Fish amok

Ingredients

• White fish — fillet, in pieces600 g
• Coconut milk400 ml
• Coconut cream100 ml
• Lemongrass3
• Galangal30 g
• Fresh turmeric20 g
• Kaffir lime leaves6
• Shallots4
• Garlic5 clove
• Egg2
• Fish sauce2 tbsp
• Palm sugar1 tbsp
• Spinach or young cabbage150 g
• Banana leaves4
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Pound the lemongrass, galangal, turmeric, garlic, shallot and half the lime leaves in a mortar to a smooth paste.

   20 min

2. 2

   Warm the paste in a pan with half the coconut milk for five minutes, until it smells right.

   7 min

3. 3

   Take it off the heat, cool it to warm and whisk in the eggs, fish sauce, palm sugar and the rest of the milk.

   8 min

4. 4

   Fold the fish pieces through and leave them to marinate fifteen minutes.

   16 min

5. 5

   Fold cups from the banana leaves, or use ramekins. Line the bottom with spinach leaves.

   10 min

6. 6

   Divide the fish and sauce between them without filling to the brim and steam for twenty minutes.

   22 min

7. 7

   Spoon over the coconut cream, scatter with shredded lime leaves and serve with rice.

   4 min

About the dish

Amok is steamed rather than simmered. That gives it the texture of a delicate soufflé — set but trembling — and it is the main difference from a Thai curry.

The base is kroeung paste: lemongrass, galangal, turmeric, kaffir lime and garlic ground in a mortar. A ready-made Thai paste gives a different dish: Khmer cooking uses neither that much chilli nor that much shrimp paste.

Egg beaten into coconut cream is what thickens it. It sets in the steam and holds the mass, which is why amok does not run across the plate.

Worth knowing

• — The egg goes into a cooled paste. Into a hot one it scrambles, and instead of a smooth custard you get an omelette with fish in it.
• — Keep the steam moderate. At a hard boil the mixture puffs and collapses with hollows inside.
• — Banana leaves are passed over a flame for ten seconds; they then bend instead of cracking at the folds.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

480 kcal

Protein

32 g

Fat

32 g

Carbs

14 g

More from Cambodia

• Lok lak — Cubes of beef seared over high heat, on salad, with a dip of lime and black pepper.