Name: Fried Whole Fish with Lemon Sauce
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 1 kilogram whole firm fleshy fish (gutted and scaled); 1 tablespoon salt; ½ teaspoon pepper; ½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice; 1 cup white sugar; ¼ teaspoon grated lemon zest; 2 bird's eye chilies (finely sliced); 2 pinches salt; ¼ cup corn starch; cooking oil (for deep frying); torn cilantro

Fried Whole Fish with Lemon Sauce

Connie Veneracion

Think Chinese lemon chicken. Substitute a whole fish for the small pieces of chicken, fry the fish to a crisp, lay it on a platter and pour the sticky chili-spiked sweet sour lemon sauce over it. Serve the fried fish with sticky lemon sauce with rice for a delightful meal.

What’s the secret for making a sticky lemon sauce? Cook it like a syrup. Sugar, lemon juice and water. No starch. But do add lemon zest for better aroma. Just boil gently until syrupy.

And the bright yellow color? Turmeric.

Prep Time 10 mins

Cook Time 20 mins

Total Time 30 mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Asian

Servings people

Ingredients

1 kilogram whole firm fleshy fish gutted and scaled
1 tablespoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper

For the sticky sweet sour lemon sauce

½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup white sugar
¼ teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 bird's eye chilies finely sliced
2 pinches salt

For frying

¼ cup corn starch
cooking oil for deep frying

To garnish

torn cilantro

Instructions

Prep the fish

Pat the fish dry with a kitchen towel. Score both sides (see how).
Rub the herb salt all over the fish including the slits and cavity.
Place the fish in a covered container and keep in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Make the sauce

In a small sauce pan, stir all the ingredients for the sauce with 1/4 cup water.
Set the pan over high heat and allow the mixture to boil.
Turn down the heat to medium-low and cook the sauce, uncovered, until reduced by half. Set aside. The sauce thickens some more as it cools.

Fry the fish

Sprinkle the starch on both sides of the fish.
Set a frying pan large enough to hold the fish on the stove and set the heat to high. Pour in enough cooking oil to reach a depth of at least three inches.
When you see fine wisps of smoke floating on the surface of the oil, slide in the starched fish. Keeping the heat on high, cook the fish for six minutes. Flip to cook the opposite side for another four minutes.

Assemble the dish

Scoop out the fish (a kitchen spider is useful) and lay on a serving plate.
Pour enough of the sticky sweet sour lemon sauce over the hot fish so that a little pool forms around it.
Sprinkle the fish with torn cilantro before serving.

Notes

Ideally, to keep the cooking time short, the fish is fried while the sauce is bubbling away in another pot. Fish and sauce cook at the same time, keeping the cooking time at around 10 minutes. However, it might be a confusing procedure for some. The recipe above doubles the cooking time but is, overall, less frenzied.

Updated from a recipe originally published in 3/2/18

Keyword Lemon Sauce, Whole Fish

Looking for Filipino food?Visit CASA Veneracion for modern twists on favorite classics!

If you cooked this dish (or made this drink) and you want to share your masterpiece, please use your own photos and write the cooking steps in your own words.