Fish in Kecap Sauce

I like the sound of this recipe: ‘fried fish in kecap sauce’. This Beb Vuyk recipe contains only a few ingredients. I pay extra attention when making the sauce. The balance between sweet and sour must be just right.

I love fish, but try to eat as much ‘good fish’ as possible. Sustainable species that tastes delicious too are not always easy to find. These plaice – flat fish – filets are on sale in my supermarket. They deserve a nice sauce tonight.

Beb uses cod or haddock. This recipe is great with any white fish that can suck up the soy sauce ;-), I think.


This recipe is enough for 2-3 people and is ready in 15 minutes.

Fried fish in kecap sauce # 203 from Beb Vuyk’s Groot Indonesisch Kookboek, page 194

Ingredients

1/2 kilo of cod or haddock fillets
5 tablespoons of oil

Herbs

2 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
juice of 1 lemon
salt

Cut the cod fillets into 4 pieces. Dry them well before frying. Heat up the oil in a frying pan or wok and fry the fish until crispy brown and done. Remove them from the oil and let them drain. Add soy sauce, lemon juice and a dash of water to the oil. Arrange the fish on a dish and pour the sauce over it.


I replace the salt, that has to be added, with samphire. It is beautiful and it gives exactly that extra salt that is needed.

I start by drying my fillets while my oil is getting hot. I have very thin fillets. I add a layer of oil to the pan and make sure that my fillets are just under. I fry my fillets crispy brown in about 3 minutes.

A thicker fish needs a bit more time, but not much more.

I let my fish drain for a few seconds on kitchen paper. I take out the crusty leftovers from the pan too and add it to my serving bowl (because those crispy bits are delicious too). I add the samphire too and I continue with the sauce. I warm up the oil again and add the lemon juice and the soy sauce.

Sweet soy sauce

A half-sweet kecap soy sauce is used as standard soy sauce in the Indonesian kitchen, but I often go for a super-sweet, soy sauce like ABC from Heinz. This sweet soy sauce works perfectly with the lemon juice.

I let the sauce simmer for two minutes and let it thicken a bit. Then I taste it. I think it is still a bit too sour and I add a dash of sweet soy sauce again. Now it is perfect. Let’s eat!

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3 Responses

  1. Andrea Adams says:

    Love this recipe! So delicious, simple and quick to prepare. I have tried this recipe twice, once with frying and the other with baking. I personally prefer the baked version better simply because I prefer that over fried food. My seafood supplier in Bali is https://www.baliorganic.id/seafood-supplier-bali/. Excellent quality and taste. Although I would love to know where you get your seafood from!

    • Pauline Chavannes de Senerpont Domis says:

      Thank you so much! I buy my seafood from a local fish shop that gets its fish from the North Sea (The Netherlands).

  2. adriano says:

    beautiful blog for recipe , saluti da MILANO-ITALY

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