Recipe: Steamed Siakap (Siakap Stim or Prik Kee Noo)

So today, I was a little more rajin than usual. Hubs said he wanted something soupy, Isaac wanted chicken (as always) and I was feeling a little fishy. And since Sunday is our Chow Kit day, I figured if there is siakap, let's make steamed siakap (totally ignoring the chicken request because I was so sick of eating chicken almost every day last week). To my luck, there's plenty of siakap at Pasar Chow Kit. We got ourself a small siakap (enough for 3 people) because we only have a small sized steamer at home. We can't cut the fish to fit the steamer can't we? Cos it won't look nice. Not Instagram worthy definitely hehe.

Got home, whilst hubs helped with the rest of the grocery, I (double) cleaned the fish with lemon (the fish has already been cleaned by the fish-aunty - as in perut has been buang'd & scrubbed). And then I started chopping all the condiments for the fish. I spent half an hour or more doing just that #hardwork but its all #worthit.

Anyway, here is the recipe for Steamed Siakap. It is really easy to prepare really. It's just the condiments preparation that took some time.

Ingredients
1 siakap  fish (the amount of condiments depends on the size of your fish - this recipe is for small/medium size)
1tbsp anchovies stock
4tbsp lime juice
4tbsp fish sauce
2tsp sugar
Corriander leaves
1 lemongrass (lightly pounded)

Condiments (cut/sliced into small pieces)
4 garlic cloves
1 yellow onion/Holland onions
2" ginger
5 bird's eye chilli
2 big red chilli
2 lemongrass

Cooking Instructions
1. Marinate the fish with a pinch of salt, 1tbsp anchovies stock and some lime juice. Leave it for a few minutes to season.
2. Insert the pounded lemongrass into the fish stomach and place the fish in a steamer (I placed it inside a steel bowl to catch the juice).
3. In another bowl, mix the fish sauce, lime juice and sugar - stir well and pour onto the fish. You can add in some water if you prefer a little bit more sauce.
4. Add in all the condiments - cover the fish to maximise the flavour into the fish and steam for 10 minutes (the time starts as the water started boiling. Makesure you time it because over cooked fish doesn't taste good).
5. Carefully transfer the fish into a serving plate. Garnish with corriander leaves and lime slices.

Enjoy your Prik Kee Noo!

We usually go to Khung Tai or Absolute Thai to eat this - we pay around RM45ish for a medium size fish. Today, we spent less than RM15 for this wonderful meal. The fish was RM8, the condiments were about RM3. My hardwork? Priceless :)

Andddd after we finished eating, since I so sayang to discard all my hardwork (the condiments), I decided to turn the leftover condiments into chicken soup.

I threw them all into a pot and I added some chicken. Add a bit of fish sauce and water and I boiled it for about 20 minutes. And  we had yummy chicken soup as our dinner teheeee. I was either clever or cheapskate teheee :)

P.s Isaac was definitely happy he finally got his chicken :)