Asam Pedas

In the mood for fish and missing my mom's home-cooked Asam Pedas...

 

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so, TA-DAAAAAAAA.........!

 

 

It tasted authentically fine, alright. A taste I'm so familar with and relish so much that I went for seconds. Only, I'm  kinda bummed about the colour. It should be dark, dark, dark red instead of brown-orangy. At least that was usually how my mom's Asam Pedas will look like...very dark red. I'm not sure where I went wrong here as any more chilli just to get the colour will put my taste buds on fire! Oh well...!

 

Here's the recipe I got off the internet:

 

Ingredients:

• A fish (Mackerel, Pomfret or Stingray..I used seabass as that's the only fish I have in the fridge!)
• 5 okras
• 10 dried chilies
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 5 cloves of shallot ( I ran out of shallots, so I used 2 big red onions instead)
• 1 cm of ginger
• 1 cm of turmeric
• 1 lemon grass (bruised)
• 1 teaspoon of fish curry powder
• 1 tablespoon of tamarind (put into a cup of warm water an squeeze the juice)
• Sprigs of vietnamese coriander (I used curry leaves as substitute)
• Palm sugar to taste
• Salt to taste

 Method:

1. Blend chilies together with garlic, shallot, ginger and turmeric.
2. Heat oil and fry the blended paste with lemon grass until fragrant.
3. Add fish curry powder and stir well.
4. Then add tamarind juice and two cups of water and wait for the  mixture to boil.
5. Lastly, add okras, fish and salt/sugar to taste.
6. Boil the fish in the gravy over a small fire for about 5-10 minutes

This dish really brings back memories of home cooked food right out of mom's kitchen.  So good to eat with rice, dipped in white bread or with saltine crackers. There's something about the taste that just lingers and keep you comign back for more.

 

Asam Pedas is so traditionally HOME. The kind which you get only at your own abode and only from your own mother's kitchen and hardly ever outside of your own home. It is just not the same if bought from outside.

 

It really is a shame that Silver Bullet does not like fish...this is really one of the more traditional and treasured home-cooked dish around. Oh well..his loss; more for me! :D