# Smoked Stuffed Milk Fish (Bangus) Filipino Style



## smokedadee (Mar 31, 2009)

Hey...I just want to share to all of you one of the style of cooking fish here in the Philippines. We usually grilled this but I tried smoking it and the best way I can demonstrate it is with our national fish which is the Milk Fish or Bangus. Here it was cut at the back so that we can put something inside the belly area.



Here is the stuffing that I prepared that will be put inside the fish belly and it is just simple and easily accessible ingredients which comprises of tomatoes, onion, ginger and lemon juice.



After mixing all the ingredients we can now add the juice of 1/2 lemon and the mixture is ready to go inside the belly of our fish. After that we can now wrap the fish in foil and start cooking on our smoker.



Here it is now inside my fabricated smoker and I'm using acacia chunk for the added flavor of smoke.



And now for the finished product we have the "SMOKED STUFFED BANGUS FILIPINO STYLE".



The meat was very moist due to the stuffing that was inside the belly and the taste of the lemon, ginger and onion was equally distributed on the meat plus the extra flavor of the acacia smoke.

Thank you for checking! Hope you enjoy my Q-view.


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## shawnr5 (Mar 31, 2009)

It looks quite good, but wouldn't the foil keep the smoke from reaching the fish?


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## mikey (Mar 31, 2009)

That's an interesting way to smoke fish, but a couple of questions do come to mind. What temps and how long was the fish on the smoker? Just out of curiosity, how does the smoke from the acacia wood penetrate through all of that foil?


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## smokedadee (Mar 31, 2009)

Mikey,
When I prepared this one I just let the temp of the smoker fire up and I just control the smoke coming out of the vents. This is actually like grilling which is higher in temp and I just incorporate the flavor of the smoke on the early stage of cooking and since fish meat is a soft meat so it doesn't need a slow cooking like pork/beef that we need to control the temp so that we will be sure that it will not be leathery in texture (anyone can correct me on this). I can not also give you the exact time since I just check the fish if it is already flaky. The flakiness of the fish meat is my way of knowing if it is already cook.



shawnr5 & Mikey,

First, I forgot to include that on the back portion of the fish where I put the stuffing I poked several holes on the foil with the help of a fork. Second, I only need a mild flavor of smoke since I don't want to lessen the flavor of the stuffings that I put on the fish and I do flip the fish like when you are grilling. Acacia wood has a very strong smoky flavor so even with a foil the smokiness still penetrates the fish meat although due to the foil I don't get the pinkish color on the meat.


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## rivet (Mar 31, 2009)

Um, was the fish cleaned of its innards prior to stuffing? Why wouldn't you just stuff the belly and skewer it shut? Looks good though!


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## werdwolf (Mar 31, 2009)

Different technique, thanks for sharing


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## smokedadee (Apr 1, 2009)

Rivet,

Of course all the innards were removed and if you are talking about the blackish portion in the belly part of the fish, it is the fat of this kind of fish. This milk fish was cultured and raised on a fish pond and you will not believe it that the fats of this fish will melt in your mouth when you eat it.


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## baboy (Apr 1, 2009)

My wife is from the Philippines and we cook the milkfish the same way, except no smoke. The belly fat is the best part of the fish. I think I will try it smoked and not foiled next time. I also smoke tinapa for our family friends. 

Tinapa is another filipino fish. I will show pictures of the smoke this weekend.


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## chisoxjim (Aug 22, 2009)

im all over this,  too bad I found it a few months after the fact. my wife, and our nanny is from the Phillipines,  Im gonna surprise them with this one

thanks
jim


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## mballi3011 (Aug 22, 2009)

I have smoke snapper simalar to that way but I cut it alittle farther down the fish and mor down the fish. I stuffed it with a crab meat stuffing mixture. and they turned out really good.


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## alyabk (Feb 7, 2013)

Have recently moved to the Philippines, would like to do some smoking and try using some local wood, but not sure where to source it. Was curious where you get the acacia wood for this?

Cheers, Alan


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## zetsway45 (Sep 14, 2013)

MILK FISH.JPG



__ zetsway45
__ Sep 14, 2013






This is the first time I grilled and smoked a 3 lb milk fish and a 1/2 lb mackerel. Grilled with grill grates and a couple  of pouches of mesquite on top of the charcoal. Grillgrates worked great I never used foil and the skin never got stucked in the grillgrate. It was tasty and savory. Next time I will try putting the tomatoes and onion from the top just like you did. Also instead of slicing the tomatoes and onion I will chop them like you did. I might also move back to the Philippines 5 years from now. I'm waiting for my Rec Tec. It's on back order and won't ship until September 23, 2013. Can't wait.


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## bigll (Jul 9, 2014)

Looks fantastic.
What temperature did you have and for how long did you smoke it?

TIA, Bigll


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