Ikan siakap dengan kuah asam jawa - Seabass in Sweet and Sour Tamarind Sauce

Ikan siakap dengan kuah asam jawa - Seabass in Sweet and Sour Tamarind Sauce

Do you still remember the sea-bass dish we have been crazy about during our 4 days stay in Langkawi? Yes! Seabass in sweet and sour tamarind sauce. My husband was craving for the dish a few weeks later and I managed to retrieve the recipe from a blog. However, I forgot the name of the blog. Whoever the blogger is, I truly appreciate your effort to share this beautiful dish and I credit you for that. Yesterday, I cooked the dish once again and decided to share this beautiful dish with you, my fellow blogger friends.

Ingredients:

300 gm Sea-bass - gutted, cleaned and scored

1 inch of carrot – julienne
½ inch of ginger – mince
A handful of dried anchovies – pounded finely (subtitute with anchovies stock cube)
2 cloves of garlic - mince
An onion - sliced
Red chili - sliced
3 bird eye chilies cut into halves (my first harvest!)
A cup of thin tamarind juice - 2 teaspoon of tamarind extract mixed with a cup of water (make extra to marinate fish)
1 1/2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
Sugar and salt to taste
Cooking oil - for deep frying and some for stir frying

Method: 

1. Marinate fish with tamarind juice for 10-15 minutes to reduce fishy smell. Rub fish with salt and turmeric powder. Deep-fry the fish until golden brown crispy. Set aside. 
2. Heat 2 – 3 spoon of cooking oil in a pan. Sauté minced garlic and ginger until fragrant. Add in anchovies, onions, red chilies, bird eye chilies, carrots, oyster sauce and turmeric powder. Stir fry for another 2-3 minutes.
3. Add in tamarind juice and season with sugar and salt to taste. Let it simmer to thicken the sauce. Cover the fish with sauce before serving.

Pecal – Vegetables with Groundnut Dressing

My mother, father and my three brothers came over last Saturday. My youngest brother is scheduled to sign in as one of Royal Military College's boys on Sunday morning. I decided to make Pecal – Vegetables with Peanut Sauce for Saturday's lunch accompanying rice. As far as I remember, the last time I made Pecal was four years ago. Thinking that my kangkung is a fairly a good harvest today, the time is good. However, I still have to buy a few other ingredients from the store.

My Garden’s Color Palettes

My Garden Color Wheel

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I have nothing much to say today. I've been busy lately in the office and at the house as well. Last weekend, we made a few new arrangements in the small room downstairs' and resuming spring-cleaning the house. I barely left the house so to say. Only yesterday, I have the time to check out my garden thoroughly. Days before, I just came out at eight or so right after dinner to water the plants. On working days, I usually change my baby boy to his PJ's and quickly prepared dinner right after arriving home which left me less time to check out the garden.

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Wet Wednesday

Heavy downpour here in Putrajaya. It started to rain since yesterday's noon to this morning. Like any other Wednesday, my husband had to rush for his football game. Therefore, I have extra time to spend checking out my garden. Luckily my camera underwater model. Hence, I have no problem taking picture under the rain. I was able to snap a few photos when it drizzles for a few minutes.

My onions are doing great despite of the leaning leaves. They are going toward the bright side. I had to put the pot under shady area since I thought they possibly would not be able to stand the heat and strong wind. I'm crossing fingers for the flower so I could harvest the seed. I plan to sow some though I do think planting onion is not productive as we use onion in almost every dish. To provide enough supply of onion for a household on daily basis, a large-scale plantation is good. However, we'll see how the plan goes later.

My bird eye chili plant is thriving with its sprouting yield. "This is exciting!" has now become my daily chant. Grinning. Can't wait to harvest my first yield.

So does my cucumber.

Cabbages, Roselle, baby carrots, pumpkin, watermelon and the broccolis are still concentrating their utmost effort and energy forming healthy leaves.

Baby carrots

Cabbage 1

Cabbage 2

Brocolis

Sweet pumpkin

Watermelon

Roselle

Special first appearances in this blog are ginger, fragile tomato seedlings, brinjal and water pepper as known as "Daun Kesum" or "Laksa Leaves".

Tomato

Brinjal

Ginger

"Daun Kesum" or "Laksa Leaves"

Something Is Bugging Me

Last Friday was a public holiday. Malaysia's lineup won the AFF Suzuki Cup. As a reward, the Prime Minister announces that Friday is a national public holiday. Meetings rescheduled. People moves fast last Thursday to meet deadlines. It is the end of the year. For me, more time to be at home. At first, I plan to attend a friend's wedding on Saturday and some yearend-shopping spree and concentrate tending my garden in Sunday. With extra time on Friday, I decided to spring-clean the house. There are stuffs we no longer need. Some old clothes are still in excellent condition. We are considering sending them to charity. However, we don't know which is yet. Two rooms and the storeroom all cleared from junks. One more to go. We'll get to it next weekend.

On Saturday, before leaving the house for our friend's wedding, I briefly had a quick tour on my garden and gave my precious plant a quick shower. I was pleased at first seeing my cucumber had its first blooms. However, something is bugging me. There's a bug happily sniffing the blooms. I jumped into conclusion that this bug might also responsible on the leaves mishap.

The broccolis are in superb shape so far. Thinking that they might need a bigger space to grow, I transplanted them to the ground patch with the other two broccoli seedlings. The kailan too moved to a bigger patch since the kangkung are already went beyond their territory. My other plan for this weekend is to sow cauliflower, Bok-Choy (for the fourth time) and amaranth (for the third time). However, I was occupied by my laziness on sunny Sunday. Grinning. Besides, my mother is coming over. Therefore, I had to settle a few things in the kitchen due to her arrival with my father and brothers.

I can't help noticing my orchid had flower buds on it. This is the second time it is going to bloom. This is exciting.

My sweet Ms. Cabbage and baby carrots are looking great in my garden.