Thai Food Recipe: Yum Pla Dook Foo ยำปลาดุกฟู
(Fried Catfish in Spicy and Sour Salad)

Prepare:

1 grilled catfish
2 cups vegetable oil
bread crumbs

Salad Mix:
1 handful shredded raw mango
4 tbsp.  thinly sliced shallot
6 red chili peppers
2 tbsp. fish sauce
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. palm sugar+1tbsp hot water
4 cloves garlic
3 coriander roots
2 tbsp. thinly sliced lemongrass

1/2 cup roasted peanut or cashew nuts
1 branch coriander (cut out the root)

Cooking instructions:

1. Prepare the fish
Now that we have grilled fish. I am going to buy it at Somtam stand near my house to save time. Many Thai people eat their Somtam with grilled catfish. Baking would be ok too I guess. The point is to have the fish meat dry so it will be easier when we fry.

Peel of the skin and bone. Leave its head, middle bone and tail for decoration.  Separate the meat. Now, mince the meat finely and then crush it to make sure that the meat will rise beautifully.

Then, spread the meat on a big plate and let it dry. (If not, the meat will whole vegetable oil too much and won’t rise.)
After that, mix the meat with bread crumbs. (3tbsp. fish meat/5tbsp. bread crumbs)

Add a little bit of vegetable oil into the bread crumbs mix. This will make the bread stick better to the meat.
2. Heat the pan, add vegetable oil and wait until the the pan get very very hot. Fry the mix in small portion (3/5 as mentioned above). Remove when the mix turn yellow. Place it on top to the fish body which we have already separated from the very first step.

3. Making salad and spicy sour sauce
Finely crushed chili peppers, garlic and coriander roots altogether.  Put it into a big bowl. Add fish sauce, palm sugar, lemon juice and mix well. Taste it the way you like. The way I like must have all 3 tastes balance well together.
Try adding with 1:1:1 (fish sauce: lemon juice: sugar). Keep adding until you get the right taste but start from a very small amount.

Add shredded mango, shallot, roast peanut and mix well. Pour the salad sauce on top of the fried fish and place coriander on the top. You make also decorate it the way you like.

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