Catfish - A bottom feeder that remains tops among Thai diners

Report from Bangkok Post dated 20 May 2012 :-

Catfish - A bottom feeder that remains tops among Thai diners
Freshwater or from the sea, catfish remains a perennial favourite, delicious in a wide variety of dishes

Thailand is home to a huge variety of both freshwater and saltwater fish, and Thais have definite preferences as to which fish is best in which dish. Sometimes circumstances dictate a substitution, but Thai cooks are never as satisfied as they would be with the type the recipe calls for.


For example, when making thawt man pla (small, deep-fried patties of pounded fish meat, seasonings and herbs) cooks who live near freshwater use the blade-like pla krai (those who live near the sea use pla insee, with its firm, white meat). The meat of the pla chon (snakehead) just doesn't work. But if haw mok (fish meat steamed with herbs in a spicy, curried coconut custard) is being prepared, only the soft texture of snakehead will do.

Sometimes even if the right kind of fish is used but cooked the wrong way, the dish will fail. One example is chuchee pla nuea awn (another blade-like fish cooked with a thick coconut cream sauce made by frying curry spices in coconut cream and then sprinkling shredded kaffir lime leaves on top).

When properly made, after the seasonings have been fried in the coconut cream, the uncooked fish is added and cooked in the sauce. But many people fry the fish first until it is golden brown, but this is the wrong way to do it. Part of the appeal of the chuchee dish is the softness of the fish meat, which when cooked this way, is lost.

Today I would like to write about another fish, pla duc (catfish), a great favourite in Thailand, one of the most popular of all fish. It is suitable for use in a broad range of dishes and Thai people's taste for it never wanes.

But the number of people in Thailand is increasing, and since the fish are becoming less common in natural waters, they must be raised commercially on farms or in ponds. As a result, there are two kinds of catfish. Those from natural waters are called pla duc dan. They are smaller and darker in colour, and their meat is bright yellow. Farm-bred catfish are called pla duc ui, and are large, grey and have meat whose yellow colour is less pronounced. Although the taste of the two is the same, the preferable type of catfish comes from a natural river or pond.

Pla duc dan is a bottom-feeder that likes to hide itself in the mud. It is happiest in a small pond in the fields, or in the irrigation channels of an orchard. The best way to catch it is to wait for the level of the water to go down, and then grab it by hand in the mud. This requires skill, because the catfish is armed with a weapon called a ngieng, a sharp spine that it uses with great expertise to jab the hand that is trying to catch it. The spine is venomous, and the wound it inflicts is very painful. Farm-raised pla duc ui are easily caught with a net, so there is no danger of being jabbed.

The most popular way to enjoy catfish is to grill it and eat it with the sweet/salty/spicy sauce called nam pla wan and the buds of the sadao (neem tree), which have been boiled or roasted over a fire. This delicious dish is a favourite throughout Thailand. Its origins are rooted both in traditional folk wisdom and the maintenance of the balance of nature.

During the cool season, when the rains have stopped, water levels fall and farmers dredge up the mud from the bottoms of irrigation ditches and spread it on their fields.

There are two reasons for this. The first is that the nutrient-rich mud fertilises their fields, and the second is to make the ditches deeper so that they will be able to hold more water for the crops being cultivated during the hot season.

While dredging the ditches the farmers catch plenty of fish, including catfish. This work is done when the sadao trees are in bloom. The appealing bitterness of the buds from this tree is enhanced when they are boiled or grilled, so when they are eaten with catfish, their flavour is balanced by that of nam pla wan, which is made by simmering nam pla, palm sugar, sour tamarind and shallots together. Its taste combines sourness, saltiness and sweetness, and harmonises ideally with the sadao. Served with the catfish and sadao, it is one of the great treats of the season.

Grilled catfish is also delicious when eaten with the spicy chilli mixture called nam prik tha daeng and a selection of fresh vegetables, and another dish that immediately comes to mind at the mention of catfish is pla duc pad prik (catfish stir-fried with chillies). There are two versions of this dish. To make the first of them, the fish is cut into slices and fried until crisp, then refried without any additional liquid together with chillies, the aromatic rhizome called krachai and kaffir lime leaves, and seasoned with nam pla and palm sugar.

The second way is to fry the fish with the paste used to make the curry called kaeng prik sod see khio, which resembles the familiar kaeng khio wan. The fish flesh is fried in the paste together with small aubergines, chillies, krachai and kaffir lime leaves. Some cooks also put in fresh green peppercorns. Nam pla and palm sugar are used as seasonings.

There is one more variety of Thai catfish that finds it way to the kitchen, and it comes from the sea rather than from freshwater. It is larger than its freshwater relative and has a bigger head. It likes to hunt for food in rocky crevices and in mangrove forests. The venom it injects from its spines is stronger than that of freshwater catfish, too, and originally fishermen rarely ate it, as there were many other kinds of fish available, and the catfish was treacherous to catch. People who lived near freshwater didn't like it either, as they thought its muddy odour was stronger than that of the freshwater type.

But today, all of this has changed. The ocean catfish has become a favourite with everyone, whether or not they live near the sea. Two dishes are special hits. One of them is sea catfish prepared as a pad pet, stir-fried with an extra-spicy curry paste and fresh chillies, krachai, green peppercorns and plenty of shredded kaffir lime leaves. The other is a kaeng pa (a type of very hot curry made without coconut cream). Seaside fishing communities have many recipes for this dish, and might include krachai, fresh basil, fresh chillies or small aubergines. In the South, turmeric might also go into the pot. Any meal ordered during a visit to the seaside should include a serving of either pad pet pla duc or kaeng pa pla duc.

But no matter where you are, if you enter a good restaurant you are sure to find at least one good catfish dish on the menu. One taste and the reason for this fish's long reign as a favourite is obvious.