first up - fried pomfrets. i've been eying pomfrets since i first visited the buford highway farmers market (note that this is not a farmers market at all, but rather a massive supermarket catering to the diverse immigrant population in north-east atlanta). there are numerous different types of pomfrets which vary in size and color, and come from all over the world. i'm pretty sure the silver pomfrets i bought today came from the pacific or indian oceans. they're probably not the best/most sustainably fish to be eating since they were rather small and came from rather far away, but like i said, i've wanted to try them for some time, and they looked particularly fresh today.
based on my usual internet research (epicurious, google, youtube, ect...), it seems that these fish are especially tasty when fried until the skin gets crispy. that's a popular recipe in thailand for example. the flesh remains moist, and aside from the spine, almost the entire fish is edible. so i rubbed them briefly with some serrano chilis, lemongrass and garlic and then shallow fired them for 5-7 minutes per side till they were golden brown and delicious.
they stayed nice and moist inside and the fins became deliciously crispy. i also made a little tamarind sauce to drizzle on top. this was simply 1 part tamarind liquid, 1 part fish sauce and 2 parts sugar (typically thai's use palm sugar - i used agave syrup). the tamarind liquid is made my reconstituting dried tamarind pulp which is available in most asian markets. here is a great explanation on how to prepare it. basically it adds the sour component to the sauce.
i also came home with a medium sized pomelo. i ate a TON of these while i was in thailand and frankly i'd eat them everyday if nice thai ladies would peel them and sell them to me on the street here in atlanta. alas peeling them yourself is kind of a pain, but certainly worth the effort from time to time. so i decided to pair the fried fish with a thai-style pomelo salad. there was quite a bit of variety on the internet and i couldn't find one recipe that seemed to be the most authentic. i also couldn't remember one particular version i liked from my travels since i ate so many.
since i didn't have all the ingredients for any of the recipes i found, i just winged it. to the peeled pomelo i added cilantro, a tiny bit of garlic, fish sauce, lime juice, dried shrimp, serano chili, tamarind juice and i topped the whole thing with peanuts. i can't tell you how much i added of each cause i really just tasted and adjusted as i went. the end result could almost pass for real thai food i think. definitely a refreshing salad and something i want to tinker with in the future.
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