MANILA, Philippines ? ?Bistek? or sliced sirloin or top round beef cooked in a mixture of soy sauce and calamansi?is one of my favorite everyday Filipino dishes.

The slightly salty, slightly sour combination of soy sauce and calamansi perks up the beef and adds a tangy flavor to plain white rice.

Some friends, however, have told me they sometimes use the bistek sauce to cook salmon. How intriguing is that. I tried their suggestion, using salmon belly, which is cheaper than salmon steak, and found that indeed the recipe works very well.

Salmon belly is available in the fish section of major supermarkets as well as in wet markets. Often they?re already pre-sliced into snakelike pieces.

Salmon Belly with Soy Calamansi Sauce

? k salmon belly, cut into lengthwise pieces
2 tbsp calamansi juice for marinating
2-3 tbsp cooking oil
1 large onion, sliced into rings
? c soy sauce
1/3 c water
? c calamansi juice for the sauce

Clean salmon belly, removing the scales on the skin and any sharp bones that may still be attached. Marinate in the two tablespoons of calamansi juice for 10-15 minutes. In a large skillet, heat cooking oil to medium and sauté onions until soft, about two to three minutes. Transfer onions to a clean plate.

Add salmon belly to skillet and stir-cook until salmon starts to become firm and pinkish in color, about three to four minutes. Combine soy sauce, water and the ? cup calamansi juice and pour into skillet. Return the cooked onions to skillet. Simmer until salmon is fully cooked (the texture must be flaky), about one to two minutes. Serve with rice.

Tips

Don?t marinate the salmon in calamansi for longer than 15 minutes. The acid in the calamansi could break down the protein in the fish.

You can adjust the proportion of the soy sauce, water and calamansi according to desired taste.

If the salmon starts to stick to the pan, add a little more cooking oil. Spoon off any excess oil from the pan before pouring in the soy-calamansi sauce.