Good Friday Lunch: Sinaing na Isda (Fish in Sour Broth)

This is a very simple recipe also very popular in Batangas Province in the Philippines. Usually it is what you make of Tuna. In Batangas, normally it would be Tulingan or the smaller variety of Skipjack Tuna which is quite abundant in the local markets, the bigger version and easier to find is the Tambakol. The Tulingan averages about a foot long while the Tambakol would generally go from about 2 feet to much much bigger!

Here in Qatar we normally buy the smaller ones about 2 feet or 1-2kg each. We'd usually buy 2 pieces weekly. one to be made Sinaing and the other one into some other type of dish, more often than not, fried to accompany our vegetable dishes.
For our souring agent, we use dried Kamias, which unfortunately is not available here in Qatar, so since the Sinaing na isda is a regular fixture in our kitchen we had to bring kilos of dried Kamias whenever we come back from our vacations to make sure we don't run out. As an alternative, if others don't have Kamias but would like to try the dish you can make it paksiw style using a little vinegar or better yet you can use Tamarind which you can get from the major supermarkets and Filipino grocery stores around town. It comes in various forms, could either be paste, powder or cubes. You can also use fresh tamarind fruit (if you want to tire yourself, hehe!).

Ingredients:
1 whole tuna (about 1-1/2kg), sliced
2 cups water
6 pcs dried Kamias (or 1 tamarind broth cube)
pork fats (optional, bless you if you have! --- on better days that it's available in the house, i put half of pork broth cube)
beef fats (optional, but good to have a little oil extract).
salt and pepper to taste


Method:
Clean the fish, removing the guts from the cavity (I'm not really good at this, and my mom is the one who does all the fish cleaning so for better instruction, you can follow the steps on "How to Clean a Fish" here).
Season the fish with salt.
In a casserole put the water, Kamias (or tamarind cube). Stir a little to blend. Taste for the saltiness. Make sure it is a bit less salty than desired since the fish had also been seasoned and will add to the saltiness later when cooked.
Add in the fats at the bottom layer then fish pieces over the fats. Put the heads and tails first before the belly and body parts. Note that the fish would be submerged only halfway through and not fully covered with water. 
Cover and put over medium heat until it boils, then lower the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes or until some of the broth had already evaporated and only half of it is left.  
Best served for breakfast with garlic fried rice and some sliced fresh tomatoes. Enjoy!