Mikosterious

Passport & Plate - Fish Amok

Cambodia | Tuesday, February 17, 2015 | 3 photos

Ingredients
Curry Paste

3 cloves garlic
finely chopped 1 large shallot bulb
finely chopped 3 stalks lemongrass, ends trimmed, inner tender stalk only
finely chopped ½ inch piece galangal,
peeled and finely chopped 2 kaffir lime leaves
finely chopped 1 teaspoon tumeric
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
packed 1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons chili paste

Fish Amok

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
½ teaspoon shrimp paste
1 cup coconut milk, well shaken
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
¾ pound firm, mild white fish – like halibut, mahi mahi, or true cod, skin removed
1 cup fresh spinach leaves, cut into ½-inch thick ribbons
1 egg
1 tablespoon fish sauce
Red bell pepper, sliced

 

How to prepare this recipe
Curry Paste

Make this curry paste with a mortar and pestle (as per photos) or use a food processor. The mortar and pestle will give the curry a deeper flavor.
Place first 5 ingredients in a mortar and pestle and pound to a paste. Add the remaining ingredients and pound until all spices are well incorporated.

Fish Amok

Thinly slice the fish into ½-inch thick bite size pieces and set aside. Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat.

Add the curry paste and cook for 1 minute.

Add the shrimp paste, coconut milk, sugar and salt, whisking to combine.

Turn the heat to medium and simmer for 2 minutes, whisking occasionally.

Add the fish and spinach leaves, gently folding the fish into the curry sauce with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula.

Let the amok simmer for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the fish is just cooked through. Turn the heat off.

In a small bowl, whisk the egg with the fish sauce and 2 tablespoons of the curry sauce from the pan. Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan and gently fold it into the curry.

Serve the amok in a bowl with a spoonful of coconut cream (the thick cream that rises to the top of the remaining coconut milk), a few julienned red pepper pieces and a sprinkling of kaffir lime leaf ribbons.

 

The story behind this recipe
I loved Cambodia. The people, the food, the beer (love Angkor)! Fish Amok was definitely one of my favourite meals while we were travelling so at our last stop in Battambang we decided to take a cooking class at a local restaurant called 'Smoking Pot' (the name itself made this place worth a visit). We arrived early in the morning and got taken down to the local markets to barter for the food, after that, we headed back to the shop where we started to learn about the ingredients and the meals we were going to be cooking. One of those meals was the Fish Amok. We were told that nearly every family in Cambodia has their own recipe for Fish Amok and it was a well loved dish by the locals. Amok, refers to the process of steam cooking a curry in banana leaves (although we didn't actually do this when we cooked it). Anyway... we cooked the dish, ate it (I loved it), we met some great people, and it was a great day. One I'll always remember.