Thai Restaurant Food 1. Pla Sam Rod

Pla Sam Rod (ปลาสามรส)

One of my favourite Thai dishes is Pla Sam Rod ( literally fish three flavours, the flavours being spicy, sweet and sour. The best I have had is at a village riverside open air restaurant at Lampang owned by a friend, Onsi. The fish could not be fresher as they are taken from a riverside tank live. The fish was plated up on a large serving dish and was about 6 inches high. The cost 170 baht ($5.50) and with a crispy pork salad (Yum Moo Grob) and rice the total cost for food for 4 of us was 280 baht ($9). The beer, Chang Export Lager was 50 baht ($1.60) a large bottle.

Doing the best I can after speaking with Onsi the recipe is as follows

Spicy Three Flavour Fish (Pla sam rod ปลาสามรส)

The three flavours are spicy, sweet and sour.

Ingredients:

sea bass, tabtim or pla nin or similar freshwater or marine fish if not in Thailand 400 g

red chilli 5

finely sliced garlic 1 tbsn

finely chopped coriander root 1 tbsn

finely chopped galangal ½ tbsn

finely sliced Thai shallot 2 tbsn

palm sugar 2 tbsn

fish sauce 2 tbsn

lime juice 2 tbsn

tamarind juice 3 tbsn

finely sliced lemongrass (soft part) 1 tbsn

finely chopped green mango 1

diced tomatoes 2

diced Thai shallots or onions 1/2 cup

coriander leaves1cup

cashews nuts 1/2 cup

canola cooking oil ¼ cup

Preparation :

1. If whole fish is used, scale, gut and rinse clean thoroughly. If fish fillets are used, wash thoroughly and drain well. remove flesh from fish and cut into pieces about twice bite size retaing the carcase including jead. Very lightly flour (with seasoned rice flour) fish pieces and whole carcase.

2. Using mortar and pestle pound red large bird’s-eye chilli, garlic, coriander root, galangal and finely sliced shallot together until smooth.

3. Heat small ammount of oil in wok using high heat. Add chilli paste in (2). Fry until fragrant and remove from heat. Add sugar, fish sauce, vinegar, lime and tamarind juice to taste and allow to cool and then mix with remaining ingredients reserving cashew nuts and some of the coriander leaves for garnish.

4. Put wok over medium heat. Pour in cooking oil just enough to cover fish. When oil is very hot, add fish and fry until golden brown and crispy on both side. Remove from heat and drain well. Do the same with the carcase

5. Gently mix salad with fish pieces and plate up reassembling the fish using the crisp carcase as a base. Serve garnished with coriander and cashew nuts

The photo  is from Google images but does not do justice to the fish we had in size, presentation and, I suspect, flavour.