Pan Fried Promfret with Caramelised Onion Topping + Tofu & Egg Omelette

For the longest time, I wanted to cook fish. I mean, I love eating fish thus it only makes sense to try to cook them.

I set out to search for a recipe that I can handle. I wanted to make this fish dish I had whenever my friends and I goes to Haja Maimunah. It has this sweet & spicy black sauce. (omg...I wish I can have some now) I searched and I found this recipe instead from Annelicious Food.

This is a Chinese recipe I think and I decided to try this instead since I am not sure where to get the Malay recipe. Will get it from my dear friend Nora soon. Keep you guys posted...

Pan Fried Promfret with Caramelised Onion Topping

Ingredient

• 1 black Pomfret
• 1 large Onion
• 3 slices of ginger, julienned
• 1 + 1 tbsp Soy Sauce
• ½ tbsp Sugar 
• ½ tbsp Sesame Oil
• 1 tsp Salt
• some Spring Onion for garnishing

Method

1. Clean fish, pat dry using kitchen towel. Rub 1 tsp salt all over the fish.
2. In a non-stick pan, or Happycall pan if you have. Heat a tablespoon of oil, pan fry the fish under medium low heat. Just fry it slowly. Like that, you will have nice and crispy fish skin outside and soft fish meat inside. Heat off, dish up.
3. Using the same pan, add in ginger and sesame oil, fry till fragrant. Heat off. Pour a tablespoon of soya sauce on it, set aside.
4. In a skillet, heat a tablespoon of oil, add in onion, under medium heat, fry till onion turned soft. Add 1 tbsp soy sauce and ½ tbsp Sugar. Continue to fry till onions turned caramelized. 
5. Pour caramelized onion on top of the fish, pour over the ginger and soya sauce, sprinkle with onion and there you are.

As I did not manage to dry the fish properly before frying, the fish skin stuck to the pan and I ended up with a skinless fish.I followed this recipe pretty strictly but added water when I was caramelising the onions as the sauce appears too concentrated.  Here is my end result of the dish.

Pan Fried Promfret with Caramelised Onion Topping

(pretty ugly right.=_=' Will try harder next time)



Notes :
- I made 2 slits across the body of the fish front and back to allow it to be cooked easier. Read it on another blog while I was searching for the recipe.
- The recipe calls for a large onion and I bought the yellow onion instead of the red one thinking it will be sweeter. Will try with the red onions next time.
- As the recipe did not specify if the soy sauce should be dark or light soya sauce, I decided to add dark soy sauce. My sauce turned out to be rather black unlike what I saw on Annelicious Food blog. Could it be due to the dark soy sauce I used is the thick version similar to those we get from Hainanese chicken rice stall? hmm..
- I wonder if the flavour would be better if we add a little oyster sauce here? Will it go well with the dish?

Personal Thots:
The flavour turns out nice except for it becoming skinless. lol. Hubby says that its abit blend but I thought the taste was ok except that the onions could use abit more sugar. It tastes similar to what my mum cooks except that she will add in some chilli. I should probably do that the next time. lolx~!

I have also searched for a tofu & egg omelette. For the longest time, my hubby and I enjoyed the dish at my mother-in-law's place. Thinking that that recipe should be relatively simple, we tried but always failed to get the correct taste. Determine to succeed this time I googled and found this recipe which is close enough from Cloud9Food .

Tofu n Egg Omelette

Ingredients- 110g hard tofu
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 tsp soya sauce
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- dash of pepper
- a little oil for frying

Method

1. In a small bowl, mash the tofu with the back of a spoon. Crack an egg into the tofu and mix gently until well combined.2. Add the soya sauce, sesame oil and pepper to the mixture and mix well.

3. In a small non-stick frying pan or small egg pan, heat up a little oil over medium heat.4. Pour the tofu and egg mixture into the pan and smooth the top of the mixture so that the height is even.
5. Cook over medium heat until the tofu omelette is golden brown and firm underneath. With a small spatula, slowly separate the omelette from the sides of the pan. When the mixture is solid enough to turn, quickly flip it over with the spatula (it can get a little tricky here). 
6. Cook the other side, until the omelette is golden brown on both sides and firm. Cut the omelette up into cubes or wedges with your spatula. The inside should be firm and not runny. Serve hot or cold.

Tofu & Egg Omelette

(Nicely done but should have fried it longer...)

 

Personal thots :
The only thing I changed is to use egg tofu instead of hard tofu.
I would say mashing up the tofu really makes the job a lot easier as oppose to slicing it into big pieces. The taste was good but as compared to what my mother-in-law cooks, something is still lacking. Could it be I need to fry it longer? Hmm...

On the overall, I am pretty satisfied with the end results but could have done a better job at pan frying the fish. This definitely calls for practise. I vaguely remember my mum commenting that the fish has to be very dry to get a good fry. I should have consulted her before I try this dish.. =_='

The tofu and egg omelette, a dish that is surprisingly simple and nice but I am having trouble getting it just right. 2 simplest ingredients but requires lots of knowledge and experience in handling I guess.

My dinner turns out pretty decent and hubby seems to enjoy it as well.
(Though I hope its not coz he bobian....)

Now how did your dinner cooking episode go? =)
I have bought my next ingredient, chunjang (black soybean paste).
Can you guess what I am gonna make next?
Can't wait till my next round of cooking...

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs up organised by Doreen from my little favourite DIY and Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, hosted by Mich of Piece of Cake at this post.