Greetings!

Here's a dish that I like very much when I was young when life is very tough when we hardly eat pork when we always eat vegetables followed by freshwater fish and followed by fruits. Those were the days.

When my father or my eldest sister cook this kind of dish I am already excited to eat (needless to say that I am already drooling). Eating this kind of dish back then is considered to be very delicious for me (it was the time when we hardly eat sardines).

In those days, we always mixed sardines in tomato sauce with vegetables such as winter melon, papaya, ribbed loofah, and bottle gourd. Back then we hardly mixed sardines in tomato sauce with Misua because it only adds as an expense since we are living frugally in those times.

Back then "sardines in tomato sauce" is always combined only with winter melon, if there is no winter melon it will be combined with bottle gourd, if there is no bottle gourd it will be combined with papaya, if there is no papaya it will be combined with a ribbed loofah.

The vegetables winter melon, bottle gourd, papaya, ribbed loofah, when combined with sardines in tomato sauce, will be called "Ginisang Sardinas na may Kundol (winter melon), "Ginisang Sardinas na may Upo (bottle gourd), "Ginisang Sardinas na may Papaya", and "Ginisang Sardinas na may Patola (ribbed loofah)", all of them are equally delicious dish with distinct tastes.

And then when our way of life improve a little it is then that we started to add Misua on those dishes since we are now able to afford to add more ingredients on those dishes like the Misua.

With that being said, the dish that I will be sharing on how to cook is a variant with ingredients such as ribbed loofah, sardines, and tomato sauce, and Misua, it is called "Ginisang Sardines na may Misua at Patola". This dish is very versatile, you can omit the ribbed loofah if you want, or you can live the loofah then omit the Misua.

This dish is so versatile you can even change the Misau with Bihon and Sotanghon noodles. You can definitely add more water or less water to this dish. You can also definitely add more can or sardines if you want.

Without further ado, here's how I cook this dish that is very simple and very delicious...

• Sardines (in tomato sauce, you can definitely use spicy sardines)
• Misua
• Ribbed Loofah
• Salt
• Onion
• Garlic
• Cooking oil

Peel and slice the ribbed loofah into thin circles

Peel and slice the onion

Peel and slice the garlic

Prepare the sardines

Prepare the misua

1. Sautee the garlic and the onion in a cooking oil

2. Add the sardines

3. Add one liter of water (you can definitely use more or less water) then wait for it to boil

4. When it starts to boil add some salt (you can definitely add the salt earlier as you please)

5. Add all the ribbed loofah

6. When the ribbed loofah 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