Basa Fish Fillets in Sweet and Sour Tamarind Sauce

I came home from work yesterday feeling lazy and tired after 1 hour and 15 minutes of commuting. I wanted something quick and easy. I looked in the fridge and found frozen basa fillets and a yellow bell pepper and so sweet and sour fish immediately came to mind. With just a couple more ingredients I was able to whip up this amazingly simple but delicious dish in about 30 minutes. The fillets were coated with corn starch and fried till they're crispy on the outside, but still soft and succulent on the inside, then covered in a simple sweet and sour sauce that I made using tamarind paste. So good...I'm definitely making this for dinner again on the weekend.

Spicy Skate Wrapped in Grilled Banana Leaves (Ikan Panggang)

Just take one bite of this fish and you will experience an explosion of exotic flavors and spices that will transport you to the tropical beaches of Malaysia. You can almost picture yourself sitting under the cool shade of a coconut tree as the ocean breeze gently blows grains of sand on your face...(ok, maybe a little over dramatic)

In Malaysia, this dish is usually prepared with skate, but you can also use any sort of fish that flakes easily like red snapper or tilapia. Skate is actually a cousin of the sting ray and may not be readily available in local supermarkets due to overfishing. It was my first time cooking with skate, and I was surprised at how well it goes with the spices and how soft and tasty it is. The fish is first smothered with sambal, a spicy Malaysian/Indonesian condiment which is a fragrant blend of almost a dozen ingredients including shallots, garlic, lemongrass, red chilies and belacan - a funky-smelling salty paste made of fermented shrimp that's commonly used as a cooking ingredient in Southeast Asia. The fish is then wrapped in banana leaves and placed on the barbecue until the leaves are charred. The grilled banana leaves impart an additional layer of flavor and perfumes the fish as it steams with the sambal inside the leaves.