Maritime Southeast Asia · Volume 44, The Long Reduction, the Merantau Road and the Veranda of Mecca
Asam pedas
Shared across Sumatra, the Peninsula and Singapore
Illustration
- Time
- 40 minutes
- Researched
- 11 sources cited
The dish that most directly embodies the cross-strait continuum this chapter argues for: no single nation or ethnicity can claim it.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. 40 minutes.
Ingredients
- 4 mackerel or catfish steaks
- 3 garlic cloves, a 2cm piece of ginger, 5 shallots, a 2cm piece of galangal, 1 tsp turmeric powder, 2 lemongrass stalks garlic, ginger, shallot, galangal, turmeric, lemongrass
- 1 piece asam kandis, or to taste with the alternative souring agent asam kandis, tamarind water, or belimbing wuluh, to sour
- 5 dried red chillies chilli
- to taste sugar, salt
Method
- Grind the garlic, ginger, shallot, galangal and turmeric to a paste and fry out until fragrant.
- Add water and the lemongrass, and bring to a simmer.
- Add the souring agent of choice, tamarind water, asam kandis or sliced belimbing wuluh, along with chilli, sugar and salt, and simmer to combine.
- Add the mackerel or catfish and simmer gently until just cooked through, taking care not to break the pieces.
- Taste and adjust the sour-hot-sweet balance before serving.
What a modern chef changes
Balance made deliberate rather than eyeballed.
Method
- Weigh the souring agents rather than judging by eye, and taste-adjust in controlled small increments, since this dish's whole identity rests on a precise sour-hot balance that varies noticeably between the four available souring agents.
- Cook the fish sous vide, then finish it in the reduced, seasoned broth for the final minute only, for texture control an open simmer cannot match.
- Dehydrate thin slices of shallot for a crisp garnish, a genuine textural addition rather than a substitution for anything in the traditional dish.