Deep Fried Ikan Selar Kuning (Gold Banded Scad) with Turmeric Recipe

I have posted quite a few recipes on Ikan Selar Kuning (Gold/Yellow Banded Scad Fish). This is one of my favourite fish and I would buy them whenever I come across this fish at the wet market.

This recipe is rather simple but frying the marinated is a little messy. In order to avoid the hot oil from splattering all over the places, I covered my wok with a lid and open it a little from time to time to allow the water vapour to come out.

I fried the Kunyit Selar Kuning fish till crispy and they are good to eat till the bones.......LOL! All crunchy!.....

Ingredients
Ikan Selar Kuning. 15 pcs
Kunyit (Turmeric), 1 tablespoon
Lemon Juice or Lime Juice, 1 tablespoons
Salt to taste

Marinade the fish with all the ingredients and leave it for 20 minutes. Heat up oil for deep frying and then fry the fish till they are crispy.
Serve while still hot. Sure taste good with Nasi Lemak!

Cencaru Sumbat Sambal Goreng Recipe (Hard Tail Scad fish stuffed with fried Chillies)

I bought some fresh table size Cencaru from the market last week. I have not been cooking Cencaru Sumbat cili (Chili stuffed fish) for quite sometime due to the hassle of having to saute the chili paste separately before stuffing it into the fish and then deep frying them. However, cencaru fish taste very delicious when cooked this way. Even my four year old son enjoy this spicy treat! LOL!

Here is my recipe for Cencaru Sumbat Sambal Goreng (Hardtail Scad Fish Stuffed with fried chillies)

Ingredients
Cencaru Fish, 2 pcs, cut near dorsal fins to form pocket to hold the sambal (chilli)
Chilli paste, 1 tablespoon
Shallots, 3 pcs, blended
Tamarind juice, to taste
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste
Vegetable oil

Pour vegetable oil into hot wok. Saute, shallots and chilli paste until fragrant. Add tamarind juice, salt and sugar to taste. Fry until the mixture turned into a semi dry paste. Stuff the chilli paste (sambal) into the fish. Heat up enough oil for deep frying. Fry fish at high heat until they turned golden brown. Serve while still hot!

Simple & Nice Stir Fried Sang Yee Fish Fillet with Ginger and Spring Onions Recipe

I chanced upon a fishmonger selling sang yee (snakehead, haruan) fish fillet at the wet market and quickly bought a plate. It has been quite some time ago since my family ate Sang Yee fish. I love the smooth and sweet texture of this fish and the addition of a little corn flour to this recipe make it even smoother.

You can eat this dish with either steamed rice or porridge.

Ingredients

Sang Yee or any type of fish you fancy, fillet, 500 gms

Ginger, 5 slices

Spring Onions, 2 stalks, cut into 1 " length

Shao Shing Chiew, 1 teaspoon

Corn flour and water mixture

Sesame Oil, a few drops

Salt to taste

Garlic, 3 cloves, chopped finely

Onions, 1 pc, cut into four

Heat up wok and pour in around 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil. Saute ginger, garlic and onions until fragrant. Put in the fish fillet. Stir fry for a short while or until the fillet is cooked. Add sesame oil, shao shing chiew and salt to taste. Pour in a little corn flour and water mixture. Throw in the spring onions.

Serve  Stir Fried Sang Yee Fish Fillet with Ginger & Spring onion while still hot!

Healthy Healthy Steamed White Snapper Fish (Pek Chor) with Apple, Yuk Chuk and Kei Chi Recipe

This Chinese herbal recipe nourishes the stomach and is very tasty as well. I used a combination of Apple, Yuk Chuk (Polygonatum root) and Lycium Berries (Kei Chi).

Apple is added for dietary fibre, yuk chuk moisten the internal organs and Lycium Berries enriches the yin energy. I added fried ginger which is well know to repel stomach wind.

Before I cooked this Chinese herbal combination with Pek Chor (White Snapper Fish), I was wondering whether my kids would eat it. Thank god, they love it very much! LOL!

Here is my Healthy Steamed Pek Chor Fish with Apple, Yuk Chok and Lycium Berries.

Ingredients
Pek Chor Fish, 3 medium table size
Yuk Chok, 10 slices
Lycium Berries, 10 pcs
Apple, 1 pc, cut into bite sizes
Ginger, cut into strips, amount varies according to preference
Light soya sauce, 3 tablespoons
Sugar, a little or to taste
Vegetavle oil, 1 tablespoon

Arrange fish, yuk chok, lycium berries and apple in a steaming tray. Steam at high heat for 30 minutes. Mean while you can prepare the fish sauce. Heat up wok and put in the vegetable oil. Saute ginger strips until they turned golden brown. Add light soya sauce and sugar. Take out the steamed fish and pour the sauce over it while still hot.

Serve immediately with white rice.

Note : You can replace Pek Chor Fish with Haruan Fish (Snakehead, sang yee). Haruan fish is very good for stomach and wound healings. Those with stomach ulcer would benefit very much from haruan fish cooked this way.

Steamed White Snapper Fish with Assam Laksa Gravy Recipe

Before Steaming......

After Steaming.........

This is another one of my 'quickie recipe' which I would prepare whenever I am rushing to cook for my family. I used white snapper fish (pek chor) here but you can replace it with other type of fish. Ikan kembong (Indian Mackerel) would be a good choice for this recipe. You can add 'har ko' (prawn paste) to dish if you like it.
For this quickie recipe, you just have to arrange everything in a steaming tray and steam the fish for around 20 minutes. As easy at that! LOL! It is also a suitable dish to satisfy your cravings for Penang Assam Laksa.

Ingredients,
White Snapper Fish, 2 medium size
Daun Kesom (laksa leaf, Persicaria Odorata, Vietnamese Coriander), a few stalks
Serai (Lemongrass), 1 pc, crushed
Onions, 1 pc, cut into slices
Turmeric, 1/2 teaspoon
Chilli powder or chilly paste, 1 table spoon or to taste
Tamarind juice or Lemon Juice, to taste
Bunga Kantan (Torch Ginger, Etlingera Elatior), cut into small pieces (Optional)
Salt to taste
Mint Leave for garnishing.

Arrange all the ingredients except Bunga Kantan and Mint leaves in a steaming tray. Steam the Assam Laksa White Snapper for 20 minutes. Garnish with mint leaves and bunga kantan before serving.

Ikan Selar Kuning Recipe ala Bersih? (Yellow Banded Scad with Turmeric ala Clean recipe)

No no no, this dish has got nothing to do with 'bersih'. It just happened to be yellow in colour because of the turmeric powder I used. I love the sourish gravy and would flood my rice with it. The fish I used in the above photo is Selar Kuning (Yellow Banded Scad). I pre fried the fish before pouring the gravy over it so that this wonderful dish taste better.

Here is my Ikan Selar Kuning Bersih recipe! ha ha ha!

Ingredients
Ikan Selar Kuning (Yellow Banded Scad), 5 pcs
Turmeric, 1 teaspoon
Vinegar, 3 tablespoons
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste
Garlic, 3 cloves, smashed
Fresh chilly, 1pc, for garnishing, cut into slices
Vegetable oil

Deep fry the Yellow Banded Scad fish in hot oil until they turned a little crispy. Take out the fish and drain away excess oil. Put a little oil in wok and saute garlic until fragrant. Add a little water, turmeric, vinegar, salt and sugar to taste. Bring to a boil and pour the gravy over the fried fish. Garnish with fresh chilli slices before serving.
Simple and delicious!

Stingray with Salted Vegetable (Local Ham Choy, Kiam Chye) Recipe

The original recipe uses shark meat but I tuned it a little and used stingray instead. Shark and stingrays meat have almost the same texture. Local ham choy (salted vegetable) is suitable for this dish. Imported ham choy are normally used in soup and locally produced ones are often stir fried. You can eat this dish with rice or porridge.

Ingredients
Stingray, cut into large chunks
Local Ham Choy (Salted Vegetable), 2 stalks or more, cut small
Plum Sauce, 2 tablespoons
Ginger, 10 slices, cut into strips
Garlic, 3 cloves, chopped finely

Soak ham choy in water before cutting to get rid of the salt a little so that the dish will not turn out  too salty. Heat up wok and put in a little vegetable oil. Saute ginger strips and garlic until they turned golden brown. Add in the sting ray. Keep on frying until the stingray is cooked.(Alternatively you can prefry the stingray first). Add a little water and cover the wok with a lit to let the stingray cook evenly. Open the wok lid and add plum sauce. The Stingray with Salted Vegetable Dish is ready.

Deep Fried Grouper Fish with Assam Jawa (Tamarind) and Turmeric Recipe

It is not advisable to marinade seafood, like fish too long or else you would end up with soggy flesh. Fish should only be marinated around 20 to 30 minutes before cooking. Furthermore, the texture of the fish flesh allows it to absorb the marinade easily as compared with meat..

I have these two medium table size Grouper and I was curious how they would taste liked with Assam Jawa (tamarind). I added some turmeric for additional flavour and colour. The deep fried Grouper with Tamarind & Turmeric taste good if eaten with Sambal Belachan (fermented shrimp paste chillies)

Ingredients
Grouper (garoupa) Fish, 2 medium table size
Turmeric, 1/2 teaspoon
Light soya sauce, 2 tablespoons
Tamarind (Assam Jawa), 1 tablespoon (without seeds)
Salt to taste
Vegetable oil for deep frying

Marinade the fish with turmeric, light soya sauce, tamarind and salt to taste for around 20 minutes. Heat up wok and put in the vegetable oil. Deep fry fish until they crisp a little. Take out the fish and drain away excess oil. Serve with Sambal belachan!

PS : You can also barbecue, grill or bake the fish.

Chinese Syle Curry Fish Head with Candle Nut & Okra(without Santan, coconut milk)

The Chinese Style Curry Fish Head that are normally served at restaurants don't use spices like mixed halba and the amount of curry powder is lesser compared to Indian curries. I have created this version without using coconut milk. In order to make the gravy creamy and rich, I used Candle nuts (buah keras, kemiri, kukui tree nut, Aleurites moluccana). This hard candle nuts have very high oil content and can be used to make candle. The nut contain saponin and phorbol which is a little toxic in uncooked (raw) state. However, you can also use Macadamia nut in replacement of candle nut if you worry about the toxicity..

Ingredients

Fish Head, Garoupa Fish or Red snapper, 1 pc, cut into small chunks

Squid,5 pcs, cut in to bite sizes

Curry Powder, 3 tablespoons

Turmeric, 1 teaspoon

Chilly Powder,  3 tablespoon

Candle nut, 2 pcs

Garlic, 5 cloves

Onions, 2 pcs

Belachan, 1 teaspoon

Curry leaves, 3 sprigs

Salt to taste

Okra, 6 pcs

Vegetable oil 5 tablespoons

Blend candle nut, garlic and onions. Mix curry powder, chilly powder, turmeric, belachan & blended mixture with water to make a paste. Saute this paste in hot oil until fragrant. Add curry leaves and a little water. Put in the fish head and close the wok lid. Let it simmer for around 20 minutes or until the fish head is cooked. Add in salt, okra and squid. Don't cook the squid too long.

Serve with steamed rice.

Deep Fried Selar Kuning (Yellow Banded Scad) Fish with Tamarind (Assam Jawa) Recipe

The fish above might look a litte burn but they are very tasty. It is normal for fish marinated with sugar and assam jawa (tamarind) to have this dark colour when deep fried.
My kids were getting a little bored with plain fried fish so I decided to marinade these Selar Kuning  fish with assam jawa before frying them.
This fish go along well with nasi lemak (coconut milk rice).

Ingredients
Selar Kuning Fish (Yellow Banded Scad), 10 pcs
Tamrind, 2 table spoons
Sugar, 1 tablespoon
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Marinade the fish with tamarind and salt for around 10 minutes. Heat up wok and put in the vegetable oil. When oil is hot, slowly put in the fish one by one. Deep fry for around 20 minutes under medium heat. Serve with nasi lemak (coconut milk rice) while fish is still hot.

Deep Fried Salmon with Sweet and Savoury Butter Ginger Recipe

I know the photo of my fried salmon dish above looks like fried banana or sweet potato fritters (goreng pisand or ubi keledek goreng). This is a very simple dish to prepare and you don't have to use many ingredients. You can deep fry the salmon or just fry them lightly using non stick wok. I prepared the sauce separately and then pour it on the pre fried salmon.

Ingredients
Salmon cut, 2 pcs
Ginger, 3"x1" or more, blended and made into paste
Sugar to taste
Light soya sauce (salty type), 5 tablespoons
Butter, 1 tablespoon (optional)
Vegetable oil or palm oil for deep frying

Heat up wok and put in the vegetable oil, Deep fry the salmon until it turn a little golden brown in colour. Take out the salmon and put aside. Pour away access oil in the wok and leave a little of it just enough to try the ginger. Pour in the ginger paste and saute until fragrant. Add a little sugar, butter and light soya sauce. Pour the sauce over the fried salmon. Serve while still hot.

Spicy Sambal Belacan with Deep Fried Ikan Kurau Masin (Salted Treadfin Fish)

Salted fish goes along well with sambal belacan (chilly with fermented shrimp paste), especially extra spicy ones. I made some sambal belachan with chilly, toasted belacan and lime juice. Then I fried some ikan kurau masin (salted treadfin fish) until they are crispy. Mmmmmmm, I love to eat these two dishes with steamed rice....yum yum! Staying skinny, peteformation way! LOL!

Steamed Stingray Cut with Ginger Wine - For the Guys!

This is one of my stingray recipes collection. So, why I call this "recipe for the guys"? You will know why if you scroll down further to read the ending part of this post. LOL!

Ingredients
Stingray cut, 1 large
Chinese Ginger Wine, 2 tablespoons
Ginger, 2"x1", cut into thin strips
Garlic, 3 cloves, chopped finely
Soya sauce, 4 tablespoons
Sugar, 1 teaspoon
Vegetable oil, 3 tablespoons

Pour ginger wine on the stingray and steam it for around 20 minutes. Meanwhile, you can prepare the sauce. Heat up frying pan and add in the vegetable oil. Saute ginger strips and garlic until they turned golden brown. Add light soya sauce and sugar. Stir the mixture until all the sugar melt.
Pour the sauce onto the steamed stingray.

PS : Ginger wine and ginger warm up the body. So, hubby might become 'dangerous' at night after eating this! ha ha ha!

Best way to detect Urea or Urine smell in Stingray before buying

Further to my post,Why Some Stingray have Ammonia, Urine or Urea Smell – How to get rid of it?, last weekend, I asked my regular fishmonger, where is the best place to smell a sting ray for foul urine or urea. He told me that since the leakage is cause by improper gutting which resulted in urea flowing from the kidney and glands into the fish flesh, the best place to smell is at the location shown by red arrows in the photo above. The arrows show the nearest part to these organs before they gut it and cut out the mid portion of the sting ray. Hope this tips are helpful in helping you to choose 'urine/urea' smell free stingrays!

Happy Weekend and Happy Marketing!

Steamed Stingray (Skate, Pari, Tuka) with Salted Vegetable (Ham Choy, Kiam Chye) Recipe

I remembered that I have this recipe sitting in my hard disk after Alice requested for non-spicy stingray recipe for her kids. Actually, if the stingray is fresh, you can steam it like other fishes or just fry them with turmeric and lime juice. I have tried the recipe below with fresh Tuka (small stingrays) that I bought from my fishmonger from Sg Besar. The flesh of Tuka is very sweet and tasty! The chilli is optional. Here is the recipe, Alice. But better don’t let the kids eat too much ya, because of the Urea content in stingrays.

Ingredients

Fresh Stingray, 1 fish

Salted Vegetable (Ham Choy), 2 leaves, cut into strips

Ginger, 5 slices

Garlic, 3 cloves, chopped finely

Olive oil, 1 teaspoon

Salted plums, 2 pcs, crushed

Chilly or chilly padi (optional), 1 pc

Put tuka (stingray) in a steaming tray. Add all the ingredients to the stingray. Steam the stingray at high heat for 25 minutes. Garnish with parsley. Serve while still hot. Note : I didn’t use salt or light soya sauce because salted vegetable and salted plums are already very salty.

Why Some Stingray have Ammonia, Urine or Urea Smell? How to get rid of it?

Alice Law and SuiTuaPui commented about their experience with Ammonia smell in stingray at my post, Simple spicy Stingray with Butter and Masala Recipe. I have once bought a stingray that reeked of urine smell and no matter what strong spices I used, the smell is still there. There are several reasons why stingrays have urine, urea or ammonia smell. Stingray is a cartilaginous fish related to the shark. Their body and tissues are designed to be isotonic with sea water. In order to do so, stingrays and shark kidneys are designed to excrete urea into the body tissues. Therefore, when their body is in osmotic balance with sea water, they can prevent water loss from the body cells. When a stingray dies, bacteria will break down the urea compound and turn it into ammonia. This explains why stingrays that are not fresh have very strong ammonia smells. Fresh stingrays have clear bright red coloured blood and those that are not fresh would normally have darker red blood. Since ammonia is alkaline, soaking the stingray in light cooking vinegar which is acidic would neutralize it into salt and water. A possible reason for Stingrays to have urine or urea smells is very likely that they are not gutted properly. The person handling the fish might have accidentally cut the kidneys and other organs that have high urea content. The urea can leak into the flesh, thus contaminate it. Since urea is acidic, soaking the stingray in Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking soda) which is alkaline might help to rid off the urine smell. So, the questions is, how do we know the smells is from ammonia or urea? If the fish doesn’t look fresh and have a nose piercing smell that very likely it is from the ammonia. If the fish is fresh and have clear bright red blood colour, then the smell is very likely from the urea content. I was lucky to have only one bad experience with stingray with terrible odour. Whenever I buy stingray, I would smell it first and check the blood whether is clear bright red in colour. Please note that you might not see much blood in stingray cut after the fishmonger washes them. This doesn’t mean that they are not fresh. It is always good to ask the fishmonger for advice. I normally buy fish from a few fishmongers that I know are reliable and have been my regular supplier for years. This really helps a lot in ensuring that I get the best fish. Happy marketing and cooking!

Simple Spicy Sting Ray with Butter and Garam Masala Recipe

If you notice, I have been publishing many simple stingray recipes in this blog. It is obvious that Stingray is my favourite fish! I used to go fishing for sting ray. It is very exciting to see the hooked stingray trashing out of the water into the air. Stingray give anglers really good fight! They can be found in sandy areas like Pulau Pangkor and around our tropical water. Although stingray is a salt water fish, some fresh water stingrays have been found in our Pahang river. Fresh stingrays are very sweet and it is just heaven to bite into the firm flesh! Delicious! I experimented with the combination of coarse dried chilly powder (serbuk cili kasar kering) and butter in this recipe. For those of you who likes spicy food, this is for you!

Ingredients
Salt water Stingray cut, 15 small pcs
Coarse dried chilly powder (chilly kasar), 2 tablespoons or more
Garam Masala, 1 teaspoon
Oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon
Butter, 1 tablespoon
Salt to taste
Sugar, ½ teaspoon
Vegetable oil for frying

Marinade sting ray with chilly powder, garam masala, oyster sauce, butter and salt. Heat up wok and put in the vegetable oil. Put in the marinated sting ray. Stir fry using medium heat until the sting ray is cooked. Add sugar and stir for a short while until it dissolves. Serve with white rice while still hot.

Deep Fried Ikan Bebolos (English name Whiting Fish, Scientific Name Merlangius Merlangus) with Spicy Soya Sauce Recipe

This salt water Whiting Fish is known locally in Malaysia as Ikan Bebolos. It inhabits the shallow areas around 20 to 30 meters away from the shore. This longish shaped fish can be easily caught using a line and small hook. It is very interesting to catch these fishes using light tackles. The live fish is silver white in colour. I came across a vendor selling these fishes at the Kepong Baru wet market. You can deep fry the fish with or without flour batter. I choosed the former!

Ingredients

Ikan Bebolos (whiting), 10 pcs, cleaned Oil for deep frying

Sauce

Chilly padi (bird eys chilly), 3pcs, chopped finely

Shallots, 3 pcs, cut onto slices

Lime juice for 2 limes

Sugar, 1 teaspoon

Light soya sauce, 2 tablespoons

Dry bebolos with paper napkins. Deep fry the bebolos in hot oil until it turn golden brown. Take out the fish and drain away excess oil. Mix all the sauce ingredients together. The taste of deep fried bebolos (whiting) with the spicy chilly sauce is just heavenly!

Special Steamed Garoupa Fish Cut with Brown Sugar Sauce and Ginger

This healthy recipe is very easy to prepare. I did not deep fried the Garoupa fish but steamed it. In order to reduce the fishy smell you can add Chinese ginger wine or just pieces of ginger to the fish before steaming it. This is the first time I tried using Brown Sugar instead of normal sugar for fish sauce and it turned out quite nice. The taste is rather unique! LOL!

Ingredients

Grouper Fish Cut, 2 pieces

Ginger slices, 5 pcs or Ginger wine, 1 tablespoon

Ginger,2" lenght, cut into thin strips

Garlic, 3 pcs, chopped finely

Brown Sugar, 1 teaspoon

Light Soya sauce, 2 table spoons

Olive oil or any vegetable oil

Spring onions and celery for garnishing Put ginger slices or ginger wine on the fish.

Steam for 20 minutes under high heat.

While the fish is in the steamer, you can prepare the sauce. Pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan. Saute ginger strips and garlic until they turned golden brown. Add the soya sauce and a little water. Put in the brown sugar and bring to a boil. Pour the sauce over the steamed Grouper fish. Garnish the Brown Sugar Steamed Garoupa Fish with spring onions and celery before serving.

Kentucky Fried Talang! - Quickie Recipe

Ever since we came back from Lumut the kids have been eating lots of fishes at almost every meal. I am running out of recipe to cook the fish! LOL! Anyway, I thought that a simple deep fried 'ikan talang' fish fillet would suit their tastebuds. I just use off the shelf Kentucky deep frying flour (Berpadu brand) for chicken and they ate all of the Kentucky Fried Talang! ha ha ha!

Ingredients
Fish Fillet (any type of fish, I used talang), 500 gms
Kentucky Deep frying flour for chicken, enough to cover all the fish fillet
Oil for deep frying

Coat the fish with the flour evenly. Deep fry the fish in hot oil. Drain away excess oil and serve while the fish is still hot & crispy. This is a suitable recipe for kids. They are sure to love it! LOL!