Known locally as sinigang na kanduli sa miso, catfish and miso sour soup is cooked with tamarind juice, yellow miso and mustard leaves.
This recipe would have been posted a lot sooner had I been able to find more information about kanduli. I never really thought it was just another variety of catfish. In fact, I didn’t realize there was more than one catfish. The only catfish I know is called hito and it’s dark gray to black in color, not silver to light gray.
But after several days of on-and-off searching for the English name of kanduli — I got the same thing. Catfish. So, I’m done with the searching. The recipe is more important than the name of the fish anyway. Just remember, this dish does not use the black catfish Filipinos call hito. Kanduli is silver to light gray and, like the hito, it has cat-like whiskers too.
You can have the catfish cleaned and gutted by the fish monger and do the cutting at home or you can ask the fish monger to save you all the trouble by doing a complete job on the fish. I had mine cut in the market. If you’re lucky like me and your catfish has fish roe, the soup will be even more wonderful. Just wash the catfish and drain.
If the mustard leaves are rather large you can cut them into halves after trimming the root ends. Otherwise, just cut off the root ends and use the leaves whole.
That’s what yellow miso looks like. You may want to read about different kinds of miso before deciding whether yellow miso is absolutely essential for cooking this soup or whether you can substitute another variety.
For the tamarind juice, rinse and boil 250 grams of tamarind in about four cups of water and extract the juice (see related entry on how to extract tamarind juice).
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons vegetable cooking oil
- 4 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 onion thinly sliced
- 3 tomatoes chopped
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup yellow miso available in vegetable stalls in wet markets and in the chilled section of most supermarkets
- patis (fish sauce) fish sauce, to taste
- 1 and 1/2 kilograms catfish about two whole fish, sliced into serving size pieces
- 2 cups tamarind juice
- 200 grams mustard leaves
Instructions
- Heat the cooking oil in a pot and sauté the garlic, onion and tomatoes.
- When the garlic, onion and tomatoes start to soften, add the miso. Cook for a few minutes until the vegetables liquefy some more and the mixture turns a bit pasty.
- Pour in the tamarind juice. Season with patis to balance the sourness. If you think you don’t have enough liquid, or if the broth is much too sour, dilute with water.
- Add the fish. Bring to the boil. Lower the heat cover and simmer for about ten minutes.
- Add the mustard leaves and simmer for another three minutes.
- Ladle the soup into your favorite soup tureen or serving bowl and serve at once.
If you cooked this dish (or made this drink) and you want to share your masterpiece, please use your own photos and write the cooking steps in your own words.
Hello and welcome! I'm a retired lawyer and columnist, wife for 28 years, mom of two, and a passionate cook. What is this blog about? Recipes for dishes 
Steamed Whole Fish with Mayo Sauce
Oh! This is my Father’s favorite fish dish, Sinigang na Kanduli sa Miso. Namiss ko tuloy sya. We usually add sigarilyas or winged beans, yummy! thanks for posting!
If only fresh kanduli were easier to find… Most kanduli in the market are frozen. Too risky, I think.
Hi! Thank you for sharing your recipes, i now have variations when serving food to my family. Nga pala, hindi kasi ko marunong masyado pag dating sa fish, if I dont have kanduli, ano pwedeng substitute na fish na malasa din? Takot din ako bumili ng frozen fish sa mga Asian stores dito sa Melbourne.
i love catfish! though i’m the only one who will eat it. my american hubby said you’re going to eat that ewwwwwwwwww!!! these american are missing half of their life lol!
I’m not really a fish person due to the fact that i majorly suck at picking the bones. It’s more of fear, i guess. I just stick to fillets. :)
That’s just me. But for my audience, my customers here at home, I’d gladly do this for them and I’m sure they would love this! You’re lucky to get find fish with roe, i haven’t seen any for a long time. I really like the aroma of sinigang sa miso. Great for cold weather and perfect for my cold. Love the photos!
here in Rizal, there is an abundance of Kanduli in our wet market. We call their kinds as “isdang tabang” unlike the lapulapu and mayamaya kinds. It”?s more affordable than bangus and tilapia but when cooked, almost always, may malansang after taste. Kaya my mom used to remove the head kasi sabi nang matatanda sa barrio, yun ang nagpapalansa sa lasa nia. And my mom adds ginger to minimize/ or completely remove the lansa. My parents love sinigang sa miso na kanduli! Thank you, ms connie for making this simple dish looks so sumptuous and tempting. By the way, i love the way kanduli is cooked the “daing”-style.=)
hi miss connie,
this is also our fave dish! we cook it the same way you too! we always use misong dilaw. in sta rosa laguna, my aunts also cook adobong kanduli sa gata (the sauce is yellow though, and i have yet to find out how to cook that). yeah, nakaka-miss ang kanduli, sa laguna lang ako nakakain ng ganun pag nauwi kami dun! nakakagutom! :)
Anna, adobong dilaw (popular in Taal) uses turmeric.
my parents and parents-in-law, both, love this dish and my dad loves dinilawang adobo sa gata.
i prefer lapu-lapu or maya-maya (steak cuts) in sinigang sa miso. but i love fish roe (of any fish) in sinigang. gives another depth to the dish.
and our whole family loves any sinigang with finger chillis.
Hi Connie,
My parents love kanduli very much esp. sinigang sa miso. I also love sinigang sa miso, but i use bangus, wow ang sarap, esp. yung may matabang tiyan.
hi connie, do you have recipes for grilled fish? i loooove seafood, where do you usually get fresh seafood? love your site!thanks :)
I love this dish, but where I come from in Navotas, we have renamed it ginisang sinigang na kanduli sa miso, the only differences i remember was the the tomato, onion and garlic are sauteed first then the miso sauteed also when the onion is translucent and my Nanay uses the pickled mustasa instead of the fresh one, so the tart taste comes from the sampaloc and the mustasa preserve. also we added, labanos and small egg plants. wow ang sarap talaga! I live in boston now, and never recognized kanduli until my brother visited me from Florida and we were a at chinatown grocery and he spotted some live kanduli in the aquatium, they were being sold live, it looks like most american catfish are the kanduli type, there was also the ocean catfish,(Huge sea or ocean catfish) which they call alimusang in the southern Negros regions. They cook a mean sinigang na alimusang over there too, i used to live there too.
Neposter, ooohh I see. So American catfish is not hito? Great that they are sold live over there. Hito is sold live here but kanduli, rather rarely.
Hi Ms. Connie,
Is it okay if I share a recipe and maybe (only if you want to) you can try doing it at home and giving me a comment (good or bad)? i was told numerous times that it tasted really good 9I made up ther ecipe after an uninspiring New Year’s celebration)…
If yes…tell me so, thank you.
-Cane
Melacane, I love learning new recipes and I’d love to see yours. But I can only cook it if looks like something that my family will enjoy. :)
this is the same Batangas style of cooking fish minus the
miso and minus the oil. i buy the dressed catfish para hindi
malansa, if not and you have gout that is a killer.
i just made this tonight and my friends loved it. thanks connie!!!!!!! :)
it’s easy to get the catfish…i have a thai friend who will give me tamarind…there’s a japanese market where i can buy miso…the other ingredients
are in my fridge…one more thing..my camera!!!
excellent detailed instructions with photos…i’ve
never seen catfish roe…cool…how does it taste?
thanks again
Eny M, creamy. :)
Dear Connie,
Hi, here’s the recipe…
1 (small) pack Eden cheese, grated
1 tetra pack Nestle all porpuse cream
1 to 1/2 cup red wine (I use Maria Clara Sangria)
1-2 white onion, finely chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 450g spaghetti
2 cans Century Tuna Hot and Spicy
2 spoons butter or 2 tbsp olive oil (you may use oil from the tuna)
…
cook pasta as directed
in another pan, prepare sauce. heat butter (or oil) then sautee white onions until translucent
(you may use oil form the tuna…)
add garlic, then add tuna cook for about 10 minutes
add red wine leave it for about 10 minutes (brisk boil)
add cheese until frothy or until sauce thickens
lastly add cream
(you may add salt and pepper if you want to)
pour into prepared pasta then enjoy!
Thanks,
Melacane
PS you may share this with your readers…if you can cook it (or if your family will like it) I’d appreciate a comment..hehehe..
happy week end
You can also fry the kanduli first so it wont have the malansang lasa.
There is also Dalag which is also a catfish
Pritong Kandule, dalag is mudfish.
Ms Connie, this site is making my mouth watery (as in literally) and i just ate my dinner!
Anyways, just want to say, thanks much for sharing your recipes through net! i have known people who also use your site as their source of recipe for a new dish they want to cook..
and may i add, that i have been wanting to try and cook this miso soup for God knows how long. May I ask if there is no alternative for the tamarind extract? my mama used calamansi extract as well.. will that do? or will it have a different taste?
thank you for replying :)
and Ms Melacane, i am so gonna try ur recipe. I hope i could get my hubby taste that pasta dish (he is not a very good fan of pasta dishes)
this is famous in our town angono, rizal..
sinigang na kunduli sa miso..
I love sinigang sa miso but not with kanduli. Kandulis sold in the wet market are smelly I don’t think I can’t eat those.