three flavored (and multi color) fish

Thai cooking is the art of balancing all the flavors. Those flavors are sweet, salty, spicy/hot, sour and bitter. At least there are three flavors present in Thai food if not all the five. Balancing flavors is a technique you learn as you cook and taste the food. There is a "leading" flavor or flavors. This dish is a great example of balancing the five flavors. You can use shrimp as well as other fish. I used red snapper from San Miguel Seafood. I can't stop writing recipes using his stuff, they are just of the best quality. We just love using his products. The previous post will tell you how to find Roberto. I love making it with whole fish but it can be a little challenging if you don't have that huge deep fat fryer at home. We have a medium size at home and I'm telling you, it worth every penny.

In the picture above, I also added pineapple chunks. If using, add pineapple in with the sauce to simmer.

Three Flavored Fish

1 tbsp oil
½ cup palm sugar
2-3 tbsp water
2 tbsp tamarind water
1 tbsp fish sauce
12 oz red snapper, cut into bit size or a small whole snapper
1 tbsp fish sauce or light soy sauce
Oil for deep frying
2 dried big chilies, deep fried
A handful of Thai basil leaves, deep fried

Paste
1 tsp chopped coriander stems
Pinch of salt
3 Serrano peppers, deseeded and chopped coarsely, red is better, if you can’t find red, green is fine. Or mix green peppers with other red ones that are no so spicy to get the red color.
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 red shallots, chopped

Make the paste either with food processor or pestle and mortar, adding the ingredient one by one until smooth. Fry the paste in a tablespoon of oil for a few minutes until fragrant. Season with palm sugar, then add 2-3 tablespoon of water and simmer until thick. Add tamarind water and fish sauce and continue to simmer for a few minutes. Check the seasoning: the sauce should be sweet, sour, hot and salty.

Marinate the fish in fish sauce or light soy sauce (I prefer light soy sauce) for about 10 minutes, then deep fry until crisp. To serve, coat the fish with the sauce, break up the chilies then sprinkle them and the basil over the fish.