Gaeng Som Pla

Ingredients

• 600 g firm white fish such as sea bass or snapper, cut into thick steaks
• 10 dried long red chillies
• 5 fresh red bird's eye chillies
• 40 g fresh turmeric, peeled and sliced
• 6 shallots
• 1 tbsp shrimp paste
• 1 tsp salt
• 1.2 litres water
• 5 tbsp tamarind paste
• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp palm sugar
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 300 g green papaya, peeled and cut into batons
• 100 g yardlong beans, cut into short lengths

Before you cook

• Soak the dried chillies in warm water for 15 minutes, then drain them.
• Pound the dried and fresh chillies with the salt, then add the turmeric, shallots and shrimp paste and pound to a smooth, vivid yellow paste.
• Cut the fish into thick steaks and pat them dry.
• Peel the papaya and cut it into batons about the thickness of your finger.
• Trim the yardlong beans and cut them into short lengths.

Steps

1. Bring the water to a boil in a wide pot.
2. Whisk the curry paste into the water until it dissolves and the liquid turns bright yellow.
3. Boil for 5 minutes to cook the paste through and take the raw edge off the shrimp paste.
4. Stir in the tamarind paste, the fish sauce and the palm sugar.
5. Taste the broth now, before any fish goes in: it should be aggressively sour, then salty, then hot, with the sweetness barely detectable.
6. Add the papaya batons and simmer for 4 minutes.
7. Add the yardlong beans and simmer for 2 minutes more.
8. Slide the fish steaks in and lower the heat so the surface only shivers.
9. Poach the fish for 5 to 6 minutes, until the flesh turns opaque and comes away from the bone.
10. Turn off the heat and stir in the lime juice.
11. Ladle into bowls, giving each person a piece of fish, and serve with plenty of hot rice.