Assam Fish

Growing up with Penang + Kelantan  + Thai influence, it is hard to go wrong with anything that is spicy and sour. So with my cravings like a pregnant women, I spent my Saturday afternoon cooking this. Assam Fish.

Steamed assam siakap.

Generally, there are two types of assam fish, there's the tumis style and there's the soupy style. The tumis style is more popular and also you can easily find it in many places. But I remember this soupy version in my family. 

With a little improvisation, I decided to make steam assam fish for my Saturday dinner.

Ingredients;

- siakap x 1 (usually I prefer kembong / selar kuning; but it all depends on what's fresh in the market)

- lemon grass x 3 stalk

- 2 onions

- chillies to your spicy preference

- a handful of daun kesum 

- 3 pieces of assam keping (i ran out of assam Jawa, so there's some improvisation)

- a tablespoon of belachan

In this soupy version, instead of frying everything, most of the ingredients are being boiled over medium heat. So I had about 800cc of water, and boil them with the lemon grass, chillies, daun kesum, belachan, assam keping and onion.

For flavors I add in;

- a tea spoon of serbuk kunyit (galangal)

- two tea spoon of chilly powder

- a tea spoon of sugar

- a table spoon of nampla'

- salt and pepper to taste

So boil them for an hour. 

I also add in slices of cucumber (seed and skin the cucumbers and cut it to 1cm thick and 3cm long)

Let it simmer and put the fish in the steaming tray, and scoup the soup and the filling over.

Steam the fish with the sauce for 10 minutes.

Yum.... 

This version of the soup assam fish is close to assam laksa.