Spiced Fish and Prawns

I had tried this dish in Singapore and Malaysia before and it was so good its worth repeating the dish over and over again.    This dish might have a nyonya origin because of the shrimp paste and blended chillies, a common ingredient and method of the said cuisine.  This unique cuisine popular in Malaysia and Singapore is a marriage of Chinese and Malay flavours and methods, these unique flavours come from chillies, coconut cream, tamarind and different sorts of spices which have a lemony taste.  While the methods are blending them together using a mortar and pestle during the old days and stif frying the paste in a Chinese wok.

So if you want seafood but looking for a different flavour then you should try this as this is not your normal Asian stir fried seafood taste as the strong flavours of the shrimp paste will bring up the whole dish.  A quick and easy dish to make that best paired with newly cooked jasmine rice.

Ingredients

350g fish fillets (flesh white fish like monk, ling or cod fish), cubed
350g prawns, deveined and peeled
1 large green capsicum
1 large red capsicum
150g young corn, cut in half lengthwise
2 small shallots, peeled
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 pcs red chillies, chopped
1 tbsp shrimp paste
30g dried shrimps
1/3 cup peanut oil

Method

1. Using a blender, mix together garlic, chillies, shrimp paste, dried shrimps and oil until it forms a smooth paste.
2. In a pan drizzle a small amount of peanut oil, then place the blended chilli paste mixture.  Stir fry until fragrant then set aside.
3. On a separate pan, add oil then sear the fish until brown on all sides.  Set aside.
4. Using the same pan add a small amount of oil, saute onions, green capsicum, red capsicum, young corn and prawn.  Stir fry for 2 minutes or until prawns are cooked.
5. Add back the shrimps and the chilli paste mixture then give a good toss.
6. Season with freshly ground black pepper.