2 way Spicy sweet & sour fried anchovies/ikan bilis.

Spicy sweet & sour fried anchovies with strawberries.

Original spicy sweet & sour fried ikan bilis.

This is one of the all time favourite at home. It may look simple but its really not easy to fry the dried anchovies/ikan bilis till nicely done and crispy. 

Ingredients for Original Spicy Sweet & Sour Ikan Bilis :

1 or 2 bowl of dried ikan bilis/anchovies(silver fish) - wash and pat dry with kitchen towel

2 medium red onion - halves and slice

3 chilli padi/1 red chilli (depend on preference) - slice into small circles

2 to 3big tbsp of white sugar

2 limau kasturi/ half a lime - squeeze the juice and discard the seeds

Firstly, for ikan bilis, halves it and take out the bone and organ(the black thingy). Then wash and pat dry with kitchen towel. For dried anchovies(silver fish) just wash and pat dry. Heat up some oil under medium heat  and add in the ikan bilis. There will be a stage whereby you will notice bubble starts to form. Don't worry, continue to stir until the bubbles disappear and make sure to turn off the fire immediately. Prepare a wide plate and place some kitchen towels on it and place the fried ikan bilis on it to suck away the excess oil. Set aside.

In the same wok, stir-fry the onion and chillies till frangrance and add in the fried ikan bilis. TURN OFF the flames and add in the sugars. Toss and mix well. Lastly add in the lime/lemon juice.

(The ingredients and method are the same for the strawberry version. Simply add in the strawberries before adding in the sugar. Followed the lime juice.)

I decided to cook the strawberry version today because the red delicious looking strawberrries are on sales  in the supermarket. I am too greedy and bought 3 boxes which turned out to be really sour ones. This is a refreshing dish. Trust me! Give it try!

Enjoy!