Thai cuisine

Medium

Crispy Minced Cat Fish and Prawn Salad (Saeng Wa Koong Plaa Dook Fu)

RATING LIKE SAVE PRINT

Crispy Minced Cat Fish and Prawn Salad (Saeng Wa Koong Plaa Dook Fu)

5 stars rating if you like it!

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The combination of a crispy, airy nest of fish meat and a tart, prawn salad just cannot be beaten. There are so many textures and flavors going on, yet they all work together so beautifully you can’t help but think that whoever first thought this up sure was bright.

Recipe

PRE TIME: 45 min

COOKING TIME: 0

TOTAL TIME: 45 min

2 SERVING

Ingredients:

0.25 cup Catfish (grilled and boneless)
0.35 cup Vegetable oil (mix with minced catfish)
2 cup Vegetable oil (for fry)
1 pc River prawn (grilled)
0.35 cup any flour mix with water
5 leaves Wild betel leaves (crispy fried)
For dressing
2 tbsp. Palm sugar
2.5 tbsp. Tamarind juice
2 tbsp. Fish sauce
2 tbsp. Lime juice
2 tsp. Garlic (thinly sliced)
1 tbsp. Bird’s eye chilis (thinly sliced)
For salad
1 tsp. Kaffir lime leaves
1 tbsp. Ginger (finely sliced)
0.35 cup Lemongrass (finely sliced)
3.5 tbsp. Shallot (thinly sliced)
2 tbsp. Cilantro leaves (finely sliced)
2 tbsp. Mint leaves
1 pc Red chili (thinly sliced)
1 tsp. Kaffir lime leaves (finely sliced) [Garnish]

Directions:

Step 1

In the mortar, pound grilled catfish meat until crushed into small pieces. In a mixing bowl, combine the crushed fish meat and cooking oil, mix well.

Step 2

Deep fry the fish oil mixture in small batches until crispy. Remove from oil and drain it to cool.

Step 3

Cut the prawn in half starting from the middle to the back. Grill on charcoal for 10 minutes.

Step 4

Mix the flour with water then dip the betel leaves in flour batter and deep fry them in hot vegetable oil.

Step 5

Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a wok or saucepan until hot, add palm sugar, fish sauce, and tamarind juice. Lower the heat to simmer until thickened. Remove from the heat, add lime juice when it reaches room temperature.

Step 6

In a mixing bowl, combine garlic, chopped bird’s eye chilies, kaffir lime leaves, ginger, lemongrass, and shallot, mix throughly. Then add deep fried crispy catfish and finely chopped mint and cilantro leaves. Gently mix again.

Step 7

On a serving dish, place crispy betel leaves, grilled river prawns and topped with crispy catfish salad.

Final Notes

You may be able to get catfish in an Asian market in your area. If not, tilapia, cod, haddock, or any other medium-firm textured fish fillets should work.