Ingredients

• 4 × 275-325g dabs, plaice or lemon sole, on the bone, & scored or
• 1 × 1-1.2 kg red snapper, reef fish or similar fish, scored or
• 1 × 600g red snapper or similar fish, scored (2 portions)
• salt
• peanut oil or sunflower oil for deep frying

• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 4 large red or green chillies, seeds removed and chopped finely
• 2 tbsp. coriander stem, finely chopped
• 2 cm ginger, chopped finely
• 2 tbsp. peanut oil
• 3 tbsp. palm sugar or brown sugar
• 2 tbsp tamarind water (soak 1 tbsp tamarind pulp with 4 tbsp boiling water, soak for 20 minutes and strain through a sieve)
• 3 tbsp Thai fish sauce
• juice of 1/4 lime
• 2 tbsp. water

• 4 red shallots, sliced & deep fried
• 2 garlic cloves, slice and deep fried
• 2 kafir lime leaves, shredded
• 2 tbsp holy or normal basil leaves, deep fried
• 1 tbsp coriander leaves, deep fried

Method

1. Sauce: Pound the garlic, chillies, coriander and ginger in a mortar and pestle or place in a food processor and blender and blitz it briefly so that you have a rough paste. Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the paste until it is aromatic. Add the rest of the sauce ingredients and simmer for 5 minutes. Set aside and keep warm until ready to serve.
2. Fish: Heat the oil in a deep fryer or in a large wok to 180°C. Pat the fish dry and rub salt into the flesh. Deep fry small individual servings of fish (27-325g) for 5-8 minutes, until they are crisp and cooked through (600g fish will take 10-12 minutes or 1.2kg fish will take 12-18 minutes to cook).
3. To Serve: Place the individual serving of fish on 4 plates or 1 large fish on a serving platter. Pour the hot sauce over the fish and sprinkle over the deep fried shallots, garlic, basil and coriander leaves and the lime leaves. Serve hot with steamed rice.