A while ago I wrote of the fabulous fish amok I learnt to cook at Frizz's Restaurant cooking school in Phnom Penh. Back when I wrote the post I'd lost the recipe book they gave me but a friend of mine popped in and grabbed me another which she's just delivered to me in the UK. So, as promised back then, here's the recipe. This is such a great dish, the depth of flavour you get with the coconut based curries from that part of the world delicately set with the addition on an egg and the steaming to cook. Now the recipe's here I'm going to be recreating the dish and I recommend you do the same.
Fish Amok, for 2
Kroeung (curry paste)
2 dried chillies, soaked
3 cloves garlic
1 shallot
3 stalks of lemongrass, trimmed to the tender middle bit
1cm slice of galangal
1 lime leaf
1 ts salt
Amok
400gr of meaty white fish, chopped into bite size bits
1 TB of fish sauce
2 birds eye chilies, finely sliced
500ml coconut milk
1 ts shrimp paste
1 egg
Coconut cream and 4 shredded kaffir lime leaves to serve.
4 banana leaves to make cups, or a couple of bowls I guess
Method
Make the paste either in a pestle and mortar or a processor.
Beat the egg and the shrimp paste together then mix with the curry paste, coconut milk, fish sauce and fish.
If using, soften the banana leaves by dipping briefly in boiling water or running through a gas flame then cut into circles by cutting around a 25cm-ish plate. Place two together and then fold the sides up into a cup, securing each corner fold with a cocktail stick. The first thread - here - shows what you're aiming for. Repeat for the second cup.
Split the curry between the two cups then steam for 20 minutes. A couple of minutes before the end you can pour a little coconut cream on to each curry and sprinkle with some shredded lime leaves. Serve with boiled rice and enjoy.
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