Fried Fish With Sweet And Sour Tamarind Sauce

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I would like to share with you today an alternative method for making fish with a sweet and sour flavour.  The flavour is both acidic and sweet.

However, the components and the process of making the sauce are completely different. The traditional components of the sweet-and-sour fish dish include vinegar, sugar, and tomato sauce. The main ingredients in this dish are tamarind juice and fresh chilies. The fresh chilies not only give the sauce a beautiful and vibrant colour but also a spicy flavour to the dish.


Apart from that, I am also using cilantro roots, white peppercorn and garlic. The combination of these three ingredients is always a foundation flavor base to this sauce. A lot of you might be familiar with coriander leaves (also known as cilantro) which normally use for garnishing or add extra flavour to the dish. Have you ever used the root part? It’s just actually withstood cooking as close to the leaves, but you can’t cook the leaves as it will turn black. So, the roots are something which can add to marinade which is very aromatic.

I am using a big chunk of fish for this recipe which was crosswise cut through the bone. You can use thick fish fillets or even a whole fish.

One advantage of this dish is that I can prepare the sauce ahead of time and simply reheat it right before serving. This is a great recipe to serve seafood and other dishes to a large group of people without having to worry about the flavour of the meal being ruined.


INGREDIENTS

4-5 cloves garlic

2-3 Cilantro roots, chopped

¼ tsp white peppercorns

2-3 mild red chili peppers, cut into small chunks

1-2 Thai chilies or bird eyes chilies, chopped

3 Tbsp chopped rock sugar

1 ½ tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp tamarind pulp, mix with 60ml of water

¼ cup water

¼ cup chopped cilantro

4 big chunks of fish

Vegetable oil for frying



METHOD

1) Pound the cilantro roots, garlic, and white peppercorns with a mortar and pestle until it has a rough paste. Add the mild red chilies and bird eyes chilies and pound until the mixture resembles a rough paste as well.

2)In a deep bottom wok, add just enough cooing oil to fry the fish at medium-high heat.

3) In a wok, over medium heat, cook the chili mixture in some vegetable oil, stirring constantly. When the mixture starts to dry up, add rock sugar, tamarind juice, water and soy sauce. Stir until the palm sugar melts. Let it simmer for 1-2 minutes until you achieve a thick, syrupy consistency. Taste and adjust to your taste. Turn off the heat, add the chopped cilantro and stir to mix.

5) Place the fish on a serving plate. Pour the sauce over the fish. Garnish with some chopped cilantro and sliced chilies.

Note: You may make the sauce ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator. Just before serving, bring it back to a boil, whisk in the chopped cilantro. In case it becomes excessively thick while it was left to sit, dilute it with a small amount of water.

 

 

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