Five ways to cook and enjoy your golden snapper (ang cho)

Most of know the golden snapper (also known as ang cho, jenahak) and this fish is exceptionally good eating but also offers a great fight on rod and reel. Over the years, golden snappers have been targeted using more novel fishing methods like slow fall jigging or light jigging. That said, the traditional way to fish them (at least in Singapore) would still be at night using squid bait or mantis prawns.

Here’s a handy list on how to cook these wonderful eating fish. Remember that if you can bleed the fish or eat the fish on the same day (without freezing), the quality of the meat would be much better. This fish also doesn’t suffer from meat stiffness or the “lor kor” effect. For bigger fish, you can slice steak cuts of the fish for steaming or frying.

1. Steamed fish

Steaming the golden snapper is one of most recommended ways to enjoy it. You can choose from many different ways of steaming (Hong Kong style, Teochew style, Assam steam) as the fish is quite versatile. My favourite would be Teochew style as this brings out the sweetness of the fish and the fish’s sweet juices also transform the steaming stock into something out of this world.

Also since we’re talking about steaming, you can follow #steamthebugger on Facebook. Always good inspiration. 

2. Baked fish

Baking the golden snapper is something quite trendy among our fishing group lately and it is likely because the oven is a fairly common household cooking equipment these days. Many recipes can be found online and you can follow them to good effect. The skin of the golden snapper is quite amazing because it is not too thick and yet not too thin (a perfect bake would crispy the skin nicely).

3. Yao zham/fried in oil

If you have golden snapper above 2kg, this is also an awesome way to have it done. Smaller fish won’t do well as the meat will shrink a fair bit. Note that this is best tried at the hawker or local zhi char stall as you’re unlikely to get optimal heat for the oil doing this at home.

Picture: We didn't have a picture of Yao zham golden snapper to show you so showing you a parrot fish will have to do it.

4. Fillet and grilled

This is an extremely decadent way of enjoying the golden snapper! In fact, we only recommend this if you have much to spare. This is one of the popular ways that the folks in Australia like to use. A little salt, black pepper and lemon will be enough for the fish. Remember not to overcook the fish!

5. Curry ang chor

Curry golden snapper used to be quite common in the past although farmed fish were used. Now the restaurants and zhi char places usually use farmed red snapper or kerisi for their fish curry. I couldn't taste any super difference between used farmed snapper or wild snapper for curry but I suppose it’s a fairly easy way to prepare. Not the best way I reckon but still good!

Photo credits: https://www.facebook.com/baitdabaoeat/