Are you bored with just plain deep fried fish recipe? Looking for some extra flavour to spice up the dish?
Sharing below is a simple Nyonya fried fish with mixture of lime juice ( I used Calamansi juice), bird’s eyes chili and seasoning sauce to zest up the flavour.
After cleaning the fish, do make sure to pat dry the fish with paper towel to avoid water splashes in hot oil.
Once pat dry, marinated the fish with a bit of salt, pepper and dash some corn flour to coat the fish before deep frying it in a hot oiled wok. Deep fry the fish until crispy texture on the outside but still moist inside. Please refer to this post for ways of deep frying fish.
The Calamansi I used here were plucked freshly from my own garden. The same applied to the bird’s eyes chilies harvested from my neighbor's garden.
You can refer to my green hopes to find out some of the plants and vegetables that I had successfully planted and grew in my tropical garden.
However, it was sad to note since my return Malaysia, I did not have any luck in the growing of bird’s eyes chili in my Malaysian garden. The glorious story of my green fingers in the planting of bird’s eyes chili from frozen seeds in Auckland was long gone.
If you can’t get Calamansi, which I reckon is not easily available everywhere, you can use lime or lemon to get that sourness required in the sauce.
Instead of pouring the sauce on the fish, you can also make it as a dipping sauce. This will favour those who can’t take spicy dish, where they still get to enjoy the crispy fried fish.
RECIPE
Ingredients:
Fish – 2 medium size whole fish (the smaller the fish easier to deep frying in getting crispy texture)
Dash of salt, pepper and corn flour to marinate
Sauce
Juice from 4-5 calamansi lime
(to your liking on sourness, reduce quantity if using lime or lemon which bigger size)
4-5 bird’s eye chilli, sliced thinly
1 tsp. of sugar
1 tsp. dark soya sauce
1 tbsp. light soya sauce
( This 3 seasoning can be replaced by Indonesian sweet soy sauce – Kicap Manis ABC being used then no sugar and dark soya needed)
1 tbsp. oyster sauce
- Deep fried fish in hot oil till crispy and dish up and set aside on a plate discard any excess oil from frying pan with paper towel.
- Heat up wok in low heat, add in seasoning sauce and sugar, let it dissolve then add in bird’s eye chilli stir and off heat.
- Add in calamansi lime juice and mix well, and taste. Adjust the seasoning accordingly.
- Pour the sauce over the deep fried fish and serve hot.
娘惹酸柑辣椒鱼
主料：
鱼 - 2个中等大小的全鱼（较小的鱼更易油煎至口感松脆）
盐，胡椒粉，玉米/太白粉腌
酱料
酸柑汁4-5酸柑粒（根据自己对酸味的喜好）
4-5辣椒仔，切成薄片
适量，糖，老抽，生抽， 蚝油
- 在热油中煎鱼，直到香脆盛起，用纸巾吸收任何多余的油后备用。
- 用小火烧热锅，加入调味酱和糖，让它溶解，然后加入辣椒仔炒匀。
- 熄火加入柑酸柑汁拌匀，口味测试，相应地调整调料。
- 倒入辣椒仔酸柑酱在煎鱼上，趁热食用。
