บท 31: The Heavenly Turmeric Grilled Catfish
"Come over here, Kuro, Shiro!" Hana sat cross-legged in front of the still-burning fire in her cave dwelling.
Hana suspected that Shiro had been feeding the fire to make sure it kept on going, because the clump of dried woods she collected at the side had reduced in size significantly. Hana was very pleased with Shiro's proactiveness. This is how it should be!
Hana used one of the discount card from her handbag and tried hard to scrape the skin of the turmeric tubers. She then placed the peeled turmeric tubers on a washed shallow flat stone she fetched from who knows where. So unhygienic but what choice she had otherwise!
Using the blunt side of her prized chisel, she pummeled the turmeric tubers into a mushy pulp gently.
"This is a turmeric tuber. We mix it with a little salt and rice flour to make an excellent basic marinade for meat things." Both heads of Shiro and Kuro cocked to the right into really cute confused poses. Why did their mommy explain all this?
While Hana mixed a few pinches of salt into the turmeric mesh, she continued to squeeze the pastle-like stone on the pulpy bright yellow mixture. "The turmeric will alleviate the fishy smell, the salt will increase the taste, while the rice flour will make the meat crunchier when fried." She sighed. She just remembered they don't have any oil.
[It doesn't matter! The catfish is fatty and oily enough on its own!]
She noticed the duo's confusion and laughed, "Why? Confuse where can we get the rice flour? There isn't any la dearies, we make do with whatever we have okay. It is still super delicious like this. Truly!" She tried to convince her pets.
The duo blinked awkwardly. [Of course not! We're confuse why you tell us all this la mommy! We only want to eat, we don't care how it's done!]
Hana slathered the turmeric-salt mixture on all of the fishes generously, including their cleaned cavity and in between the incision that she made on the bodies, one step at a time. Then, she gently placed the marinated fishes on the reddish flowery-shaped flat stone she fetched from the shallow stream, layered with the turmeric leaves. Hana had already stamped the flat stone as her personal plate cum tava (1). The 'tava' can only accommodate three medium-sized catfishes out of four! The two big-ass fishes were too fat and long! The last medium-sized one couldn't fit in too.
[Aiyoooo! What should I do?] Hana looked around.
What can she do? The fishes were too much to fit on the single tava-like flat stone.
Hana sighed. [Maybe I could make something like a griller (2) from the bamboo strips?] She pondered deeply.
After she placed the pink stone tava on the fire, she took one of the smaller bamboo canisters and ripped them to large strips partially. Then she clamped the last two fat fishes with the final medium size marinated catfish in between the partially ripped bamboo strips. The ends of the strips were clamped by a flattened hollow bamboo ring before being tied up with some vines. It took her quite some time to complete all of this and she even hurt her fingers with the bamboo fibers.
"We do it this way so that the fishes won't fall off. We need to turn the fish a bit from time to time." Hana explained to her pets automatically while her hands deftly moved to adjust the makeshift handheld griller. She made sure both kids see what she did properly.
Her explanation stemmed from her habit of explaining about recipes to her hubby all the time. She couldn't stop herself from doing the same thing to the unfortunate snake and fox.
Hana made a new fireplace just beside her tava. This time, she used only red hot burning charcoal she transferred from the other fireplace. She placed two halved bamboo poles over two stones, directly above the ground across the charcoal fire and then carefully put the clamped fishes on the halved bamboo pole. Hana carefully turned the bamboo grill from time to time atop the suspended halved bamboo poles. She must ensure that no direct fire came in contact with the fishes to avoid them being burnt to blackened charcoal bits. The fishes on the tava by the side were pan-grilled in a different manner; there was no need to truly control the fire too much. The fishes weren't burnt since they were protected by the turmeric leaves. When Hana wanted to flip the fishes, she just added a new set of turmeric leaves to stick to the other side of the fishes.
Just like this, the eyes of a small black snake, as well as the eyes of a large doggy-sized fox, tailed the movements of the flipped fishes from time to time. Their eyes went from the hotplate to the griller, to and fro, again and again. As the tantalizing aroma of turmeric-scented grilled catfishes wafted into their olfactory, saliva automatically came out from the corner of their mouth.
They never realized fishes could smell this damn good when cooked!
Hana kept on flipping the fishes on the tava occasionally on her left hand, while turning her bamboo grill on her right, just like an expert self-proclaimed chef. These fishes have tender meat and easily cooked, so the time needed to grill them was not long at all. Normally they needed less than 15 minutes depending on their sizes. Bigger ones needed longer time. She knew it was done when the fat started to drip on the burning charcoal igniting small fires, and the skin of the fish turn crisp.
"Finally done!" Hana was satisfied with her grilled catfishes.
[If only I could make some sambal belacan (3) and forage some ulam (4), this lunch will be perfect!] Hana lamented. She didn't dare to use her tiny pack of rice so soon. What if she'll be here for a long time? Rice would be a luxury. When food was scarce, she might need to use the rice to make a watery congee (5). Doing this will stretch her ration longer since a cup of cooked rice was equaled to about three rounds of congee.
She chuckled amusingly when she saw both of her pets swallowed their saliva in synchronization when eyeing at the turmeric grilled catfishes.
Hana took two big turmeric leaves and cleaned them. Then she placed one big catfish on each leaf, then a medium sized one each. Hana settled for the two medium sized ones for herself. Even this was considered too much for her. She used to eat a single small sized one at home.
As she placed the soft flesh with crispy skin of the catfish into her mouth, her saliva rained down and even leaked from the corner of her mouth.
"OMG!!!!! This is too good!" She exclaimed excitedly! The fishes tasted much better than she usually knew! If she could, she would've given a thousand Likes for this and make a special post to promote this fishing spot!
[Is there something special with the water of the stream? Wild-caught organic catfishes are really different!] Hana wondered while eating happily. The tender flesh melted in her mouth while the crispiness from the skin provide a pleasurable contradictory feeling in her mouth.
Both of her pets nibbled their own portion a tiny bit at a time, afraid that once the fishes were gone, the pleasurable taste inside their mouth will become a history.
[Mommy is the best!] They cheered in their hearts.
Even a simple fish can turn into something so delectable. At this moment, Kuro regretted not getting more fishes from the trap. If there was more, their mommy would've made even more for them!
As Hana leisurely ate her own fish while sitting cross-legged on her internet spot, she swiped open the LINE app to check on her hubby's messages.
A number of messages entered. When Hana read through, she shivered all over her body.
"Oh, nooo…. T_T "
...
Author's note:
(1) tava = as a reminder, a flat hotplate
(2) griller = just a normal handheld grill dear reader
(3) sambal belacan = a dipping sauce made from chillies, belacan, and lime/tamarind paste
(4) ulam = local herby vegetables usually eaten raw with sambal belacan
(5) congee = watery rice porridge
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mrandmrsmooncat
mrandmrsmooncat ..this chapter make Mrs Mooncat drool..we just ate grilled chicken, mackerel and stingray, but not grilled catfish.. *toss and turn on the floor*
Shall I make some...
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