Seafood and Coconut Stew

Rinse the fish fillets and prawns. Cut the fish fillets into large, bite-sized cubes, sprinkle with lemon juice and set aside.

Open the coconut and pour the juice into a container. Set aside. Cut the flesh from the shell. Using a vegetable peeler, cut some flesh into thin strips. Finely grate the remaining flesh, cover with 500 ml (approximately 2 cups) boiling water and set aside for 30 minutes.

Dry toast the dried shrimp in a frying pan and finely crush using a mortar and pestle. Peel the onion and garlic and slice. Halve the chiles lengthways, remove the seeds, rinse and finely chop. Pour the coconut mixture through a strainer lined with cheesecloth, squeezing the cheesecloth to extract as much liquid as possible then mix the coconut milk with the crushed peanuts in a saucepan.

Add the dried shrimp, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and let simmer for about 20 minutes.

In a separate saucepan, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil and sauté the onion, garlic, chiles and bay leaf. Add 400 ml (approximately 1 2/3 cups) water and simmer for about 5 minutes. Season with salt. Add the fish and prawns and simmer, covered, over low heat for about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer to fish and prawns to a bowl.

Strain the fish broth and coconut milk into a clean saucepan and gently heat. Mix the cornstarch with a little water until smooth, add to the coconut broth and simmer for about 20 minutes, until creamy.