Recipe: Ikan kuah lada - Fish in peppery gravy

This is a delicious Indonesian fish recipe. It's not hard to make this dish for yourself.

Ingredients

• 90 ml (3 fl oz) cooking oil
• 750 ml (24 fl oz) tamarind juice, extracted from 50 g tamarind pulp and 750 ml water
• 1¼ teaspoons salt
• pinch of seasoning powder
• 2 medium aubergines, quartered lengthways, then cut into 5-cm (2-inch) pieces and soaked in water
• 600 g (1 lb) Spanish mackerel or stingray, cleaned and cut into 2½-cm (1-inch) thick pieces

Finely ground paste

• 18 shallots, peeled
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 5 candlenuts
• 5 cm (2 inches) fresh turmeric, peeled
• 2 stalks lemon grass, sliced (use only the bottom tender inner part)
• 2 teaspoons crushed dried shrimp paste
• ½ teaspoon ground white pepper or 15 white peppercorns
• 2½ cm (1 inch) galangal, peeled

Directions

1. Heat the cooking oil and fry the finely ground paste until fragrant.
2. Pour in tamarind juice. Bring to a boil.
3. Add the salt and seasoning powder. Simmer for 3 minutes.
4. Add aubergines and cook for 4 minutes.
5. Add fish and cook for another 8 minutes.
6. Serve with spicy shrimp paste (sambal belado for instance).

Note: If you prefer a more sourish gravy, double the amount of tamarind pulp. You can garnish this dish with scallions and sliced red chilie, if desired.

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