It’s been THAT kind of week. And for me, comfort food is the easy, temporary palliative for the blahs. And there are few dishes more comforting for many Filipinos than fried dried fish. In the tropics, and among large archipelagos, dried fish is one of the most basic and reliable sources of protein. It is simple to make, relies on readily available ingredients such as freshly caught fish and salt from the sea, and only requires a day or two of hot sun and a gentle breeze to manufacture. Then it can keeps for months on end. You have to admit, it can sound and smell a bit bizarre. You cut open a nice fish and remove its guts, then cover it with lots of salt, leave it outdoors to slightly decay and dry out, and occasionally rely on an errant maggot or two to help the decaying process and flavor enhancement. The end product possesses one of the most pungent food smells known to man, which is magnified to “code 9 level” when the fish is fried. :) But if you grew up with it, you probably love dried fish like I do. And besides, ever wonder how you would describe the manufacture of blue cheese? Heehee. So onto the dish…

I took several medium sized dried daing na lapu-lapu or dried grouper and soaked it in water for roughly 30 minutes to remove the excess salt. If you don’t soak this, you risk your dish being too salty, if you oversoak it, the dish will be a bit bland. So gauge your personal salt quotient and soak accordingly. Remove from the water and pat dry with paper towels. Heat up a pan with vegetable oil and fry the fish until cooked but still a bit moist, not the seriously crisp some folks are wont to do with dried fish. I do this outdoors if possible, so that the smell dissipates quickly. We have Australian neighbors and I can only imagine what they are thinking when they get a whiff of this…

Once the fish has cooled enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones and shred it into small pieces. Set this aside. Chop up some garlic. I chopped up some scallions because we had it. I added in 3 finely sliced siling mahaba or mild finger chilies, also because we had it, though it barely added spice to the dish. Lightly beat a few eggs in a bowl. And make sure your rice is cooled for several hours after cooking to ensure that it is on the drier side…

Heat up a large wok or saute pan, add some vegetable oil, then finely minced garlic and a few seconds later the shredded dried fish. Add the white parts of the scallions and the sliced chilies and saute for a few seconds more.

Add in the rice and mix well until the dried fish and rice are well blended. This will take a few minutes to heat up all of the rice.

Then add the eggs and stir some more. Some freshly ground pepper might be nice and taste for saltiness so you can adjust with some added salt if necessary.

Serve with smashed tomatoes and chili vinegar on the side and eat happily. :) Here’s a previous post on a very similar take on this dish. Nasi goreng may be more flavorful. Crab fried rice more extravagant. Chorizo fried rice more cholesterol laden. Fried Rice with Bettyq’s XO sauce is also fabulous. But Daing Fried Rice is still one of my favorite comfort foods.

Photos by AT.

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