Martin Boetz
Presented in 2004
Hot and sour soup of ocean perch
Serves 6 as part of a shared meal
Soup
750 ml (26 fl oz/3 cups) white fish stock
3 kaffir lime leaves
1 stalk lemongrass, bruised
4 red bird’s eye chillies
5 slices galangal, peeled
2 coriander (cilantro) roots, scraped and cleaned
130 ml (4¼ fl oz) fish sauce
50 g (1¾ oz) chilli jam
30 ml (1 fl oz) oyster sauce
2 red Asian shallots, halved
6 oyster mushrooms, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 tomato, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 whole plate-sized (600–700 g/1 lb 5 oz–1 lb 9 oz) ocean perch or red snapper, cleaned
vegetable oil, for deep-frying
juice of 1 lime
30 g (1 oz) pak chi farang (long-leaf coriander), finely shredded
extra chilli jam, to serve with the soup
Chilli jam
1.5 litres (52 fl oz) vegetable oil
300 g (10½ oz) thinly sliced red onion
200 g (7 oz) garlic, finely minced
15 long red chillies
100 g (3½ oz) dried shrimp, soaked in warm water for 10 minutes, then drained
100 g (3½ oz) piece of galangal, peeled, sliced and dry-roasted
100 g (3½ oz) palm sugar (jaggery), pounded
100 ml (3½ fl oz) fish sauce or 1 tablespoon sea salt
100 ml (3½ fl oz) tamarind pulp
Bring the stock to a boil, then add the lime leaves, lemongrass, red bird’s eye chillies, galangal, coriander roots, 100 ml (3½ fl oz) of the fish sauce, chilli jam, oyster sauce and halved red shallots. Reduce the heat and simmer for 2–3 minutes to infuse the flavours. Check the seasoning. The taste should be hot, sour and salty. Add the mushrooms and tomato. Simmer for another 3 minutes.
Score the fish and rub with the remaining fish sauce.
Heat the vegetable oil in a wok to 180°C (350°F) and gently lower the fish into the oil. If the fish is fully immersed, fry until golden brown, 6–7 minutes. If the fish is not fully immersed, be sure to turn the fish so that it cooks evenly. Remove and drain on paper towel.
Put the fish into a large serving bowl and pour over the hot soup. Squeeze in the juice of 1 lime and add most of the finely shredded coriander. Garnish with the remaining coriander leaves and serve with some extra chilli jam on the side.
Chilli jam
Heat the oil in a wok or heavy-based saucepan until just smoking. Fry the onion until it turns the colour of lightly stained pine. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve, setting the onion aside to drain. You are using the same oil for each of the fried components of this chilli jam, so you need to strain the oil well. Fry the garlic until a light golden colour, then remove. Fry the chillies for no more than 10 seconds as they burn quite quickly. Take them out when they are a deep red colour. Place the dried shrimp in the oil, moving them around occasionally for about 1 minute. Take out and drain on paper towel. Reserve the oil.
Add the galangal to the fried ingredients and make into a paste. You can make this into a paste in one of several ways:
Place the paste in a heavy-based saucepan, strain the reserved oil into the pan and stir to combine. Heat the mixture to a simmer, stirring continuously. When hot, add the palm sugar, fish sauce and tamarind. Stir to mix through and remove from the heat. The paste should have a rich, roasted, sweet, sour and salty taste. It is often used as a base to flavour other dishes. Makes about 1 cup. Store in an airtight container in the fridge. It keeps for a few months.