Catfish with Spicy Coconut Sauce

We love Indonesian foods.  What's great about preparing this at home is you get to adjust the heat by either reducing or adding more chillies.  The sauce is so pretty when you are cooking it in the pan.  If you are not a catfish fan, any firm white fish  (snapper, striped bass, etc.) will work.  The red coloring of the sauce comes from the red chillies, the less you use, the lighter color the sauce will appear.

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup coconut milk

4 tblsp flour

2 tsp ground coriander

8 catfish fillets

3-4 tblsp olive oil

For the spice paste:

2 shallots (chopped)

4 garlic cloves

2-3 red chillies (seeded and chopped)

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1 tblsp ginger (chopped)

2 tblsp olive oil

1 tsp shrimp paste

1/2 tblsp lime juice

1 tblsp sugar

Make the spice paste first by putting the first 5 ingredients of the spice paste ingredients into a food processor.  Blend ingredients until a paste is created.  In a pan, heat the oil then add the paste.  Fry paste, stirring constantly until fragrant and color starts to darken, approximately 3-4 minutes.  Add the shrimp paste, lime juice and sugar.  Continue stirring.  Paste will continue to darken.  Fry for another 2 minutes, then add the coconut milk.  Gently boil for 10 minutes, continually stirring.  Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

In a shallow bowl, mix flour and coriander. Season with salt and pepper.  Lightly coat fish fillets in the flour mixture.  Heat the remaining 3-4 tblsp of oil.  Fry fish fillets until brown on each side, approximately 2 minutes per side.  Remove from pan and drain on a paper towel. 

Place a scoop of rice into a bowl or plate, arrange fish fillets and spoon sauce over the fillets.  Serve with a slice of lime.