Sarawakian Local Delights : Fried Home made salted fish

There are two ways of making salted fish in the longhouse.

Salting of fish is easy in the longhouse. Rough coarse salt has to be used. The fish must be cleaned first and all stomach area removed properly.  After salting the fish for a day, the fish will be laid out on a rattan shallow basket to be dried in the sun. The sun drying can be carried on for a few days until the fish is dry and light. This kind of salting fish is simple and is a common practice among all the groups of people of Sarawak.

The second method of salting fish is called KASAM by the Ibans. The first salting of the fish will be done by rubbing salt on the fish and leaving the fish to drain in a colander. After a few hours the fish will be placed in a large bottle, more salt will be added with some cold rice. In this way the fish will ferment a little. On the third day the salted fish can be fried like in the dish above or steamed. Fish which is good for salting in this way are ikan Sultan, Ikan Kaloi, ikan patin, ikan belida, ikan tapah and especially empurau and semah.