Fish in chili and garlic sauce
November 19, 2009 • Hello. I am currently out of the country and unable to respond to comments and e-mails. Rest assured, however, that future posts have been scheduled so new recipes will go live almost everyday during my absence. I'll be back soon with lots of stories and photos. Ciao for now! ~ ConnieNo, I’m not talking about bottled chili and garlic sauce. What went into this dish are chopped fresh garlic and finely sliced chilis. Also based on a Thai dish (which included coriander roots or stems which I didn’t have), the really interesting thing about this very easy to cook fish dish is how bold and daring the flavors are without overwhelming the palate. How is that possible? By scraping off the seeds of the chilis, you reduce the spiciness to a minimum. But with the amount of chilis that go into the sauce, you get more than a subtle sensation of their slightly sweet flavor.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how would I rate the difficulty of cooking this dish? Somewhere between 3 and 4. That should encourage even the not so advanced cooks to at least try and make this dish at least once.
And how does my family assess the deliciousness of this dish? I served this last night with the cucumber salad and there were no leftovers. At all.
Serves 4 to 6.
Ingredients:
1 k. of whole fish fillets (I used cream dory but most firm white fleshy fish will do)
salt
3 to 4 c. of cooking oil for seep frying
For the chili and garlic sauce
1 whole garlic (not 1 clove or segment but a whole bulb)
3 finger chilis (I used the picante variety and)
2 to 3 tbsps. of patis (fish sauce)
2 to 3 tbsps. of brown sugar
If your fish fillets are rather large (I had three fillets that totaled a kilo in weight), cut them into serving size pieces. Score the flesh on one side by making slashes about a quarter of an inch deep. Score in two directions so that you have diamond patterns on the fish flesh. It isn’t just to make them look pretty — scoring them this way helps make them really crisp on the surface but still able to catch a lot of the sauce.
Lightly sprinkle the fish with salt. Don’t overdo it because the sauce contains fish sauce which is also salty.
Crush, peel and chop the garlic. How coarse or how fine the pieces is up to you.
Thinly slice the chilis. I removed the seeds but you can choose not to — see tips — if you want a spicier sauce.
Heat the cooking oil until it starts to smoke. Deep fry the fish in batches until lightly browned and crisp. I timed this stage and a batch consisting of three fillets were done in eight minutes flat. But, of course, the cooking time depends on how hot your cooking oil is and how much cooking oil you’re using. If you don’t use enough cooking oil and you have to flip the fish over, the cooking time will be longer. In my case, I had enough cooking oil in the wok so that all the fish fillets were totally submerged in oil. No flipping necessary.
When the fish are nicely browned and crisp, drain them on paper towels then arrange on a serving platter.
Pour off the oil until only about two tablespoonfuls remain. Over medium heat, fry the garlic and chilis just until fragrant, about a minute. Pour in the fish sauce and add the sugar, stirring constantly. Don’t take too long with this stage. With the little liquid and the amount of sugar, the mixture will burn fast with prolonged contact with the heat. As soon as the sauce thickens and the sugar is dissolved, turn off the heat.
Pour the sauce over the fish and serve at once.
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what is cream dory called, locally, i mean in tagalog? thanks so much ms. connie!
I don’t know, sorry. They’re just called cream dory in the supermarket.
Cream Dory is pangas, a cousin of the hito and kanduli and looks just as ugly. It is a bottom feeder and farm raised in Vietnam along the Mekong River. Check out this website: http://www.elegancefoodandwine.com/2008/10/pangas-alias-dory-fish-cream-dory-river.html
It might interest you to know that the Philippines has been raising cream dory. It’s being encouraged in fact among fish farmers. The anti cream dory campaign was started by US catfish raisers who were losing big money to the popular cream dory. One of those companies actually barraged earlier posts that featured cream dory.
Hi Connie: The only reason I raised concern is that even here in Canada where I have lived for the past 30 years the large aguaculture corporations have had real difficulty with similar problems in farmed salmon. Sorry for the sour note.I enjoyed the sweet,sour and salty marinade on the cucumber salad though. Thanks.
Hi Connie!
How does the picante variety of chili look like?
Like finger chilis (siling haba).
Hi Connie,
I was a fan of Dory fish too, then i’ve read articles about it that made me think twice. I was just wondering how to differentiate Dory/Cream Dory that comes from Mekong and from those that are sourced somewhere else?
Your website is really useful and yummy.
If the info is not available on the label, check the name of the company. Call or research first if you want to be sure.
Hi ms. connie,
this dish is awesome. I didn’t have cream dory fish here. But I just bought 2 uncut fillets of trout; at nag sasawa na ko mag bake ng isda sa oven. So, I went through my printed collection of your recipes and I just did everything that the recipe said. Wonderful. Ubos agad. Satisfied to the max ang family ko. Thanks again.
Bambi
Can I use siling labuyo?
Yes but you’ll have to adjust the proportions of the cooked dish will be too spicy.
thank you for this recipe. i cooked this last night and my boyfriend absolutely loved it! but then i had difficulty frying the fish as it disentegrated when i flipped it (not enough [in quantity] or not hot enough cooking oil i guess).
If you deep fry the fish, there’s no need to flip.
Hi Ms. Connie..i tried this recipe and it’s so good..thanks so much.
Hi ms connie, what is cream dory called in tagalog, and what is the best cooking of cream dory. fried , grilled or breaded.
I don’t know its Tagalog name, sorry. I like them fried, breaded or floured. Also good steamed.
No problem. It’s just that this anti cream dory campaigns always insist that cream dory only comes from the Mekong river which isn’t really accurate.