Sweet and sour fried fish ( 糖醋鱼)

Although eating steamed fish is healthy, sometimes it is nice to have a change. Children love tomato ketchup so this dish always goes down well with them. A well-balanced diet should include a variety of fish which can contribute to heart health and young children's proper growth and development. In addition, fish contains important B vitamins that help with cognitive ability and memory.

Unfortunately, the world’s oceans nowadays contain enormous quantities of methyl mercury as well as other contaminants. In all industrialized countries, industry releases several million pounds of mercury and mercury compounds to the atmosphere each year. When mercury is removed from the atmosphere by precipitation, it ends up in lakes, streams, rivers and oceans. The mercury then bonds with algae which are eaten by small fishes, which are then eaten by larger fishes. Thus, long-lived, larger fish that feed on smaller fish accumulate the highest levels of methyl mercury and pose the greatest risk to people who eat them regularly. Luckily, six fish varieties sold here - cod, halibut, threadfin, salmon, pink dory and mackerel - were well within Singapore’s Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) safety levels

Ingredients

1 threadfin fish

1 tomato for garnishing

½ a cucumber for garnishing

For the sauce

3 tbsp tomato ketchup

1 tbsp plum sauce instead of vinegar

3 tsp sugar

½ cup water

Clean and make slits on the body of the fish

Season with a little salt

Place the fish on a chopping board and put it at an angle in the sink.

This will allow the water to drain from the fish

Here you can see the water dripping out of the head

It is important to get the fish as dry as possible so that the oil will not splatter when you fry it

Cover the fish to keep it clean

Slice the cucumber

Julienne the cucumber

Cut the tomato into half and slice it

Prepare the serving platter with the garnishing

Put aside a little cucumber to put on the fish

Heat up enough oil to fry the fish

The oil must be very hot when you put in the fish otherwise it will stick to the pan

Turn the fish over when it can be moved easily

Place the fried fish on the prepared platter and put the remaining cucumber on the fish

Put all the sauce ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly

Leave a little of the oil used for frying the fish in the pan

Fry some chopped garlic until slightly brown

Put the browned garlic on the fish

Pour the sauce mixture into the pan and stir

Add more water and seasoning if required

Pour the sauce onto the fish and serve immediately

Fish is best eaten while it is hot

As the children would say “all gone”