Spicy Assam Fish

Recipe: Spicy Assam Fish亚参鱼

Serves: 3

Ingredients

350g pompano / sting ray / mackerel fish 2 tomatoes - 200g 90g long beans 1 eggplant (brinjal) - 100g 8 kaffir lime leaves 2 TBSP cooking oil 300ml water Tamarind Paste (view) 45g seedless tamarind 100ml hot water

Ingredients A 20 dried chilies (10g) 2 cloves garlic (10g) 4 shallots (45g) 2 lemongrass (use white part only) - need 2 TBSP 1 small knob ginger - need ½ tsp. Ingredients B ¼ tsp. turmeric powder 1¼ tsp. curry powder (Adabi chicken & fish curry powder preferable) 1 tsp. belacan powder (shrimp paste) 1 TBSP oil Seasoning ¼ tsp. salt or to taste 1½ tsp. sugar or to taste

Measurements: tsp. = teaspoon | TBSP = tablespoon

Preparation
1. Deseed and rinse dried chilies. Put dried chilies in a pot of water and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for another 10 minutes with lid on. Turn off the heat. Allow to simmer for another 30 minutes. Drain and set aside chilies.	2. Clean fish. Wash, drain and cut vegetables.	3. Grate lemongrass and ginger. You will need 2 TBSP grated lemongrass and ½ tsp. grated ginger.
4. Ground chilies, garlic and shallots with a mortar and pestle or blend them in blender.	5. Mix all ground ingredients A and Ingredients B in a small bowl to form spice paste.	6. Get 45g seedless tamarind.
7. Soak tamarind in 100ml hot water for 20 minutes. Then, grab a handful of tamarind pods and keep squeezing and squashing to separate pods from seeds and veins; Repeat process with the remaining pods. Strain and set aside tamarind paste.	8. Heat 2 TBSP oil in a saucepan. Saute spice paste over medium heat until fragrant.	9. Stir in tamarind paste and water.
10. Add kaffir lime leaves. Cover with lid and bring to a boil.	11. Reduce heat to low. Season with seasoning.	12. Add vegetables. Cover pan with lid and allow to cook for 1 minutes over medium high heat.
13. Finally, add fish. Cover and cook for 4 minutes on each side over medium low heat or until fish turns opaque. Transfer fish to a serving bowl. Check to see if the vegetables are soft enough, cover and simmer for few more minutes if needed. Turn off the heat. Pour sauce and vegetables over the fish. Serve hot.

Notes

Beware not to overcook your fish and vegetables. Fish is cooked when it turns opaque throughout. If your fish need longer time to cook than vegetables, transfer the cooked vegetables to serving bowl and continue to cook the fish. You may use some other vegetables such as okra and cabbage.