Flounder Simmered In Spicy Sauce (bplah Dtom Saep)

Total Time: 29 mins Preparation Time: 12 mins Cook Time: 17 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 3
• 1 lb large fillet flounder or 1 large fillet dover sole or 1 large fillet red snapper or 1 large fillet rock cod fish or 1 large steak halibut
• 8 whole peppercorns
• 6 garlic cloves, chopped
• 6 -10 thai chiles (prik kee noo)
• 3 shallots, chopped (9 tablespoons or to taste)
• 1 tablespoon palm sugar (or brown sugar if palm sugar is unavailable)
• 1 cup water (1 teaspoon at first, then rest added after palm sugar has turned color)
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and finely slivered (1 inch ginger root)
• 1 tablespoon peanut oil
• 2 -3 tablespoons fish sauce (nahm bplah)
• 2 -3 short fresh cilantro stems, for garnish

Recipe

• 1 rinse fish and drain well. cut fillet in half. in a mortar and pestle, pulverize peppercorns. add garlic and chillies and pound together until pasty. add chopped shallots. continue to pound to make a coarse, well-blended paste (peppercorn-garlic-chillie paste).
• 2 put palm sugar in wok with 1 teaspoon water. heat over low to medium heat, and stir until the sugar has turned dark reddish brown, but not burned.
• 3 add remaining water and peppercorn-garlic-chillie paste. bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve palm sugar.
• 4 add ginger, peanut oil, and fish sauce. stir to mix, then follow with the fish.
• 5 return to a boil before lowering heat to a level at which the sauce simmers gently.
• 6 simmer for 5 minutes, turn fish over and continue to cook uncovered until it is cooked through and sauce has thickened. if a lot of sauce remains, remove fish from the wok onto a serving dish. increase heat to high and reduce sauce by one-third to one-half.
• 7 to serve, spoon sauce over fish and garnish with cilantro sprigs.