Fried Tawilis Sardines in Hot and Spicy Sauce

Fried Tawilis Sardines in Hot and Spicy Sauce. You might have known already the tawilis of Taal Lake processed into sardine Spanish style in olive or corn oil. On this post I am offering an alternative way of preparing tawilis sardine, fried in hot and spicy sauce.

Tawilis is actually a sardine fish, a fresh water sardine fish specie found only in Taal Lake. Tawilis are usually crispy fried, cooked paksiw style or even grilled. You need to visit Tagaytay or Batangas should you wish to have a really fresh tawilis. Tawilis sardine prepared as Spanish style sardine in oil have now hit most of the more popular supermarket in Metro Manila, they are available bottled form.

Fried tawilis sardines in hot and spicy sauce conceived when I came to taste a similar canned sardine preparation from a popular canned sardine brand Master Sardines. Master fried sardine hot and spicy sauce has the sour sweet taste similar to the Pinoy spaghetti that Pinoy childrens and even adults have come to love.

To cook the dish the head of the fish has to be discarded, any small sardine fish can be used as substitute for tawilis. The fish are to be fried first prior to cooking in pressure cooker with the hot and spicy tomato sauce mixture. The process in similar to the usual method of cooking sardines in bottles, the fish are arranges inside the heat proof sardine bottles, prepared sauce is then poured inside each bottle over the fish. The bottles are then lightly covered with its lead and arrange in a pressure cooker with water up to about an inch below the bottle necks. It is then pressure cooked for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Ok my recipe was similarly cooked but instead I use a bigger rectangular heat proof glass container. The glass container I used was able to accommodate the 1 kilo tawilis minus the head of course. And I have to pressure cooked the fried tawilis for 2 hours before I was able to have the bones of the fried tawilis soft edible. The longer time was for the reason that I have a bigger single volume sardine and it is longer to soften the bones of fried fish.

Ingredients:

1 kilo tawilis, fresh water sardines
2 cup tomato sauce
1 cup sweet chili sauce
1 tbsp sugar
3-5 red hot chili
2 tbsp crushed dried basil
salt
cooking oil

Cooking procedure:

Cut and discard head of each fish. Remove innards rinse and drain fish. Dust each fish with salt and quickly deep fry in high heat in batches for a minute or until outer skin is crisp brown but inner flesh is still soft, Remove from frying pan and drain excess oil keep aside. Mix and blend tomato sauce, sweet chilli sauce sugar, dried basils and salt to tastes keep aside. I a big heat proof glass container arrange fried fish side by side, insert the red hot chilli in between and pour over the fish prepared sauce mixture cover wit aluminium foil. Now put water on the pressure cooker, enough till halfway from the glass container top edge, slowly place the glass container at the middle. Seal the pressure cooker and pressure cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until the fish bones are edible soft.

See other Canned Fish recipes; 

Pink Salmon Sotanghon Noodle Soup 

Salmon with Sotanghon Noodle Soup
Ginisang Delatang Salmon 
Sinigang na Sardinas, Mackerel Canned Sardines 
Ginisang Sotanghon with Sardinas 
Patola at Sardinas with Misua 
Sardinas at Misua, Canned Sardines with Misua Noodles 
Sardinas, Upo at Sotanghon 
Sardinas at Spinach 
Sardine in Tomato Sauce Omelet 
Sardinas at Sayote 
Ginisang Sardinas, Canned Sardines Sautéed in Onion and Tomato 
Sardinas at Sotanghon, Canned Sardine Soup with Sotanghon 
Tortang Sardinas, Sardine Omelet 
Spaghetti with Fried Sardines in Hot and Spicy Sauce 
Sardinas at Pechay