Cooking Pomfret in Sour Broth

I'm cooking pomfret in sour broth. Normally, I would simply call this dish sinaing na pomfret; but for the purpose of this article, I'll settle with "sour broth".


To those who are not familiar with pomfret fish, you may be familiar with its other name, the butter fish.

This pomfret dish is an adaptation of our sinaing method of cooking in the Philippines. I'm using dried bilimbi fruits and fresh tomatoes to make the broth. 

Here's what you need:

Ingredients in cooking pomfret in sour broth:
- pomfret
- garlic, crushed
- tomatoes, cut in 4 halves
- dried bilimbi, washed
- ginger, crushed

Ginger is important for this dish to remove Pomfret's stench. This fish has a very strong odor (It's not awful; it's just fish-y). It's normal for most fish. Ginger puts off this smell so you can enjoy your dish more.

- salt
- water

Let's start cooking pomfret in sour broth.
1. Put garlic, tomatoes, bilimbi and ginger in a pan.
2. Add water and salt.
3. Put to a boil.

4. When your base is ready, add the fish.

5. Add bilimbi and/or tomatoes, as deemed necessary.

7. Put the stove to low-medium. Pomfret cooks very fast under heat.
8. You can turn over the pomfret to the other side after some 5 minutes.
9. When the fish is cooked, let the dish simmer.
10. Serve with hot rice.

Another way of cooking sour broth fish is to add the fish together with the other ingredients. That can be done here too. However, I reserved the fish for last to avoid over-cooking the meats of this fish. Either way, these two work.


Remember me when you cook!