Masak Merah With Dory

Life has been pretty hectic and lately I seldom have time to go to the wet market to get fresh seafood. Luckily that my children has no complaint about the frozen fish  ha.... They certainly enjoy steamed fresh fishes a lot but when there isn't any to choose from......mmm....frozen white fish fillet still working good. And here's  what I've made for them on last Saturday.

Ingredients :
500gm   dory fish fillet, cut small
1 egg white
salt & pepper
1-1/2 cup  tapioca flour, for coating

Ingredients for Masak Merah :
1 large onion, sliced
1 tomato, cut into wedges
1 small  cinnamon stick (optional)
1 star anise
2 cloves
2 cardamom pod
1/2 cup  tomato sauce
3/4 cup   coconut milk (3/4 cup water + 4 tbsp coconut powder)
1 tbsp  sugar
salt to taste

Blended Paste
5 shallots
5 gloves garlic
1 inch  ginger
5 red chilies
5 dried chilies, soaked

Method :
(1) marinade fish fillet with salt & pepper and egg white, then coat with tapioca flour and fry till crispy brown.
(2) heat enough cooking oil and saute cinnamon stick, star anise, cardamom pod & cloves till fragrant.
(3) stir in blended paste & onion let to simmer till turned dark red colour, then stir in the remaining ingredients  and let to cook till thick.
(4) finally, serve fried crispy fish fillet with masak merah sauce along with rice or noodle.

Masak merah (thick red sauce) is another unique Malay cooking other than masak lemak (thick coconut gravy) version but very seldom they used it in making fish. If you're using meat on this recipe, you need to deep fried the meat till crispy brown and then braise them together with the gravy till the sauce thickened. Sounds like another tasty good recipe, right ! ha.... However, hope you guys will have a great Monday.
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I'm sending this to Suresh @ Muhibbah Malaysian Monday.