duri & chips

Chopchopkalipok would like to take this opportunity to pay a little tribute to fish n chips and advise fellow fishing kakis not to discard duris overboard. Please practice catch and release if there is no intention of eating the cat fish.

nineteen tor yu tin

This simple dish is the first and only mat salleh dish that chopchopkalipok had in his younger days. Where got chance to taste other western food like sirloin steak, rib eye steak, lobster thermidor? The availability of western food was also very limited in the early 70's. Road side stalls do not sell western food as the general working class population can barely afford it. Decent western food was only available at those "posh" restaurant. Imagine this, how can my dad afford to take us to "posh mat salleh" restaurant when his monthly wage was only $350 in 1970. The closest we can have is, lb try to "copy" the ang mohs by frying fish with her own batter recipe. Her recipe was more like the "kampung Pagoh" style goreng pisang recipe which was very heavy as the batter had eggs in it. The french fries were also made from local kantang cut into strips.

Fish n chips days were only limited to Christmas and very special occasions. So sister and I really looked forward to it. Though the fried fish may taste like goreng pisang, the kantang french fries soft and limp that need plenty of help from Viagra, we would wolf down as much as our little tummies could hold as we did not know when the next fish n chips day would be...

fast forward to present day

Ok, now that you have portioned and readied the duri fish fillet. You just need to line them up in a shallow container.

Marinate the fillets with generous amount of Lea & Perrins worcestershire sauce. Enough to coat the fillets with a little access but not drown the fillets.

Sprinkle white pepper, salt, 七味粉 only on the topside of the fillets as shown on the picture above. As chopchopkalipok uses agaration technique, this is good enough for seasoning the fillets. However, if you have the burning desire to add more or less seasonings, please go ahead. Cooking is not rocket science ya.

Cover the container with cling wrap and chill in the fridge for 3 hours.

Remove from fridge and turn over the fillets. Take this opportunity to rub the seasonings on the other sides. However, you have to be very gentle as the fillets break up quite easily. Cover and into the fridge the container goes for another 3 hours.

Chopchopkalipok recommends a minimum of 4 hours for duri fillets as this fish is pretty bland in taste. However, if you are using a more delicate fish like ikan merah, you may want to reduce the marinating timing to so as not to "overwhelm" the taste of the fish itself...

To prepare the batter, you will need,

all purpose flour 3/4 part
rice flour 1/4 part
tiger beer
cooking oil

Mix the flour and rice flour well. Rice flour will give the extra crisp. However, adding too much will make the batter heavy.

Add in beer at the same time whisking the batter. Agaration the amount of beer to be added. the right consistency should be, the batter must be able to coat the back of the spoon well.

Add in a few table spoon of cooking oil and whisk till the batter is smooth and free of lumps. Set aside the batter for 20 min before using the batter. I would prefer to keep the batter chill while standing the batter.

tip: a drop or two of yellow coloring into the batter will give that long john silver fried fish color...

the kantang

Your choice of crinkle cut or shoestring cut readily available from super mart.

tip: I would prefer to "thaw" those ready to fry frozen french fries before I attempt to fry them. I would use an electric fan to blow dry the fries. I find that this will prolong the crisp of the fries.

cooking

Always fry the french fries before the fish if you are like chopchopkalipok who prefer to use one set of oil for the entire preparations. However, I do not like to keep the oil for second usage. Times are bad, oil very expensive.

Chopchopkalipok prefers to fry in a wok as it is more economical. Haha. More like shallow frying instead of deep frying... Chopchopkalipok will not go through the process of how to fry the french fries and the fish as this had been discuss in my June entry, "let's fry them". However, I would like to share a few tips about my experience with fish n chips my style...

Remove the marinated fillets from chilling about 25mins before frying. Do pat dried the fillet with kitchen paper towels before dipping into batter.

Coat the fillet with batter and allow excess batter to drip off before frying. Fry the fillets one piece at a time. Remove any broken bits of batter from the oil before frying the next fillet.

You may want to drip a few drops of batter to "test" oil, adjust fire if necessary. The first fillet to be fried will be your gauge on how hot the oil is. Adjust fire if necessary.

Remove the fried fish when the batter starts browning. The batter will continue to brown with the residual heat.

Chopchopkalipok like to rest the fried fish and fries on a rack to allow draining of excess oil before transferring to paper towel for more oil absorption.

Last, eat fish n chips when it is piping hot...

"nolema said...

Bro,just a tip... Chill the Beer. The colder you get the mixture, the lighter the batter will be. I even do it with a bowl of ice-water on the bottom of the bowl with the batter.

Another tip. Add a tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese into the batter. Gives it better flavour & makes the batter stick to the fish better."