Fried Sun-Dried Fish Thai-Style ปลาแดดเดียวทอด

Of all the Thai dishes I've blogged about, I have the most fun with the things that are not commonly found on the regular menus of Thai restaurants overseas. I have even more fun with the things that are rarely, if ever, found outside Grandma's or Mom's kitchens. Needless to say, blogging about (and eating) this Thai-style fried sun-dried fish -- a favorite of mine -- is bringing me immense joy.

There's a whole genre of dishes in the Thai cuisine featuring meats that have been dehydrated then fried. Excellent taste and texture aside, considering how the warm weather and moisture level in the tropical areas provide a perfect environment wherein microbes make merry and copulate, preserving fresh meats through dehydration in the pre-refrigeration era makes a lot of sense.

The meat, mostly fish and beef, is either cut into strips, filleted, or butterflied, slightly salted, then spread out on woven bamboo mats and dried out in the sun. Most of the time, the meat is sun-dried until it is completely dehydrated so that is can be stored for extended periods of time at room temperature with little to no risk of spoilage.

However, in some cases, such as this one, the meat is dehydrated only moderately just until the surface moisture is gone and the overall flesh has slightly firmed up now that some of the moisture below the surface has evaporated. Since the dehydration process ends long before the moisture content is entirely removed. The result is a nice, firm piece of meat that is dry to the touch on the outside yet retains moisture on the inside. When fried, the exterior gets crispy while the interior remains firm and moist. The flavoring agents added prior to dehydration also become more concentrated.


The Thais call meats prepared through this quick, moderate dehydration, insert type of meat hereแดดเดียว, literally "only one sun insert type of meat here," alluding to the traditional way of dehydrating meats in the open air with the natural sun rays. "One sun" here simply means the drying is shorter than usual (as opposed to several "suns"), one day -- most of the time.

Thicker pieces of meat benefit the most from this moderate dehydration method. Strips of beef or buffalo meat are routinely prepared this way. Equally common would be butterflied whole fish. Channa striata (ปลาช่อน), Seriolina nigrofasciata (aka Black-banded Kingfish or ปลาสำลี) seem to be the top favorites among Thais. The types of fish that are more common to those living outside of Thailand which I've found to be delicious prepared this way include, but are certainly not limited to, mahi mahi, orange roughy, seabass, and halibut.

For what you're looking at here, I cut one pound of mahi mahi fillets into long, thick strips and douse them with a tablespoon of fish sauce. from this point on, you have three ways of dehydrating the fish fillets:

The easiest way to dehydrate fresh foods is to use a reliable electronic dehydrator. The best -- the best -- dehydrators in the market are made by Excalibur. Your food goes on trays lined with nonstick Teflex sheets. You set the temperature (110° F) and check on it periodically. The length of time required depends on the thickness and the surface area of the food. (In our case, the thickness doesn't really matter much as we only want to dry out the surface.)

You can spread the fish fillets out on a rack, put the rack on a cookie sheet, and dehydrate the fish fillets in a 120° F oven to mimic the process of sun-drying. I flip the fillets over after 2 hours to allow both sides to dry out. After 3 to 3.5 hours (more or less depending on the surface areas), the entire surface areas of the fish should be completely dry to the touch at which point the fish is ready to be fried. I like to shallow-fry sun-dried fish as I'm not too fond of having to dispose of a lot of used frying oil afterward. As long as the oil comes up to half the thickness of the fillet, you're good.

Or you can go the natural route. Choose a very sunny day with low humidity. Spread the fish fillets out on a parchment-line tray and set the tray out in the sun, flipping once or twice, until the surface of the fish fillets is dried. Watch out for bugs and other animals.

One very nice thing about frying sun-dried fish is that there's little to no splattering of oil since the surface areas are practically dried out. Don't you just love that?


Fried firm-fleshed sun-dried fish is such a perfect foil for all kinds of dipping sauce. My favorites accompaniment for fried sun-dried fish is a simple nampla prik (sometimes I add sliced shallots and garlic to it) and a slightly more elaborate Thai green mango salad. Serve this with warm jasmine rice.