Name: Kachin Carp Curry with Herbs
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Myanmar (Burma)
Ingredients: 2 green cayenne chiles (if making a stovetop curry); 1½ pounds carp, skinned and cleaned of bones, cut into 1-inch pieces, or about 1 pound tilapia, pickerel, or other firm fillets, cut into 1-inch pieces; 8 large tender lettuce leaves (if steaming the fish in packages); 2 teaspoons soy sauce, or substitute ¾ teaspoon salt, or to taste; 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice; 2 limes, cut into wedges (optional); 1 tablespoon minced garlic; 1 tablespoon minced ginger; Salt to taste; ½ cup water (if making a stovetop curry); 2 green cayenne chiles, minced; ¾ teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon peanut oil (if making a stovetop curry); Scant ½ cup chopped scallion greens; 1 cup loosely packed coarsely chopped sawtooth herb; 1 cup packed coarsely chopped Vietnamese coriander

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

Burma

By Naomi Duguid

Published 2012

About

There are two versions of this dish, which I learned from the cooks at Myit Sone, a Kachin restaurant in Rangoon. On the stovetop, the fish is rubbed with a ginger-garlic-chile paste, poached briefly, and then combined with chopped herbs and cooked a few minutes longer. For the traditional version, which requires wrapping the fish in banana leaves, I use foil that is lined with lettuce leaves.

I’ve made this with carp, which is delicious and traditional, as well as with tilapia and