Masak Lemak Ikan Kaci

Dah lama tak update blog ni. Banyak sgt kerja n virus M menjadi-jadi. New semester has just begun...so many things to do. With assessments, English for Placement Test (EPT) and so many other things. Besides these events, InshaAllah I'll be graduating this coming November, 23rd. Convocation for completing my PhD... I have another blog which I keep the stories of my phd endeavour here. Anyway, back to the recipe here... this was my first time cooking this recipe. Ikan kaci is usually cook for curry meal. However, there is nenas madu in the fridge, I therefore cook this dish. 

The ingredients: 

1. 600 gram kaci fish 
2. 1 honey pineapple
3. 9 small red chillies 
4. 1 inch of tumeric 
5. 200 ml santan 
6. 3 lemon grass
7. a pinch of salt

Cooking Method

1. With a mortar and pestle, grind or crush tumeric and red chillies. Then crush the tumeric
2. In a wok, pour in the santan milk
3. Then add in honey pineapple (don't let it over cook- perhaps let it for 2-3 minutes before proceeding to the next step
4. Add in the fish. Cook for about 10-15 minutes... the meat of the fish is soft so, the cooking does not need to be long 
5. Add in salt. Stir the gravy once in a while before you turn off the stove

keropok gentel bebola ikan

it's actually fish chips... but here you need to make a ball-shape before you fry it. the ingredients and preparation is similar to making keropok lekor.. once in a while, we need to be a little bit creative to allure the kids. My oldest and youngest sons are not too choosy when it comes to the menus I prepared for them. But Hadif is a little bit choosy. And hence when he likes the food, he'll be eating a whole lot of it. Keropok is always their choice.

What a frustration!

 

These pictures worth a thousand meaning to depict my frustration when I tried to prepare keropok lekor the other day. I used cold water to mix the fish and sago flour. As a result, the keropok lekor was really 'hard' to eat. Your head could almost be shaking when you eat one. So my suggestion when you want to cook keropok lekor, NEVER use water. Some recipe in the website, did state that water can be used. But I DOUBT it.. 

Ikan Bakar/ Grill fish

 

The fish on set to be grilled

 

Grilled fish ..ready to eat/serve 

How many of use still use this type of grill to grill fish? I still use it since this was the only grill available in my late mother in law's house. Arrange the fish as you can see in the photo. Turn on the heat and for 10 minutes or lesser, the fish is ready. The side dish would be tamarind cordiment that you also add in it some chillies, onions, belacan, salt and sugar.

Keropok lekor

Keropok lekor (fish chips) is usually serve for afternoon tea in many Malay houses. It doesn' take a lot of effort to cook the keropok lekor. All you need to have are sago, fish, salt and ice cubes. Here's the ingredients in particular.

Ingredients: 

1. 1 packet of sago (in Tunas Manja it cost RM1.75 per packet)  
2. 1 kg of fish
3. 3 cups of ice

Preparation procedure:

1. Debone fish
2. Put the fish in a blender.
3. In a plate or container, put the fish that you've already blended
4. Add in ice cubes

Pinch a little bit of the mixture and roll it. The size of one keropok lekor is more or less like the one you see in the picture here. More or less 15cm each. Boil it for 15 minutes.

Let it cold for a while before you fry it. Refer to the picture here. You can also eat it like this. It's no more raw! Another thing, if look at the ingredients, no water is used. Only if ice cubes are not available then water can be substituted. I observed this when my mother made keropok lekor. Also she once worked in a keropok lekor factory when I was a child. I could still remember the procedure and the do's and don'ts.. not to mention the fishy smell. I felt dizzy when the smell was strong.

Fry the keropok lekor. Here is how it looks like after you fried it. You may also eat it with chilli sauce.

Fried anchovies with potatoes

 

Was unable to up date the recipe yet. Need to attend to immediate commitment at the moment.

Asam Pedas Ikan Tenggiri

Ikan Tenggiri is a type of mackerel fish. I choose ikan tenggiri for asam pedam because I think it tastes better compared to other fish. Well, of course ikan tenggiri is not able to challenge ikan pari or  eagle ray when it comes to cooking asam pedas. I brought all the ingredients from pekan sehari the other day. Since it is Sunday, I guess I cook something which I really long to eat. I always love asam pedas ;-). Asam pedas that is displayed here doesn't taste that sour or spicy as the one sold in restaurants. It's because the children would be eating it. Thus, I need to adjust it taste. My children of ages 7, 4 and 1 and a half yrs, just want the gravy or the soup. So, here's the ingredients to cook my version of 'a minimalist asam pedas'.

Ingredients: 
1. A kg of ikan tenggiri
2. 7 lady fingers
3. 2 tomatoes
4. 5 tbsp of asam jawa (it may be substituted with asam keping/ gelugor)*
* see here for what asam gelugor is
5. 6 cups of water
6. a pinch of salt
7. 3 stems of viatnamese leaves
8. 3 onions and 1 garlic
9. 2-3 tbsp grind chilli

Procedures:
1. Saute garlic, onions and grind chilli
2. Pour in water
3. Add in ikan tenggiri
4. Let it boil for 10 minutes or so
5. Add viatnames leaves and lady fingers
6. Again let it boil for 5 minutes. Just to make sure lady fingers are a little sear.
7. Add in salt
8. Turn-off the stove

Asam pedas is a dish that you eat together with rice. It's my favourite because it is spicy yet sour. Also, I always love to put more lady fingers in it. Do try the recipe here with these simply step-by-step what you need to do in preparing one.