Wednesday 7 January 2009

RECIPE: MACKEREL/SARDINE SAMBAL WITH PETAI


I got this recipe from my good friend Shafidah Shamen of Sydney. Thank you dear…it was really yummy. She made this with sardines but as I didn’t have any at home, I substituted the sardines with mackerel. I also changed her recipe slightly. In addition, I added some petai to the dish as well. Here’s the recipe.



Ingredients

Large tin of mackerel or sardines in tomato sauce – bones removed and fish separated from the sauce
1 large onion – cut into rings
1 heaped tbsp tamarind – soaked in 1 cup of hot water and juice extracted
1 to 2 tsp chilli powder
Tomato sauce from the tinned mackerel
½ tin of petai – optional (see my post on PETAI)
Salt to taste
Veg oil

Grind the following to a paste:
Handful of shallots
½ thumb size fresh ginger
4 large cloves of garlic

Method

Heat oil in a pan and fry the ground ingredients until dry and slightly golden. Add in the chilli powder and half a cup of water and render the paste. Add in the tamarind juice and half of the tomato sauce. Cook for 2 mins.

Add in the petai and sliced onions and cook for another 2 mins. If the gravy is too dry, add more water to the left over tamarind pulp and extract more juice. Add this to your cooking.

Add in the mackerel and cover with the sauce, making sure that you don’t ‘break’ the fish in the process. Check seasoning and add slat if required. Lift and serve hot with rice. Yum!

4 comments:

Tastes of Home said...

wow this looks great VG! i love petai, dont think there are here though :)

VG said...

Thanks dear. Pity you can't get petai. Maybe you should stock up on your next trip home. The petai in brine lasts indefinitely. You might have do a bit of explaining at Customs, though...LOL!

Raynebow said...

Hey I love petai too! I'm amazed you can get petai over there?! Canned petai? I don't think i have ever come across this before. We get fresh ones here all the time, hehe!

VG said...

Hi Raynebow. Tks for stopping by.

Yes we get 'Ayam' brand canned petai in brine and also frozen petai, which is my preference as it is similar to fresh petai.

Of course you can get fresh petai there...stop rubbing it in!!! :D