Recipe | Kinunot na Pagi

There's this one vendor at the nearby market that sells fish that are quite different from the usual ones. Sometimes she would sell parrot fish or surgeon fish, and my mom would sometimes buy from here, just to try out different kinds of fish. Last weekend, she bought half a stingray.

I have eaten this seafood before, but there's only one way I knew how to cook it - with coconut milk and some moringa leaves. I am not familiar of the process how to cook it, though, so I had to consult the Internet and ask people how to do it.


Kinunot na Pagi

Ingredients:

• Pagi (Stingray)
• Water
• Vegetable Oil
• Coconut Milk
• Sliced Onions
• Crushed Garlic
• Ginger
• Finger Chili or Birds Eye Chili
• Vinegar
• Salt and Pepper (to taste)
• Malunggay Leaves (Moringa Leaves)

How to Cook:

• Blanch the stingray in some hot water for a few minutes. Scrape off the skin, and boil another pot of water with a little ginger, onion and garlic, and cook the skinned stingray until it becomes soft. Drain water and allow the stingray to cook. Debone the stingray and flake the meat.
• Heat a pan with little oil and saute garlic and onion until fragrant and sweaty. Add coconut milk and allow to simmer, then add vinegar. Don't stir for a few minutes, then add the flaked stingray. Stir, and cook for a few minutes.
• Adjust the seasoning, then add the moringa leaves. Simmer until the coconut milk curdle a little. Serve hot with rice.

Sauteeing the onion and garlic in oil is optional; if you want, you can skip this one and start with pouring the coconut milk in the pot followed by the garlic and onion. Personally, I love this one with super thick sauce, which will need some coconut cream to achieve such consistency. Unfortunately, my mom like the sauce a little thin, so we didn't add coconut cream anymore.

It was the first time for this dish to be cooked at home. We didn't go for the spicy kind (even if coconut milk and chili goes very well together), so for brother, we just had some chili-garlic sauce served on the side. Now that I know how to properly cook stingray, I know for sure this wouldn't be the last time we would cook and serve this at home.