RIA: Today we're making rockfish massaman curry.

SETH: Ooh, that sounds really good.

And rockfish, hard to get much more local than that, right?

RIA: No, it is absolutely the state fish of Maryland, so we have to have it on the menu.

SETH: And you're using a Thai curry to showcase this fish?

RIA: Yes.

Massaman curry is usually made with either beef or chicken, but here we're going to do it with fish.

So actually, we're going to start with making the curry paste.

What makes massaman curry different is that Thai curry is usually made with fresh ingredients, right?

So, garlic, ginger, cilantro, and fresh herbs.

Massaman curry relies very much on these dry, warmer spices.

So, you have cloves, star anise, cinnamon, coriander.

So, it's more like Persian or Indian style.

So actually, in Thailand, this is known as a Muslim Thai curry.

Now that we can smell the aromas of the spices, we're going to put them to the side.

SETH: So aromatic.

RIA: And then we'll cook the rest of our ingredients.

I'm going to start sautéing my Fresno chilies, shallots, garlic.

We're going to toast these until we get a bit of color.

So, once it's cooked through, I'm actually going to add my Makrut lime leaves.

It gives a bit of floral notes to the dishes, and then we're also going to put this to the side.

So now we're going to take all the ingredients that we just toasted.

I'm going to add it to the blender.

I'm also going to add a little bit of salt, shrimp paste, and a mace powder.

And then we're going to blend it up until it becomes a really nice smooth paste.

So, Seth, I've finished blending all of the ingredients together, and now this is the curry paste.

So, we're going to start with a little bit of butter.

SETH: A little bit of butter?

RIA: A little bit.

A lot of butter.

SETH: Never hurts.

RIA: Next, we're going to grab our delicata squash and we are going to let that cook in there.

So, after we've got the delicata squash cooking a little bit, we're going to grab our curry paste and we're going to let it caramelize in the butter.

SETH: Dropping a little flavor bomb into that... RIA: Exactly.

SETH: ...right there.

Wow.

RIA: I'm going to grab our shrimp paste.

The shrimp paste gives it a little bit of like umami, a little bit of funk to it.

So now we're going to grab our coconut milk, give this a nice quick stir.

This is tamarind puree that's going in next.

So, you get a little bit of tang in there.

SETH: And maybe a little bit of sweetness too?

RIA: Definitely a little bit of sweetness with our palm sugar and then a little bit of fish sauce to give it a little bit more depth of flavor.

So now that we've got everything in the pot, we're going to cover this and let it cook for about 45 minutes to an hour and develop some really deep flavors.

And here is the finished curry sauce, and you see how much thicker it is.

We're actually going to start by putting our curry sauce into the pan, and then next we're going to add our vegetables.

This is carrots, potatoes, and caramelized shallots.

So next we're going to season our rockfish with a little bit of salt, then we're going to do pepper and put it in the sauce so it can poach into the curry sauce.

SETH: And, you know, a lot of times when I have rockfish, it's been pan-seared or grilled.

Not sure I've ever actually had a poached rockfish before.

RIA: I think it kind of shows rockfish in a different way.

It's a very meaty fish, so it really stands up to the poaching process.

So now we're going to put it into the oven so the fish can cook all the way through.

So now we're going to finish the dish with a little bit of lime juice and fish sauce so that it brightens up the dish.

And then we're going to pair that with our house-made roti, which is like a Southeast Asian flatbread.

And we make an herb salad of mint, cilantro, parsley, and sliced shishitos.

Then our massaman rockfish curry will be ready to eat.

SETH: All right, Chef, this massaman curry looks amazing.

Going to get right for some of that rockfish.

RIA: Yeah.

Awesome.

SETH: Wow.

So incredibly flavorful.

That rockfish, it stayed firm through the poaching process, and I think the toasting of the spices just gives the whole dish kind of a nice, warm, toasty flavor.

RIA: Right.

Especially dry spices, you really want to try to extract all of those oils.

It's just a really complex dish.

You have, like, one bite and you get all these different flavors.

SETH: You know, there's this beautiful piece of roti sitting in the bowl here.

Are there other good ways to attack this dish?

RIA: You kind of just get your hands kind of dirty, but, you know, the best dishes... SETH: Happy to do it.

RIA: ...are usually like that.

And then if you want a little bit of the salad, because it just gives it a nice bright flavor.

SETH: All right.

Oh yeah, that is nice and crispy, but the herbs really do freshen and brighten up the dish.

And Chef, besides this amazing curry, there's a really beautiful dish sitting right in front of us.

What are we looking at right here?

RIA: This is kinilaw.

Kinilaw is a Filipino dish.

I like to describe it like Filipino ceviche.

It is fish that gets cured in coconut milk, and the best way to eat it is actually to scoop it into the lettuce cups.

All right.

There's some cucumbers in there, lemon puree and Fresno chilies.

And today we made it with tilefish, which is a deep-water fish that is caught off of the coast of the mid-Atlantic.

SETH: Wow.

Little hint of spice with those Fresno chilies, but just a really refreshing bite to go along with this much more rich massaman curry.