Sweet And Sour Fish

An all time favourite dish prepared in a breeze....sweet and sour fish, and for today, it's grouper from the market - fresh, shiny and metallic. I would have preferred Asian sea bass because of its chunkier and firmer flesh but it was out of season. 

Sweet and sour fish is served at almost any Thai or Chinese restaurant in the East Coast region. It is a dish not too hot and not too fancy for anyone's palate. Whether it's Thai, Chinese or Western sweet and sour dish, the ingredients are almost the same. The good thing about this dish is that you can prepare the sauce way ahead, and reheat it when it's time to pour it over the fish, just in time for lunch or dinner. Simple, yet delicious.

For 1 big fish:

For the sauce, preheat 3 tbsp of oil in a pan.

Then add 3 crushed garlic and  2 shallots finely chopped. In a processor, blend a cup of water, 1/3 cup vinegar, 2 medium sized tomatoes, 1 tbsp cornflour and a slice of pineapple ( about 200g). Add this into into the pan.

Then add half cup tomato ketchup, 1/3 cup oyster sauce, 1/2 cup plum sauce and 1 tbsp chicken stock. Stir and let simmer. 

Add to the simmering sauce, a cup of finely chopped pineapples, 1/2 cup mix vegetables, 1/2 cup canned button mushroom (sliced or cut into 2), 2 red chillies chopped and a finely sliced capsicum.

Then sprinkle into the mixture, a teaspoon of white pepper, a teaspoon of salt (or slightly more) and 1/3 cup sugar.
 

In the meantime, deep fry 2 large Holland onions cut into rings, and add into sauce. Coat fish with a mixture of turmeric powder, salt and corn flour. Get 1 tbsp of chopped Chinese celery and 1 tbsp of chopped spring onion ready. 

Coat the fish in flour (1/2 cup plain flour and 1/2 cup corn flour). Then dip it in 2 beaten eggs. Then again, coat with flour. Heat oil in pan enough to deep fry the fish. Toss it and put onto plate. Pour sauce, sprinkle with chopped leaves.

Serve hot with white rice. Simply awesome.