Thai Style Deep-fried Fish Fillet 泰式脆鱼条

With a week of Raya holiday at home, I decided to spend some time to tidy up my photo folders and blog posts which was long overdue in my “to do” list.  I was surprised to find this blog post left in the folder yet to be published. It was over a year old post which I wrote in the final week in Auckland in March 2011.

Last Thai in Auckland

With our fridge sold in preparation for our repatriation to Malaysia, I had to do marketing on a daily basis. This morning when I saw fish fillet was on special, I bought a piece for dinner meal.  But without a fridge I had problem to keep the fish fresh until dinner time. To prevent the fish fillet from turning bad I had to marinate it first. To come up with deep fried ideas, I went through series of Hawkers delights cookbooks I had and spotted this yummy Thai recipe from Yummy Yummy Hawkers’ Fair by Chef Phang Fah.

The original recipe called for sweet basil leaves, which I didn’t have. Too bad basil was one of the herbs that was not available in my garden that I could harvest easily.  Without basil leaf, I substituted it with fresh flat-leaf parsley. I knew with this substitution, it would change the flavour of the dish. Basil has a sweet spicy flavour and was stronger but parsley was lighter in flavour. Nevertheless, I was glad the deep fried fish fillet turned out tasty.

For a true Thai flavour, next time I would give the original recipe a try.

THAI STYLE DEEP-FRIED FISH FILLET Ingredients： 1 tbsp shredded ginger 30g Thai sweet basil leaves, shredded (I replaced with flat-leaf parsley) 500g fish fillet cut into thick strips 1 egg Marinade： ½  tsp salt ½  tbsp shaoxing wine ½  tsp of chicken stock granules Dash of sesame oil and pepper 1 tsp corn flour For Coating : 5 tbsp plain flour mixed with 5 tbsp corn flour 5 cups oil for deep-frying Method : 1. Combine all ingredients and marinade, season for 30 minutes. 2. Coat seasoned fish fillet with flour mixture and deep-fry in hot oil until golden brown and crispy. Dish and drain. 3. Serve hot with Thai chilli sauce.   泰式脆鱼条 材料 1大匙姜丝 30g九层塔，切成丝 500g鱼肉，切成粗条状 1粒蛋   腌料 1/2小匙盐 1/2大匙绍兴酒 少许麻油和胡椒粉 1大匙粟粉   干粉料 5大匙面粉，加入5大匙粟粉拌匀 5杯炸油   做法 1.  将全部材料和腌料拌匀，腌30分钟。 2.  腌好的鱼条沾上干粉，放入热油中炸至金黄色及香脆，捞起沥干油分。 3.  趁热配上泰式辣椒酱享用。