Gulai Ikan

Gulai is a term that refers to dishes, such as lamb, chicken or seafood, cooked in a spicy coconut sauce. It is one of the Malay dishes that is popular across communities from different culture in Malaysia.

Although gulai is curry-like but there is not any curry powder in it. Some websites translated gulai as curry which is misleading to the foreigners who is getting to know Malaysian culture, I think. By the way, ikan is fish in Malay language.

Ingredients (2 serves):
500gm fish (can be substituted with meat or chicken)
200gm cauliflower (can be substituted with any other veggies)
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup water
1 slice dried asam gelugor (washed) #
1 tbsp cooking oil
salt to taste

*1 cm galangal
*1 cm turmeric (can be substituted with 2 tsp of turmeric powder)
*2 cloves garlic
*1 shallot
*5 dried bird-eye chili (remove seed, soaked and drained)
*1 stalk lemon grass (thinly sliced)


Directions:

1. Use a mortar and pestle, pound and grind ingredients* with pinch of salt to form a paste.
2. Heat a small pot heat oil and saute spices paste until fragrance. Add in water, half amount of coconut milk and dried asam gelugor. Bring to boil on medium heat.
3. Add in fish and vegetable and let it simmer for about 5 minutes.
4. Add salt to taste and the rest of coconut milk. Once it start to boil, remove from heat.
5. Garnish with fresh coriander and serve with steamed rice.

This recipe is adapted from myresipi.
# Sometime it is called dried tamarind, which can be found in Asian grocery stores.