Greetings!
This dish that I am going to share with you today holds a lot of old memories back when I was still a very young boy. As far as I remember I was between five to seven years old when I started to crave sardines as viand.
You see, life back then is tough (when I was between five years old and seven years old). We hardly have meat on our table to share for family dinner. I can still clearly remember that we always have vegetables on our table to share with our family.
Today, I am very glad that I grew up in a family where we always have vegetables on our table, I really, really, appreciate it now since vegetables are proven to prolong someone's life.
Back to the topic, as I said earlier I began to crave sardines as viand at a young age. Sardines back then is gold, I said gold because we also hard time having sardines on our table for the family to share for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
And one of the most memorable sardines dishes that my father always cook is a sardines stew with bihon noodles (bihon noodle is a rice noodle). We always called it "Ginisang Sardines na may Bihon".
This dish is very versatile since you can cook it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner but it is more popularly served during lunch. You can also cook it on its own or partner it with rice.
I am going to add some twist to this dish since my father always cooks it by only sauteeing garlic (he uses garlic if there is no onion or he uses onion if there is no garlic, he doesn't use them together. Apart from the garlic, I am going to sautee it together with onion then I will add tomatoes for a richer sauce and some green pepper for a more aroma. I am also going to add spring onion for garnishing.
So without further ado, here's how to cook this simple and delicious dish that my father passed to us (his children).
- Pancit Bihon (bihon noodles) 500 grams
- Sardines (two cans of sardines)
- Green Pepper
- Onion
- Garlic
- Onion springs
- Cooking oil
- Salt
- Tomatoes
Wash and slice the tomatoes in half
Peel and slice the onion
Peel and slice the garlic
Wash and slice the spring onion
Prepare the pancit bihon
Prepare the green pepper
Prepare the sardines (you can use any sardines for this dish, you can use a spicy one if you want, as for me I find using spicy sardines even better than just sardines with tomato sauce)
1. Sautee the onion and the garlic in a small amount of cooking oil
2. Add the sliced tomatoes
3. Add some water (enough to submerge the tomatoes)
4. Let it boil and stir occasionally
5. Stir until the tomatoes become saucy or until you get a consistency just like the photo below
6. Add the sardines
7. Add some salt and water (water should be dependent on how many bihon noodles that you are going to use, for this dish I used 500 grams bihon noodles). You can add 500 ml of water or you can add more if you want more soup.
8. Add the bihon and let it boil
9. When the bihon is cooked it is done
I am a Computer Engineer, blogger, farmer, father, and husband. I love countryside living, nature, farming (rice/vegetables), and has two decades of experience as an I.T. professional
