made in MyKitchen | spicy baked fish

so, it’s 11.11.11 today..all across Facebook, almost everyone’s enthusiastically fascinated, or excited about these numbers..i wanted to post “11.11.11? so what?” as my shoutout, but i don’t want to be hailed as a party pooper thereafter..everyone is super sensitive and hormone charged these days..and any small thing said can be easily mistaken as something directed at someone totally unrelated..

*rolls eyes*

and then someone else put up “11.11.11 is just another day, unless its your wedding day, anniversary, or birthday or any big occasion to you… You breathe, work/study, eat, sleep and shit.”

i couldn’t help but laugh out loud to myself after reading it..

the phrase totally echoed my own sentiments towards this immense fascination towards dates that happen to be in repetitive numbers..last year, it was 10.10.10..before that, 09.09.09..and oh, those that happen to be in consecutive numbers too..i think there are even people who sit by their watch or clock, waiting eagerly for the needles to tick at the exact hour, minute and heck, even second of said number..and they’ll then exclaim excitedly on whichever social network they happen to be in, “Whooot! 11.11.11 at 11.11.11 am/pm NOW!!” or something like that..

amusing, really..

anyhoo~

if you’ve been to Petaling Street, it’s highly likely that you’ve had a baked fish or seafood meal there..fish or seafood of choice are wrapped in aluminium foil lined with banana leaf, and then grilled over charcoal fire until perfectly done..it’s fun to pick at the morsels of meat covered in spicy sambal or other types of sauce and enjoy it piping hot with a plate of steaming white rice and other sides..

it’s not difficult to replicate the dish though..lining the aluminium foil with banana leaf gives the dish a fragrant aroma when it’s grilled..however, it’s no biggie if you don’t use it..the most important part of the dish is the sambal or sauce of choice and of course, the freshness of the seafood..

i’m pretty sure you’ve noticed by now that i always use the red talapia for dishes like this..i really like red talapia for steamed or baked dishes..it turns out really well cooked using these methods..besides yielding quite a substantial amount of meat, it’s also not that expensive..as for deep-frying and such, i prefer to use pomfret, stingray and of course, catfish..

sometimes, i like to add chopped tomatoes or onions to the sauce, just to give it an extra flavour..below is my version of the dish, sans banana leaf, and baked in the oven..

SPICY BAKED FISH

Ingredients :

• medium sized fish of choice, cleaned, gutted and scaled
• red chillies, seeds discarded

• red onion
• shallots
• garlic
• ginger
• lemongrass

• tomato, diced/chopped
• kaffir lime leaves
• bulgogi sauce/oyster sauce
• aluminium foil
• banana leaf (optional)

Method :

• preheat oven to 200° Celcius

• in a blender or food processor, blitz red chillies, onion, shallots, garlic, ginger and lemongrass to a fine paste. set aside
• place fish in the middle of aluminium foil. set aside

• heat up some oil in a saucepan and saute blended spice paste until fragrant for about 3-4 minutes
• add in tomatoes and bulgogi/oyster sauce, and mix well

• turn off the heat and pour cooked sambal sauce all over the fish
• place kaffir lime leaves on top of the sauce covered fish

• wrap aluminium foil to cover the fish, into the shape of a parcel
• bake in the oven for about 20-30 minutes or until the fish is fully cooked

• serve, and enjoy

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