All this while this Ikan Chuan Chuan is known by me as Ikan Goreng Halia. Just recently my mom told me that the actual name for this dish is Ikan Chuan Chuan.

This is another simple Nyonya dish too.

The Ingredients:
Fish
Sliced Ginger
Chopped Garlic
Taucu (Salted Bean Paste)
Dark Soy Sauce
Water
Salt and Sugar to taste
Oil

How To Cook Ikan Chuan Chuan:
1. Deep fry the fish then set it aside.
2. Stir fry the chopped garlic and sliced ginger till aroma.
3. Add in a spoon of the Taucu. Fry it till the taucu smell pokes your nose.
4. Pour in some water then the dark soy sauce, salt and a lil bit of sugar (if u use MSG, then no need sugar ok).
5. Wait till the gravy boils then add in the fried fish.
6. Let the gravy soaks in the fish for a lil while then scoop it out onto your serving plate.
7. Enjoy with hot steaming rice.

For this Nyonya dish, all you need is Fish, Tamarind Sauce, Water and Salt. That’s the basic. We add Onions to make it taste sweeter. And I’ll put lots of it coz my children loves Onions!

How To Cook Ikan Goreng Assam:
1. Scoop 1 Tbsp if Assam and dilute it in a bowl of water.
2. Soak the fish in it for about 20mins.

3. Remove the fish and deep fry it. You got to be careful here. Got water mah. I throw the fish inside the wok then run far far away! Once cooked, place it on a plate.
4. Once all the slices of fish are fried, remove some oil from the wok; leave just enough to fry the onions.
5. Fry the sliced Onions.
6. Pour in the diluted Tamarind Paste was was used to soak the fish.
7. Add Salt to taste.
8. Put the fried fish back in the gravy and bring to boil.

If you like it spicy, throw in some bird eye chili or sliced chili.

Some Nyonyas (like my MIL) prepare their Ikan Goreng Assam without the gravy. The fish will be soaked in thicker Tamarind Paste.

When I was in campus, most of the time I will eat at the hostel’s canteen which is mostly Malay food which I prefer more than Chinese food. You can’t blame me, I’m a Nyonya, I grew up eating chili. And the food that I miss most is the Sambal Fish.

Since the kitchen is mine now, I tried recreating the Sambal Fish that I ate 10-13 years ago. Amazingly, I got it right on the first try. Hubby confirms it when he commented that it taste like the Hostel Sambal Fish. So I shall name this dish Hostel Sambal Fish.

The recipe is rather simple. Btw, I will only cook simple to prepare dishes.

The Sambal:
Blended Chili (Chili, Shallots and Candlenuts)
Chili Sauce
Sliced Onion
Minced Garlic
Sugar
Salt
Dark Soy Sauce
Water

The Fish:
Marinate them with Turmeric Powder and Salt.

How to Cook Hostel Sambal Fish:
1. Deep fry the marinated Fish until cook. Set aside.
2. Fry the Garlic for a few seconds then add in the Blended Chili. Fry for about 10 minutes under low fire. (goreng sampai chili garing).
3. Add around 2-3 tbsp of Chili Sauce. The next step you got to do it pretty fast so that your chili won’t get burnt.
4. Add in the Onion then water for the gravy. Bring to boil.
5. Add in the Dark Soy Sauce. This depends on how dark your want your Sambal to be.
6. Sprinkle some sugar and salt to taste.

Lastly let the deep fried fishes have a deep in the Sambal.

There you go. It is ready. The Hostel Sambal should have sweet and spicy taste.

Oh ya! Scoop out the extra oil. I wonder why when I added Chili Sauce to my dishes the oil tends to appear way too much. They use a lot of oil to make Chili Sauce kah?

Here is another Simple Nyonya Dish that my children love. This dish is call Tempra. Besides fish, you can use chicken too but with a slight twist to the recipe.

The Ingredients for the Ikan Tempra:
Onion - Sliced
Lime Juice or Vinegar
Sliced Chili (optional)
Dark Soy Sauce
Oyster Sauce (Optional)
Salt
Water
Oil
and of course the Fish.

How to cook Ikan Tempra:
1. Deep fried the fish until cooked then remove it from the wok.
2. Fry the Sliced Onion till aroma.
3. Squeeze in some lime juice
4. Add in the Soy Sauce & Oyster Sauce
5. Add in the chili.
6. Pour in the water and bring it to boil.
7. Put the fish back in and let it soak in the gravy for a lil while.
8. Add salt then taste the gravy. If not sour enough, add in more lime juice.

In my recipe, there is no measurement coz I cook to eat, not to write recipe.

If you like more Onion, you can add in more. If you want more gravy, add more water. Just make sure you add enough the Soy Sauce, Salt and Lime Juice so that the gravy will have some sweet, sourish and saltish taste. That is the Tempra taste.

This dish is great for children coz it has lots of gravy. Good as confinement dish coz got lots of ginger. My mom loves to eat this with porridge when she has sore throat.

The ingredients are thinly sliced Ginger, garlic, soy bean paste (taucu), dark soy sauce water and salt.

The fish needs to be deep fried first.

Then prepare the gravy. Fry them till aroma the add water, dark soy sauce and salt to taste.

That’s all.

This is what my maid did to the anchovies that she uses to boil soup.

As not to waste the anchovies; normally we will just give it to the chicken, she deep fried the anchovies and set it aside.

Fry some sliced onion and slice chilli then put in the anchovies. Add the Dark Soy Sauce and some sugar; it’s done.

It smell nice and taste nice too. Try it, then you will know.

Salted Fish with Rice

My Favorite.

The salted fish must be fried till crisp. You can even eat the bones.

The rice must be warm.

Just a small piece of the fried salted fish with a handful of rice. Yes, you must eat with your hands. Use all your five fingers, not your palm. I’ll teach how-to later.

Most family who are poor used to eat like this for their meal.

I eat it because I love the aroma of fried salted fish and I like eating salty food when I was a small girl. I think, this helps me to stay thin (not slim).