Noodles With Thai Fish Curry Sauce (Kanom Jeen Nam Ya Pa)

• 350g cod (or any white fish)
• 1 cup of fish balls
• 3 lemongrass cut in half
• 4 slices of galangal
  
• 8 red bird eye chillies
• 3 tbsp red curry paste
  
• 3/4 cup krachai root chopped up
• 4 kaffir lime leaves
  
• 2 shallots cut into quarters
• 3/4 tbsp shrimp paste
  
• 1 1/2 litres water
• 1/2 cup of chopped coriander and spring onion
• 1/2 cup of sliced spring onion
• Rice noodles (or rice)
• Vegetables of your choice

Special Cooking Equipment Used

• mortar and pestle
  
• wok
  

Cooking instructions

Step 1: Heat 1 1/2 litres of water in a wok or pot until it starts to gently boil, then add 3 lemongrass cut in half, 4 lime leaves, 8 red bird eye chillies, 3/4 cup of chopped krachai root, 2 shallots cut into quarters and 4 slices of galangal. Give everything a stir and let the ingredients cook for about 3 minutes.

Step 2: Now add 350g of cod or white fish, and gently stir, taking care not to break up the fish. Let the fish cook for about 5 minutes, then spoon out all of the herbs and vegetables into a bowl, and then carefully spoon the fish into another bowl. To make things easier, throw the galangal away as we don’t need this anymore, and separate the lemongrass and lime leaves from the chillies, shallots and krachai root, as we will use these later. Also keep the remaining broth in the wok as we will also use this later.

Step 3: Now grab a deep mortar and pestle, and add the shallots, chillies, and krachai root. Crush everything into a paste, then add 3/4 tbsp of shrimp paste and 3 tbsp of red curry paste, and mix in. Finally add in the 350g of cooked cod or white fish, and crush with the paste, until everything is mixed together thoroughly.

Step 4: Now heat the broth in the wok from earlier on a high heat, and once it starts to simmer, spoon in the paste we made in our mortar and pestle. Also add the lemongrass and lime leaves, and stir everything together thoroughly. Once the broth begins to boil, add 1 cup of fish balls (you can see how to make homemade fish balls here)

Step 5: Stir and cook the fish balls in curry sauce for about 5 minutes, then turn off the heat, add 1/2 cup of sliced spring onion, give everything one last stir, and then serve! We served ours poured over some rice noodles, a boiled egg, green beans and cabbage, and used coriander and spring onion to garnish. You can also have this with rice if you wish, and whichever vegetables you prefer.