Every culture has their own version of making herb and spice pastes that lend a unique and distinctive flavor to the dish. Malaysians use a basic spice paste recipe in many of their curries and stir fries, which they call Rempah. It consists of chillies, shallots, shrimp paste, lemon grass and various herbs and spices, which are pounded to a paste in mortal and pestle and then sauteed in oil to bring out the aromas.
Last weekend, I spent some time browsing a singapore food blogger, Nava’s blog for an easy Malaysian fish recipe and after going over a few, I finally settled for this and this. I love sour and spicy taste in curries especially fish curries and these two recipes sound good to me.
I made the fish curry without any vegetable and also skipped Belachan from the rempah paste, which I understand is a must have ingredient. I did buy a small jar of shrimp paste to experience the Umami flavor that bloggers talk about and I tried it in a stir fry. But sorry to say, I could not handle the aroma alone when toasting it, but funny though my husband did not find it unpleasant. I suppose some like the shrimp paste and some don’t. So, relying on my sense of smell and taste I used fish sauce instead (to which my nose is accustomed) and it turned out well. Its not just the appearance but the smell of food also affects our taste buds.
The curry was delicious, I loved it, my family loved it and if you also love spicy curry with tangy flavor from tamarind, then this is the curry to go for!
Ingredients
- 500 g fish fillets ( I used halibut)
- 30 g tamarind
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- salt to taste
- 2 tsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 12 dried red chillies, soaked in 1/4 cup hot water
- 4-5 shallots
- 1 stalk lemon grass
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1" galangal
- ginger julienne for garnish
Instructions
- Soak tamarind in 1/4 cup water and leave to soften, then strain.
- Blend the rempah ingredients to a fine paste.
- Heat oil in a pan and fry the rempah paste until fragrant
- Add tamarind juice, fish sauce, brown sugar and salt.
- Once it starts bubbling, add 1.5 cups water.
- Bring it to boil, slide fish fillets in it.
- Simmer over low heat for 5-7 minutes until fish is cooked.
- Serve hot garnished with ginger julienne.
Notes
I felt the chillies that I used were not spicy enough so I added 1 tsp of ground sambal at the end.
Malti Sharma
Balvinder, what is it with your website? Since morning it is showing under construction…… I want to let you know that your tangy fish curry with spicy zing from red chillies is enough to whet any appetite. I don’t know what shrimp paste is so can’t comment about that.
Balvinder
I don’t know Malti, I haven’t checked my site in the morning. Thank you for appreciating the recipe.
Juliana
This fish curry dish sounds very flavorful…I never had tamarind with curry…and I can only imagine the sour and spicy flavors together…yum!
Have a great week Balvinder 😀
CCU
What a flavoursome creation, it looks absolutely delicious!
My brother would love this fish!
Cheers
CCU
Vicki Bensinger
I’ve never tried making this before or anything like it. It sounds very flavorful. One of these days I’m going to gather up all your recipes and one by one make them.
Kitchen Belleicious
i have never heard of shrimp paste before. I wonder where I could get it here? I can think of a million things to use it in. I love this dish
Balvinder
Its called Belacan and you can find in Asian stores.
Angie@Angie's Recipes
There ain’t any curry I don’t enjoy. Your fish curry sounds and looks really flavourful and delicious prepared with fish sauce.
Nammi
I tried Assam pedas when I lived in Malaysia and its such a lovely dish. Your version sounds lovely. Love your blog, cant wait to check it out 🙂
Coffee and Crumpets
This sounds very flavourful! I love tamarind in curries, something about the sweet, spicy and tangy altogether.
I am a little worried about the shrimp paste myself because I have issues with fish sauce! My sense of smell is very delicate as I grow older!
Nazneen
Balvinder
Thank you Nazneen, I don’t think sensing smell change until you are 60 0r 70, infact it almost diminishes at that age and you can enjoy any food that was unpleasant before. To tell you the truth if you don’t try to smell the fish sauce from bottle, you will be fine to eat it in curry.
Sugar et al
I cannot agree more with you on the shrimp paste. This is such a wonderful fish curry with all the lovely asian flavours. I am hungry just looking at it!
Balvinder
Yeah I remember you talked about shrimp paste in my previous post, so did you use it?
Helene D'Souza
I see myself so lucky for having a big tamarind tree right in front of our house. Tamarind and Vinegar are my favorite addition to curries to make them sour. Wish I could get galangal here so that I can try your recipe properly. Looks absolutely lip smacking good!
Balvinder
Lucky you! I love raw tamarind and I still buy from store, here it comes in boxes. Helene, I would not mind making this curry with fresh ginger root. Enjoy!
Monica
We used to go to the Malaysian restaurant nearby at least once a week. I’ve been cooking so much at home that we haven’t gone nearly that often lately but I do love Malaysian food! The shrimp paste, the spice, the sour component – love it all! My husband and I would quickly gobble up your fish curry! Looks wonderful.
Balvinder
I am also not been to any Asian restaurant for quite a while. The sour spicy and salt makes a good combo in this curry and does not overpower the fish. Thank you for liking it.
Nava Krishnan
Thank you so so much Bal and I am so touched with mentioning my name. Excellent job and I am loving this fish curry. One thing I have to say is that the belacan/shrimp paste you have used is totally different than the ones we get over here. Suppose where it originates from makes a different. Ours is usually the block type or the instant powdery version. There’s another, known as otak-otak, a different type of shrimp paste, blackish and gummy, used for Asam Laksa.
I agree with you that fish sauce is also great for fish curry. Yum and you know what, I am keeping the recipe to be tried out. After all my other half practically survives on fish and sometimes I am lost on what to cook with it.
Balvinder
Nava, I love to try recipes that sound delicious and uncomplicated and you post recipes that are real and family friendly. I am not sure if I will buy any other shrimp paste in near future. I may check with my neighbours (who are Chinese and Vietnamese mix) or other people those who use and check how they vary in smell. And thank you for a good recipe, My family loved it.
Jennifer Eloff
I love fish anything! This sounds amazing! Curry is another favorite of mine.
Nami | Just One Cookbook
Ohhh I’m jealous of your fish curry! I have never made it but I enjoy it more than meat ones for sure.
Blackswan
Hahaha! You’re real cute, Bal! I can imagine you fainting from the pungent smell of the shrimp paste. I adore shrimp paste & often use it to marinate chicken wings & deep-fry them. The results is fantastic & the smell is completely different from its “raw” form. I’ve to admit the smell is intolerable before cooking. Lol!
Balvinder
Then I must try eating something in a restaurant than cooking at home.
Amelia
Hi Balvinder, this is one of the most appetizing fish curry, we in M’sia love this very much. Yours look extremely good and so inviting. I sure need extra rice to polish off the gravy. 🙂
Have a nice weekend.
Bam's Kitchen
Shrimp paste makes me feel nauseous too! We have a little island off Hong Kong called Peng Chau and they have huge barrels of shrimp paste out drying. I have to tell you that is one stinky island but it has beautiful views. I love your curry and making it without the shrimp paste is a very good thing!
cquek
Yum this looks so delectable and is making me crave
Liz
I don’t mind shrimp paste now but used to find the smell too overpowering – an acquired smell perhaps?
anne
I love shrimp paste but not the aroma while toasting it ( I’m too lazy to wrap it in the foil ) 😀 I’ll look for that Thai shrimp paste next time .