Steamed Chilli Fish

"Next to jazz music, there is nothing that lifts the spirit and strengthens the soul more than a good bowl of chili." (Harry James)

One of the good things about cooking at home is you know exactly what you are putting in your meal, where you are able to limit the amount of salt, sugar and fat. I always try to cook healthier at home. I think that's the whole point of cooking at home, is to eat healthier, but of course it gotta be tasty at the same time.

Today, I made chilli fish, this is a very common dish in Indonesia and Malaysia where the fish is deep fried/grilled first and chilli paste is added on top , but I instead of deep frying/grilling the fish, I actually steam it.

So the first thing you need to prepare is the chilli paste. This chilli paste is the similar one that I used in my "Thai Chilli Chicken Basil" recipe, the only difference is I added some fresh lemon grass. The lemongrass will freshen up the paste with citrus flavour.

Chilli Paste

Ingredients:

- A Hand full of red chillies (if you can't eat too spicy then it's better to use the big red chillies, but if you like spicy then you can add more small chillies)

- 1 tomato

- 1 red onion

- 5 garlic cloves

- 1 stem of lemongrass (use the pale part and cut into aprroximately 5 cm long and slice it thinner)

- Salt and sugar to taste

Method:

-Place chillies, tomato, red onion and garlic into blender/food processor and blend to paste.

-Heat up wok/stir fry pan, add cooking oil, add in the chilli paste and then add in the fresh lemon grass. Stir for a while. Add in sugar and salt according to taste. Stir the chilli paste in low heat until fragrant and turn off the heat.

 

 

Chilli Fish

Ingredients:

-1 whole fish ( I used Barramundi)

-Chilli Paste (As prepared above)

-A handful of fresh basil leaves

-Soya sauce and sweet soya sauce to taste

Method:

-Place the chilli paste at the centre of the steaming plate, place the fish on top of the chilli paste,  and spread the rest of the chilli on top of the fish evenly. 

-Spread some of the basil leaves on top of the fish some around the side of the plate.

-Place the plate into a wok with full of water, or how you usually do your steaming.

-Open the lid after 15 minutes, add sweet soya sauce and soya sauce to the fish and into the sauce.

(I added around 1 1/2 tablespoon of sweet soya sauce and 1/2 tablespoon of soya sauce)

-Continue steaming until fish is cooked.

This recipe is so simple but trust me, it is very tasty at the same time!

Best served with steamed rice.