Caramelized Anchovies & Peanuts ???????

When I was a kid, I love this dish made by grandaunt. It goes very well with plain rice porridge.

� cup cleaned split dried anchovies (don�t wash them!)
� cup raw peanuts
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp light soy sauce
3 Tbsp cooking oil

1. In a dry wok, low heat, fry peanuts for 2 minutes or until skin is dry and can be removed easily. Remove skins by rubbing them with fingers and blow the skins away.
2. Medium low heat, heat oil and fry anchovies until golden. Dish up.
3. With remaining oil in wok, return peeled peanuts into oil and fry until light golden. Put fried anchovies back in and put in sugar and soy sauce. Stir until lightly caramelized.
4. Turn off fire and continue to toss until nicely caramelized. Try to toss until warm and not hot, so that the anchovies won�t stick to each other later.

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Steamed Chinese Whitebait ????

Chinese Whitebait, or some call it Silver Anchovies, or baby anchovies, even blue eye anchovies..
Anyway, it's those teeny weeny white coloured dried mini anchovies.

My late father loves this simple dish. My late grandaunt taught me how to make this.

Very simple to make:

Ingredients
50gm mini anchovies (rinsed and drained)
1 tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 Tbsp cooking oil
1 Tbsp finely chopped red chili
1 Tbsp finely chopped garlic

Mix everything together and steam for 10 minutes or just put plate on top of rice when water in rice cooker is reduced.

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Patin Masak Pedas (Silver Catfish in Hot Gravy)

One good thing about moving to Kuala Kangsar is � Abundant fresh river catches at very reasonable prices.

Every Saturday morning there is this Pasar Tani (Farmer�s Market) nearby where I stay. There�re 2 stalls that sell live river fish� still alive and swimming around. If u can�t stand the sight of the fish mongers killing them by banging them on the head�..don�t look. It does look brutal.

One swimming Patin goes for RM8/kg. I know it�s more expensive than Tesco (less than RM4/kg)..but hey, this is alive and it�s from Perak River� not ikan lombong (mining pool fish).. very nice and sweet.

I was introduced to this dish when I was in Selancar, Pahang, by Pak Yob.. the canteen man of my first school (as a teacher)

Ingredients:-

500 gm ikan patin

A)
3 pieces asam keping (tamarind fruit pieces) or more, depending on the maturity of the fruit, the younger, the more u'll need
� tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 bunga kantan- halved (ginger flower)

B)
2 hot red chilies or more
3 shallots
2 cloves garlic
2 cm ginger
1 cup of water

Method:
1. Blend (B) in a blender.
2. Pour into a wok and bring to a boil.
3. Add (A) and fish.
4. Cook for 10 minutes or until fish is cooked.
5. Dish up.

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Sweet and Sour Fish ???

Black pomfret, is the usual fish of choice for most of my friends� mothers to make this dish, and we usually call it, Tomato Sauce Fish (Keh Jup Yue). Malaysian style is done with a hint of chili in it. One of my favourite childhood dishes.

I used sole (ikan sebelah, or jor hou yue-left mouth fish) for this. It goes wonderfully well with this method of cooking.

Sweet and Sour Fish Recipe

1 piece of sole (abt the size of my palm)
� tsp salt
1 Tbsp corn starch
� cup cooking oil

1 red onion (halved and sliced)
1 red chili (seeded and cut into strips)

1 red tomato, cut into wedges

A)
3 Tbsp tomato ketchup
2 Tbsp chili sauce (maggi type)
1 Tbsp sugar
1/3 tsp salt
3/4 cup water

1. Run knife across the body of fish to create cuts into flesh, but not through the bone.
2. Marinate fish with salt for 10 minutes.
3. Rub cornstarch onto fish.
4. Heat oil in wok and pan fry fish until golden. Dish up.
5. Discard some of the oil and retain about 1-2 tbsp of oil.
6. Saute red onion and chili until fragrant and soft.
7. Mix A together and pour into wok. Bring to a boil. Put in tomato wedges. If more gravy is desired, add more water and some cornstarch.
8. Put fish back in for 10 seconds each side to soak up some gravy. Dish up and serve.

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Fried Fish with Salsa

My husband doesn't like sour stuff, so I made the salsa as a dip.
If u like tangy stuff, just prepare salsa just before serving and pour over fish.

Ingredients

1 medium sized trevally-Malays call this fish ikan nyok nyok (abt 8 inches long, or any fish u prefer)
1/2 tsp salt
dash of pepper

Salsa Recipe
1 small firm red tomato (diced small)
1 small red onion (not shallot, diced small)
2 small bird's eye chili (I used cili burung, the much smaller version)
juice from 1 lime
zest from 1 lime
1 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Method:
Marinate fish with salt and pepper for half an hour.
Fry fish on shallow oil til golden brown.
Mix together salsa ingredients.
Pour over fish or serve as a dip.

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