Ikan Keli Berlada Dengan Petai | Spicy Chili Cat Fish With Stinky Beans
After a long break of blogging and journaling, I need to muster my courage to start writing again to clear some of my videos and photos from my phone.
We haven't had the chance to enjoy seafood - based dishes for quite some times ever since the CMCO is implemented.
It's not that the nearby groceries do not have seafoods available, it was just that I was too tired to line up and being in the crowded place just to buy my groceries.
As someone who is considered to have a weaker immune system, I have to limit my contact out of fear of getting infection.
It was only recently that I started to buy fresh seafoods from Shoppee after I stumbled upon a few groceries stores that sell fresh and frozen seafoods (actually I'm embarrassed to admit this, but yeah, I'm actually an old soul who rarely keep myself updated on such a thing, you know).
I was too excited to buy fresh seafoods to fulfill our craving.
I bought ikan keli (cat fish) to be cooked in masak lemak cili api (spicy chili coconut milk) but I have to change my plan during the last minute when I realized I have ran out of fresh turmeric stock.
That's when I decided to cook ikan keli berlada (spicy chili cat fish).
I read some blogs online stating that garlic is a taboo for cat fish and hence it is not recommended to add garlic into cat fish-based dishes.
It is said that adding garlic will change the overall flavor of the cat fish.
I'm not sure how far is the truth but since I'm too lazy to experimenting, I end up following the tips.
The dish simple yet it is so appetizing with the additional texture and flavor from the stinky beans.
It has been years since we both eat stinky beans, and it is so refreshing to finally be able to enjoy it again.
You might think this dish, as it's name suggest, will be very spicy.
But it is actually not that spicy.
We don't prefer to enjoy dishes that is too spicy due to our intolerance towards spicy foods particularly my Hubby.
You can add a lot of bird's eye chilies in the dish if you enjoy spicy dishes, but for those who are on the same boat with us, you can use the big green and red chilies instead.
A lot of people don't prefer to cook cat fish because they use to think that frying the cat fish is challenging.
Of course! We don't want to let our kitchen to be messy from oil splitting everywhere when we are frying the cat fish.
But there are some tips to prevent the said "disaster" from happening and after this, you can ease yourself up to fry the cat fish.
For those who are familiar with cat fish, you'll know that cat fish has slimy substance which is coating it's body.
It is quite difficult to remove the substance if you just wash it with water.
Hence, I usually use lime water (air kapur) to wash my seafoods and meats.
The liquid will bind with the sticky substance when it comes to contact with the cat fish, thereby making it easier to clean the fish.
Other than lime water, people commonly use tamarind juice, salt and lemon juice.
Another thing to consider when you want to fry the cat fish is to make sure you pat dry the fish before frying.
Coating the fish with salt or turmeric powder can be done after you pat dry or place the cleaned fish in a large colander/strainer to allow the fish to dry up a bit.
This time, I use rice flour to coat my fish, along with some salt and turmeric powder before frying.
If you enjoy cat fish dishes, this dish is a worth to try at home.
When we self-prepared the dish, we can control the fat amount and skip those unnecessary seasonings in our dish.
Happy cooking!
Ikan Keli Berlada Dengan Petai
(Spicy Chili Cat Fish With Stinky Beans)
Category : Lauk Pauk
Preparation Time : 15 minutes
Cooking Time : 25 minutes
Serving Size : 2 - 3 people
INGREDIENTS
Cat Fish Marinade:
3 cat fish - cleaned & halved
1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
1 teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons of rice flour
Cooking oil for deep frying
Pounded Ingredients:
3 red chilies
2 green chilies
5 green bird's eye chilies *add more if you like spicy
3 shallots
A small handful of anchovies
1 cm of shrimp paste
Other Ingredients:
1/2 onion (preferably Holland onion) - sliced
1 lemongrass - bruised
1 tomato - cut into wedges
1/2 cup of water
10 stinky beans (halved ) * or more to your liking
Salt to taste
Sugar if needed
INSTRUCTIONS
Coat the fish with turmeric powder, salt and rice flour. Make sure that the fish is not too wet before coating. Leave for 5 minutes to marinade.
Heat cooking oil for deep frying. Once oil is hot enough, (you may test by putting a pinch of flour into the oil, if it bubbles vigorously, it is ready). fry the fish in two batches if your frying pan is small over medium heat. Fry about 1 to 2 minutes on each sides until golden on both sides.
Place the fried fish on a kitchen papers to absorb excess oil. Set aside.
Pound red chilies, green chilies, bird's eye chilies, shallots, anchovies and shrimp paste coarsely. You can start preparing the pounded ingredients while frying the fish. Alternatively, you may blend the ingredients in a chopper or blender for finer textures, but I would prefer the coarsely pounded spices in my dish.
Remove some of the cooking oil in the pan and leave about 1/4 cup of oil. Heat it up again. When the oil is hot enough, add in bruised lemongrass, tomato pieces and sliced onion. Stir fry briefly until fragrant, about 30 seconds over medium high heat.
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| You'll see oil is separating from the spices |
Then, add in pounded spices and fry over medium heat until it changed to a darker color and oil starts to separates (pecah minyak). This step is important to make sure the chilies are fried completely to produce aromatic flavors in the dish.
Add in water and season with salt and sugar. Bring the gravy to boil over medium heat.
Lastly, add in the fried fish and stinky beans. Stir briefly until the fish pieces are well coated with the spices. Turn off the heat.
Ikan keli berlada is now ready to be served with warm rice! Enjoy!
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