My mother recently sent me a package of dried stuff---squid and blue marlin. Gloriousness! While Allan cannot care less for the daing blue marlin and went for the squid instead, I was thinking of the different dishes that I can use the fish with. First I just sauteed it with some sitaw, but I next I tried to replicate my mom's sweet and sour daing which I think she got from her mother who wanted to make things a bit more upscale than the simple fry-grill-broth that my grandfather (you remember him?) preferred.
So start with soaking the fish in a lot of water and change it, oh, maybe a couple of times, to get the salt out. To make it uber simple, I dumped lots of chopped ginger and sliced onions into my rice cooker and poured some oil into it, popped the cook button and covered it up. After five minutes, the aromatics were well, aromatic. After tossing it around a few times, I put julienned bell peppers into the pot and dumped twelve small, roughly chopped, tomatoes (they were nice and ripe and cheap) and tossed it around some more until the tomatoes became tender and the pulp mushed into a thick sauce. Add 1/2 cup of water to thin it out, add vinegar, salt and if you use it, vetsin. Don't add the usual amount of salt, it has to be a little on the sour side because the daing is VERY salty. Add sugar and stir. Add the soaked daing and allow it to boil/simmer for 10 minutes. Serve with a LOT of rice and pandan iced tea.
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