Sambal Stingray is a popular dish in Singapore that is often thought to be only available from a hawker centre. Actually, you must have noticed that when you placed an order for Sambal Stingray, you got served within 15 minutes. That means it must be quite easy to prepare, and that is exactly the case.
If you did a search, you will find quite a few recipes posted online for Sambal Stingray. Some even tell you how to make the Sambal sauce. Well, i think it is not necessarily worth the time making your own Sambal sauce, unless you make a huge batch and plan on using it in other dishes. Sambal sauce is fairly easy to buy off the shelf, and it isn’t exactly very expensive. There are many types of Sambal sauce, and I noticed that the type used by hawker centre seafood stalls is the shrimp type (Belacan would work too), and that’s the one you should get.
Anyway, after a few not-so-successful attempts, this is how i would say is the quickest and easiest way to do it.
Ingredients: Stingray (fresh or frozen), Sambal sauce, sliced onion and lime.
Cooking method:
1. Thaw the Stingray if you’re using the frozen type. Once thawed, sprinkle salt generously.
2. Cook the Stingray in a microwave oven. Using the microwave oven ensures that the inner parts of the Stingray will be cooked, especially when you’re using a thick slice of Stingray. Another advantage of cooking in the microwave oven is that the gooey stuff which comes forth from the fish when cooked can be dealt with before you sear it. I can’t tell you for sure when you should stop cooking, but as with most types of fish, the flesh of the Stingray turns white when it is cooked, and it should be 90% cooked before you sear it.
3. Pour a good amount of oil onto a non-stick frying pan and fry the sliced onion while also searing the Stingray, until it appears slightly burnt. You might want to slosh the Stingray around a bit to ensure the precious skin does not stick to the pan.
4. When the Stingray is half done (say when you have seared one side of the Stingray), add the Sambal sauce to coat the Stingray. Adding the Sambal sauce too early might result in overly dry or even burnt Sambal sauce.
And you’re done. Serve with lime.
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