Pan-Fried Fish With Orange-Raisins Sauce

Pan-fried red snapper with orange-raisins sauce.

Went out with my boys and came home late. No time to cook Chinese, because there's all that cutting and frying, plus Chinese meals mean at least 3 dishes and a soup. The fish was thawed, I had some iceberg and butter lettuce and a vinegrette dressing leftover from last night, so western din would be faster. Here's where we Malaysians are spoilt: a maid to boil and mash the pumpkin while I cook the fish. I wanted to coat it with semolina, like Chef Oscar at Tanjung Aru Beach Resort had taught me, but couldn't find the can of semolina so I pan-fried it plain. Then I thought, the family hates sauceless meat. They want a sauce on everything. I spied some oranges, and came up with this sauce which was inspired by the apple-walnut sauce on my salmon at Le Meridien last month. I decided to share this recipe when the response from Hub was good. Sometimes it is a pleasant surprise when you come up with a dish using whatever you have on hand. The whole meal took 15 minutes to prepare and cook! (Wey as usual ran away when I cook seafood. He ate this morning's leftover pizza instead.)

Pan-fried Fish With Orange-raisins Sauce
2 pieces good white fish fillets (I used red snapper)
a pinch of salt (we are on low-salt diet)
a few shakes of white pepper

sauce:
juice from 1/2 orange
2 T raisins
1/2 T cornflour mixed with 3 T water
pinch of salt, pinch of chicken stock powder

toasted and chopped nuts (I used almonds)

1. Season the fish both sides lightly with salt and pepper.

2. Put 2 T olive oil in a lightly heated pan and fry the fish 3 to 4 minutes, then turn over and fry another 2 to 3 minutes. Check the thickest part to see if it's done. Dish onto serving plate.

3. Pour away any remaining oil, put the pan back on the hob and add the orange juice and the raisins. When it boils, add the cornflour solution, pinch of salt and chicken powder. If sauce is too thick, add a little bit of water. Pour sauce over the fish. Sprinkle nuts on top.

The pumpkin mash was very good, even better than potatoes, because it was wetter and sweet. Just cut skinned pumpkin (the deeper the color, the sweeter and 'grainier'), boil it in a small amount of water until it's soft, drain, then use a potato masher to mash it. Add a small amount of double cream and mix well. I didn't salt it and it was okay.