Pla Pad Prik Thai Dam (Fish Fried with Black Pepper)

Deep fried fish, lots of garlicky spices and crunchy vegetables- you can’t really go wrong here. I suspect this is one of these dishes that may have started out as tourist food but has ended up being just as popular with the Thai people.
It’s a quick easy to make dish that doesn’t use any obscure or hard to track down ingredients. It’s a nice contrast to have two kinds of heat from the smoky black pepper and the fiery chillies. It didn’t last long on our plates anyway!! Serve with fluffy white rice.
For two portions use:

• a large, skinned sea fish fillet (I used haddock- pollock, coley, catfish or ling are also good) cut into large chunks
• 1 & ½ bell peppers (whatever colour you fancy)
• 1 onion, sliced into strips
• 2 spring onions, cut into large pieces
• 4/5 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
• 2-3 small red chillies, chopped fine
• a dessertspoon of black pepper, ground
• a cup of plain flour
• a big splash of oyster sauce
• a big splash of light soy sauce
• vegetable oil for deep frying/ stir frying

Start off by coating the chunks of fish in the flour. Heat a deep pan or wok and when hot, gently drop in the fish and deep fry until lightly golden and crisp- roughly ¾ minutes. Cook in batches if needed so the pan isn’t overcrowded and drain on kitchen paper.
In a clean wok, heat a splash of oil until really hot and throw in the sliced onions and peppers, stir frying for 3 minutes and allowing the bottoms to get a little char. Throw in the spring onions, garlic, chillies and ground pepper (it’ll make you cough!) stir frying for another 30 seconds before adding in the fried fish and both sauces. Briefly stir fry (gently so the fish doesn’t break up) so everything is coated in sauce and serve with rice.