Nasi Kandar Fish Curry

What is Nasi Kandar?

Nasi Kandar is a popular northern Malaysian dish, which originates from Penang. It is a meal of steamed rice which can be plain or mildly flavored, and served with a variety of curries and side dishes.
The word Nasi Kandar, came about from a time when nasi [rice] hawkers or vendors would kandar [balance] a pole on the shoulder with two huge containers of rice meals. The name has remained and today the word Nasi Kandar is seen on most Tamil Muslim or "Malaysian Mamak" restaurants and Indian-Muslim stall meals.
The rice for a nasi kandar dish is often placed in a wooden container about three feet high, giving it a distinctive aroma. The rice is accompanied by side dishes such as fried chicken, curried spleen, cubed beef, fish roe, fried prawns or fried squid. The vegetable dish would usually be brinjal (aubergine), okra (lady fingers or "bendi") or bitter gourd. A mixture of curry sauces is poured on the rice. This is called 'banjir' (flooding) and imparts a diverse taste to the rice.
Traditionally, nasi kandar is always served with its side dishes on a single plate. Nowadays, small melamine bowls are used for the side dishes. Nevertheless, the curry sauce mix is always poured directly onto the rice.

Now i give you Nasi Kandar Fish Curry...hope you happy with the recipe.

Ingredients
8 – 10 slices of tenggiri (mackerel fish)
1 tsp sea salt

1 Tbsp tamarind paste (soaked in 3 Tbsp hot water)
1 Tbsp turmeric powder
5 Tbsp grapeseed oil for frying fish
5 slices old ginger

Vegetables
10 lady fingers (washed and the top trimmed)
3 large ripe red tomatoes (cut into quarters)
5 small aubergines (cut into 2)

Aromatic herbs
2 Tbsp ‘rempah ratus’ spices
2 dried chili (washed and seeded)
4 sprigs of curry leaves (bruised)
1 Tbsp traditionally handmade coconut oil

Spices
10 shallots (peeled and sliced)
5 cloves garlic (peeled and sliced)
1 inch old ginger (sliced)
5 large dried chili (soaked and seeded)

Blend or pound all the above spices
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 Tbsp coriander seeds
1 Tbsp fennel (jintan manis)
1 Tbsp cumin (jintan putih)
5 Tbsp Baba’s meat curry powder
100 ml traditionally handmade coconut oil
1 Tbsp castor sugar
800 ml filtered water
1 Tbsp tamarind paste (soaked in 100 ml water and drained, discard the seeds retain the water)
sea salt to taste
100 ml thick coconut milk or santan

Method

Marinate the fish slices in the tamarind paste, turmeric powder and salt for about 1 hour. Heat a non-stick pan and drizzle in the grapeseed oil. Pan fry the fish slices till slightly golden brown on the outside.
Remove from heat and set aside on some paper towels to absorb oil.
Set a large curry pot on the stove. Heat it up and drizzle in the 100ml coconut oil. Add in the blended spices, powdered spices, curry powder and ‘tumis’ or lightly fry until fragrant. Add sugar and keep stirring to avoid the spices from burning. Burnt spices have to be discarded as they will taste bitter.
Slowly add filtered water and let the spice paste simmer. Add the tamarind water and all the vegetables. Pour in the rest of the filtered water and simmer over low heat until vegetables are all tender. Put in the fish slices, coconut milk and sea salt to taste.
Fry aromatics in the used non stick pan by adding 1 Tbsp coconut oil to the pan. Fry over low heat until fragrant. Add to simmering curry and simmer for another 3 minutes. Cut off heat, curry ready to be served.