Crispy Nyonya fried fish
This is one
of the common deep-fried fish
dishes that you can easily find in economic rice (mixed rice) stalls or small eatery shops in Malaysia,
Thailand and Singapore. With its crispy and crunchy texture, it is one of the kids’
favourite pick too!
As you can tell
from its name, the main spice used in this recipe is turmeric powder which is also one of the most important spices used in curry. This
spice is easily available in any Asian grocery shops. Back in Auckland, I could
conveniently find it in big chain supermarkets like Pak'nSave, New World, and Countdown at
their spices counters.
This recipe
may seem simple with only a few ingredients and steps to follow, however it may
not be as easy to master as you think, especially on the deep frying part!
The key to fry
crispy and crunchy fish is to have the fish fried in HOT oil. If the oil is not hot enough, you may experience:
1.
Fish sticking to the pan/wok problem ruining the
presentation
2.
Too much oil absorbed by the fish resulting in
soggy, greasy fish.
So, how can we avoid this? How to test whether the oil is
hot enough? The following steps are what I usually do to test the temperature
of the oil. I use a chop stick or skewer and dip into the centre of the wok. If
little bubbles are visible, as shown in the following photo, the oil is hot enough
and ready for deep frying.
 |
| Hot oil |
Another phobia that keep cooking novice from attempting to deep
fry is the fear of being splashed by hot oil. So, to prevent this from
happening, I do the following:
1. Keep the fish DRY – pat dry the fish with paper towel after cleaning and scaling
2. Coat fish with a layer of thin corn flour/flour
to further absorb the moist and keep the fish skin in place
3. Slowly slip the fish into the wok from the side,
no dropping from high heights and keep a distance away from the stove once the
fish is in the wok.
4. Face out the pan/wok cover to act as shield from
possible oil splash once fish is added into the wok/pan.
Above are some of the methods I used. However if you are
health conscious and not in favour of deep frying but still wish to try the
taste of this Nyonya Turmeric fish, you can go for oven grill instead but you may
not be able to taste the same crispy texture as in the case of deep frying.
 |
| Turmeric Fried Fish 黄姜煎鱼 |
