One of my favourite way to learn about the country I visit is from trying out its national dishes. It's almost like a condensed version of the country's identify, historically, culturally, geographically and socially. In my trip to Oman last year, I fell in love with this Omani Fish Soup. It's fresh, complex and soothing. The broth is light, spicy and sour, flavoured with the aroma from the ginger, garlic, cilantro, chilli and turmeric paste. The unique ingredient that makes this soup so special however is the use of black lime, a new flavour that I have discovered during this trip and brought home with me. It has a pungent fragrance with a sweet-tart, tangy citrus flavour with fermented musky undertones that lifts the whole dish up to a different level.
Photo above from my trip to Oman (c)
Difficulty: Medium
Time: 25min prep, 30min cooking
Serves: 2
Ingredients
- 600g rockling filet, cut into large chunks*
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro finely chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic finely chopped
- 1 heaped tbsp ginger finely chopped
- 2/3 red chilli
- 1/3 green chilli
- 3/4 tsp ground turmeric
- 4 tbsp oil
- 1/2 red onion finely chopped
- 4 cups of fish stock
- 1 ripe roma tomato, finely diced - 3 tbsp black lime powder**
- 3 tbsp chicken powder***
- 2 tbsp bonito dashi***
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1 cup rice
- salt
- pepper
To Serve
- 2 lemon wedges
- fresh cilantro leaves
* Traditional recipe uses tuna fillets. I love the firm texture and the sweet flavours from rockling, but you can also replace it with any other fish fillets you like.
** This should be available in most Persian grocery shops or online. They come as a whole piece or a powder. To use the whole black lime, soak it in water for a few minutes to soften the skin, pierce a few holes in it and put it into the broth when all other spices are added.
** These are ingredients that are not in the traditional recipe. I've added them to help build depth and different layers to the shop bought fish broth. You can skip it if you don't have them or prefer so. Bonito dashi is a broth made from bonito fish flakes. The one I used is sold in bottle in most Japanese groceries.
Method
1. Start by cooking the 1 cup of rice in rice cooker.
2. Put finely chopped garlic, ginger, chillies, cilantro, 1/4 tsp turmeric and 2 tsp of water into a mortar and use the pestle to grind it into a smooth paste.
3. Pan fry the fish fillets in a heavy cast iron pan with oil until golden to release the flavour of the fish. Take it out and set aside.
4. Fry the chopped onions in the same cast iron pan on medium heat until softened, add the spice past from the mortar, and fry for 1 minute to release the fragrance. Add the fish stock, the remaining turmeric, cayenne pepper, black lime powder, chicken powder, bonito dashi, salt and pepper and bring to boil. Simmer for 5 minutes to let the fragrance release.
5. Add the diced tomatoes, bring to boil again before adding the pan fried fish back into the pot and gently simmer for 10 minutes. Finish by adding the lemon juice, taste and make final adjustments to the seasoning.
6. Put the cooked rice at the bottom of a serving plate, spoon over the fish fillets and soup and finish with fresh cilantro leaves. Serve with a slice of lemon and enjoy while it's hot!
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