Learn to make Cambodian-Style Fish Amok Step-by-Step

Cambodian-Style Amok Fish features fresh seafood with a lush coconut milk custard steamed in a natural container. It's easy to make at home with our step-by-step instructions.

Cambodia Style Fish Amok at Fort Lauderdale's Origin Pan Asian & Sushi restaurant. (Michael Laughlin, Sun Sentinel / July 30, 2009)

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/

By Deborah S. Hartz-Seeley
Food Editor
July 30, 2009

Fish amok is a traditional Khmer or Cambodian dish. It's not only attractive but tastes and smells tempting. It's fish mixed with a coconut curry sauce and steamed in a boat made origami fashion from a banana leaf. The sauce firms up to form a rich, velvety custard layer over the seafood and napa cabbage. The banana leaf adds its own fragrance and flavor to the experience.

You don't often get to taste a dish like this in South Florida, but Tahnu "Joe" Sinevong has Cambodian-Style Amok Fish on the menu at his Origin Asian Bistro in Key Biscayne and South Miami (his Origin Pan Asian restaurant in Fort Lauderdale recently closed). Here, he features the Thai food of his homeland, along with the cuisines of Malaysia, Japan, Vietnam and Cambodia.

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, authentic amok fish is made with freshwater fish; a pounded spice paste called kroeung, which is a yellow curry paste that contains krachai, a ginger-like rhizome; and an herb called slok ngor, which is a bitter leaf.

Traditionally, fish amok is eaten by hand with Sticky Rice. "No need to use a spoon," Sinevong says.

At his restaurants, where he's substituted Thai ingredients for some of the elusive Cambodian ones, the banana-leaf boat is delivered to your table so the aroma of the leaf, the coconut milk and Thai basil waft up from your plate. The green leaf container is a work of art.

Having eaten this delectable dish, we wanted to try making it for ourselves. When we asked Sinevong to show us how, he invited us into the kitchen to watch his cook, Heidi Chan, go through the steps.

Putting together the dish is simple. But if you want to try it, you will have to visit an Asian market to get ingredients. Sinevong stresses you must use a red-colored Vietnamese fish sauce or nuoc mam (he uses the Viet Huong brand), and the fish must be fresh. In South Florida, you'll be able to find fresh Thai basil. The recipe also calls for kaffir lime leaves, which are available frozen, as are the banana leaves for shaping the boat.

Sinevong makes an entree using an 8- or 9-ounce tilapia fillet and a smaller appetizer version using salmon, scallops, squid and shrimp. But feel free to use any mild white fish, such as snapper.

You also have to do a little knife work.

Chan begins with long, thin bell peppers that she cuts in half lengthwise and then cuts diagonally across each half to form thin julienne slices. The lime leaves she stacks and rolls, then slices crosswise into thin strips.

The tilapia fillet she trims down the center, removing a dark line of flesh, which results in the fillet being cut into two parts. Then, working from the thick end of each piece, she cuts it crosswise on the diagonal into thin slices.

When the preparation is complete, she combines Thai red curry paste (this replaces the kroeung), coconut milk, an egg, sugar, red fish sauce, curry powder, kaffir lime leave strips and sliced fresh lemon grass with the fish.

Now she cuts two pieces of banana leaf that are about 9 inches wide. She stacks them with their bright green sides facing outward. Working with one end at a time, she creases each corner into a point and then folds both the wedge-shaped points in onto the end and secures them with a toothpick. This forms the end of the banana-leaf boat.

She fills the bottom of the boat with pieces of napa cabbage.

Then she spoons the fish mixture into the boat, adds a garnish of Thai basil and the red and green pepper strips and drizzles on more coconut milk. She puts the banana-leaf boat onto a plate and places it in a steamer, where it cooks gently about 15 minutes. We discovered that if you cook it at too high heat, the custard curdles instead of setting up into a creamy smooth topping.

You can check that the dish is done by making sure the custard is set. But Sinevong warns you must also check that the fish below is cooked through. "The custard sets up pretty quickly," he says.

Chan adds a drizzle of coconut milk to the top of the dish before serving.

The banana-leaf boat is a lovely presentation that adds flavor and aroma to the ingredients it nestles within. If you don't want to bother folding the leaf, but still want what it contributes to the dish, use a double thickness of banana leaves to line a small bowl, add the napa cabbage and fish mixture to the bowl and steam as described.

Serve the fish with sticky rice. At the restaurant, the rice comes in its own miniature bamboo steamer.