundi fillets on a white platter in a glossy orange-red sauce with strips of capsicum, carrot and red onion, sliced spring onion and chilli
Prep15min
Cook25min
All up40min
Serves4
LevelMedium

Mise en place

What you need

Tick each one off as it goes in.

Fish

Sauce

To finish

Makes 4 serves

Filipino sweet & sour fish, fillet version — the next level one. Crispy skin-on barramundi under a sweet-sour banana-ketchup sauce with pineapple, ginger and a raw-vinegar finish for proper zing.

The three changes that matter most: cornflour dust on the fillets, toasting the ketchup before adding liquid, and the raw vinegar + lime off the heat at the end.

Fish: skin-on barramundi is the pick (Foodland Pasadena or the Blackwood fish shop). Skin-on pink snapper is next best. Ling works if you want boneless. Avoid whiting, basa and salmon.

Shopping: Datu Puti cane vinegar and Mama Sita’s/Jufran banana ketchup are at the Asian grocers on Anzac Highway or Central Market. Golden Circle pure pineapple juice is fine.

For a closer-to-fiesta version, add a handful of pineapple chunks with the capsicum.

The sauce can be made a day ahead and actually improves — but fry the fish and do the raw-vinegar finish at the last minute.

Adapted from Panlasang Pinoy’s escabeche with ideas from Kawaling Pinoy, Riverten Kitchen and Iankewks.

The method

Nine moves.

  1. Dry and Season the Fish

    Pat the fillets bone dry, especially the skin. Score the skin side 2–3 times. Mix the cornflour with the salt and garlic powder, dust the fillets all over and shake off the excess. Leave 5 minutes so the coating hydrates.

  2. Fry the Fish

    Heat the oil in a wide pan over medium-high until shimmering. Lay the fillets in skin-side down and don’t touch them for 4 minutes — press gently with a spatula for the first 20 seconds so the skin stays flat. Flip and cook 2–3 minutes more until golden and just opaque. Drain on a rack, not paper towel, so the skin stays crisp.

  3. Crispy Garlic and Aromatics

    Pour off all but 2 tbsp of the oil into a clean pan over medium heat. Fry half the garlic until pale gold, scoop out onto paper towel and set aside for garnish. Add the remaining garlic, the ginger and onion and sauté until the onion softens, about 2 minutes.

  4. Toast the Ketchup

    Push the aromatics to the side, add the banana ketchup to the bare pan and fry it for 30 seconds until it darkens slightly and smells jammy. A real flavour jump over just stirring it into liquid.

  5. Build the Sauce

    Add the vinegar, pineapple juice, water, brown sugar, fish sauce and peppercorns. Bring to the boil and — Filipino rule — don’t stir for the first minute so the raw vinegar edge cooks off cleanly. Simmer 3 minutes.

  6. Vegetables, Still Crunchy

    Add the capsicums and carrot. Cook exactly 3 minutes — they should stay bright with some snap.

  7. Thicken

    Stir in the cornflour slurry. Cook until it just coats a spoon, then stop — it thickens more as it cools. Taste: it should read sweet, then sour, then salty, in that order. Adjust with more sugar or fish sauce.

  8. The Zing Finish

    Off the heat, stir in the raw vinegar and lime juice. This raw acid is what gives the sauce its bite — everything boiled earlier has gone mellow.

  9. Plate and Serve

    Fish on the platter skin-side up. Spoon the sauce and vegetables over the flesh but leave some skin exposed. Scatter with spring onion, chilli, fried shallots and the reserved crispy garlic. Serve straight away with steamed jasmine rice.

Keep wandering

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Barramundi Escabecheserves 4 · 40 min