Lao Piquant Fried Catfish (Pa Ling Sousi Haeng)

Ingredients:

6 slices pa ling

5 dried red chilli peppers-pick off the stems, take out their cores and soak them in water

7 sm shallots, peeled

1 fully grown coconut, split open-grate the meat and squeeze two extractions of coconut milk from it

Chopped spring onion leaves chopped coriander leaves

Kaffir lime leaves

Salt

Fish sauce

Ground black pepper

Pig's-bone broth or any other clear soup

Cooking Instructions:

Fish preparation: scrape off the mucus from the skin of the fish and cut slices about I cm thick-wash and salt these, fry them in pork fat until they are a good golden colour, then set them aside on a plate. Put the first extraction of coconut milk in a wok on the fire and leave it until the cream separates. Add the kheuang hom and leave simmering over a hot fire stirring occasionally, until the ingredients give off a good aroma. Then add the pig's-bone broth or other clear soup and leave the wok over a low fire until the liquid has reduced somewhat. Next, add the fish sauce and a considerable quantity of the second extraction of coconut milk, followed by the fish slices back and forth so that they absorb the liquid. Add the Kaffir lime leaves and the chopped spring onion leaves. Transfer the contents of the pan to a platter, garnish them with ground black pepper and chopped coriander leaves, and serve.

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