Fish Recipes
You can use any fish for the following recipes. My fav oily fish is salmon while my fav white fish are snapper and cod. Stingray goes well with sambal and grilled wrapped in banana leaves :)
In this webpage, you will find:
- Malaysian inspired fish cakes
- fish noodles soup
- steamed fish
- grilled fish
Malaysian Inspired Fish Cakes
I employed the “agak-agak" method whereby I eyeballed a lot of the ingredients to get the texture that I wanted. This recipe is quite flexible- I used frozen fillets and loaded mine with vegetables and spices. Feel free to mix your favorite ingredients (such as bean sprouts and zucchini) and flours but keep in mind of the final texture before frying these babies up. You want to make sure that the batter holds firm and not too watery.
Ingredients (Yield 10 to 12 fish cakes):
3 flounder fillets, 3 scallions, 1 small carrot, 4 garlic cloves, 1 inch turmeric root, 0.5 inch ginger root, 1 egg, water, about 5 tablespoons of flour, 0.25 tsp baking powder, chili powder, dried Italian herbs, salt and ground pepper.
Procedures:
1. Cut carrot and fish fillets to chunks. Cut green parts of the scallions on a bias
2. In a food processor, blitz the carrot, garlic, ginger, turmeric and white parts of the scallions. Add 1 tablespoon of water to blend smoothly. Once chopped finely, add the fish fillets and blend together. For every 30s of pulsing, check the batter to ensure the fish mixture is well blended
3. Mix flour with baking powder in a bowl
4. Place the fish mixture in a mixing bowl. Stir in the egg and one tablespoon of flours at a time until you achieve a smooth batter that holds firm and not too watery. In this recipe, I used about 5 tablespoons of flour
Steamed Fish
Ingredients:
2 tilapia fillets, 1 tsp sesame oil, 3 scallion stalks, 1 dash ground ginger powder, black pepper and salt to taste
Procedures:
1. Fill a pot with 2 cups of water and boil until bubbly
2. Grease steamer basket (alternately, line steamer basket with napa cabbage leaves)
3. Cut tilapia fillet to 3 pieces and lay the pieces in the steamer basket
4. Season tilapia with ground ginger powder, black pepper and salt to taste
5. Slice scallions to bite size and sprinkle over the fish
6. Steam fish for 7 to 10 mins until the fish turns white
7. Remove steamer basket and sprinkle sesame oil over the fish. Serve with rice or noodles
Simply Grilled Fish
Ingredients:
1 cod fillet, 1 tsp sesame oil, a dash freshly grounded black pepper and a few drops Tabasco sauce
Procedures:
1. Season cod fillet with sesame oil and black pepper
2. Over medium heat, heat grill pan. Spray PAM cooking oil
3. Add cod onto the pan. Cook for 5 mins or until the underside of the fish turns white
4. Gently flip the fish and cook for another 5 mins or until the underside of the fish turns white
5. Remove fish from pan and let it rest for a few mins before serving
5. Season the batter with chili powder, dried Italian herbs, salt and ground pepper to taste. Mix in green parts of the scallions
6. Heat a pan with olive oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot through (you can test it with a skewer and you will see bubbles on the edges when dip in the oil), gently place a spoonful of fish mixture in the oil, ensuring there is space between the cakes
7. Cook for 3 minutes and then flip the fish cakes. Cook for another two to three minutes until golden brown
8. On a plate lined with paper towels, place cooked fish cakes to drain any excess oil
9. Serve with Thai sweet chili sauce, habanero sauce or your favorite Asian dipping sauce
Grilled cod on a bed of Italian greens
Fish Noodles Soup
Inspired by Batu Pahat's fish head noodles soup, I created a healthy peppery version and surprised how quick and easy it turned out
Ingredients (2 to 3 servings):
1 medium size snapper- cleaned and cut into pieces, 3 Chinese preserved plums- deseeded and mashed, 2 inch fresh ginger, 1/4 cup fresh milk, 1 tbs sesame oil, 2 tomatoes, 2 tbs Chinese Shaoxing wine, a bundle of Asian leafy green vegetables (choy sum), 1/2 tbs freshly ground white pepper, 4 cups of anchovy or chicken broth, 1 cup corn flour or tapioca flour, 1 tsp garlic powder and rice noodles enough for two to three servings
Vegetable or olive oil for pan-frying
Optional: cubed firm tofu, boiled and cut up pig's organs, cooked minced pork, sugar to taste
Procedures:
1. Pat dry fish pieces. On a dry plate, mix flour and garlic powder. Coat the fish in the flour mixture
2. In a saucepan, heat some oil over medium heat. Tap off excess flour from fish and lay them in the saucepan, making sure you do not overcrowd the pan. Fry each side for 5 to 10 minutes or until they are evenly browned. I finish them in a toaster oven at 400 degF until they turn crispy and cook through
3. Crush or mince ginger. Cut tomatoes to bite-size cubes. Remove leaves from stems of Asian greens washing thoroughly
4. In the same saucepan over medium heat, add sesame oil and ginger. Fry it till slightly fragrant. Add tomatoes and mashed preserved plums. Cook till tomatoes softened slightly. Add broth and Shaoxing wine and let them boil for 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in ground white pepper. Adjust salt and sugar to taste (I omitted them in my recipe because the anchovy broth I used had some sodium in it)
5. Blanch the Asian greens and noodles in the soup for 4 to 5 minutes or until they are cooked
6. Dish out the solid ingredients from the soup into serving bowls. Place the cooked fish pieces on top of the noodles and vegetables in the bowls
7. Remove saucepan from heat. Stir in fresh milk. Pour the milky soup on the noodles and fish. Serve hot with your favorite garnish and condiments
