SOI LEMANG

Serves 4

This typical homestyle dish is best prepared with ikan cincaru, also known as hardtail fish. Cooked in a mouthwatering spicy and sour sauce, this dish goes well with a plate of freshly cooked white rice and a dish of sambal belacan (page 30) on the side. The skin of the hardtail fish is very tough and is usually not eaten. Peel it off and enjoy the firm and succulent flesh beneath.

Hardtail fish 4, each about 150 g (5⅓ oz)
cleaned and gutted

Cooking oil 250 ml (8 fl oz / 1 cup)
Red chillies 2, sliced
Onions 4, peeled and cut into rings
Water 100 ml (3½ fl oz)
Light soy sauce 1 Tbsp
Dark soy sauce 2 Tbsp
Limes 6, juice extracted

Chilli Paste

Dried chillies 100 g (3½ oz), cut into
short lengths, soaked for 10 minutes,
seeds removed

Candlenuts 3
Salt ½ tsp

1.   Pound or grind together ingredients for chilli paste until fine.

2.   Using a small sharp knife, make a slit down the right and left side of the spine of each
fish. Spoon 1 Tbsp chilli paste into the slits on each fish and place any remaining paste
into the stomach of fish. Set aside for 10 minutes.

3.   Heat 200 ml (7 fl oz) oil in a pan and pan-fry fish on one side until lightly brown and
crisp. Repeat to cook the other side. Dish out and set aside.

4.   Heat remaining oil in the pan and fry remaining chilli paste until oil rises.
Add chillies, onions, water and soy sauces and let boil.

5.   Return fried fish to pan. Drizzle over lime juice. Dish out and serve hot.

NOTE

•  Depending on your taste preference, you may want to adjust the amount of lime juice added.
Do this by adding a little lime juice at a time and tasting until you achieve the flavour desired.

118

EURASIAN HERITAGE

Cooking