The Sydney Morning Herald logo
Advertisement
Good Food logo

Amok-style ling, green bean and spinach curry

Adam Liaw
Adam Liaw

Advertisement
Amok-style ling, green bean and spinach curry.
Amok-style ling, green bean and spinach curry.William Meppem

A traditional amok is steamed in a banana leaf basket, which can at times test your basket-making abilities more than your cooking. This version gives you all the flavour of banana-leaf cooking without the mess. It's great with steamed rice.

Advertisement

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil

  • 400ml coconut cream

  • 30g palm sugar

  • 1 tbsp fish sauce

  • 1 banana leaf

  • 2 cups green beans, trimmed and cut into 3cm pieces

  • 2 cups baby spinach leaves

  • 600g ling fillets, cut into 5cm pieces

  • 1 red bird's eye chilli, finely sliced, to serve

  • 2 makrut lime leaves, finely sliced to serve

  • steamed rice, to serve

Amok paste

  • 1 large brown onion

  • 3 cloves garlic

  • 3cm galangal (or ginger), peeled

  • 2 tsp belachan

  • 2 large red chillies, deseeded

  • 2 makrut lime leaves

  • 2 lemongrass

  • 2 tsp ground turmeric

  • ½ tsp salt

  • steamed rice to serve

Method

  1. Step 1

    Combine the amok paste ingredients in a blender and blend to a smooth paste.

  2. Step 2

    Heat the vegetable oil in a small saucepan over medium heat and fry the paste for about 8 minutes, stirring frequently until very fragrant and the oil separates from the paste. Add the coconut cream (reserving two tablespoons aside for garnish), sugar and fish sauce and bring to a simmer. Simmer for about 5 minutes until slightly thickened. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.

  3. Step 3

    Heat a large bamboo steamer over a wok of boiling water. Use the banana leaf to line a serving dish that fits inside the steamer. Scatter the beans and baby spinach over the banana leaf. Stir the fish through the coconut mixture and pour over the beans and spinach. Steam for about 12 minutes until the fish is cooked through.

  4. Step 4

    Spoon the reserved coconut cream over the dish and scatter with the chilli and sliced lime leaf. Serve with steamed rice.

The best recipes from Australia's leading chefs straight to your inbox.

Sign up
Adam LiawAdam Liaw is a cookbook author and food writer, co-host of Good Food Kitchen and former MasterChef winner.

From our partners

Advertisement
Advertisement

Similar Recipes

More by Adam Liaw