Plan Samli Daet Diao (fried Sun-dried Kingfish)

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

Snagged an excellent new Thai cookbook yesterday.  It's "The Elegant
Taste of Thailand, Cha Am Cuisine" by Sisamon Kongpan and Pinyo
Srisawat. SLG Books, Berkeley and Hong Kong, 1989.  ISBN
0-943389-05-4. This is a big, well-illustrated-with-color-photos  book.
Mike hauled it home yesterday with another one, "Keo's Thai  Cuisine".
(Being no dummy, he realizes that new cookbooks inspire me  to cook so
every so often he'll grab something for me to avoid having  to cook
himself.) But it wasn't that simple. He'd bought them both,  but
intended to keep one and send one on as a thank-you gift to a  fella
that took him and Laurie sailing a couple of weeks ago.  "You get to
choose one to keep." The dreaded words...  I paled, started to shake.
Sweat beaded my brow.  I grabbed the  fanciest one++the hardbound
"Keo's" book++and paged through it, awed  by the illustrations,
impressed by the recipes.  Then I grabbed  "Elegant Taste" and started
on the first page, intending to skip  through it. Instead I went
through the entire book, page by page,  from start to finish. I slammed
it shut.  "This one."  "Elegant Taste" explains Thai ingredients (and
gives both the Thai  names and spells them out using the Thai
alphabet), makes sensible  recommendations for substitutions and has
relatively simple but very  good and authentic looking recipes, each of
which is illustrated by a  beautiful color photo.  This can be really
helpful when one is  cooking a new dish and isn't sure of what it
should look like and  what garnishes to use. Garnishes are particularly
important in Thai  cooking as they're meant to be eaten with the dish
but often are not  referred to in the recipe. For instance, in the
following recipe the  dish is presented on a platter with a half dozen
or so scallion  brushes and tomato slices, neither of which are
referred to in the  recipe.  As for this recipe, some of you might
remember a while back when I was  raving about a dried, fried fish dish
I'd had in a Thai place, but  couldn't find in a cookbook.  It was in
"Elegant Taste" and here it  is. Wash, clean and butterfly the fish
leaving the two sides joined  along the belly. Open the fish out flat
so that the skin is downward,  remove the bones, and score the flesh
with a knife.  After allowing it to dry, lay the fish opened out flat
in strong  sunshine for five to six hours, turning regularly so the sun
strikes  both the skin side and the interior.  Pour the oil into a deep
frying pan and place on medium heat.  When  the oil is hot, place the
fish, still opened out, in the oil.  When  the lower side becomes crisp
and golden, turn the fish and continue  frying until it is done on both
sides; then, remove from the pan,  drain, place on a serving dish.
Toss the shallots, mango and chilli together, seasoning with fish
sauce, lime juice and palm sugar so that a sour taste is the
predominant one. Spoon into a bowl and serve with the fish.  Serves two
to three.  From "The Elegant Taste of Thailand, Cha Am Cuisine" by
Sisamon  Kongpan and Pinyo Srisawat.  SLG Books, Berkeley and Hong
Kong, 1989.  ISBN 0- 943389-05-4.  This dish is very savoury with a
crunchy/chewy texture.  The version  I had in the restaurant still had
bones but was so well fried that I  just munched up the bones and all.
Incidentally, I'm going to buy the "Keo's" book as well.  It looks
quite good too but seems to be tailored more toward Western kitchens.
For instance, it calls for brown sugar rather than palm sugar in most
recipes. Now that's a perfectly adequate substitution, but why bother
when I have palm sugar on hand?  (Smug grin.)  Posted by Stephen
Ceideberg; July 8 1992.  File
ftp://ftp.idiscover.co.uk/pub/food/mealmaster/recipes/cberg2.zip

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Nutrition (calculated from recipe ingredients)
----------------------------------------------
Calories: 3873
Calories From Fat: 3855
Total Fat: 436g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 2.1mg
Potassium: 87.4mg
Carbohydrates: 5.6g
Fiber: <1g
Sugar: <1g
Protein: <1g