Sambal Tumis

This recipe is good for 3 whole fish, but a great condiment to just have in your fridge!

For 2

Ingredients

• 160g Long Red Chilli
• 7g Dried Kashmiri Chilli, boil for 3 mins to soften & strain
• 140g Lemongrass, top half cut off save for other dishes 160g Red Onion
  10g Belacan
• 1 1⁄4 tsp Ground Turmeric
• 1 tsp Fine Sea Salt
• 30g Granulated Sugar
• 3 tbsp Tamarind Concentrate, Thai or Vietnamese Brand
• Vegetable or Rapeseed Oil for frying

Method

Step 1. Roughly chop your long red chilli and red onion. Taking care to slice the lemongrass thin so it will be easy to process later on. In a food processor, make your spice paste by adding the first five ingredients on the list. The paste doesn’t have to be completely smooth, a little texture is good. Mix in ground turmeric at the end.

Step 2. Heat a wok or sauté pan with oil up to 1cm high. Fry off your spice paste on medium heat until the oil splits and colour has deepened to a dark red. This could take around half an hour. Finally add in your seasonings to further caramelise the sambal, for another 3-5 minutes. This sambal might taste more heavily seasoned as the fish will be relatively unseasoned. Leave to cool to room temp, or you can make this the day before.

Step 3. Slice down both sides of the back bone of the bream, to make two pockets. Careful not to get to the stomach, you want that side sealed. Salt both sides of the fish, leave for 10 minutes, before stuffing both pockets generously with the sambal tumis made earlier. Try not to fill it to the brim, leaving 1cm off.

Step 4. Shallow-frying the Bream: Heat oil in a wide deep pan up to 2 inches to 175c. Carefully fry the stuffed bream for about 2-3 minutes on each side until golden & crispy, depending on the size of your fish. Serve with some lime wedges and your zingy Pomelo Kerabu below.

Pomelo Kerabu & Dressing

Ingredients

• 12g Coriander Stem & Root, finely chop 10g Long Red Chilli, finely chop
• 1 Birds Eye Chilli, finely slice
• 2 1⁄4 tbsp Lime Juice
• 2 1⁄2 tbsp Fish Sauce
• 1 tsp Water
• 1 1⁄2 tbsp Granulated Sugar
• 150g Pink Pomelo, peeled and picked into chunks
• 1 tbsp Fried Shallot
• 1 tbsp toasted coconut
• Mix Herbs of your choice (Mint, Wild Betel Leaf, Vietnamese Coriander, Coriander, Dill)
• 1⁄4 Red Onion, thinly sliced

Method

Step 1. In a pestle & mortar, pound coriander, red chilli and birds eye chilli until a thick paste. Stir in the rest of the ingredients until the sugars have been dissolved.

Step 2. Toss the dressing through the salad ingredients. A Kerabu needsto be half herbs.. I like to keep some herbs whole (Vietnamese coriander) and some thinly sliced (Wild betel leaf).