the making of cencaru sumbat ...

Ikan sumbat (fish stuffed with spices) is one of my family's favorite dishes.  And me thinks, the best fish for ikan sumbat is definitely ikan cencaru (the Internet says in English it's called Hardtail Scad and the Malaysians sometime call it ikan jacket because of its thick and hard skin... we sure are a creative lot...). 

Rasanya ada jugak orang buat ikan sumbat guna ikan kembung, but my ikan sumbat will always be ikan cencaru.

Okay, now here's how I make my ikan sumbat.

Ikan cencaru yang dah siap disiang.

I always remove the skin.

Make two incisions along the back of the fish.

One on each side of its tulang.

 Make sure you don't cut it all the way nanti kang terbarai pulak isi sumbatnya...

 

 The ingredients for the sumbat (stuffing) 

are fresh chillies, red onions and some lime.

 

And some grated coconut.

Blend them up.

 

Add in lime juice. This is optional actually.

You can do without the lime juice tapi it tastes much better with.

 

Then stuff the stuffing into the incisions.

 

My two cencarus are all nicely stuffed.

One of the fishes have been mutilated somewhat.

Ekor dah ilang kena potong sebab panjang sangat. :D

Okay... if the stuffing comes out while frying,

you can sort of 'bendung' the fish with daun pandan.

(tie or wrap up the fish with screwpine leaves so that the stuffing

 doesn't fall off while frying - which can happen at times).

 Fry the fish. Notice how the fish fits nicely in my oil?

That's the reason the tail has been unceremoniously cut.. huhu...

 

Okay, it's all done.

One last thing to do is smother the fish with kicap (dark soy sauce).

It makes the fish tastes 10000 times nicer.. to me lahhh... :)))

Best eaten immediately after it's fried.. YUMMY!!

 Okay, ni resipinya ya...

Bahan2 : 

*  2 ekor cencaru (2 hardtail scads) - I always cook 2 fishes, so this recipe is for two fishes lah.  If you wish to cook more, then please adjust the ingredients accordingly. Tq :)

*  one red onion (medium size). You can use shallots too - around 5-6 pieces

*  two fresh red chillies

* two limes

* a cup of grated coconut

* salt to taste

* dark soy sauce (kicap manis pekat - I love kicap Kipas Udang)

The method :

*  clean the fish and make the incisions along the back

* blend the onions, chillies and grated coconut

* squeeze in some lime juice (optional - leave this out in case you have serious case of gastric)

* stuff in the stuffing into the incisions .. careful now.  Make sure the stuffing stays inside the fish ya..

* if the stuffing keeps falling out, you may want to wrap the fish with daun pandan (screwpine leaves).  Besides keeping the stuffing intact, it also gives a nice aroma to the fish.

* fry the fish in hot oil for about 4-5 minutes each side.

* when done, remove fish from the oil.

* then smother some sweet dark soy sauce over the fish.

* EAT IMMEDIATELY! ;))))

Selamat mencuba, teman2 ....