Monday, June 21, 2010

Baked/Grilled Whole Tilapia

As you can see I left the head and tail of this fish intact. That means Diana and I will be eating this fish. As usual Carlos will never eat fish with the eyes starring back at him. He thinks the whole fish with its face was really creepy. Oh well, you know we Asians we like to eat every part of our food. Nothing goes to waste and moreover I think it tastes much better this way. I guess what is norm to us might seems strange to some other culture. Anyway, back to the fish. I don’t usually fry it at home as the smell will lingers around for too long. I will usually bake it in the oven. This is how I like to prepare my fish. It tasted just as good if not better than the fried ones.


Ingredients:
1 fresh Tilapia fish (about 1 ½ pound)
1 tbsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp chili powder
Salt and peppr to taste

Toppings:
2” of fresh ginger – finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic – finely chopped
3 shallots – thinly sliced
3 spring onions – cut small
2 red chili or 4 bird eye chili – cut small
½ tsp sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Clean the fish inside and out. Pat it dry with a paper towel. Cut a few score on the fish on both side. Season the fish with salt, pepper, turmeric powder and chili powder. Set it aside to marinate for an hour
2. Heat up the oven to 400 degree F. Line the baking pan with some aluminium foil. Drizzle the base with a bit of olive oil. Place the fish on the center of the baking pan, drizzle some oil on the fish and bake the fish for 35-40 min (depend on the size of the fish).
3. In the meantime, cook the topping. heat up about 3 tbsp of olive oil in a frying pan. Add in shallots, garlic and ginger and stir-fry until lightly brown and fragrant. Add in the cili and spring onions. Continue to stir fry until fragrant. Add in seasonings. Dish out and set it aside.
4. Once the fish is almost done, switch the oven to broil. Grill the fish until the skin is golden brown, turn the fish over and grill the other side until brown.
5. Remove the fish to the serving plate and top it with the toppings. Serve immediately.

23 comments:

Reanaclaire said...

the talapia fish looks so finely dressed up.. oven baked it? great.. next time i do it this way instead of frying..

Lisa Ho said...

Frozen Talapia?? lovely..
I have a craving for Ikan Terubuk... fatty and lots of bones.. nice to BBQ..

busygran said...

It sure looks good with all that topping. I have never tried baked fish cos my husband likes them deep fried till crispy. Perhaps I'll surprise him with it one of these days.

Jeannie said...

A healthier version but looks just as good as the fried one...I hate frying fish too, maybe I can try cooking it this way. Thanks for sharing:D

Quinn said...

Gert, look so good la...Haha, Carlos is like any other Caucasians, it's normal. They don't eat chicken and fish whole and they eat rice with fork!!!! I like my fish whole, will make this but must buy whole fish first.

Elin Chia said...

I love the belly and the head....smoothest part of the fish :) haha Carlos say creepy. He has not seen me sucking the eyes of the fish..those jelly and sweetest part from the fish. The eyeballs of the fish :p

WendyinKK said...

Looks really good.
If put some lemon/lime juice into the topping lagi best!!!!

I love Malay style grill fish, where they serve with lime juice, shallots and chilli.

ReeseKitchen said...

Woo...i like this!! Me too, especially the cheek of the fish, best part..;)

Shereen said...

Nasib baik mine makan semua except fruits..lol!We had friends over 2 weekends ago and I thought of introducing them to Chinese food.They ate everything except my steam fish...yup!whole fish,head with eyes and mulut penuh gigi (hahahaha) with tail intact.Dah la tu giant size lagi macam whale on a dinner plate...no wonder they all takut!!!

Sonia ~ Nasi Lemak Lover said...

Thanks for sharing, next time I also want to bake fish but not deep fried, this sound delicious !

ICook4Fun said...

Claire, yes oven baked :)

Ho Ho Ho, I actually bought this fish in Chinatown, fresh and still swimming in the tank.

Busygran, yes surprise your hubby with this fish. Make sure you charr the skin a bit more to make it look like fried :)

Jeannie, for me it is more about the cleaning up and also the fishy smell lingers around the house especially during cold season.

Quinn, yes you should see his face when he sees me eating chicken feet ha ha ha..

Elin, I love the head and belly too. Never try the eyes before. I should try that the next time I cook fish again :)

Wendy, I love cooking it that way too. I think I do have a recipe posted here. I actually put some chopped tomatoes in the dipping sauce too.

Reese, they are the best :)

Shereen, I know what you mean. I remember when we attended a wedding kat Malaysia he refused to eat the big steamed fish ha ha..my brother tried to serve it to him but he declined. So next time you cook for mat salleh,no fish with head and tail.They only makan fish fillets :)

Sonia, try this out. I am sure you are going to like it :)

Cheah said...

I've never tried baking a whole fish, must give it a go! Yours is so nicely dressed up!

Rice Palette said...

Great way to serve the tilapia!! It looks super tasty

Sunshine said...

Your fish looks yummy! I'm glad that I'm not the only one that DH will never eat fish with the head on but mine actually ate some when he went back to Malaysia with me probably because other people was there here he'll never touch it.

Chicken feet is out of the story. Will never ever try it! I wonder why?

Thanks for sharing this yummy recipe I want to try it some day :)

Anonymous said...

Look so tasty! I need to try this recipe out. Trying not to turn the oven on this summer though :p

Kitchen Corner said...

Very delicious fish! All the ingredients there make the fish super appetizing! Thanks for sharing!

pigpigscorner said...

yum..full of wonderful flavours! so good with rice!

Little Corner of Mine said...

Delicious! I like what you put on top of the fish.

Angie's Recipes said...

My favourite part of the whole fish is the head. :-)

ICook4Fun said...

Cheah, thanks.

Rice Palette, yes it is.

Sunshine, I think it is the mat salleh thing. It gross them out ha ha.

Restaurant Baby, yes weather here is really warm and not a good idea to turn on the oven so often. I cut down on a lot of baking during summer.

Kitchen Corner, you are welcome.

Pigpigscorner, yes we had it with rice.

LCOM, beside the topping the fish was equally good.

Angie, mine too :)

lishapisa said...

I love my fish whole , steamed , fried, baked..... yours look amazing with the crispy skin * crunch* and now i have your recipe! :)
Thank you!
Lisa

Christelle said...

I have just developped a particular taste for Tilapia after an encounter with an African Recipe (to be posted soon :) I now officially LOVE tilapia!! This one I will try soon :)

missyblurkit said...

giving this a try over the week. we have a nice tilapia in the freezer from dad who's just visited a fishing village.