Sweet n Spicy Sambal Pineapple Fish

An appetizing sweet and sour fish dish added with sweet and slightly crunchy honey pineapple chunks. I used Nasi Lemak Sambal Chilli paste which helps to simplify the long list of spices into 1 tablespoon sambal chilli paste. You can adjust the spiciness and sweetness of the dish according to your preference. A fast and delicious dish to go with warm rice 😉😋

Update: 9 Oct 2022

Added chopped fresh red chilli, and soaked the fish loins in low-fat milk brine for a better taste 😋

Serving: about 4 persons

Ingredients

350~380g frozen fish loin/fillets
90g honey pineapple, cut into chunks
2 small tomatoes, cut into halves

3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 big onion, chopped

1 red chilli, chopped, optional
1 tbsp salted soya beans, rinse and mash into paste
1 tbsp nasi lemak sambal chilli paste
35g gula melaka/palm sugar, cut into small chunks
50~80ml water
juice from 2~3 small limes

Some coriander leaves for garnishing

This is the frozen fish loin I used.

Directions

1. Thaw the fish fillet/loin and make 2 shallow slits over the fish fillet. Prepare the brine by combining 1/2 tsp of fine salt, 1/2 tsp of raw sugar and about 1 bowl of water*. Let the fish fillet soak for about 15 to 20 minutes.

* water can be changed to milk.

2.  Prepare all the other ingredients accordingly.

3. Heat about 1 tbsp of olive oil and chopped garlic in a frying pan. When the garlic turns golden and fragrant, add in the chopped onion.

When the onion turns soft and fragrant, add in the mashed preserved soya bean paste, and stir-fry them.

Next, add in the Nasi Lemak Sambal Chilli paste,

and gula melaka/palm sugar.

When the mixture starts to bubble,

add in the honey pineapple chunks, stir to coat the pineapple chunks with the Sambal Chilli paste.

Let the ingredients cook for about 2 to 3 minutes.

4. Rest the fish fillets over the Sambal Chilli and pineapple chunks.

Pour in the water just enough to cover half the height of the ingredients.

Simmer for about 2 minutes, flip over the fish fillets. Be careful not to break the fish fillets while flipping over. Let the fillets simmer for about 5 minutes, or till cooked.

Squeeze some lime juice over

Finally, throw in the halved tomatoes, close the lid, turn off the heat, and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. If you prefer softer tomatoes, you can throw them in together with the fish to cook longer.

5. Serve with warm rice 😋

Spicy Sardine en Papillote 纸包辣酱沙丁鱼

A simple yet nutritious meal made easy using the Ayam Brand Sardines in Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Just combined some readily available ingredients in the kitchen, wrapped in parchment paper pocket, and popped into an oven toaster to bake for 10 minutes.

Squeeze some lime juice over,

serve with steamed multigrain white rice and vegetables. The sweet and spicy sauce made the bland rice and vegetables tasted so yummy with the sardines 😋

Each can consists of about 4 sardines immerge in extra virgin olive oil. Just nice for one to two person's meal.

These are the Korean seasoned soya bean paste, and hot red pepper paste I used. They can be bought from local Korean stores or good supermarkets.

Servings: 1~2 persons

Paper size: one 30x30cm parchment paper
Baking temperature: 180℃ for 10 minutes.

Ingredients

1 can Ayam Brand Sardines in Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 120g

Spicy sauce
1 tbsp olive oil collected from the can of sardines

2 tsp Korean seasoned soyabean paste

1/2 tsp Korean hot pepper paste

2 tsp palm sugar/gula melaka

2 tsp fried small red onion crisps

Seasoning ingredients

2~3 stalk white scallions, cut into thin slices

2~3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tsp chopped red chilli

Garnishing

2~3 stalks green scallions, cut into thin strips

Juice from one small green lime

Directions

1. Prepare all the ingredients.

2. Combine all the spicy sauce ingredients into a paste. Set aside.

3. Drain away the remaining olive oil, and transfer the sardines onto the parchment paper.

Pour the spicy sauce over the sardines.

And scatter the seasoning ingredients over the spicy sauce and sardines.

4. Fold the parchment paper over to cover all the ingredients. Give a series of continuous folds to the edge of the parchment paper to transform it into a pocket to seal all the ingredients in. At the end, give the corner a few twists to secure the folds.

This step is optional. As the baking tray is quite close to the lower heating coil of my oven toaster, I lay two sheets of tissue paper over to act like a thin insulator.

Place the pocket in a baking tray.

7. Bake in a preheated oven toaster at 180℃ for about 10 minutes. You'll able to smell the nice aroma of  the scallion and garlic at the end of the baking 😃

8. Cut open the parchment paper,

Squeeze some lime juice over,

and scatter the green scallion strips over. The dish is ready 😍

You can steam your vegetables together with your rice.
Cut carrot into thick slices and cook with the rice. When the rice cooker's cooking just switches to Keep Warm mode, add the green vegetables over the hot rice. Cover and simmer for about 5 to 8 minutes.

Remove the cooked green vegetables from the rice cooker, to prevent them from turning yellow.

Miso Cod en Papillote 纸烤味噌雪鱼

An easy to prepare recipe for cod fish using simple ingredients and method. Minimum washing involved as only parchment paper is required. This recipe is more on the sweet side than savoury. The miso and mirin made a wonderful dish with the cod fillet :)

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients 

2 cod fillets

Marinades

1 tbsp low salt miso 低盐味噌*

1 tbsp dark brown sugar 黑砂糖

2 tsp mirin/sweet Japanese wine 味淋

1/8 tsp dark soya sauce 黑酱油
1/4 tsp sesame oil 麻油

1/2 tsp fried shallot  葱头酥

* Can be replaced by Korean seasoned bean paste.

The quantity of each marinating ingredients can be adjusted to suit your taste.

2 sheets of parchment paper

Garnishing

Green scallion

Chinese coriander 

Cut red chili

Direction

1. Combine all the marinating ingredients into a paste.

2. Rinse and pat dry the cod fillets.

Apply a thick coat of marinade over the fillet.

3. Apply another layer of marinade on the parchment paper.

Place the fillet over the marinade.

4. Fold over the parchment paper to cover the fillet.

Give a series of continuous folds to the edge of the parchment paper to transform the parchment paper into a pocket to seal the fillet within.

At the end, give the corner a few twists to secure the folds.

5. Let the fish fillet marinate for about 15 to 20 minutes.

6. Bake in a oven toaster set at 180 degree Celsius for about 15 minutes.

7. Let the fish fillet rest for about 5 minutes before slit the paper open. Beware of the steam while slit open the paper bag :)

8. Slit open the paper and garnish with green scallion, Chinese coriander and cut red chili. Enjoy :)