RACHAEL RAY'S AGLIO OLIO (GARLIC & OIL) WITH SPICY SHRIMPS & SWEET PRESENTS

I love Aglio Olio...


I love colours and...


I love Pinterest. Why didn't anyone tell me that Pinterest could be so addictive? To the point of ridiculousness. Yours truly now needs a neck brace. And a good spanking.


Oh and I love presents.


J had given me these from her travels to Italy and Spain recently. How sweet ~ as sweet as the presents.....rainbow coloured pasta and a delicious looking red pesto sauce in a cute little jar. The pasta colours were all natural :)

I'll use the pesto sauce tomorrow but for today I was craving some Aglio Olio.....my favourite way to cook pasta...forever.


A, my sis, had also given me an enchanting kitty dish cloth  she had bought in Perth ...and which I'll never use as a dish cloth of course. I never use presents in a way that will make them wear out. I like keeping them like little treasures for important 'little moments'...... unless they are to be eaten of course.

N the girl had also given me a stack of beautiful Japanese plates and bowl "for your food photography"....so I had used them for some food photography as suggested. 

Aren't people nice? :)


Rachel Ray's Aglio Olio scored five stars. I just had to try it.


I quartered the recipe and used coriander leaves instead but this is the original ~


The recipe ~

Aglio Olio and Spicy Shrimp


Spicy Shrimp :


1/2 kg jumbo shrimps
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 chopped flat leaved parsely
1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
4 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled
coarse salt, about 1 tsp
2 T extra virgin Olive oil (evoo)


Aglio Olio :


1/4 cup evoo
1 tin anchovy fillets ( I did not use this..I'm sure it made a difference)
6-8 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 tsp crushed pepper flakes
1/4 chopped flat leaf parsely
coarse salt
500 gm spaghetti, boiled until al dente


tomato and onion salad on the side
crusty bread as accompaniment


Combine shrimp with next 5 ingredients and toss to coat evenly.


Heat a large frying pan add the oil and fry shrimp in 3 seperate batches. Fry until the shrimps just turn opaque, lift it out and keep aside.


Return pan to heat, add 1/4 cup olive oil, add anchovies, garlic and pepper flakes. Break up anchovies until they break up and dissolve into  the oil and garlic mixture.


Toss spaghetti in the pan with parsely and garlic oil, then season with salt to taste. 


Serve spaghetti and onion and tomato salad and crusty bread if you wish.

HOKKIEN MEE

I had planned to do a Hokkien Mee for dinner and then decided that I might as well blog about it. This is one of my favourite noodle dishes apart from a  hearty and spicy mee mamak. To be honest I didn't know that there were variations of this dish until I googled it. I had always thought of Hokkien mee as the dark, thick sauced, fat noodle dish. Period. Now I know that Penang has it's own version as does Singapore. All three look absolutely scrummy!

This version however is really quick to put together and it must be made just before serving. Because the sauce is a simple mixture of sweet dark soy sauce, some oyster sauce and stock I find that the yellow noodles used in this dish cannot be substituted by any other because the flavour of the noodles contributes to the flavour of the dish as a whole.

I had tried using my own home made noodles but it didn't quite taste the same because it did not have the flavour particular to Hokkien Mee made with yellow noodles. The yellow noodles made a whole lot of difference. I also fell a little short cooking it this time around. I had not made enough sauce. More sauce.

The recipe ~

Serves 4 


I have to give you this recipe from memory because I had not measured the ingredients when I made it. So the measurements are approximate. 


450 gm packet of yellow noodles, blanched in hot water to soften and kept aside


Any green leafy vegetable that you like, I used sawi, washed and cleaned and cut
2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
4-5 T dark sweet soy sauce
1 T kecap manis, I used ABC brand
About 3-4 T oyster sauce
 1- 1/2 cups of water or stock
a handful of prawns shelled, deveined with tail left on
1 large squid, skinned and sliced into bite sized pieces
1 slab of fish cake, sliced


salt, pepper
vegetable oil

Heat wok, pour in about 2 T of cooking oil. When the oil is hot throw in the garlic and stir fry till fragrant but not brown. Add them prawns, squid and fish cake slices and continue to stir fry till the prawns just turn pink. Add the three sauces and the  water or stock and allow to come to a boil. Just as it comes to a boil add the noodles and greens. Stir well to coat evenly with sauce. Add salt and some pepper to taste. Serve immediately.


* Adjust the water/stock and the amount of sauces to your taste. I personally wish I had made more sauce. 

VIETNAMESE SPRING ROLLS

Remember the Thai Sweet Chillie Sauce I made in my previous post? Remember? Remember? Remember when I said things could only get better from then on? Well it did. It did ~

Just like the first spring rolls 'recipe' these hardly needed a recipe 
Which was good because I was feeling kind of slap happy ~

So what you'll need are some ~ 

finicky carrots ~ julienned

see through glass noodles ~ softened in warm water, drained

pinky prawns ~ gently boiled, peeled

imposter crab sticks  ~ from a packet, unsealed

sprightly sprigs of cilantro ~ plucked

pretty basil leaves ~ whole

minty mint leaves ~ itsy bitsy bits

or anything else that strikes your fanciful highnesses ~

But don't you ever forget those slippery glass noodles ~

Because they add such a crunchy feely-ness, people ~

Then I crushed some strands of saffron thread 
And soaked them in warm water ~ 
Until it turned into a liquid sunset 
A minute later

So I slipped in a disc 
Of the fancy rice paper 

And waited. 


While I counted to eight? 
Or nine? or ten? twenty??
Errrrr..... whatever.

But when I lifted it out 
It was not as golden yellow 
As I hoped it would be, 
(Like what I watched on my tv) 
But, what the heck I thought, 
That was okay dokey by me. 

So I let the rice paper lay 

And piled the thingys into a bundle. 
And rolled them up
Into a tight little cuddle. 
Oops...I think I heard them squeak. 
" Too tight, too tight
Loosen up a little. ~

So this is the story of Thai Sweet Chillie Sauce, Vietnamese Spring rolls, my helly belly and slap happy me ~

SPICY PRAWN-COCONUT FILLING IN SWEET POTATO DOUGH ~ CUCUR BADAK

I craved these Hippo bites so badly that I had forgotten to measure the ingredients before making them. By the time I did I was halfway through.

These are literally called Hippo Bites. Because by Malay standards they are big. Cucur or bites of any kind, sweet or savoury, are usually made in dainty bite-sized pieces so that you could pop the whole thing into your mouth in one go ~ without looking like you have just bitten off a hunky chunk of a hippo. But these are made bigger. So relatively speaking these are hippo bites or cucur badak.

Those bright tumeric-yellow cake cups come from Sarah-Jane siliconemoulds.com Gorgeous yellow no?

I LOVE these and I have an all time craving for them. Freshly grated coconut is sauteed in a mixture of pounded onions, chilly and dried shrimps, diced fresh prawns, sliced lemon grass and some tumeric. The dough is the exact same dough used for the kuih keria or sweet potato doughnuts. And also deep fried. A subtle sweet, chewy crust hiding a spicy coconut shrimp filling inside. Wooooooo...... I LOVE. 

Recipe ~

Sweet potato dough ~ same as sweet potato doughnuts without the sugar scabs. You might want to double the recipe..

I can't promise that the amount of dough will match the amount of coconut shrimp filling. You might end up with extra filling as I did. Freeze it for making more another time. 

1 1/2 cups of steamed, completely cooled and mashed sweet potatoes ( I used slightly more than 1 1/2)
About 3/4 cup of plain flour or less
1/2 tsp salt

Mix all above ingredients together until it becomes a firm dough.  

Filling ......approximate values ~

3-4 shallots, peeled and sliced

2 garlic
3 slices fresh ginger
2-3 red chillies

3 heaped tablespoons of dried shrimps, re-hydrated

1 tsp tumeric powder or 1/2 inch fresh tumeric 

6-7 prawns, shelled, de-veined and chopped finely

1 large or 2 skinny lemon grass, the white part sliced finely

2 T cooking oil, any vegetable oil

21/4 cups of freshly grated coconut

Pound the onions, garlic and dried shrimps and fresh tumeric if using, in a pestle and mortar, until it becomes a moderately fine mush. 

Heat a pan. Pour in the cooking oil. Saute the pounded ingredients, and powdered tumeric at this point if using, until fragrant and turning lightly brown around the edges.

Add the diced fresh prawns, sliced lemom grass  and stir to mix in and until the prawns just turn pink. Add the grated coconut and mix well over low heat. Add a touch of water if the mixture seems a little dry. The mixture should be moist but NOT wet. add salt and pepper to taste. Leave aside to cool.

Shape the dough into balls the size of ping pong balls or perhaps slightly larger. Make a spacious depression in the centre and fill with the coconut-shrimp filling. At least a heaped teaspoon of it. Cover up and seal. Shape into a ball and then flatten it so that it looks like a fat chubby disc.  Keep on a plate and finish off the rest of the dough and filling. Any extra filling can be frozen and then defrosted to be used when you make more next time.

Heat medium pan. Add cooking oil to about an inch deep. Heat the oil till hot. Fry the cucur badak until a deep golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper to rid of excess oil. Serve warm or at room temperature. I like it at room temperature.

I am submitting this to Malaysian Monday. Sharon from Test With Skewer is hosting the next Malaysian Monday. Find out more about Malaysian Monday here.

SMOKED SALMON AND DILL TARTS

Good evening boys and girls !

A tart is shallow, frivolous, fancy, dressed up with an open top. Usually baked in a shallow tin with a removable bottom and served on a pretty serving plate. A pie is down to earth, covered up, substantial and deep. Usually baked in a deep pie dish or bowl and served in it. But both may be sweet or savoury. And both are to be eaten.

And I'm happy to report that in today's unisexual world the word tart is used not only to disparage women but also men who are considered promiscuous and flamboyant ..... "with a fruity lisp and tight clothing" 

Fruithy lispth?  Fruithy listhpth? Gasthp. That soundths adorable.

Clathh dithmithed.

This is a tart recipe I saw a picture of in GoodFood magazine. (I love GoodFood magazine). These tarts could be made ahead, frozen and re-heated when guests arrive. Extremely easy to put together and like all tarts are fancy and playful. And cute. I had a grand time with them.

They are such dear little things I would serve them as part of a casual dinner party as a finger food out on a patio. If only I hadn't burnt them.

The recipe ~ from GoodFood magazine.....

500 bought shortcrust pastry or home made shortcrust pastry


8 oz smoked salmon, cut into strips
2 eggs
2 T fresh chopped dill
284 carton single cream (I used double)
wedges of lime to serve


Heat oven to 180 C. Use 6 4 inch tart pans. I used smaller pans so I got more tarts than I bargained for.


Pastry recipe :


8 oz plain flour
4 oz butter, cold and cubed
2-3 T cold water

Pre-heat oven to 200C. 


Sift flour, put in butter and rub butter into flour with your finger tips until they resemble fine breadcrumbs. Add the cold water and mix first with a spatula and then as it gets lumpy somewhat use your fingers to bring the dough together. 

Do not knead. This is not bread. It is pastry so it needs a light hand otherwise the gluten in the flour will get activated and the pastry will be tough. 

You could use a food processor very successfully but make sure you pulse the butter in the flour until it becomes like fine breadcrumbs and then add the water through the feed tube while the machine is running. Let the machine run until the mixture gathers into a ball. Turn off immediately and take out the dough. Allow to rest for about 10 minutes before rolling out.


Roll out the dough and cut into rounds bigger than your tart pans. Line the pans (there is no need to grease the pans because the pastry is already buttery).

Line the pastry with rounds of greaseproof paper (I used foil) and fill to the top with beans (I used rice). Bake blind for 1o minutes. Remove from oven and remove the beans/rice and then bake another 5 minutes until golden. Reduce oven temp to 180C.

Build Tart :


Divide the salmon strips between the tart shells. Beat eggs and dill. Add cream and whisk, add salt and pepper to taste. Pour custard into tartlets. Bake for 15 minutes until the filling is set and top is pale gold.

Cool then wrap in foil and chill or freeze up to a month and defrost before re-heating. 

To re-heat :


Pre-heat oven to 180 C and bake defrosted tarts for 10 minutes. 

BRINJAL IN DRIED SHRIMP SAMBAL ~ TERUNG MASAK SAMBAL UDANG KERING

Dried shrimps are one of the most flavourful ingredients to have around in the kitchen cupboard. It is pungent and like all pungent ingredients it is packed with umami, like bonito flakes, like fish sauce, like belacan etc. A dish becomes irresistible when pounded dried shrimps are used as a flavour base. The list of dishes for dried shrimps is endless...stir fried veggies, fried rice, fried noodles...as a sambal, as a filling, as a topping...hey-ho.....everything. 

Hub had just come back from a  trip to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah,  also referrred to as 'The Land Below The Wind' by the Suluks, a sea faring people from the Southern Philippines. So named because Sabah is located just below and lies just of reach of the merciless typhoons that hit and devastate parts of the Philippines every year. This name has been popularized by Agnes Keith's book, The Land Below The Wind.

Agnes Keith was an American born in Oak Park, Illinois. She married Henry G. Keith an Englishman who was appointed a conservator of forests and Director of Agriculture of North Borneo under the Chartered Company in the early 1900's.

Her chronicles of her life and unique experiences in the then  North Borneo as the wife of an English officer during the colonial era was submitted and won the prize in the non-fiction category in the 1939 Atlantic Monthly later to be published as a book named The Land Below The Wind. It received favourable reviews. Interestingly, one of her books 'Three Came Home' detailing the hardships and deprivations as POW under the Japanese became a bestseller and was turned into a motion picture.


Described by a friend ......"Mrs. AK has an unusual appearance, being six feet in height, very thin, with the stealthy lops of a red Indian. She dresses in startling and flamboyant fashion, in very bright colours while her hair is worn in two plaits,one over each shoulder, thus adding to a slightly Indian aura. " ~ excerpt from Wikipedia.


The bungalow in Sandakan, Sabah in which they spent many years as a family has been preserved by the state government.

In that sense Agnes Keith and Sabah have become inseperable just like what the best quality dried shrimps and the to-die-for whole, dried and salted red snapper is to The Land Below The Wind.

As I was saying, Hub had brought home a one kilogram packet of umami dried shrimps. Which is  a humongous amount but which I believe will be finished up in no time. Or ...perhaps not. I've got to give some away. Cholesterol my dear ...cholesterol.

This is what I made ~ Fired brinjals or eggplants in a dried shrimp sambal. Irresistible, to-die-for and totally...did I say  to-die-for? Yea....

The recipe ~

  
I had used the long brinjals or eggplants. They were sliced length ways and shallow fried. Then kept aside on kitchen paper while the sambal (paste, pesto)was being made. I also did not use belacan. After a frantic search in my cupboard I realized that I had run out of it. Waaaaaaaa.....

2 medium sized brinjals or eggplant
1/4 cup dreid shrimps, soaked in a little water to soften
1 inch square piece belacan (optional), slightly charred over a small flame
2-3 shallots
2 pips garlic
2 large red chillis 
2 dried chillis (optional) soaked in hot water for 15 minutes if using
1 lime
cooking oil
salt

Shallow fry the sliced brinjals in some oil until they get soft and cooked through. Drain on kitchen paper. Keep aside.


Pound dried shrimps, belacan, shallots, garlic, fresh chillies, dried chillies (if using) in a pestle and mortar until it becomes a fine paste. Salt may be added to ease the break down of the ingredients. But be careful of the amount of salt added because the shrimps and belacan are somewhat salty.

Pour *2-3 tablespoons of oil into a wok and saute the pounded ingredients until fragrant and until they turn a darker colour and looks slightly crusty on the surface. Another sign that it is done is when the oil seperates from the paste. 

* Add more oil if the mixture gets too dry. This dish is greasy.


Add salt to taste and a squeeze of lime juice. Lay the brinjals on a serving plate and scoop the of dried shrimps sambal over the top. Serve with freshly cooked white rice.

I'll be submitting this recipe for this month's Muhibbah Malaysian Monday. hosted by Shaz of Test with Skewer and 3 hungry tummies.

FISH IN HOT CHILLIE PEPPERS ~ SAMBAL BELADO IKAN

Drowned in oil and fiery. The whole fireworks. This is a dish originating from Padang in Indonesia.  It's hard to tear one's self away from one's ancestors when it comes to food. But I have done so. Because I'm married to someone who's ancestors come from a totally different part of South East Asia. 

Someone who prefers soupy food as opposed to oily. And someone who had decided a long time ago, for some reason, that there's not much point in eating fiery food when it burns/numbs your tastebuds. 

So it has been a long time since I've cooked anything remotely Minang, Padang-ish or numbingly fiery. But today when the cat was away I played.

Crispy fried fish slathered in crushed hot chillie peppers. It was hardly numbing because I did not have little bird chillies. Bummer. But there's always another day.

The recipe ~

2 servings


2 pieces of fish, whole or sliced, any firm oily fish
1/4 cup plain flour
1/8 cup rice flour
1/4 tsp tumeric powder
a pinch of baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
water


Mix all ingredients except the fish. Add water until you get a thick-ish slurry. Heat up a frying pan, add oil. When the oil is hot, dip the fish in the batter and fry until a golden brown and cooked through. Drain on kitchen paper and keep aside.


The sambal belado ~

4-5 large red chillies (plus 3 or 4 fiery bird chillies if you like)
3 pips garlic
1 large red onion or 5-6 shallots
Tamarind juice from 1 T tamarind paste and 4 T water
Juice from 1 small lime
salt


Chop the chillies in chunks leaving seeds in. Chop or slice the onion roughly. Peel garlic. Pound all three ingredients in a pestle and mortar (including bird chillies if using) until it becomes a coarse mush. You should still be able to see coarse pieces of chillies or onions here and there. This paste is not usually pounded till fine. BUT it should be pounded. If it is chopped in a food processor it just doesn't give the same results when cooked.


Pour about 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil into a wok or high sided pan. When fairly hot put in the pounded sambal paste. Stir it around and put the flame to medium small. Let the sambal cook through until really limp. About 7-8 minutes. Stir now and then. Add the tamarind juice and cook further for another 5 minutes or until the sambal starts to turn slightly golden at the edges or to caramelize slightly. Stir now and then. Add salt to taste. Add a squeeze of lime juice at the end and stir.  


Put the pieces of fish into the sambal mixture and turn over gently to slather the sambal all over the fish. Serve hot with steaming white rice.

THAI GLASS NOODLE SALAD

Glass noodles ~ cellophane noodles ~ mung bean threads ~ su'on ~ tunghoon ~ they're all one and the same. Slippery glass threads that are near impossible to scoop up if they were put into a soup. It's not to be confused with rice noodles.

It's complete transparency and its feel as it slips through your lips, slides over your tongue and slithers down your throat makes it a very unique noodle. 

It is an ingredient in a lovely soup with dried or fresh shrimps  that I used to eat as a child. A soup that's made up of bean curd skin, loofah, wooden ear fungus, golden needles and finally the glass noodles. Delicious. It was a favourite vegetable soup. But it was always the glass noodles that attracted and fascinated me more than anything else. It kept me busy.

But the Thais have made it the main ingredient in a light and lovely salad. Less slithery because it is not in a soup but is a moist salad and very delicious because it is mixed with a spicy, salty, sour and sweet dressing made of fish sauce, lime juice, bird chillies and brown sugar with the addition of some prawns, dried and fresh, and minced chicken. MMMM

My son and I had it for lunch today. It was a healthy lunch. Unfortunately I spoiled the 'healthy' part by gorging on some pineapple tarts I had baked right after. And as if I hadn't sinned enough.....2 hours after that I had a bowl of ice cream. But I redeemed myself by having an orange after.

Shall I'll try again tomorrow?

I have to tell you that it tasted even better after I had some later in the evening after the noodles had absorbed all the flavours of the dressing. Double MMMMMMMM

The recipe ~ the measurements are approximate since I had thrown everything in before remembering to measure them.....

100 gm dried glass noodles

100-150 gm minced chicken

5-6 pieces of medium prawns, shelled and cleaned, left whole season with little salt and pepper

1 cup of chopped spring onions

1/4 cup of chopped coriander

1/2 red onion, sliced

1 T dried shrimps, fried to a crisp and pounded finely (optional but more flavourful if included)

The 

Dressing ~

3 T fish sauce

1 T brown sugar

3-4 bird chillies or use large chillies if you prefer less heat

1-2 T lime juice

Soak the glass noodles in cold water to soften for about 10 minutes. Then drain placing the noodles back into the bowl. Pour just boiled water into the bowl of noodles and let stand for just 3-4 seconds and then drain thoroughly running cold water through to rid it of the heat. Keep aside.

Cook the minced chicken in a frying pan using only 1/2 tablespoon of cooking oil. Season with very little salt and pepper. Scoop out to a bowl. Saute the prawns in the same pan. Add a little oil of too dry. Don't use to much salt because the fish sauce is very salty.

Place the fish sauce and the brown sugar in a small pot and cook to a syrup. 

Pound the chillies or chop them. Then mix the rest of the dressing ingredients to the fish sauce syrup. Taste and adjust for sweetness and tartness. 

Combine the noodles, chopped spring onions, coriander sliced onions, cooked minced chicken fresh prawns and dried shrimps in a medium bowl. Pour the dressing over and mix well. Adjust for saltiness by adding salt or a few dashes of fish sauce. Serve. 

EGG ROLLED FISH CAKES

I am so inclined to whimsical food. Play food that is fun to make as it is to look at and to play with eat. These egg rolls filled my needs and are as pretty as a picture. 

Tracie from Bittersweet Flavours is whom I have to thank. Thank you Tracie. Her wonderful mother obliges with food for her blog, Tracie herself is quite the accomplished baker and these egg rolls were made by her aunt and displayed on her blog. That is what I call teamwork. Which makes me wish I had a living breathing and an industrious team of little elves in my kitchen right now.

However, these are what I made all by myself while my son hovered around the fringes. Waiting. And although the fish paste had little bubbles of air trapped inside I shall consider them not a failure but cute instead. But Perhaps I should have used white pepper instead of black.

I had used the fish ball recipe that I had posted earlier on, here. I just added a sprinkle of finely chopped red chillies for colour. Then I made and 2 or 3 thin omelets, spread the fish paste over each omelet, rolled them up into a longish log just like the making of pinwheel cookies, and then steamed them for 15 to 20 minutes. I then sliced them on the diagonal and took some pictures for fun my blog. How easy is that? ~ Child's play ~

And they were very very Yummy in our tummies ~

Great with a chillie soy vinegar dip like here ~

FISH FLOSS ~ SERUNDING IKAN

When a warm tropical thunderstorm ceases I'm happy. I feel as fresh as a cold, squirmy fish soaking in a sharp, chilly lake in the lush, mountain jungles of Borneo. With a camera. Snapping cheerfully at my bowl of fish floss. Knees in a puddle, slipping about on wet leaves.

It's the after rain feeling I'm having now. A little bouncy, blithe, light and gurgly. Its the ions. You know ~ the negetive ions~.

And strangely enough my fish floss look almost like fish food. Fish food fit for a Fish King. Or for the Queen of Fish. 

That's how gurgly I'm feeling right now.......pheash forgive me.

Tuna is what I used. 3 whole tunas, filleted, skinned, poached and crumbled. And spiced up with some chillie, coriander seeds, onions, garlic, ginger and tumeric. 

It's an appetizer, a side dish, a sandwich filler. It can be eaten as a topping for fried rice, with steamed glutinous rice or with bread for breakfast or as a snack. I love it. It's one of my favourite appetizers. If only it requires less time to make and if it lasts longer around the house.

This is one of those childhood food that I remember fondly of but rather vaguely because it was always presented to us or bought for special occasions but never made.

The light, airy flossed meat, fish or chicken that I remember is not something one can achieve at home. It usually looks like it has been shredded into strands and then beaten to a pulp until it's looks light and fluffy. Like it was done by a machine. Or a maniac.

But if you make it at home it will almost always look a little grainy not light and floss like.


Now..... Zurin here didn't want that. So to achieve that lightness that she does so covet I pulsed the cooked fish floss in the food processor until the little balls of fish floss became fine, light and airy. 


I thought it looked much better. You're welcome.

The recipe..................


650 gm of cooked fish meat (tuna, mackeral or any meaty fish) I used 3 whole tunas about 12 inches from tip to tail. You could also use an equal amount of minced beef or chicken.

6 medium onions
4 garlic
1 inch ginger
1/2 inch galangal
2 stalks lemon grass (white part only)
3 T coriander seed, pounded coarsely
1 T or more chillie paste (bottled or fresh)

2 tsp tumeric powder 
1 T sugar

250 ml coconut milk or cream
5 T any vegetable oil

salt

Poach the fillets of fish in pan of water until cooked. Drain and let cool. Remove bones and crumble the meat until it is as fine as you can get it....like breadcrumbs. Keep aside.


Peel onions, garlic ginger, galangal. Slice the white part of the lemon grass. Place them all in a food proccesor and process until quite fine.


Heat up the oil in a thick based medium pot. Saute the processed spices, while adding the chillie paste, tumeric powder and pounded coriander seeds, until fragrant and the paste turns a darker colour. About 10 to 15 minutes.



Put in the crumbled fish meat, pour in the coconut milk or cream and mix well. Let it cook on the stove on small to medium heat, stirring now and then to prevent burning. Ad sugar and salt. Stir and mix.


The mixture should not have any sauce or gravy but should be quite like a thick wet paste. Cook until it becomes slightly drier and it is no longer too wet.


Transfer the mixture to a large baking tray that has been lined with foil or baking paper for easier cleaning.

Bake in an oven at 170 C, checking and stirring every 15 minutes until the fish floss becomes golden all over. 


Stirring the floss as it bakes is important so that the floss browns evenly. I didn't time the baking but I think it took about an hour. 


Remove and let it cool completely. Pour half the floss into a food processor and pulse until the floss becomes fine, light and airy. Do the same for the rest of the floss.


Store in an airtight container and in the refrigerator.


Top or Snack.