Preparation
15 minutes
Cooking
20 minutes
Difficulty
Easy
Grilled mackerel with fish sauce, garlic, and chili is a braised dish that is delicious and appealing, with mackerel soaked in thick fish sauce, extremely flavorful and perfect for rice. Your whole family will surely be addicted, today let’s get cooking with Tuyet Nhung to prepare this enticing dish for the family to enjoy. Wish you success!
Ingredients for Grilled Mackerel with Fish Sauce For 2 people
Mackerel 300 gr Garlic 5 cloves Chili 2 pieces Chili sauce 2 tablespoons Fish sauce 3 tablespoons Cooking oil 50 ml Drinking water 2 tablespoons Common spices a little (salt/ sugar/ monosodium glutamate/ seasoning powder)
How to Choose Fresh Mackerel
- To buy fresh and quality mackerel, you should choose fish with bright, clear eyes that are slightly bulging. The gills should be bright red and cling tightly to the fish body.
- Additionally, when selecting mackerel, you need to carefully observe the belly of the fish because fresh fish usually has a flat, slim belly, and the anus is still retracted inside.
- You should avoid buying fish with cloudy eyes, slightly sunken, and large eye sockets as these are signs that the fish has been frozen for many days, or has dark red gills that are easily detached and fall off.
How to prepare Mackerel with fish sauce
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Prepare the ingredients
To save time, you should buy cleaned and sliced mackerel. To reduce the fishy smell, wash the mackerel fillets in salt water, then rinse several times with clean water and let them drain.
Tips to prepare mackerel without fishy smell- Method 1: Soak the prepared mackerel slices in a bowl of rice water for 15 – 20 minutes. Then, take them out and rinse with clean water.
- Method 2: Dilute a few tablespoons of vinegar or white wine in a bowl of water, then soak the fish for about 5 minutes and rinse again with clean water.
- Method 3: Additionally, you can crush or slice a piece of fresh ginger and put it in the bowl of water. Then soak the mackerel slices for about 5 minutes, take them out and let them drain before cooking.
See details: Tips to prepare mackerel without fishy smell
Peel and finely chop the garlic. Wash the chili, remove the stem, and chop it finely.
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Marinate the fish
Add to the cleaned mackerel a mixture of ingredients including: 1/2 of minced garlic, 1/2 of minced chili, 1/3 spoon of salt, 1/3 spoon of seasoning powder, spreading the spices evenly on both surfaces of the fish. Marinate the fish for about 20 minutes for the fish to absorb the spices evenly.
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Make the fish sauce
In a bowl (rice bowl), mix the following ingredients: 2 tablespoons of chili sauce, 3 tablespoons of fish sauce, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1/2 tablespoon of monosodium glutamate, the remaining minced garlic and chili. Then use a spoon to mix the sauce well.
Tip: You can adjust the ingredients according to your family’s taste! -
Fry mackerel
Put a pan on the stove, heat 50ml of cooking oil, when the oil is hot, add the fish and fry until golden brown on each side for about 5 – 7 minutes over medium heat until the fish is evenly cooked and golden.
When the fish is evenly golden, turn off the stove, and take the fish out onto a plate.
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Simmer mackerel with fish sauce
Continue to heat the pan that fried the fish over medium heat, wait for the pan to heat up, then add the sauce and 2 tablespoons of water to the pan, continue to simmer over medium heat until the sauce thickens, then season to taste according to your family’s preference.
Next, add the mackerel to the pan and turn it regularly so that both sides of the fish soak up the sauce evenly. Continue to simmer for about 8 – 10 minutes until the sauce thickens and clings to the fish meat, then turn off the stove.
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Final Product
Place the fish on a plate, garnish with some cilantro or green onions for a beautiful presentation and enjoy! Thus, we have a delicious and appealing dish of braised mackerel in fish sauce. The fish is sweet and aromatic, with a spicy kick from the chili, the fragrant smell of garlic combined with the salty-sweet sauce served with hot rice will be incredibly appetizing!
The above is a detailed guide on how to make braised mackerel in fish sauce that is rich, delicious, and incredibly appetizing. We hope that with the recipe shared by TasteVN, your family meals will be more diverse and appealing! Wishing you a good meal.