Pan-fried Flounder with Ginger & Sweet Soy Sauce

Flounder is a flatfish (as opposed to regular fish known as a roundfish) from the same family as sole, turbot and halibut. It is a white fish, similar in taste (mild) and texture to haddock. For this dish, I pan-fried the flounder fillets by first coating the fish in seasoned flour and dropping them onto a hot skillet. Be careful to handle the fillets delicately as they will tear on you easily. If some of them are too large to handle, try cutting them into manageable pieces before pan-frying.

Once all the pieces have been fried, set them aside for now. Using the same skillet that was used to fry the fish, pour away some of the oil and add in some finely julienned fresh ginger, garlic and shallots. As these ingredients brown up a little, deglaze the pan with a tablespoon of rice wine vinegar. Make sure to scrub the pan with your ladle so as to get all the yummy pieces of fish that was left behind from frying. Add 1 TBP of sweet soy sauce or Indonesian kicap manis and some water and bring the pan to a simmer. Reduce the sauce a little, taste and season appropriately with salt and pepper.

Finally, put the fish fillets onto a plate and pour the sauce over them, making sure the shallots, garlic and ginger pieces are placed prominently on top. To garnish, chop up a stalk of scallions and one red radish and sprinkle them onto the plate.