Very unintentionally, Sunday’s dinner ended up so seafood, including the steaming Basa fish fillets, deep fry squid rings and a pot of Tofu-fish and fish ball soup.

At first place I was just trying to get some squid to try out a new recipe I saw from Women Weekly the other day. However, the Basa fish fillets looked very appealing with fresh pinky colour. It once again reminded me Jessie’s easy recipe. She invented this recipe and I, every time I do it, I amended a bit, sometime add extra fresh chilli, sometimes add preserved vegetable, sometimes I even added cooking wine into the water underneath so when water is vaporised, the flavour of wine can be absorbed by fish.

Preparation of Steaming Basa Fish Fillets

I love the easiness of preparation of this dish. Soft Japanese Tofu underneath, then pinch of salt sprinkle on tofu, if you like, you can add some preserved vegetable (榨菜沫) here, then slice fish fillets and put them on the top, sprinkle with chilli. Steam for 8 minutes. Before serve, top with two tablespoons 蒸鱼豉汁. At last, sprinkle finely chopped coriander or shallot.

After 8 minutes steaming and before serve

For deep fry squids, I used sea salt and chilli flakes mixed with bread crumbles. There are two key factors to make a perfect deep fry. One is to use enough oil; Another is to first coat squid rings with plain flour. Most people dip the squid directly into beaten eggs then coat them with crumbles. It doesn’t work well (It’s been proved since I had tried lots of times). The crumbles would not attach well on the surface of squid and would get off quickly when deep frying in the oil. I am glad that I used chilli flakes and sea salt this time. The flavour is really great and rich. Squid is perfect for hot spicy ingredients, so feel free to use as much as you like.

Deep fry squid rings with chilli flakes and sea salt