My Favourite Beer Snack

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deebee

The Bludgeon Brewery
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I have had a request for my recipe for the anchovy and peanut snacks I took to Big Als brew day. I love this stuff in Indonesian/Malaysian restaurants and tried to copy it. I dont think this recipe is very authentic, but its the closest I could get it and pretty good. It doesnt exactly cleanse the palate but it is my favourite beer snack.


Dried anchovies (ikan bilis) from Asian supermarket or Asian aisle at Coles
Oil
Garlic
Roasted unsalted peanuts
Chilli (crushed or powder)
Fish sauce

Soak the anchovies in water for about 30 minutes. Rinse them, drain them, then dry them on a clean tea-towel or paper towel. Pat them dry.

Heat a few mm of oil in a wok. Get it smoking hot. Add anchovies in small batches. The 100g pack I get from Coles takes two batches. It will spit like mad so have a lid or something handy.

Let it sizzle for maybe 15-30 seconds then turn it down to low-medium heat and watch it get crispy. Crush a bit of garlic into each batch and stir occasionally. Just before the first fishies start to burn, take them out and tip into a sieve to drain. Save some of the drained/strained oil. Wipe your wok with that teatowel and repeat till all your fish are cooked and drained of oil.

Wipe the wok again and add the peanuts on a low heat. Estimate about 75% by volume peanuts as you have anchovies. Drizzle a few drops of the drained oil back into the pan. Stir and let them start to get a bit of brown on them.

Return the drained anchovies to the pan. Splash in some fish sauce until it is as salty as you want it and stir it round to distribute. Sprinkle in chilli to taste, stir again and turn off the heat. They get crispier as they cool.



There was a thread along these lines a while back and I posted this recipe in one of its earlier forms. This recipe is better. Another one that is a beauty is the biltong recipe that someone posted. Kangaroo biltong is a sensational beer snack.
 
Thanks for that Deebee,

Much appreciated.

Cheers

case
 
Deebee,

Those sound bloody nice. :rolleyes: Would take a brave soul (or big drinker) to add any extra salt though.

Might give them a try.

Thanks.

Warren -
 
I ran this reciple past a bloke I work with, who's from Indonesia, today. He offered the following advice:
You could try it... but be ready for the smell of the ikan bilis when you fried them.. Some people do not like it.. smelly fish... they say :)
:excl: Thought I'd better pass on those words of warning. If the smell of fish makes your wife puke, this may be best left for her 'girls night out'.
 
Do these taste similar to Fishnutz?

I had 5 packs shipped over here (at a suprising cost) because i had a real craving for them.
 
Kook, yes the same deal as those packs of fish nuts you can buy from the IBS.

This recipe doesn't have to be too salty because you soak most of the salt out of the fish then add back as much as you like with the fish sauce. I do like them very salty though.

The smell of frying dried fish is quite, um, robust, but I love it. When my kids cop a whiff of me cooking this they run into the kitchen and wait for it to finish. They love it too.
 
Mmmmm....

Got me thinking of Bacala again. Molto buono! :blink:

Warren -
 
kook said:
Do these taste similar to Fishnutz?


Do fish have nutz :D

I'll vouch for this recipe however and look forward to it at the sandgroctoberfest.
 
Sounds good, deebee. Do you have to used dried anchovies? Since you rehydrate them anyway, would ones in oil do well enough?

Glad you liked the biltong recipe. I haven't made any in ages.
 
Kai said:
Sounds good, deebee. Do you have to used dried anchovies? Since you rehydrate them anyway, would ones in oil do well enough?

Glad you liked the biltong recipe. I haven't made any in ages.
[post="68071"][/post]​

Have you posted this biltong recipe Kai. If so please put link up. If not please post it.

C&B
TDA
 
Kai,

No use the dried ones. They are tiny little suckers. Anchovies in oil are different kettle of fish altogether.

There's another type you can use that come big bags from the Asian supermarket frig. And they are sort of dried but soft and need to be kept in the frig. These ones you don't need to rehydrate.

That biltong rocks but to anyone thinking of trying it: if you make it, make a very big batch if you have a carniverous family like mine. It goes very quickly.
 
Eating some biltong from that recipe now, great stuff! Easy to make and I haven't killed myself with food poisoning. :ph34r:
 
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