Cambodian Fish Amok

FishAmok

I first prepared this dish at a short cooking class at the Coconut Lili Restuarant in Batambang, Cambodia. It's a kind of curry and is a traditional Khmer meal.  It tastes quite different to Thai or Indian curries - very nice.

 

SERVES 4

Preparation Time:  20 Minutes
Cooking Time: 20 Minutes

 For the Amok Paste:  Main Ingredients:
 100g Lemongrass (chopped)  600g firm fish (e.g. Snapper)
 25g Garlic  40g Palm Sugar Sryup
 30g Shallot  5g Salt
 10g Tumeric Root  5g Chicken Stock (crushed)
 10g Galangal  100g Amok Leaf (or Noni Leaf)
 3g Kaffir Lime Leaf  300g Banana Leaf
 5g Chinese Ginger Root  10g Red Chili cut into julienne
 45g Dried Chili (or Paprika)  10g Kaffir Lime Leaf chiffonnade
 10g Shrimp Paste  500g Steamed Rice
   400ml Coconut Milk
   

Prepare all Ingredients.  Clean and slice the fish thinly, store in fridge.

Make the Amok Paste. Finely chop the lemongrass and kaffir lime leaf.  Peel and finely chop the garlic, shallot, galangal & tumeric root. Soak the chilies in water, remove the seeds and chop finely.  Pound all ingredients together in a mortar and pestle until a very fine paste.

Put the fish pieces in a bowl and add the Amok paste, chicken stock powder, palm sugar, salt, amok leaf and 350g of the coconut milk.  Stir ingredients well. 

Make four baskets from the Banana Leaf (using wooden toothpicks to hold it together - very difficult). Alternatively use cooking foil.  Place the mixture into the baskets and steam for 20 minutes (or 5 minutes in a pressure cooker).

Make Coconut Cream by adding 1/2 teaspoon of corn flour into the remaining 50g of coconut milk and stirring over a low heat until it thickens.

Add the Coconut cream, julienne red chili and chiffonnade lime leaf on top of teh dish as a garnish.  Serve with Steamed Rice.