Kamias or bilimbi fruit is a sour tropical fruit common in Asian countries. It’s a green fat finger-like appearance with extremely sour taste. Luckily, we have a kamias tree in our backyard so finding one is not difficult. It could bear fruits four times a year, I think.
My dad usually dried it and add into sinaing na isda, another Batangueno dish. You can make candies out of it but we are not into it. The most common use of bilimbi fruit is as a source of sourness in sinigang dish. Instead of using tamarind, we substitute bilimbi fruit to tamarind. The best ingredient to use in sinigang with bilimbi fruit are seafoods like fish and prawns.
Today, I requested a fish dish that will help to lower my uric acid. I have high uric acid so I need to lower it down or my kidney stones will be back and I don’t want that since the procedure is painful and expensive. For this dish, we will use Lapu-lapu, a dish belonging to the grouper family. It has very low uric acid content which is also tasty.
Ingredients
Half Kilo Lapu-lapu, sliced
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
3 cups Water
1 cup Chopped Kamias or Bilimbi Fruit
4 pieces Tomatoes, quartered
6 cloves Garlic, chopped
1 bulb Onion, sliced
1 1/2 thumb-sized Ginger, crushed and chopped
1 10-inch sized Raddish, sliced diagonally about half centimeter thick
2 pieces Eggplant, sliced diagonally about half centimeter thick
Bunch of Kangkong Leaves or Water Spinach
Fish Sauce to taste
1 green long chili
Procedure
Preheat oven to 240 degrees Celsius.
Drizzle fish with oilve oil. Season with salt and pepper. Bake for 30 minutes.
Combine water, kamias, tomatoes, garlic, onion and ginger. Boil and simmer for 20 minutes. When the tomatoes and kamias are tender, mashed to release its flavors.
Add baked fish and raddish and simmer for 3 minutes. Add eggplant and simmer for another 3 minutes. Add kangkong leaves and chili and simmer for another 1 minute. You can cut the chili into two for a spicier soup. Season with fish sauce to taste.
