Ginger flower fish

Ginger flower has a lovely citrus flavour, and is the signature ingredient of this recipe. If you can't find fresh flowers, try your local Asian grocer for frozen.

• serves

  4

• prep

  10 minutes

• cook

  25 minutes

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

• 50 ml vegetable oil
• 4 pink ginger flowers, remove stalks and slice flowers in half
• 6 kaffir lime leaves
• 125 g sugar
• 20 g salt
• 100 ml tamarind juice
• 900 ml water
• 6 okra, diagonally sliced
• 8 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 400 g wild barramundi fillets, or any other deep sea fish

Paste

• 300 g red onion, sliced
• 20 g fresh galangal sliced
• 40 g fresh lemongrass, finely sliced
• 60 g garlic
• 20 g candlenuts
• 95 g ground dried chilli paste
• 2 tsp belachan (shrimp paste)
• 1 tbsp turmeric

Instructions

Blend onion, galangal, lemongrass, garlic, candlenuts, chilli paste, belachan and turmeric to form a fine paste.

In a heavy based pan, heat the vegetable oil and fry the paste for 3-4 minutes or until fragrant.

Add the ginger flowers, kaffir lime leaves and seasonings to the paste, pour in the water and simmer for 15 minutes.

Increase heat, add the sliced okra, cherry tomatoes and fish fillets and cook for a further 3-4 minutes.

Remove from heat, pour gently into serving dish, remove the ginger flowers (keeping some leaves for decoration) and serve immediately.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.