Assam Fish (Fish in Spicy Tamarind Sauce)

I always look forward to weekends .. tell me who doesn't. These are the two days when I get to chill out and think about what to cook or bake or blog about! I sometimes I find it very hard to decide what recipes to try out as I want to experiment with so many!

I also noticed of late that I have been doing posting up more recipes on cooking rather than baking. Good for my other half as he prefers savoury foods rather than sweets. When I do tend to cook a proper dish I noticed that it is usually chicken. So maybe I should add fish into my repetiore of dishes and they do say that fish is "brain food". Hmm maybe that's the cause of my forgetfulness of late.

This particular recipe is well known and loved in Malaysia. It does not contain coconut milk and therefore keeps better in hot climates. Tamarind or "assam" as called in local Malay language is widely used throughout Asia. The word "assam" means “acid” or in layman's terms "sour". In cooking, it combines well with sugar, chillies and other flavours. Tamarind is also said to have medicinal uses. It cools the system and cleanses the blood. The pulp or paste is rich in vitamins and minerals, and is used in Chinese medicine. The bark is said to treat asthma while the flowers are said to reduce blood pressure. So this particular dish not only has medicinal value, it also stimulates your brain activity (i.e. fish meat). Now what else was I about to say .......



Assam Fish (Fish in Spicy Tamarind Sauce)
Recipe Adapted from "Female Cookbook vol 12"
(Serves 4-5)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 onion, cut into quarters
500g spanish mackeral (tenggiri)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
3 cloves garlic (grind finely)
20g ginger (grind finely)
15g ketumbar (coriander powder)
10g jintan putih (cumin)
15g chilli powder
10g tumeric powder
1/2kg lady's finders
2 cups water
1 1/2 Tbsp tamarind paste
2 tomatoes, cut into halves
2 green chillies - cut into halves
Salt and sugar to taste

Method:

1) Add tamarind paste to the water and squeeze the paste to extract the juice. Then pour tamarind juice through a sieve and leave aside.

2) Heat oil in wok. Fry onion with mustard seeds, garlic, ginger until fragrant. Then add in coriander powder, jintan putih, chilli powder, tumeric powder. Fry ingredients on low flame until fragrant.

3) Add in lady's fingers, tamarind water, salt, sugar, tomato and chillies. Bring to boil. Add in fish. Cook until fish and vegetables are soft.

4) Serve immediately with steamed rice.