Ginger and Garlic Fried Fish

There are some table sauces that every nation takes to its heart -- for us it’s probably HP, Heinz ketchup and Colman’s mustard, but in Malawi the market is pretty much sewn up by a brand called Nali, who make a tasty hot sauce with various intonations. My favourite was the ginger one, closely followed by the garlic, and I’ve kind of mixed and matched them together to come up with this recipe.

There are more species of fish in the Rift Valley than in any comparable area -- that is to say, more freshwater fish in the lakes there than in all those of Europe and North America put together -- so from teeny-weeny ones that get fermented and ground, to big mammas chopped up in the markets, you see a lot of fish in Malawi. Back home, I used red bream, but you can use any other portion-sized fish that’s fresh and sustainable.

Apart from a maize porridge mush called nsima (not exactly yummy to me, but very cheap and useful for filling hungry tummies), rice is the other main carb of choice. They have a particularly delicious rice over there called Kilombero, with long and thickish grains. I was excited enough to carry 3kg (6lb) of the stuff back with me, but dismay doesn’t touch the sides of what I felt when I opened it up and it was a bad batch alive with l’il critters. Over the years of bringing foodstuffs back home this has happened to me more times than I care to remember, and every time it still seems so unfair after one’s gone to all that effort.

Ingredients

• 50g/2oz ginger, roughly chopped

• 2 bird's-eye chillies, roughly chopped

• 5 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

• 3 spring onions, roughly chopped

• 1/2 teaspoon paprika

• 5 tablespoons groundnut oil

• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

• 2 portion-sized fish, line caught (red bream works well), about 700g/11/2lb each (scaled and gutted weight)

• around 750ml/11/4 pints light oil (groundnut is ideal), for frying

• limes, to serve

• salt and pepper

Instructions

In a blender blitz up the ginger, chillies, garlic, spring onions, paprika and a teaspoon of salt with the groundnut oil and vinegar. Make some deep diagonal cuts across both sides of each fish -- about 5 cuts along each side.

Put about 1/2 teaspoon of ginger paste into each slit and smear the rest on the skin and in the cavity. Pour oil to the depth of about 1.5cm/3/4 inches into a frying pan large enough to hold both fish and shallow fry on medium high -- the oil should be hot enough to make the fish fizzle when it goes in.

Fry the fish fast for about 5-6 minutes on each side until golden. Serve straight away, with rice, salad and lime quarters.