Flounder Simmered In Spicy Sauce (Bplah Dtom Saep) - cooking recipe

Ingredients

CHOOSE FISH
1 1 large fillet rock cod fish or 1 large steak halibut
PEPPERCORN-GARLIC-CHILLIE PASTE
8 whole white peppercorns
6 garlic cloves, chopped
6 -10 Thai chiles (prik kee noo)
3 shallots, chopped (9 tablespoons or to taste)
WOK TIME
1 tablespoon palm sugar (or brown sugar if palm sugar is unavailable)
1 cup water (1 teaspoon at first, then rest added after palm sugar has turned color)
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and finely slivered (1 inch ginger root)
1 tablespoon peanut oil
2 -3 tablespoons fish sauce (nahm bplah)
2 -3 short fresh cilantro stems, for garnish

Preparation

Rinse fish and drain well. Cut fillet in half. In a mortar and pestle, pulverize peppercorns. Add garlic and chillies and pound together until pasty. Add chopped shallots. Continue to pound to make a coarse, well-blended paste (Peppercorn-Garlic-Chillie Paste).
Put palm sugar in wok with 1 teaspoon water. Heat over low to medium heat, and stir until the sugar has turned dark reddish brown, but not burned.
Add remaining water and Peppercorn-Garlic-Chillie Paste. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve palm sugar.
Add ginger, peanut oil, and fish sauce. Stir to mix, then follow with the fish.
Return to a boil before lowering heat to a level at which the sauce simmers gently.
Simmer for 5 minutes, turn fish over and continue to cook uncovered until it is cooked through and sauce has thickened. If a lot of sauce remains, remove fish from the wok onto a serving dish. Increase heat to high and reduce sauce by one-third to one-half.
To serve, spoon sauce over fish and garnish with cilantro sprigs.