Smoked Fish - Salai

We received a surprise parcel from his mom. The dried fishes were wrapped in plastic bag and consists of 6 dried fishes. According to hubby, the dried fishes is called salai and is local to his hometown. They are not salty but rather smoked to dry.

He later dried them further under the sun before putting them into the oven to grill for 5 to 10 minutes. After which, let them cooled and peeled the skin and head away and left with the flesh.

Don't they look like the satay fish from Pangkor we are used to in Malaysia and Singapore? Actually it does taste like satay fish with a tat of smokey taste minus the fishy smell.

I tried them with meat porridge and two type of sauces. One is sauteed garlic with oil and soya sauce and the other one is chopped raw onion and garlic with lemon juice and soya sauce. Both sauces go well with salai but I prefer the second sauce better. I invented this way of eating salai.

Or you can stir fried the salai with beans or any green veggie, a conventional way done in his hometown.

Tehsee's sweet and sour fish

Cooking fish is never my strong point because of the pain of cleaning the fish, the smell and am not sure which fish can be bake, grill, stream or deep fry. Now I am learning it by trial and error and of course reading though some of the recipe books. So, this time let me try to cook a whole new recipe. Finger cross....

Ingredients
1 toman fish fillet
1 knob of ginger peeled and finely chopped
4 cherry tomatoes finely chopped
1 medium size big onion finely chopped
pinch of salt and pepper
pinch of dried oregano
sugar to taste
2 spoons full of Lea and perrins sauce
2 spoons of mirin
some corn starch

Methods

1. Season fish with salt, pepper and oregano for 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Pat some starch on the fish's skin and meat.

3. Preheat oven to 150 degree Celsius. Heat the pan and cooking oil.

4. Pan fry the fish on both side until fish turn to light golden brown. At this point, the fish is not cook yet at the centre. Which we will continue the cooking process in the oven.

5. Put the fish in a baking tray and place it in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Depending on the size of the fish, you might want to shorten or longer the baking time.

6. While the fish is cooking in the oven, combine the Lea and perrins sauce, mirin sauce with sugar and stir to dissolve sugar.

7.Combine chopped onion, ginger, cherry tomatoes and no.6.

8. Once the fish is ready, let it rest for 5 minutes before combine with no.7.

The colour already made you want to dive into the dish immediately. Luckily it passed K's taste test too. Success..*grin*.