: : Assam Fish Head Curry ala Granny : :
It’s been a long time since I posted up any recipes of Granny’s. So, when my uncle came back today with quite a number of fish caught during his fishing trip, she decided to make Assam Fish Head Curry for dinner. And, I quickly ran upstairs to retrieve my camera for a spot of photo-taking.
One of the critical ingredients is lemongrass. Very fragrant and smells exactly like lemon although not as strong. Note that about one inch away from the top is thrown away as it is very hard and no fragrance there. Or so Granny says.
The lemongrass was cut as so.
Next is cutting up the chillis.
Put the lemongrass, chillis, some garlic, ginger and some belachan @ prawn paste into a mortar and start pounding away. Should be very coarse. Onions is usually added but as I’m on Atkins, Granny decided not to put any inside.
Now the tumis @ paste looks like this. Some stalks of lemongrass (that was whacked once with the cleaver to bring out the flavour more) is added into the paste. It enhances the flavour beautifully and provides an interesting dash of colour to an otherwise orangey soup.
Next, Granny took about a handful of assam jawa and rinse them in water to obtain the juice. She did this about three times before throwing the fruit pits away.
This is how the pits of the fruit looks like. Most of it ended up in the water.
The pot is starting to get full after pouring the assam water. The pot is then put onto the stove to boil.
The fish : a huge red snapper fish head. Granny sliced it into half so that it’s easier to eat and also easier to place it inside the pot.
The fish heads are added in once the soup is boiling. Granny mentioned if the eyes start to pop up, the fish is gone. Don’t forget to add some salt and a dash of bejeng @ MSG into it to give it a light sweetish taste.
As the rain had finally stopped (it was raining really hard when we started cooking), Granny went out and got some more assam from the garden. This one is called assam belimbing. Small no? Cannot put too much else the entire dish ends up too salty.
Granny also brought in some daun kesum from her garden. This will add an interesting but mild taste to the curry. She loves the stuff.
The assam belimbing is sliced and then later put into the curry with the daun kesum and left to boil for awhile.
And voila! Assam Fish Head Curry ala Granny. A low carbohydrate Asian dish. Not bad, eh?