Recipe#10987

Title: Curried Catfish

From: "Colonel I. F. K. Philpott" colonel@korat1.vu-korat.ac.th 
 Newsgroups: rec.food.recipes 
 Subject: [THAI] Kaeng Pladuk Chuchi (Dry Curried Catfish) 
 Date: 7 Mar 1996 07:43:34 -0800 
 Message-ID: <4hn076$54f@jobe.shell.portal.com> 

Chuchi is a quick curry style dish that can be made with more or less
 whatever is on hand.  Certainly this recipe could equally well be
 prepared with obvious minor variations with jumbo shrimp or lobster
 tails.  My wife tells me that it can be made with pork or beef, and
 indeed it can be made with snake meat or crocodile (not to mention frogs
 and a number of exotica that I won't go into here lest I put people off
 their food)!
 Ingredients:
 About 2 pounds of catfish, cut into bite-sized chunks.
 2 tablespoons of red curry paste
 1-2 tablespoon finely sliced prik ki nu daeng (red birdseye chilies)
 1 tablespoon shredded bai makrut (lime leaves)
 1 cup coconut milk
 1 tablespoon fish sauce
 Palm sugar, to taste
 Method:
 In hot oil, stir fry the fish chunks until crispy.  Drain and set aside.
 Heat a little of the coconut milk, but don't allow it to boil, stir in
 the curry paste, and continue to stir until a thin film of oil forms on
 the surface of the milk.
 Add the fish, chili, and lime leaves, and a little more of the milk, and
 bring to a simmer.
 Continue to simmer until reduced and add more of the milk continuing
 until all the milk has been added and reduced to a thick sauce.
 Taste, add sugar to balance, stir until the sugar is thoroughly
 dissolved in the sauce, and then turn the heat to high and reduce the
 sauce until it is almost dry.
 Serve with steamed white jasmine rice, and garnish with bai chi
 (coriander leaves), lemon and lime wedges, and red chilies cut into thin
 strips.  Add a plate of cucumber slices and tomato wedges, and the usual
 table condiments, prik phom, (powdered red chili), prik nam pla (chilies
 in fish sauce) and sugar.