Pesa (Fish in Miso Soup)

Pesa is one of the least popular dishes in the Philippines, a humble dish usually made out of boiled fish with miso and vegetables like cabbage and tomatoes. The dish might have originated from the Chinese cuisine as Pesa in Hokkien word means “plain boiled”, the term also is exclusively used for fish meat and not any other meat. Like I mentioned earlier Pesa is not common in the Philippines so don’t go looking for one if you ever visit our country as very few people know this type of dish, the ones who usually know it are the ones with Chinese origin, I learned this from my Auntie, she’s not Chinese) though but she loves cooking and she makes this regularly.

This dish is a very simple fish soup which is really tasty and without the fishy smell once done right, I remember cooking this for the first time for my wife and thought that she would not like it but to my surprise she did gave it a two thumbs up so up until now it is a mainstay in our dinner table once in a while.

Pesa (Fish in Miso Soup)

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

35 mins

 

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1½ kg fish (white and fleshy type, bone and head in)
• ½ small cabbage, chopped
• 3 bunches pak choy
• 1 stem leeks
• 4 large tomatoes, chopped
• 1 large red onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 thumb sized ginger, sliced thinly
• ¼ cup yellow miso
• 1 tsp peppercorns
• fish sauce
• 6 cups water from rice wash (You can do this by rinsing the uncooked rice and reserving the liquid)
• 8 pcs 1×1 inch nori squares
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• oil

Instructions

1. Season your fish with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
2. In a wok add oil then once it’s really hot lightly fry the fish, remove from wok then reserve oil.
3. In a pot add some of the reserved oil, sauté garlic and red onion in medium heat until onions are soft. Add ginger and tomatoes. Continue to stir fry until tomatoes are cooked.
4. Add 6 cups of rice wash water, miso and peppercorns then bring to a boil.
5. Add the fish then gently bring to a boil and simmer for 4 minutes.
6. Add Pak choy, cabbage, leeks and nori and continue to simmer for additional 4 minutes.
7. Add fish sauce according to your taste.

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You can buy your Yellow Miso in Amazon, here are some links:

• Cup Shinshu Miso Aka – 17.64oz (Pack of 1)
• Cup Shinshu Miso Shiro 500 Gr (Pack of 1)
• Cup Shinshu Miso Aka – 17.64oz (Pack of 3)