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Hot and Sour canned Mackerel Soup with Okra



Aside from tuna, my favorite canned seafood to be experimented on is canned mackerel in natural oil.


I like to make some tweaks on the natural oil it comes with and my best dish so far is making a sort of savoury sinigang of out this canned seafood. Let me teach you how...




Ingredients
  • 1 big can mackerel in natural oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped 
  • 6 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon chillies, chopped, optional
  • 5-6 pieces okra, halved
  • 1/2 cup Water
  • Tamarind powder mix or calamansi
  • Salt and Pepper
  • 1 bundle Kamote or Kangkong Tops, optional
  • Cooking oil

Procedure
  1. Drain mackerel from natural oil. Set aside oil
  2. Carefully remove the bones of the mackerel by "halving" it
  3. Heat oil in pan then fry the mackerel halves until brown. (But you can opt to skip this portion)
  4. Saute onion and garlic. Add half of the chillies then saute more. (This is to regulate spiciness of the dish).
  5. Add the natural oil and water then mix in tamarind powder (calamansi) according to your taste.
  6. Adjust the flavour of the broth according to how spicy, sour and salty you want it.
  7. Add okra and bring to a boil until it is cooked. 
  8. Place the fried mackerel into the broth and simmer for a minute. (Add the kamote or kangkong tops then simmer until it is cooked, if you will use.)
  9. Serve with hot rice.


You can always tweak this recipe to suite your taste and available ingredients. The mix of the savory natural oil, the sourness and spiciness of the broth is already good enough for me. But with the (fried) mackerel, and vegetables, all I can say is "Extra rice, please!"


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