Ikan kering — sun-dried salted fish
Fish split, rubbed with salt, and dried in the hot sun until hard as cardboard. Fried in a pan, they become crispy, intensely salty and briny, crumbled over rice. The warm-sea preserve before refrigeration.
Fish split, rubbed with salt, and dried in the hot sun until hard as cardboard. Fried in a pan, they become crispy, intensely salty and briny, crumbled over rice. The warm-sea preserve before refrigeration.
In this climate, nothing fresh keeps two days, and the naturalist in the field must be provident. I have seen fishermen split their catch, rub it with salt by the handful, and lay it on racks in the sun until it becomes hard as planks. Thus treated, the fish keeps for weeks in the trunk, and it suffices to pass it in a pan to draw from it a crunchy and savory dish. More than once, deep in a river without a village, this modest dried fish was my entire dinner, and I made do without complaint.
- •Small fresh fish (anchovies, mackerel) — according to catch (base)
- •Sea salt — in abundance (preservation)
- •Strong sun — 2-3 days (drying)
Ikan kering — sun-dried salted fish
Fish split, rubbed with salt, and dried in the hot sun until hard as cardboard. Fried in a pan, they become crispy, intensely salty and briny, crumbled over rice. The warm-sea preserve before refrigeration.
Why this dish? Wallace mentions dried fish among the provisions of the archipelago. For a naturalist spending weeks in canoe and jungle, far from any market, salted and dried fish was the indispensable reserve food, one that did not spoil in the tropics.
In this climate, nothing fresh keeps two days, and the naturalist in the field must be provident. I have seen fishermen split their catch, rub it with salt by the handful, and lay it on racks in the sun until it becomes hard as planks. Thus treated, the fish keeps for weeks in the trunk, and it suffices to pass it in a pan to draw from it a crunchy and savory dish. More than once, deep in a river without a village, this modest dried fish was my entire dinner, and I made do without complaint.
Ingredients (period version)
- Small fresh fish (anchovies, mackerel) — according to catch (base)
- Sea salt — in abundance (preservation)
- Strong sun — 2-3 days (drying)
Ingredients
- Store-bought salted dried fish (ikan kering, dried anchovies) — 150 g (base)
- Frying oil — 4 tbsp (cooking)
- Sliced shallots — 2 (garnish)
- Chili and tamarind (optional) — to taste (sour-spicy lift)
- Hot white rice — for serving (accompaniment)
Method
- If the dried fish is very salty, rinse and soak for 10 minutes, then pat dry well.
- Heat oil in a pan and fry the fish until golden and crispy, 2-3 minutes per side.
- Drain on paper, then fry the shallots in the same pan.
- Option: add a little chili and a spoonful of tamarind paste for a sweet-sour glaze that balances the salt.
- Crumble over hot white rice.
How it was made : Salting and sun-drying is one of the oldest preservation techniques in warm coastal regions. In the Malay archipelago, every fishing village laid out its catch on bamboo racks; dried fish was traded at markets and accompanied long sea voyages, long before any icehouse.
The contemporary twist : Caramelized with a little palm sugar and chili, it becomes the famous sambal ikan bilis that crunches on a morning nasi lemak.
Sources : Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago (1869)
Alfred Russel Wallace · Charactorium