Asam Fish Curry

Yesterday I decided to cook fish curry, but this time I wanted it to be special. Normally I would just use a Malaysian Curry Powder (has to be Malaysian as they are the only ones who know Asam curry & I'm Malaysian) but I wanted it to be better that my past ones.

Spice up your life!....

I bought spices from the Continental Wholesaler, in bulk; whole cumin, whole coriander seeds, whole peppers plus loads more. Cleaned out my pantry. Cleaned out my old spices & made way for tubs of new ones. Then today, I went & bought a coffee/spices grinder from Myer, so I can grind up the spices I bought yesterday. It seems a little excessive to go to this much effort for spices you can buy ground up already, but by doing it this way, the spices, smell & taste a lot better. Also I find that its important to add more spices to the curry powder as a lot of the curry powders have different tastes. Just open different brands of "curry powder" & the colour difference is significant.

Next, choosing the right fish...

It's important to chose a good fish. Normally for this dish I would chose Snapper (even a large Snapper head, to make my mum proud - you'll understand if you're Malaysian). But this time, we decided to chose Kingfish & it was a fantastic choice. (Lucky my Husband's friend works at the fish factory & he recommended it - see husbands are useful too when it comes to food)


The Kingfish isn't as fishy as Snapper & the flesh is also tighter which is better for such a dish. We got the shoulder area, as it's tastier especially sucking the sauce from the bones : ) However, not recommended if you want to avoid the bones, especially with kids. Therefore it's better to stick closer to the tail.


Ingredients:
2 tbs olive oil
4 tbs curry powder
Additional spices: 1 tbs coarsely ground cumin, 1/2 tbs ground coriander seeds, 1/2 tbs ground fennel, 5 bay leaves
1 Onion, diced
1 can tomatoes, loosely chopped
Water
1 kg fish
300g Okra / lady fingers
Add to taste: Approx 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 tbs soy sauce, 2 teaspoon fish sauce


Instructions:
Heat oil in large deep fry pan/wok. Cook spices all together. The aroma is fantastic!
Add onion. Fry. Add Tomatoes. Tomatoes give the dish the sourness you'll find with Asam curries. Add water & boil for several minutes. Add the fish & okra. Cover & let simmer on medium heat for 1/2 hour. I like to cook this dish for as long as possible, so the flavours get stronger and the sauce gets thicker. All along, taste the dish to make sure it's salty enough. Use the soy sauce & fish sauce for added flavour.

Serve with steam white rice.

This dish will bring out the Malaysian in anyone!