A simple yet nutritious dish made with patin fish and prawns -- a rendition of a recipe that was specially designed by a fan of Changi Fish Mart. I love this dish, and I know you will too.
An amazingly simple to cook and delicious dish to go with rice or porridge
Close on the heels of what I shared about tasting patin fish for the first time, I thought I'd share a little story on how this dish came about. The story goes back to some years ago when I met Dr Pauline Loh for the first time. She was a cookbook writer I admired way back in the days when I was working in a publishing house. A colleague had, in passing, showed me a freshly published book titled Love, Food by Dr Pauline Dawn Loh. Suffice to say the book caught my attention and I asked her to order a copy for me. Fast forward a couple of years later, I had the pleasure to work directly with this friendly, warm and motherly figure. Fast, fast, fast forward almost two decades now, one day I sent her a few seafood items including this patin fish to enjoy. Little did I expect that she would tell me that she loves the fish and that she would share a recipe of how she cooked patin. I was really touched.
So here you go. I will share this recipe with you, readers, so you can enjoy it too.
There are two parts to the recipe -- the pickled chilli (which needs to be prepared one week ahead) and the actual dish. Pickled chilli can also be bought in Chinese emporiums if you prefer not to do it yourself.
Patin in Pickled Chilli 鸿运当头 (剁椒蒸鲃丁鱼)
Sauce 1 tsp salted black bean 1 tsp minced ginger 1 tbsp minced garlic 1 tbsp minced shallots 2 tbsp pickled chilli
Ingredients 400g Patin fillet Salt
Steps
Salt the patin fillets and set aside. After 10 minutes, rinse and pat dry.
Arrange the fish onto a platter, ready to steam.
Prepare the sauce. Heat up some oil, and fry the salted black bean with the minced ginger, garlic and shallots. When the mixture is fragrant, add in the pickled chilli. Taste the sauce and adjust taste with either salt or sugar (to your liking).
Ladle the sauce over the fish. Steam over high heat for 8 minutes.
Just before serving, heat 2 tbsp of oil and drizzle the sizzling hot oil over the fish .
Pickled Chilli
剁椒酱
Ingredients 500g red chilli 100g birds eye chilli Salt
Steps
Seed the chillis and chop them up roughly, adding a tsp of salt to every 100g chilli.
Pile the mixture into a clean jar and set aside for at least a week to mellow the chilli. Note: This will keep several months.
I'd left this chilli out in the kitchen for two days to ferment before refrigerating it.
I must say that I was pleasantly surprised by the simplicity in preparation, especially for someone who dislikes hassle and spend much effort in cooking for myself. More importantly, I wiped out this beautiful and delicious dish, not even sparing the sauce. I strongly encourage you to give it a try. Oh, and if you want to use other types of fish, I am sure batang (Spanish Mackerel) and cod fish (Chilean Seabass) and such will yield similarly yummy results.
Credit: The above recipe is specially created for Changi Fish Mart by Dr Pauline D Loh.