Thai fish mousse

Another of my favorite Thai dish found on the internet. Recipe here.

I sampled this delectable dish on the streets of Hatyai in 2005, enroute to Krabi. At that time, I was immediately hooked on the mysterious fragrance emanating from the springy texture of the steamed fish. Today, I know that came from kaffir lime leaves and Thai basil. And today, Thai basil leaves are my favorite ingredient in Thai cusine, more so than lemon grass. It has a subtle frangrance when you sniff its un-assuming raw leaf form. But when you chew it, the aroma simply explodes with surprising vigor. It's a must-have in Thai green curry, Thai beef kway teow soup and of course, my dinner tonight - Thai fish mousse.

Mum got mackerel as the base fish ingredient. The preparation was rather laborious, requiring the frying of the curry paste which Dad obviously did not approve - because it smoked up the house and that meant him having to mop the floor. The recipe called for banana leaf cups as the holder for the fish mousse, which I realised was a tricky item to fabricate. The leaves kept tearing as soon as I folded them. From a process point of view, it was a high yield loss process.

Eventually, 7 cups of exciting reddish paste of fish made it into the steamer, accompanied by much anticipation.

The verdict? Flavour and aroma was there, similar to what I have experienced. However, the fish texture was different, so very different.

Instead of a soft mousse like steamed eggs, it was bouncy and springy! Had I made the paste into a ball, I am sure I can play ping-pong with it. Mum thinks that it needed more 'wet-ness'. Fresh fish tastes like this, she said. I had to 'dilute' the 'toughness' with water probably.

Ah well, no on-sight, but the dinner's still good.

Next time, just add water.