Easy and Quick Recipe: Hot and Sour Fish (Pesmol Fish)

Let’s face it…I’m not a chef.  I’m also not a supermom.  I’m just a busy mom who cooks a quick and easy meal recipes that can be done in less than an hour.  I cut corners, use instant mix to make things quicker.  What’s important for me is finding the right balance between providing a “somewhat” healthy meal and utilizing quick and easy methods and ingredients.  Having said that, I try to avoid deep frying, which is very hard when it comes to Indonesian dish since we love deep fried food like Italian loves cheese.  I use instant mix a lot because most Southeast Asian dish use lots of spices.

For tonight’s dinner, I made Indonesian Hot and Sour Fish.  I just love fish; It’s healthy and very easy to thaw.  Fish is basically my go to meal when I forget to take some meat out of the freezer to thaw, or simply don’t know what to cook.  For this recipe, I use Tilapia.  I love the frozen Tilapia from Walmart because it’s individually wrapped and you can just take out however many you need.  I did a little bit of experiment by eating it with “Roti Paratha”.  ”Roti Paratha” or “Paratha bread” is a Southeast Asian version of tortilla, used particularly in Malaysian dish.

Ingredient:

• 5 – 6 Tilapia fillet
• Yellow Seafood Coating mix (see picture below).  You can get it at any Oriental Grocery stores
  
• “Munik” instant mix for Hot and Sour Fish (Pesmol Ikan).  You can get it at any Oriental Grocery stores
  
• Paratha bread (optional)
  

Method:

1. Heat about 3 Tbs of vegetable oil in medium heat
2. Pat dry each fillet and coat lightly with Yellow Seafood Coating mix.  No need to dip it in an egg batter.  Just simply cover both sides with the coating mix
3. Pan fry each fish and let it sit for a few minutes while you’re working on the next fillet
4. Flip the fish and pan fry the other side.  Cook until it flakes when you punch on the thickest part of the fish.  Add more vegetable oil if you need to.  You have to be generous with the oil (this is the unhealthy part).  You don’t want to deep fry it, but at the same time you want to use enough oil to make it crispy.
5. Meanwhile, mix “Munik” instant mix for Hot and Sour fish  (Pesmol Ikan instant mix) with 1/2 cup of water in a saucepan.  Stir until it’s mixed throughly
6. Once all the fillets are cooked, pour the sauce onto the fish.  I actually prefer to keep it separate because my oldest son doesn’t like to eat anything with sauce.  In addition to that, you can store the leftover.  When you’re ready to eat it again for lunch, you can bake the fish in a toaster oven and make it crispy again
7. Serve with hot rice or Paratha bread

All of these only takes half hour to cook.  Both my kids and hubby love it.  Simple, delicious, and somewhat healthy. Enjoy!