Looking for a special fish recipe for an occasion? This Special Kinamatisang Bisugo Soup is tasty, warm, comforting, and easy to make.   

When I was young and living in the islands, Bisugo is one of the local fishes available that is cheap and tasty. It also happens to be a white fish, which is the only type of fish that I can eat because I am allergic to red meat fish. It’s very simple to cook, too! Just throw it in boiling water with onions and tomatoes, add patis or salt and it’s done.

Every Holy Week though, one of my grandmothers would cook a special version with shrimps and clams. I’m trying to recreate the dish from memory. I was looking for a reference and found Manhattan Fish Chowder, oddly enough, to be almost the same. I always thought of the dish as having a Spanish origin since it has tomatoes and a kind of stew like our Afritada, Menudo or Kaldereta.

Today, we got to try it again, Though I did make a lot of changes -for example the one in my memory has carrots in it but we dont have carrots in the pantry today so! Still, it was amazingly close. It was as yummy as I remembered it. There’s the perfect combination of the soft white fish, grainy (?) potatoes, and the sweet sourness of the potatoes. But don’t take my word for it. Try it this Holy Week! #semanasanta

Special Kinamatisang Bisugo Soup

Ingredients

• 1 tsp olive oil (for that extra special taste) but if you’re cutting cost, well, there’s always vegetable oil
• 45 grams bacon sliced and finely chopped (if you’re using this for Holy Week, remove this)
• 1 cup white onion chopped
• 1 pc green bell pepper diced
• 1 celery diced
• 1 can whole peeled tomatoes chopped “Molinera”
• 800 ml fish stock (1 liter is 1000 ml)
• 1 head Bisugo cleaned
• 2 potatoes diced (2-3 cups)
• salt to taste
• Black Pepper (ground) to taste
• 1/2 kilo Bisugo with head on fillet
• 1/4 kilo shrimps
• 1/4 kilo clams pre cooked

Instructions

1. Cook the bacon in oil until tender but do not brown
2. Add onions, bell pepper and celery. Saute for 2 minutes.
3. Add tomatoes, fish stock, fish head, and bring to a boil.
4. Add potatoes and simmer in medium heat till potatoes are tender.
5. Take out the fish head.
6. Season with salt and pepper.
7. Then add the seafood (clams, shrimp, and fish fillet) until cooked.

Notes

-2 ways of making the fish stock.
Add the 800 ml water, then drop a Knorr Fish Broth Cube
Make your own. If you’re up for it – you can make your own with the following recipe
-Use the fish bones leftover from the Bisugo, 1 celery with leaves, 1 carrot sliced, 1 white onion quartered, and 1.5 liter water. Bring to boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain the bones and vegetables.
-Fish fillet, you can ask the market vendor to fillet it for you. Just don’t forget the head and bones, you need that!

-You can use any white fish.