Baked Mackerel Asian Style and more Cultural Exchange

I'm going Asian again for this post and this time it's Fish! I mentioned in my Cod Post that I don't have much experience in making fish but am slowly trying out new things. I also mentioned that my favourite way of cooking fish is to wrap it in foil together with a whole bunch of other ingredients and then bake it. I took the same route this time!

This recipe was inspired by a Steamed Fish we had at Kuala Selangor. This would be a good time for some Cultural Exchange too! Kuala is the Malay word for confleunce of two rivers or River Mouth. Hence, Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, literally translated means 'muddy confluence' as two rivers - Sungai Gombak and Sungai Klang. Sungai of course means River.

Kuala Selangor is the name of a small town locate at the river mouth of Sungai Selangor while Selangor is one of the larger states in Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur, itself a Federal Territory, is completely surrounded by Selangor. So much for the Geography lesson.

Kuala Selangor however, aside from its fantastic seafood, is World Famous for it's fireflies. The mangrove swamp along the river is home to one of the largest firefly colonies in the World! Apparently the only other place that you can see fireflies like this is in Brazil although there is also apparently a cave in New Zealand that has a lot of glowworms. (I'm not sure if glowworms are the same as fireflies...). Regardless, it is truly a wondrous sight.

Anyone of you wanna come to KL to visit me, I'll take you to see the fireflies and then for dinner at Kuala Selangor!

Back to the fish now. Mackerel is what is known as Tenggiri in this neck of thw woods. The fish we had at Kuala Selangor was a steamed Sea Bass or Barramundi - what we call Siakap.



This is what I did with the fish, trying to replicate what we ate.

1 inch ginger - sliced
2 cloves garlic - chopped
3 stalks lemon grass (serai) - bruised
3 tomatoes - quartered
5 bay leaves
4 Mackerel Steaks
a little soy sauce
Chilli Flakes
Sesame Oil

Place fish in Aluminium foil and rub a little soy sauce and sesame oil on it. Add the rest of the ingredients over and around the fish and then fold the foil into an envelope shape. Bake in preheated 190C overn for about 20 minutes till fish is cooked.

So simple and yet so delicious. The Lovely Wife reckoned it was almost as good as what we had eaten and she suggested that next time I should add some Tofu in as well - just like in the restaurant! I myself was very pleased with this effort and the kids loved it too - so a definite winner here!