Thai Chinese Pepper Fish

Ingredients

300g White Fish Fillets

2 Bell Peppers (red, green or yellow but choose two different colours)

Medium onion

3 cloves of garlic

2 sticks of celery with leaves

Fresh ginger (piece about the size of a golf ball)

1 tsp black peppercorns

Pinch of salt

White flour (I use chick pea flour but you can use any type)

Ground nut oil

For the sauce:

2 tsp Oyster sauce

1 tsp Soy sauce

2 tsp sugar

Tamarind (about two finger length)

Vegetable or fish  stock (about half a litre)

To Cook Fish

1.         Grind the black peppercorns in a pestle and mortar

2.         Place some flour, a pinch of salt and a pinch of the ground pepper in a bowl

3.         Cut the fish into bit-size pieces

4.         Toss the fish pieces in the flour mixture

5.         Fry the fish pieces in groundnut oil over a medium heat, turning occasionally, until golden brown and cooked through to the inside. Set aside on kitchen paper to drain off the oil.

Sauce

1.         Soak the tamarind in hot vegetable stock for 5 minutes. Mash the tamarind and strain the mixture through a sieve, discarding the seeds. Place the tamarind juice and stock in a bowl

2.         Add soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar and the remainder of the ground black pepper and mix well.

Vegetables

1.         Roughly chop the peppers, celery and onion

2.         Finely chop the ginger and garlic.

3.         Stir fry the peppers, onion, ginger and garlic until starting to go golden

4.         Add the sauce, fish and celery (and some more stock if needed) and cook for another 2 or 3 minutes

5.         Serve hot with rice

Serves 2 – 4

Notes

1.         The fresh ground pepper gives a much better flavour than using the ready ground variety.

2.         Chinese people believe this is a very healthy meal as celery is good for lowering cholesterol and high blood pressure and ginger is good for the stomach.