SINANGLAY

One of the favorite fish dish of Bicolanos

is "Sinanglay", wherein fish is wrapped in

 pechay or mustard leaves and is simmered

 in rich coconut milk. Tilapia is perfect for

this. But I prefer not to wrap with leaves,

so my daughter will eat it. Fresh Tilapia is

 always available in the supermarkets.

 And cooking Sinanglay is very easy.

Sinanglay na tilapia is another authentic

Filipino dish, where the fish, in this case,

the tilapia, is cooked with coconut milk. 

The dish, I believe, has originated in the

 Bicol region.  The difference in cooking

 sinanglay with other ���ginataan��� dishes

 (dishes cooked with coconut milk) is that

with sinanglay the fish is  stuffed with spices

 and is wrapped with vegetable leaves. 

 Traditionally, it is wrapped with tanglad

 (lemon grass leaves).  For my sinanglay,

 I usually wrap the fish with gabi (taro) leaves

 but since gabi leaves are not available in

 Singapore, I used pechay (bok choy) leaves

 for this recipe.   If mustard leaves are available

 in your area, you can use that too.

Fresh tilapias are always available on most

 fish markets or even supermarkets here,

yes��� fresh but not alive

as what I always have during my years in

Batangas. At times, I run out of ideas how to

 cook them but today I would like to share

an alternate way of cooking the fish which

is Sinanglay a kind of cooking tilapia in

 coconut milk. This dish is somewhat

 similar to Ginataang Tilapia
 

However, certain ingredients and procedure

differentiates this dish from the later. I���ve known

 and tasted sinanglay  from a Bikolana

neighbor I had in Batangas years ago. The

 fish is stuffed with chopped onions,

 tomatoes, ginger, garlic and wrapped in

pechay leaves. This is also my first time

 to cook sinanglay, just an experiment if

I still remember it right.

 There are tons of ways how to cook

Tilapia but sometime we wanto cook it in a different

 way. This Sinanglay Na Tilapia is the answer.

 This dish is like a ginataang laing because

 it is cooked in coconut milk. Sinanglay na

Tilapia is an authentic dish of Bicolanos. Most

of us know that they are known for cooking

 dishes with coconut milk. But I want to tell you

 that they are not the only ones who have

 the right to cook Sinanglay Na Tilapia.

 But the question is- do you know how to

 cook Sinanglay Na Tilapia? If your answer is

 no, then I am here to help you. We don���t

 need to make it fancy because it is not

 economical but we must not jeopardize the

 taste of Tilapia. On this recipe I am going

to share with you, you can adjust the amount

 of every ingredients according to your

 tastes and you can add additional ingredients

 like if you want to make it more spicy or

 something like that. I did not know how to

 cook Sinanglay Na Tilapia until my Bicolano

 friend Cooked it for me when we were

 hanging out in his place. You can make

 a version of Sinanglay by replacing the

Tilapia as the main ingredient. There are

 many ways how to cook it too and this one

 I am going to share with you is thesimplest

 and easiest version of it. Here is how to

cook Sinanglay Na Tilapia.

EASY SINANGLAY NA TILAPIA RECIPE

Ingredients

1 kilo of Tilapia (2-3 pieces)
2 bundles of Pechay
3 small size tomatoes (diced)
5 cloves of garlic (chopped)
2 small size onions (chopped)
1 small ginger (sliced)
5 pieces green chili
2 cups of coconut milk
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Salt to taste

Procedure

Clean the Tilapia by removing scales, gills and other unwanted parts.
Combine the onions, ginger, and tomatoes in a bowl.
Stuff the Tilapia with mixture of ingredients.
Wrap the Tilapia with Pechay leaves tight enough to keep mixture within Tilapia.
In a pot, put the Tilapia and arrange carefully.
Add the coconut milk, water to cover the Tilapia, salt and pepper.
Cook and simmer for 20 minutes or until the tilapia is cooked.
Remove from heat and serve while hot.