Whenever I had this dish at the hawker stalls, it requires me to use up at least 2 packs of tissue papers and 2 rounds of drinks ordering without fail. But still, it never stopped me from wanting to enjoy it. The first time I tried to prepare it with an oven grilled method, it seems far from satisfaction. So this time, I decided to cook it over the stove and thereafter top it on a hotplate to allow the aroma from the banana leaf to further infuse into the sizzling stingray. Oh boy oh boy, it was as good as the one I had from the infamous Bedok 85 Chan BBQ, if not better !!
The one from Chan BBQ was good, except that whenever there was a huge crowd and they need to speed up their orders, the sambal chilli tends to be undercooked at times and resulted in me having the runs many a times. What’s more, their prices are always on the rise. Now that I managed to cook this from home, I guess there’s no excuse for me to wanting to eat this at hawker stalls anymore !
And I am really thankful that PurelyFresh actually send me this really thick slab of stingray with that part of the fish which has the most flesh and least small bones !! I am quite a failure at eating fish with plenty of bones, hence this gesture is very much appreciated !!
Hope you enjoy this Sambal Hotplate Stingray as much as I do !!
Warning :: It’s spicy, extremely spicy !! Not for the faint hearted !! :)
- 1 pc stingray, 450g (ordered from PurelyFresh)
- 3 pcs of banana leaves
- 80ml cooking oil + 3 tbsp oil
- some salt
- some sugar
- 1 shallot, sliced (for serving)
- 1 lime (for serving)
- 160g shallots
- 5 pcs whole garlics
- 30 pcs dried chillies (soaked in water till soft before use)
- 5 pcs red chillies
- 1 stick lemongrass
- 15g old ginger, sliced
- 4 pcs candlenuts
- 10g belachan (toasted in oven or dried fried over a wok till fragrant, before use)
- 2 tbsp tamarind paste (mixed with 50ml of water and drained away the seeds)
- 2 tbsp light brown sugar
- 2 tbsp oil
Mix all the ingredients for the chilli paste in a food processor.
Blend well till a fine smooth paste is formed.
Heat up 80ml of cooking oil in a wok and add the chilli paste from the previous step.
Keep stirring so that the chilli does not burn or stick to the wok. When the oil starts to sizzle and split, off the flame and set aside.
Make a few slits on both sides of the stingray and rub some salt and sugar sparingly over it to firm up the flesh.
Heat up a deep frying pan with 3 tbsp of cooking oil. Place the stingray on one piece of banana leaf and add the sambal chilli paste sparingly over one side of the stingray. Lower the entire leaf with stingray into the frying pan.
Cover and cook over medium heat for approximately 10 minutes (depending on the thickness of your fish, mine was relatively thick, hence I cooked it slightly longer).
Remove from flame.
Change a new piece of banana leaf and flip the fish over at the same time. Apply the sambal chilli on the other side of the stingray. Cover the pan and continue cooking for another 8-10 minutes. Off the flame but do not remove the cover yet.
Heat up a hotplate with 1 tbsp of cooking oil. Add one piece of banana leaf into it and off the flame when the banana leaf starts to curl up slightly (approximately 10 secs after the hotplate is heated.) Remove from flame.
Remove the cover of the pan and add the sambal stingray onto the hotplate. Serve with sliced shallots and lime.
