Pangek (Fish Cooked In Coconut Milk With Fiddleheads)
Ingredients:
500 g (1 lb) fern-shoots (fiddleheads in North America, paku or pakis in Indonesia) or curly kare
6 kemiri (candlenuts)
4 cloves garlic
2 onions
1 salam leaf or bay-leaf
1 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground laos (galingale)
1 tsp ground turmeric
3 cups fairly thick santen, made from 1 coconut or 350 g (12 oz) desiccated coconut
1/2 cup tamarind water
A handful of fresh mint
Crush the kemiri and garlic, and a few slices of onion. add the salam leaf, chilli powder, ginger, laos and turmeric. Mix thoroughly with the santen and tamarind water. arrange 3 of the trout on the bottom of your saucepan-it should be big enough for them to lie side by side. (To prevent the fish sticking to the bottom of the vessel, cover it with a thin layer of butter, or banana leaf). On top of the trout put a layer of fern-shoots or kale and sliced onions. Then put another layer of fish and another layer of the vegetables-and so on, up to the top. On the very top, put the springs of mint. Over the whole lot pour the spiced santen, having made sure that it has enough salt. It should just cover the fish. Cover tightly, and simmer gently on the stove for 2.5 hours.
