Fried fish with ginger and soy sauce

An easy everyday dish that goes with rice.

Hey everyone,

It’s November! In a month from now, I’ll be back in Singapore and I’m really excited about that. In September, we did a transit in Singapore en route to Europe, but it was only 15 hours long so we mainly ate at home and spent time with family. This time, our stay is three weeks long and I’m thrilled to be able to make trips to the hawker centres, wet markets, and maybe do a little bit of cooking with local produce.

An exciting thing happened recently - I finally completed all the writing for my second cookbook & sent the manuscript over to my editor! (You can read this newsletter from May if you’re curious about the premise of the book.) It was a big, fat document with a whopping 70k+ words, the most I’d ever written for anything… I almost couldn’t believe it when I looked at the word count. My 3-year-old baby Wet Market to Table had 50k+ words and definitely felt less intense than this. (By the way, for those of you who are looking for Christmas gifts, WMTT is available on backorder!)

Working on a manuscript is a solitary endeavour for a very long period of time, so it’s a huge relief to have another pair of eyes look at it and give me feedback. It will be awhile before the release of the book, but hopefully in a year or so, I’ll be able to celebrate with you all and heave a huge sigh of relief!

Even though I’ve been cooking a lot for the cookbook, I still really enjoy preparing our meals. Of late, I’ve been cooking a fish dish that I’m *certain* quite a few of us grew up eating but, for some reason, seems to have fallen off the radar. Fish is coated in cornflour and lightly fried, then cooked in a slightly thickened soy-based sauce. The point of the deep-frying, in this case, is not to crisp up the fish. In fact, the breading of the fish, when coated in the sauce, develops a silky mouthfeel, and provides something for the sauce to cling onto.

The dish is all about seasoning to your own taste so you probably don’t need a recipe, but you can use the measurements that I provide here as a guide. These are quantities for 2-3 people. Cut 330g fish into meaty chunks. Any white fish of your choice works - I’m using barramundi because that’s what’s readily available here. Toss with 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine and 1/2 tsp salt: